Change of pace

[Bazza1234]

I have run/walked 3 half marathons and found that training/running this way completely destroys my ability to run continuously for any real length of time. Most of my running does revolve around parkrun so it proved to be a dilemma for me. I have now decided to attempt a full marathon next year ( at age 72) and for health reasons I believe I have to slow down and reduce my heart rate so I am intending to do nothing but run/walk from now on. I am going to regard my efforts at parkrun to be simply slow marathon training. I have had a blockage of a retinal vein in my eye and lost most of my sight in my right eye . This is probably associated with the fact that I have atherosclerosis (hardening/calcification of ) arteries caused by a lifetime of too high cholesterol . So anyway, I want to continue running and I don't mind "giving up" continuous running . They say that you can't outrun a bad diet- but I am now realising that you can't outrun your genes either!! 　

[linda9389 Administrator Marathon]

However you are clearly outrunning a very high percentage of the population! I love how we keep learning about ourselves year after year. Whatever age, it's as if we're still growing up. Good luck with the marathon training and the new strategy

[roseabi Ultramarathon]

Oh I am so sorry about your eye Bazza, but good on you for carrying on with your running - at any pace! Good luck with your training!!

Say, how many parkruns have you done so far? xx

[Bazza1234 Marathon in reply to roseabi]

136 last week

[roseabi Ultramarathon in reply to Bazza1234]

WOW! I have so much catching up to do... 😄

[Sqkr Half Marathon]

I have come to the conclusion (even in the short amount of time I've been running) that it's just a constant work in progress, all this running stuff. I think it would be daft not to constantly assess your situation and tweak accordingly. So I don't think you're giving anything up, simply readjusting to fit your set of circumstances and that makes perfect sense 😊 Long may the marathons continue!

[ancientrunner Half Marathon]

sounds like a good plan. Good luck with your training Bazza.