I was looking at my duathlon results from 2 weekends ago and came across something interesting. In my age group (now it's 25-29), I came in 6th out of 19. BUT...if I had been in my previous age group of 20-24, I would have come in 2nd. I mean, I just turned 25 less than 2 months ago! This seemed odd to me... So, I checked the results from the 10K race I did back in February and this held true. At that time, I was still in the 20-24 age group, and I placed 1st in that age group. Well, I looked to see where I would have placed if I had been in the 25-29 age group...and I would have placed 5th!--no medal or anything! You would think that you would be faster the younger you are, but nope. With running, and I guess any other sport, performance seems to get better with age--assuming you train the same or better.
After pondering this for a while, it seems to be true for me, too. I am a faster runner now than I have ever been. Even when I was running Cross Country in high school, I wasn't as fast as I am now. Mind you, I'm not running at the speed of light or anything like that, but I *have* improved substantially over the years.
So, the lesson for the day: What might seem odd at first might not be odd at all once you really think about it.
***yes, I could have/probably should have posted this on my Tri blog, but oh well...***
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5 comments:
This post is quite reassuring to me. (not like I'm trying to rub it in) But I still qualify for the 20-24 age group, so I guess I'm right in there with all the slow guys. Sucks that you had to move up into the most competitive age group, but I'm relieved, since its one less person in my age group that would beat me!
HA! I wouldn't say that I woulda beat ya, since you're a fish in the water;) Yeah, take advantage of being in the 20-24 age group while you can. I wish I woulda started triathlons while I was still in that group. Oh well...hindsight is always 20/20, right? Good luck, man!
I may be a fish in the water, but have you ever seen a fish out of water??? The swim portion of these races is so short in comparison to the bike and run, so having swimming as your strong suit is definitely a disadvantage in these races. I guess we'll find out May 14th, though, right? Have a good weekend.
This is true...May 14th it is! BUT...if you *do* beat me, it's cause you have one up on me;)
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