Just browsed through Rolf Haikkola’s book on Lasse Viren’s training. Here’s a few points about aging (page 40): “No ones get old by living some amount of years. The main point is that you are as young as your ambitions, as old as your suspicions, as young as your confidence and hopes, and as old as your fears and doubts.”
The guys did train awfully lot in the 1970s. With that in my mind I started today with moderate pace. After 7K I found myself on the home 1K. First 3.44, then 3.43 – like the target marathon pace. Feels good so a bit of speedup: 3.31. And then full speed: 2.57! An unofficial record of an unofficial distance. I will measure it one day.