When I was 25 years younger I used to wonder when I'd give up running, thinking maybe I'll go to 60 and then decide.

Actually in my mid-60s I was running best ever - within 9 sec of going sub 19 in 5k, missed sub 40 for 10k by few sec only b/c cop sent us down wrong rd. 1/

I could've made both those milestones except they weren't goals; Ironman was. So in mid-60s started training for IM. That hurt my running speed. Didn't care. IM was the new thing. I don't regret IM, but I did get bored with it after a few years. That's a whole nuther story. 2/

Now coming up on 80 (2 mo) wondering if it will bring what I though 60 might. IDK, a long time I've been sailing unchartered waters, beyond the reach of running's conventional wisdom or coaching gurus. I wudn't exactly call it self-coaching as much as keeping my own counsel. 2/

(Because who in the whole round world holds the double-blind studies that prove the effectiveness of doing any certain thing for someone in his/her upper 70s running crazy long stuff. How you gonna find enough runners of that age to do a statistically significant study?) 3/

What brought on this thinking as I prepare to turn 80? Coronavirus.

Races I'd picked for AG record attempts have all been snatched away, cancelled or postponed. Normalcy seems remote. So it may happened that not age-80 but rather coronavirus that brings my running coda. [fin]