On training. I don’t. I just run. Usually with the dog. For the last three years this has been Max, a nutty spinning, neurotic tail catching (mostly) border collie. For Max, running is the normal state of affairs. All else is distraction (we were obliged from the organization who provided him for free to have him neutered). This is not such a bad philosophy and actually helps answer that most difficult of questions, ‘why does one run?’ But that will be the subject of a future investigation. OK I do do some event specific stuff. Like back in 2006 for my first Etape du Tour I lost 5kg and did a fair amount of hill climbs on the spinning bike (what a phenomenal workout that machine can provide in a short amount of time). But if the outside and the dog are calling, the spinning bike doesn’t get a look in. I usually run 12k or so. Maybe with a 20k every other weekend and just a few times a year do a 30k (still with the dog). Also I am a member of the local athletics and biking clubs but don’t really do them justice (again, I blame the dog) although I get away for a week a year with the bikers for a week of 100k/day rides usually in a fairly hilly area. On the athletics track I put in maybe half a dozen sessions of interval training. Again, I blame the dog, but also I blame a lack of any true knowledge of what I should be doing out there. By that I mean that at age 65 it is hard to fit into the expectations of most training programs. I am certainly never going to beat a personal best (3:22 for the marathon). The objective is maybe to complete and if you do better than you did a couple of years previous then that is indeed great. Apart from the dog excuse, I don’t ‘train’ because I don’t really know what to do. Just run… its fun… I have a book somewhere which purports to explain how to ‘bike till you are 100’. I will pull it out and blog about it sometime.