50 and Slowing - Masters / Seniors Input Please

Thanks for the offer Caveman - I'd be grateful for any info you could send me. I know it comes down in the end to what works for each of us but I'm always interested in the ideas of others. Thanks again.

55 - running pretty strong. The previous two years I slowed quite a bit but this year I have improved my speed.

I do have a couple recommendations:

(1) Train smart and have REALISTIC training and race goals. Don't think you will defy age through will power alone. As you age your margin of error is smaller. Your tough training runs need to tax yourself but you can't breakdown and rebuild to the extent that you did when yu were younger. Aslo longer recovery days.

(2) Cross train. Don't go through the motions of cross training either. Weightlifting - particularly core workouts and personally I emphasize working on muscles supporting the knees. I bike and swim too.

(3) Run on soft terrain.

maybe you old farts should take some testosterone and EPO and use sermorelin to boost your low HGH and IGF-1 levels.

There is some good advice on this thread but what about stretching? I find daily stretching for my back and achilles a must. As we age and our time becomes our own we have no excuse for not going to a gym and also following the best weight and streching program for us individually. I have run since 1952 and at one time ran 3 miles in 14:36 on a dirt track and a marathon in 2:29. Now I jog/walk and don't think I could cover one mile in much better than 11 or 12 minutes. Looking back I think the proper rest can also be a key to better results and healthy longevity. Even in my prime I found that at least one day of no running with only a short walk beneficial. Now, at 73, I find that it becomes harder to do any running/jogging of quality but running remains great fun and entering a race occassionally remains a goal.

I wish each of you every success in your running program.

Turned 50 last Dec. Was never a real speedy guy and didn't start running until age 33. After getting faster year after year, the last 2 I seem to have leveled a bit but still feel great with a pr here or there still possible. I run every day and since I'm training for a fall marathon I'm currently doing 70 mpw with a 21 mile long run. Still trying to break 3. At 45 I pr'd a 3:02. Last year at 49 I ran a 3:03. In the last 4 years I've missed only 3 days running and that was after last years marathon. didn't really even need to. Injuries haven't been a problem, knock on wood. Other possibly obtainable prs are sub-18:16 5k, sub-5:09 mile. We'll see. Motivation still strong.

Tend to agree w/ Grow-up and a few others on the previous page. At 58, yeah, I'm slow - but, in my head, I'm still 30 going out for my long Sat. run - even though I don't always. I've tried the cross-training: weights and biking. It doesn't do it for me. Dragging my carcass out for a slow run in the rain will always one-up being inside w/ weights, although I know at my age weights are essential. I guess it's the old use-it-or-lose-it thing. I surely hope that in 12 yrs. I can still be active. (Remember, Doc Sheehan set his marathon best of 3:01 at age 60.)

When you hit middle age, you need to train smarter. Incorporate other activites that include strength, range of motion, stress relief. Learn not to push through your injuries but to prevent them. If your back bothers you then incorporate core work on a regular basis. If your legs are the issue, do some strength training for that. Know what an aligned body should feel like....

There is no reason that you should become slower, just train smarter. That is what getting older is all about, learning from past mistakes and NOT repeating them. There is nothing wrong with training differently, especially if you feel better and stay healthy doing it.

Caveman, great stuff there...you guys are those I watch as I close in on 60.

I'm 57, have been running for 35 years and was never really all that fast. 16:35, 5K up to 2:48 marathon, both those in my early 30's. Last week I ran a 20:56 (age graded 17:14) in a huge 5K (5000 runners) and I was actually not disappointed, so I guess I'm accepting it. I mean how many guys my age can finish in the top 10% of a competitive race? (335th, 10th AG). I can't complain.

For training, I'm with Caveman....run slow most of the time now (10mpm average), which feels no different when I was training around 7, 20 years ago. I run an hour a day (6-6.5 miles), mostly on trails or dirt roads. Do a long run every weekend from 20 to 30 miles. I have stopped doing all speed and hills because i just keep getting injured. I re-read Joe Henderson's bio on Bob Deines, who was a marvel at training many miles at an 8mpm pace and could run a sub 2:30 marathon.

http://www.joehenderson.com/longslowdistance/

I did the Maffetone thing for awhile, but I don't like using the HR monitor, preferring to just go out and run. I try to keep it easy, yet get a good workout most days. Some days I can hit the roads hard, but most days are an enjoyable, easy trail run.

So I guess it all comes down to if you think you're going to keep running fast, only a special few will, just like a special few ran times we wanted to run when we 'were" faster. By accepting it and running by effort, you will remain healthy and fit enough to keep up with your peers.

Orville, I do stretch some, maybe a few times a week seriously and a little after every run. I was never big on stretching and in my faster days never did any.

Some upper body stuff, but even that is not much. I care more about running than all of those side things.

Good thread, thanks to the OP for staring it!

PS: Good job, Ritz!

Yeah, you really start feeling it after 40. It's just part of it. But I also got all that competitive bs out of my system years ago. These days, I just compete against my former self and could care less if I can break 17 or even 18.

I just try to stay in shape and don't beat myself up if I don't run six days a week. You can't allow running to become a cudgel, where it dominates your thinking and schedule, constantly feeling guilty or questioning yourself if you don't keep your mileage up or see times slipping.

You learn to listen to your body, and there are days when my body is saying "take a break." I listen, and because I listen, I pretty much avoid lingering injuries.

I run enough to stay in decent condition and that's enough for me.

Interesting comments by all. I am 59 and have been running moderate mileage (30-50mpw)more or less continuously since college. I was a 440 guy in college and by the time I started running 5ks in my late 30s, I ran low 18s. I ran my PR, 17:45, at age 45. I started feeling like it was harder to recover from workouts and races at about age 47-48. It seems like between 55 and 59 it has gotten another level harder to do high intensity work and recover from it. However, now I am training at lower intensity and higher mileage, 60-70mpw, and I feel like I should be able to achieve comparable race performances on this training. At this age, the key is to get in consistent mileage without injury or illness, which means not training quite as close to the edge of overtraining as I used to. Also, stretching for taking stress off achilles and hamstrings, and maintaining stride length is important. Some kind of crosstraining to maintain back and upper body strength also is important. I love competition, but I have reached the point where I just try to race as hard as I can, and the times are what they are. As I tell my sons when I run with them these days, some mornings I wake up and still feel like I'm 35, and some mornings I wake up and feel like I'm 85, and I never know how it's going to be until I start running.

I started slowing down markedly at 35 y.o after training and racing hard since I was 13. From 31 y.o. to 38 y.o. my 10 km went from 32 min to 37 min. From 20 to 35 y.o. I did a bunch of races including many hard ultramarathons and multi-day races which some think contibuted to my slowing. The slow down was not gradual at all. Fall of 2002 I ran 27 for a 5 mile trail race, the summer of 2003 I was running 67 min for a 10 mile road race. No medical issues or anything like that. I examined and tended to nutrition, strength, flexibility, etc. and none of it mattered. My initial tendency was to see it as almost a moral failure. Ridiculous, but it took a long time to realize the slowing down was not due to being lazy or doing something wrong. It is just life. Aging will slow all of us eventually, but affects each of us quite differently. I am one that has slowed earlier and more precipitously than most.

Now at 41 I am slower than ever, but enjoy the process of running just as much. Nothing hurts, no injuries, just slower. I stay on trails mostly, running 35 to 55 mpw at 8:30 - 9:00 min pace. I can do easy 20 mile trail runs w/out aches and pains, but just can't go fast w/out big slowdowns and soreness.

Running for fitness and enjoyment is not a problem, trying to find enjoyment in races now, is. I like the social component, but always enjoyed competing hard. I am still very much in the "accepatance" phase of racing slow and getting beat by folks I used to easily handle. I haven't raced in over a year, but hope to return to it this fall. Part of the mental challenge for me is that friends of mine and others my age who I have trained and raced with since the late 1980's are still racing well (5 kms in 16 min. and marathons in 2:35) and part of me still wants to compare myself to them. The social aspects of a race event need to become more important than the performance aspects. Enjoying being part of the pack versus separating myself from the pack is really the key social adjustment.

Nonetheless, one way or the next, racing slow or not racing at all, I will be running regularly for as many years as possible; hopefully right to my grave.

Stranger wrote:

Question for everyone - with this slowing down as you age, what goes first:

You heart does not handle it

You stride become smaller

You stride frequency decreases

This is a really good question.

I've been experimenting with my cadence on the treadmill the last few days, at slow pace, and find getting above 183 strides per minute to be difficult. It would probably be easier going faster, though I feel the result is still relevant. I checked my cadence on the track a couple of decades ago, and found the frequency fell short of Olympic medalists for the 10k, while running the same pace and moving my legs as quickly and lightly as possible. I haven't done much to work on this in the meantime. I do have long legs for my height which is certainly a factor.

Interestingly I can keep up a faster cadence the first 10 to 20 seconds, then maintaining becomes subtlely more difficult.

I have always had an easier time keeping stride length, in relation to stride frequency. The limitation for me is mile speed, not endurance, as my endurance is good in relation to my speed. Out of the three, it seems to me that maintaining and increasing stride frequency is the one of these that could use the most development, especially getting older. I would like to see the opinions of others about this.

I'm 61 and I've been a runner for 33 years. In my 40s, I could place in the top 5 or so in my age group in local 5k's, but I was never a great runner. In my early 50s, I realized that to get better, I would have to become a student of the art and science of running.

As you get older, you really need to train smart to keep up with your peers. You need to understand training, periodization, nutrition, rest, vitamins and all sorts of things that you could ignore or neglect in your 30s. You need to learn everything you can about slowing the aging process because every little bit helps.

I have a coach. I do over half of my running on dirt, as opposed to asphalt. My goal is not so much to get faster than my peers, but to age slower than my peers. When I can avoid injury, the results have been encouraging. In 2008, at age 60 I ran the indoor 800m in 2:27, good enough for 2nd at the USATF Indoor Masters Championships. Staying healthy enough to put in the necessary training is the hard part.

Ran 11 this morning. Biked 45 minutes hard. Twenty years ago, I'd be spending this afternoon out with friends, but now.... it's nap time. It's one of the concessions you have to be willing to make if you want to stay with your training schedule tomorrow.

Here are two great threads from the board addressing this same question:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=2761260

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=3162204

good luck to everyone who just keeps trying!!

I ran 49.6 when I was 19 and am still running it today.too bad at 19 IT WAS A 400, NOW a 200 M, TRUE STORY- JUST D0UBLE my old PRs.

I ran 49.6 when I was 19 and am still running it today.too bad at 19 IT WAS A 400, NOW a 200 M, TRUE STORY- JUST D0UBLE my old PRs. poor slow old Satch.

BHRR1 wrote:

Turned 50 last Dec. Was never a real speedy guy and didn't start running until age 33. After getting faster year after year, the last 2 I seem to have leveled a bit but still feel great with a pr here or there still possible. I run every day and since I'm training for a fall marathon I'm currently doing 70 mpw with a 21 mile long run. Still trying to break 3. At 45 I pr'd a 3:02. Last year at 49 I ran a 3:03. In the last 4 years I've missed only 3 days running and that was after last years marathon. didn't really even need to. Injuries haven't been a problem, knock on wood. Other possibly obtainable prs are sub-18:16 5k, sub-5:09 mile. We'll see. Motivation still strong.

Get that sub3 before it's too late! If you can do 3:03 you can do sub3 with a bit more work. I started at 48 and after 10 marathons got stuck at 3:03 for several races until I started working with a coach and broke through at 52. Last three races have been sub3 including Boston sweetest of all. Go for it!!

another good thread on "aging and feelin good while running"

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=2335768&page=0

Lots of great stuff in this thread and I can on echo what many others have already said here. I turned 50 last October. I began running in 1980, on my own and by 1982, I had already run six marathon (5 in 1982). In hindsight, I always regretted never taking the time to develop whatever little leg speed I had, before turning to the marathon.

I was never great, but had decent PRs which most all were set in 1999, at the age of 41, after 19 years of running. That year I ran 16:04 (track) & 16:08 (road) for 5k, 1:14:17 for the half-marathon and 2:43:19 at CIM.

I remember feeling pretty good about my running and going on a group run with some older friends one weekend, and one of them said "wait until you turn 45. it all goes downhill then". I laughed at him and boldly declared that I'd still break 17:00 at 45 years of age.

Well, I swear he cursed me, because sure enough, at the age, I started the long, not-so-low decline in race performances. Now at the age of 50, I'm running 5ks in the mid 18:00 range when not hobbled by PF.

I still love running every bit as much as when I started, but it is frustrating to work out as hard as I used to, but see vastly slower times. I take some solice by plugging my times into the WAVA tables, but still, it's tough to be slowing down...