Just Don't Get Injured

My teammates and I ran with one of America's top masters runners last week.  The guy has been strong year after year at different distances while maintaining a busy professional schedule.   So we ask the enlightened one – "Oh oracle of the ancient, master of the marathon, sage of the serious runners, what is the secret to your long success in the sport?"

The enlightened one was silent for a long time.  He stared into space with deep, mystic contemplation.  Finally he responded: "I have just one piece of advice".  We all leaned in closely, holding our breath, waiting for the secret to be revealed to us.  Finally he said: 

“Don’t get injured”

 Huh? We looked at each other with a mixture of surprise and disappointment after hearing this simple response.  I guess like many sacred revealed truths, at first it seems disappointingly obvious. Rather banal actually.  I mean, duh, of course we will try to avoid running injuries.

  

But on reflection , I find the words of the guru strangely useful, and consistent with my increasing focus on maintaining consistent mileage -- and not slowing down as I move into even older age groups.  As I noted in my previous blog post my focus in 2017 is on maintaining a sustainable, repetitive weekly routine (essentially 2 quality sessions plus 80% of mileage easy, volume runs), and avoiding any shock to the system.  Not sure yet if this is enough to avoid injury and achieve decent race performance, but so far I have felt better in the first two months of 2017 after struggling through all of the latter half of last year...