Sub 17 at age 55

That is a very tough goal. I'm 50 and ran a 16:33 just recently but I have lost about 30 seconds over the last 5 years so I think sub 17 at 55 won't happen for me.

I have roughly the same 5K abilty than you from my mid 20's, 14:30. How is your speed and how is your stride after not running much for that long? I think that my mile speed, I used to run a 3:49 1500 is really making the difference...

I think the biggest problem is recovery,..at a age over 50 it is very hard to just go and work hard and not get injured right away..

You might have to concentrate first on weight loss and upper body strenght and then start getting used to mileage increase and intervalls...

Good luck..

Be cautious with your goals until you have been running for a year. I similarly have been trying to get back in shape after 25 years off in conjunction with daughter starting cross. I had visions of at least being able to run in the 18s and be able to beat a 14 year old girl.

Alas I have managed to injure myself all 3 years. Typical 50+ stuff; calves and Achilles and other tendinitis. I've reset my goals and for now I've got no worries beating her 11 year old sister.

My advice is stay away from a track workout for a full year until you've lost most of that weight and have built up some strength and resilience in feet and calves. Of course, that's going to be a test of will because it's so much fun To run fast.

Recently I felt some twinges in my Achilles that just felt weird and scary. I didn't stop running, but I didn't run fast than a 9:00 mile for 3 weeks. Then was able to get in two quicker runs this week and Achilles felt pretty good. Moral is hopefully obvious; to stay healthy at this age you may have to back off considerably to not have something bad happen. Recovery at this age is hell. 3x as long or longer than when in 20s.

Best of luck to you.

Socal Pete speaks a lot of sense in this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5_tK2yvIW8

Are you doping too? I say no way.

I don't get this "I wanna run xx:yy for this distance". I can understand that high school kids talk like that, but when a 50+ guy with extensive running experience does it, it indicates some lack of brain power. You'll run whatever your body and your mind allow you to run independent of your goals.

Anyway, my advice would be to not divert too much from the training you did on your way to a 14:30 5k, i.e. when you were at the same level as you are now. It's easy to jump on to a new fad or jump directly to the same training you did when you ran your pr's. At least that didn't work for me. I tried to "build a huge base" because I had got old and lazy. But it turned out to be mostly a waste of time. Got to get the speed in from the beginning, but not too much, because you're much more fragile now than back then.

Good luck.

Take it in chunks. sub-20:00...sub-19:00...sub-18:00...

My 5K PR much more modest than yours (about 16:50 @ 29 years old). When 40+ it took serious training to break 18:00. I've heard 50+ runners talk about hitting the "wall" where there is a major dropoff. If you're already beyond that cliff, a quick 5K might no longer be in the cards for you.

Baby steps. Don't go crazy with your initial training, the 2 year plan sounds good. I'm 56 and was injury free until I hit my 50's (foot, knee, etc.) I've had to become much more judicious, not only with my training but with my post run routine. At our age, post run stretching, recovery, etc. is not only important, but essential to try and avoid injury. I've found the Masters thread on this site to be quite helpful in many respects. Good luck

Thanks for all the feedback so far. Will respond more individually when I have more time later.

But yes, for the first 6 months, am just concentrating on dropping the weight and gradually working from walking, to mixing walking and running, and then (slow) running. I agree that sub-17 is probably unrealistic and I shouldn't even be thinking about that right now. It's just a dream goal. In the rest of 2015 and 2016, it will just be a gradual push to work from walking to running, and to shed the weight. I know once I can run 3 miles non-stop again (some time next year), I will have to be very cautious regarding lower leg injuries and similar things. My calves and achilles are already prone to getting irritated at times, just from fast walking.

Thanks again and more posts to come (and maybe I should just be on the other thread for 50+ runners).

Two years is not nearly enough time to lose that much weight and regain optimal age-adjusted fitness. After two decades away from competitive running, you're pretty much starting from scratch -- like you never ran. As a point of comparison I ran well under 14:00 in my prime and just broke 17:00 at age 55, but I'd been running well since turning 50.

Sub 17:20 at 55, pretty much 2nd or 3rd tier for LRC. Never really stopped running--although had some off years.

Year 1 lose weight, year 2 do a build up but work gradually and don't overextend.

You can't run 3 miles without stopping now and you think there's a snowball's chance of running sub 17? Put down the bottle.

PR in the year you are 55, if you do everything right - and that is a HUGE if - won't be under 21.

Go buy Pete Magill's Building the Running Body.

Patience

I'm about the same as you - a little younger and not quite as fast at my best (I did break 2:30 for the marathon about 20 years ago). I'm about 40 pounds over my race weight. I suffered a compound fracture 5 years ago and since then it's a rare week that I run over 30 miles, although I bike and swim and run at least a couple days per week.

Aging is an individual thing with wide variations determined by genetics and other unalterable factors. So, maybe you can do this, but, I'll echo what others have said on here. I know that I will never see the sweet side of 17 again; I probably won't break 19 either. It seems that late forties and early fifties are an especially cruel time. I don't look that much different from 10 years ago (could be my eyesight is failing, though...) and, at rest, I still feel like my younger self, but, in motion, I am very very slow and very very injury prone. Other guys my age I know are experiencing the same.

Make time for the ancillary things - stretching, core etc. Cross train. Lift weights, swim. Avoiding injury is going to be the key.

And come back and report. I think you should try. It would be extremely inspirational if you were to succeed. And what's the quote about making no small dreams? Get it!

I wouldn't use running as your only source of training - especially to begin. I highly advise you to do as many workouts in the pool and/or on the bike as you ramp things up over the next couple of years. Even as I continue to run consistently I need to have the additional training to make up for the pounding from that running that my body can't handle.

The cardiovascular benefits - as well as strength and flexibility - from other types of training cannot be understated.

Ambitious. In my early 20s I ran 31:00 10k and 29:36 for 6 miles.

Early 40s I almost cracked 20:00 with a few runs/week and a LOT of booze.

I'm now 52, 5'11 and 170lbs (down from a high of about 215) and recently ran 22:55 on two runs and one intense drop-in hockey session per week. I hope maybe next summer, if I succeed in becoming a runner again starting this fall (working up to c.25-30 miles per week, including one long run and one or two speed workouts) I might get sub 20:00. But I'm constantly battling aches and pains--sore hamstrings almost always ready to pull especially.

I can't imagine trying to put in the workouts to go much faster than a 6:30 mile over 5k.

Ok, well this is sobering to read! This and the other poster who said I couldn't break 21 by that year. I'm in no position to argue with anyone about the odds of getting to my dream in any given time frame and not going to turn this into that type of thread. Better to take it month by month and see what I can do.

Older and Not Much Wiser wrote:

Two years is not nearly enough time to lose that much weight and regain optimal age-adjusted fitness. After two decades away from competitive running, you're pretty much starting from scratch -- like you never ran. As a point of comparison I ran well under 14:00 in my prime and just broke 17:00 at age 55, but I'd been running well since turning 50.

For the record, I actually started at 192 (back in late July, before I'd really made a commitment), so I've lost seven pounds so far. A lot of that was kind of unintentional, actually, as I was on an overseas trip in a hot climate and we were walking quite a bit every day, just to get from one place to another. I've walked 45 min to an hour every other day the past week, so I'm making progress there, and plan to start some cycling today.

Will also start some weight training, under advice of a professional trainer who is a good friend, but may not be able to do that until October as I have a heavy work/travel schedule in the next 2-3 weeks.

Improving my diet is proving hard and may need some help with that. Back in the day, like many of us, could get away with eating almost anything and run it off. Obviously not true now.

Two years ago, during another fit of motivation of a couple months, was able to lose 12 pounds and get to a point of mixing jogging and walking (3 miles of jogging 250m and walking 150m). Unfortunately, I gradually slacked off over the winter and did not pick up again until now.

Open to any more comments on this, overall, and here's another question: Any thoughts on ideal rate of weight loss to shoot for? I'm thinking 6 pounds a month. I don't know what my ideal running weight will wind up being. In my good days decades ago, I was a skinny 120-125 or so on a 5-8 frame (even lighter in college and HS). I figure I should shoot for more like 140s and try and add a little muscle.

I missed this follow-up before I replied initially, sorry. You've maybe got farther to go than you realize. Even when I was c.210-215, I was able to get out for 3 mile jogs a couple of times/week. I dropped from there to 170 in about a year, mostly with portion control, crunches and pushups, 2-3 mile jogs and hockey. If you're only walking right now and finding that challenging then you might want to think of this as a 3-4 year plan, not a 2-year plan.

hopeful master wrote:

In the rest of 2015 and 2016, it will just be a gradual push to work from walking to running, and to shed the weight. I know once I can run 3 miles non-stop again (some time next year), I will have to be very cautious regarding lower leg injuries and similar things.

I'd keep that sub 18 goal and not worry about the sub17. There's a big difference between those two goals, especially at age 55.

If you've run sub15 before you know what to do and my advice is nothing ground breaking.

1. find a group to train with and try to meet 1 or 2 days per week. Accountability is big.

2. As a master's runner I have finally started to embrace cross training. It helps with range of motion, injury prevention, and keeping the weight off. so you will need to add a couple of days of that into your schedule.

3. You need to reign in your diet. Read Racing Weight by Matt Fitzgerald.

4. Hire a coach, either on line or find someone local. Having someone else take care of the plan really helps, an objective eye can keep you on task and make realistic goals for you to reach along the way.

Good luck, Master's running is great fun, lots of good guys out there putting in some good work.

Good luck to you, but the wheels really seem to fall off in your 50s. My dad started running again when he was 45. He was a 4:40 miler in college (so slow for this board). He couldn't run 2 miles when he started, but improved each year until he got to 18:30/38:30 5K/10K at age 49. Next year, he ran something like 19:15/39:30, then 20:30/42:00, then 21:30/44:00. No injuries, just slowing down. He said "I feel exactly the same, I'm just slower." Many of his friends/competitors went the same way; 45 year olds knocking out 16:00 5Ks, then struggling to break 20 a few years later.

No one person's the same, but I would start with smaller goals, then work up.