At what point did your progression end?

After ten years of running your progression will probably even come to an end. Give or take two years

After 7 years you reach your peak,I have read that fact from several studies and coaches articles over the years

the facts wrote:

After 7 years you reach your peak,I have read that fact from several studies and coaches articles over the years

After 7 years of what?

I mean, is it possible to waste the 7 years by sub optimal training?

At age 15 my 5000 pr was 15:59. At that point I started year round training going from 40 miles a week to 80-90 and progressed to 15:29 at age 16, 14:31 at age 17, 14:19 at age 18, 13:50 at age 19 and 13:38 at age 20 which eventually would be my lifetime PR.

After age 20 my progression stalled. After being used to making huge progress every year. I spent the next 5 years on a plateau. For some reason my body quit adapting to training and improving, I don't know if running high mileage at a young age was to blame or that I just hit the limit of my talent early. Like Jim Ryun in the mile who never improved after age 21.

This thread is scary

George Atlas wrote:

At age 15 my 5000 pr was 15:59. At that point I started year round training going from 40 miles a week to 80-90 and progressed to 15:29 at age 16, 14:31 at age 17, 14:19 at age 18, 13:50 at age 19 and 13:38 at age 20 which eventually would be my lifetime PR.

After age 20 my progression stalled. After being used to making huge progress every year. I spent the next 5 years on a plateau. For some reason my body quit adapting to training and improving, I don't know if running high mileage at a young age was to blame or that I just hit the limit of my talent early. Like Jim Ryun in the mile who never improved after age 21.

This is very interesting. Did you focus on the 5k exclusively in those 5 years? Or did you mix it up in other distances?

I improved for over 20 years and I'm not done yet.

itdepends wrote:

George Atlas wrote:

At age 15 my 5000 pr was 15:59. At that point I started year round training going from 40 miles a week to 80-90 and progressed to 15:29 at age 16, 14:31 at age 17, 14:19 at age 18, 13:50 at age 19 and 13:38 at age 20 which eventually would be my lifetime PR.

After age 20 my progression stalled. After being used to making huge progress every year. I spent the next 5 years on a plateau. For some reason my body quit adapting to training and improving, I don't know if running high mileage at a young age was to blame or that I just hit the limit of my talent early. Like Jim Ryun in the mile who never improved after age 21.

This is very interesting. Did you focus on the 5k exclusively in those 5 years? Or did you mix it up in other distances?

No I knew I had to move up to 10k and that was the plan. Should have focused on the marathon but I did run 28:33 for 10k at age 24 at a time when 28:10 was making national teams. But I couldn't break 13:50 by then for 5k. The training was the same as before but I was putting a lot more effort to match the same workouts I did a lot easier when I was 4 years younger.

Dong Johnson wrote:

I improved my 5k times by an average of 32 secs per year from age 16-18, with a PR of 16 flat. Also improved my 800 times by an average of 4 secs per year with a PR of 1:59. Mileage has gone from 40 mpw to 65 mpw during that span.

Assuming I continue to work hard and increase mileage at a similar rate, to what age should I expect this improvement trajectory to continue?

Stress fracture. At that point too old to recover and do much more, so it was all over. I did start training again several years later and ran a 4:15 mile at almost 40 though. That was a LONG time ago.

the facts wrote:

After 7 years you reach your peak,I have read that fact from several studies and coaches articles over the years

I´s not a fact, not even you read hudreds of coaches articles or studies on this subject.

I started running at 10yrs old and did my best at 800m aged 27. I trained more seriously 10 years without serious injuries, and think that could have been improving still at least on the longer distances. The running economy is one thing that won´t suddenly lose it´s capacity to get better after 7 years.

Finnish steeplechaser, European Champion -06 Jukka Keskisalo dropped from 8.17 to 8.10,67 (NR) aged 29, and he started training ~twice a day aged 16. Lots of kilometers throughout his career, some injuries as well but did all the time consistent training from some way or another, and when changed his coach before season 2009 to Risto Ulmala, who was 7th at the 5k Tokyo -91, in season 2009 he was able to build a tremendous aerobic power fom the huge aerobic capacity that he had been built over the years. That was the climax of his career, and never was the same (changed coach again for some reason after the success in 2009).