How much have you slowed down with age?

Are you doing the same type of training as before, i.e. same types of repetitions?

J.R. wrote:

Are you doing the same type of training as before, i.e. same types of repetitions?

Not quite. Can't do the intense stuff as much as when I was younger. I used to thrive off 6x800m stuff but now I just get hurt if I do that. More tempo stuff these days. Therein lies my answer, maybe. Still seems like a steep fall to me...

Few years older here with similar PR.

Can still get down to low 17 if I can stay healthy long enough to get some races in. Usually have a good base and decent mileage. Yes, It's harder to maintain the intensity workouts and be fresh for races.

Back in the day 5 or 6 X 1000 or 3 miles at pace was standard, with 1.5 to 2 miles of faster work on other days.

Now it's a lot less of that. Just maintaining decent volume and doing tempos, hills, and fartlek like 1 to 2 surges at pace.

5k PR - 16:04 at age 28.

Ran 17:51 for my 41st birthday.

Last year at 47 I managed 19:30.

I had 2 major injuries and 2 surgeries when I was 43 - 44. I'm still working on getting back from them. Hoping to break 19:00 this year.

You are doing a lot better than me!

Still doing sub 6 min miles is good especially if you have run all this time -that's a lot of miles on the clock!

Yours is probably the average amount of slowdown, maybe even slightly better.

Chutney Ferret wrote:

Me: male, 47 years old. Lifetime 5K PR of 15:20 set when I was 28. Now, I run a similar amount (about an hour a day) and can only manage low 18 minute range. And that's on a good day. Aches, pains, stressful job, family etc, etc - I have plenty of excuses, but basically i'm just getting old.

I may be wrong but I think my decline is a bit steeper than it should be. How are the other old farts out there faring?

Olde Tyme wrote:

Few years older here with similar PR.

Can still get down to low 17 if I can stay healthy long enough to get some races in. Usually have a good base and decent mileage. Yes, It's harder to maintain the intensity workouts and be fresh for races.

Back in the day 5 or 6 X 1000 or 3 miles at pace was standard, with 1.5 to 2 miles of faster work on other days.

Now it's a lot less of that. Just maintaining decent volume and doing tempos, hills, and fartlek like 1 to 2 surges at pace.

Respect to you if you're still at 17 minutes around the age of 50. I'd be happy with that

Sucked when I was younger (never broke 30 minutes for 8k in college). At 41 I'm doing more mileage than ever and just set an 8k lifetime PR of 29.40. Still not fast but if I can retain my speed for another 40 years I might be good.....

Chutney Ferret wrote:

Me: male, 47 years old. Lifetime 5K PR of 15:20 set when I was 28. Now, I run a similar amount (about an hour a day) and can only manage low 18 minute range. And that's on a good day. Aches, pains, stressful job, family etc, etc - I have plenty of excuses, but basically i'm just getting old.

I may be wrong but I think my decline is a bit steeper than it should be. How are the other old farts out there faring?

Doesn't seem that bad to me. Lets face it, the body slows down considerably once you hit the mid 40s. The great Henry Rono tried to come back a few years ago, but ran into difficulty himself. Unless you're blessed with great genetics and talent, it's very difficult to be competitive with 20/30 year old talent.

I'm 43 and regularly ran around 10:00 for 3200 in HS -

Last year I ran 17:12 for a road 5k, so I figure I could run around 16:50 in a track 5k, which according to McMillan is...10:20 for 3200. So I haven't slowed down much.

Plus, I have been getting faster each year since I turned 40, so who knows where this will end. Maybe I will break 10 for 2 miles.

I have been training far better as a 43 year old than I did as a 17 year old.

I haven't slowed down much at all. I'm training about 70 mpw now, back in the day I used to run maybe 50 mpw.

5K

15:02 at 23 1983

16:07 at 50 2010

10K

31:34 at 23 1983

33:40 at 49 2009

Dave

WAVA age grade tables indicate an 18:15 for a 47 yr old male = 16:41 for a 25 yr old male. According to WAVA tables, yes, you are slowing down more than average ... assuming your are training equivalently hard at 47.

I had 34:30 PR at 28, 41:25 at 51. Did not think I was training equivalently hard.

I focus more on one quality marathon a year in my 50s.

2:54 at 29 3:13 at 51

70 peak mpw @ 29 52 peak mpw at 51

I am finding I need to substitute cross training on easy days (usually biking) as my mileage gets near 50. I am also doing more trail running and some of my tempo running on a local turf field to put fewer miles on roads. I have been injured often - minor and major - and think I am finally beginning to understand what "listen to your body" really means.

The thing about WAVA tables is that they are based on records which include "new blood" masters who never ran hard as youngsters and who often comprise the fastest times, as well as certain outliers who just won't slow down as fast as "normal".

Follow individual masters who were anywhere near their potential as youngsters and you will get a much steeper decline. For instance, Bill Rodgers, one of the most durable elites ever, was running almost ten minutes slower in the marathon by 40, while the Master's M40 record is less than five minutes slower than the open record. So slowing down three minutes in the 5K by 47, while not following the WAVA "curve", is probably close to average.

Racerdb wrote:

I haven't slowed down much at all. I'm training about 70 mpw now, back in the day I used to run maybe 50 mpw.

5K

15:02 at 23 1983

16:07 at 50 2010

10K

31:34 at 23 1983

33:40 at 49 2009

Dave

Buddy, if you're running those times @ 50 that's close to WR pace for your age.

Do you weigh the same now as you did then?

He's running those times for sure, but the 5K is over a minute off the WR, the 10K almost three minutes.

WR Holder wrote:

Racerdb wrote:

I haven't slowed down much at all. I'm training about 70 mpw now, back in the day I used to run maybe 50 mpw.

5K

15:02 at 23 1983

16:07 at 50 2010

10K

31:34 at 23 1983

33:40 at 49 2009

Dave

Buddy, if you're running those times @ 50 that's close to WR pace for your age.

I'm 51, never raced in college, and took a long time off after age 19 (until 46). I'm decent, but not exceptional.

HS 1/2, mile, 2 PB's: 2:04, 4:34, 9:42 (1977)

800, 1500m: 2:21, 4:40 (2010)

(the 1500 translates to about a 5-flat mile for comparison)

Post High-school road 10k PB's:

33:20 (1979)

35:51 (2010)

I train much better now than I did at 19 when I ran my 10k PB. These days, I do about 45-55 MPW, with a couple of harder workouts each week....still much room for improvement.

I don't have other direct comparisons, because oddly, I've hardly ever run the same distances as I did back then. Most distances were in miles, and they never had road 5k's....that was considered too short. At longer distances, I have from 1979 a 56:15 (10-mile) and 1:58:09 (20-mile), to compare to a 2009 half-marathon of 1:20:11.

Your heart slows down as you get older, not much can be done about that, but you should address your aches and pains. I'll bet you'll get faster when you do.

pr100 wrote:

Do you weigh the same now as you did then?

Yes - spot on

pr100 wrote:

Do you weigh the same now as you did then?

I guess I should have added that I'm much heavier now:

128 (sr. h.s.), 132-135 lbs (19 y.o.) vs. 155-158 lbs (now).