A few days ago, I had
a post up about 82 year old Ed Whitlock in Canada, how he had run 1:38:11 in a half-marathon and had set a world record for that age group. In response to that, someone mentioned an interview in the
Running Times magazine back in 2010. After a quick search, I found it online and it makes for a good read.
Just as it is unusual for some aged 80 plus to be running those times for a Half-Marathon, some of his training techniques are also unconventional.
a) He does
all of his training in a local cemetery. Everything is done on a loop that takes 5 minutes to complete....long runs, speed work, easy runs.
b) When training for a Marathon, he runs on that loop for 3 hours every day without taking any water.
c) He ran a 2:54 Marathon when he was 73 years old.
d) His fastest Marathon was 2:31 which he ran aged 48.
e) His weight is just 115 pounds (8st 3 lbs / 52 kgs) which might be the key to his success.
When asked his approach to running and training, he said......
"I do what not to do to an extreme. I go out jogging. It's not fast running, just that I do it for a long time. I don't follow what typical coaches say about serious runners. No physios, ice baths, massages, tempo runs, heart rate monitors. I have no strong objection to any of that, but I'm not sufficiently organized or ambitious to do all the things you're supposed to do if you're serious. The more time you spend fiddlediddling with this and that, the less time there is to run or waste time in other ways."
You can see the full interview here...
http://www.runnersworld.com/masters-profiles/ed-whitlock-and-age-simplicity?page=single
Acknowledgement......With thanks to Michael Dunne for the feedback on the original post.
