My legs are feeling more beat-up than normal, maybe because I’m getting older? I think I’ll have to reduce my runs to 2-3 days per week from now on.

‘I just don’t have the energy I used to, so I’ll just keep my runs slow and steady.’

‘I don’t try to run fast anymore because I don’t want to get hurt.’

All reasonable decisions that many life-long runners land on at some point in their lives. Are they, however, based on sound logic, solid proof, and undeniable facts?

Often, unfortunately, this is not the case, and these ‘scaling back’ decisions are instead a result of a thought process that lacks full perspective. Emotional reactions to poor performance, lack of awareness of other possibilities, and perhaps a slight touch of subconscious reluctance to critically think further, lands the runner at a cross-roads where they think only two paths exist:

PATH 1 – Accept the ‘perceived’ new reality and find a way to at least keep running in your life by
reducing frequency, volume and/or speed.

PATH 2 – Accept the ‘perceived’ new reality and switch to a different form of exercise, instead of
running.

In the ‘Court of Full Potential’, however, a third path is often the most fitting, most logical, and most physiologically correct.

PATH 3 – Do not accept the ‘perceived’ new reality and commit yourself to building your body back to
its full potential.

Yes, path #3 may take longer than when you were younger, but your muscles are still responsive, your soft tissue system is still constantly re-modeling to your environment (since you are still alive!), and your body is always looking for a way to make your regular habits more comfortable. So, let’s try changing and sustaining new habits to build a new reality that is based on your determination, research, and physical efforts, as opposed to an unforced early retirement.

This all may mean that to re-gain previous form, or sustain your fitness throughout the years, you need to do ‘radical’ things like:

• spend six months to achieve a new level of flexibility or pliability
• spend ten minutes every day for three weeks to master stability in your weaker leg
• take 4-6 months to very carefully introduce and progress with a new stimulus, like short hill sprints,
  bounding, or plyometrics
• seek out professional advice for a sports nutritionist to adapt your intake to your current markers and
  your current metabolism

Patience, consistency, and a dynamic mind-set are the keys to being able to not just run for decades, but to run for decades at a pace you are proud of.