Ed Whitlock - 85 yr old marathoner - gets nearly 1,500 word feature in NY Times by Jere Longman

Pumpup wrote:

weighting game wrote:

With the smallest amount of weight training Ed would retain better performance levels.

Just saying.

I agree. Yes, he is healthy overall and just and amazing specimen aerobically. No doubt.

personally, I don't want to be that thin when I'm that old. There is something to be said for upper body strength and functionality. I'd like to be able to run reasonably well at 85-90, but also be able to knock out some dips, pullups, and at least bench my weight two or three times.

Maybe.

How many world records did you guys set this year?

Update Ed Whitlock 2016 M85-89 WORLD RECORD REVIEW:

1) 1500m Indoor World Record – 6:38.87 (outdoor WR 6:37.75)

2) Mile World Record – 7:18.55

3) 3000m World Record –13:41.96 (equivalent to a sub-7:00 minute mile)

4) 5K World Record – 24:03.99

5) 10,000m Track World Record – 51:07.53

6) 10K Road World Record - 49:50

7) Half-Marathon World Record – 1:50:47

8) 25K World Record - 2:16:46 (split during Marathon WR, Ed says does not count)

9) 30K World Record - 2:45:46 (split during Marathon WR, Ed says does not count)

10) Marathon World Record - 3:56:33 (3:56:38 gun time)

11) 15K World Record- 1:15:10 (8:04 mile pace)

(This was not a bad year for Ed.)

Ed can now get ready for some more world records in 2017…which will start with Ed's next race in 2017.

Ed's next race: 800m?,1500m?, Mile?, 8K?, 12K?, 10Mile?, 20K?

makes Galen Rupp look like fat boy

Two new things from this video:

- I realized that the poor club running culture in Canada in the 50's was responsible for Ed quitting running, and indirectly responsible for his current success.

- He sure has a springy stride for a marathoner, never mind his age. Very Kenyan in the bouncy/loose respect.

Yes, Ed Whitlock is truly remarkable. But it puzzles me when the Mayo Clinic doctor says he is "about as close as you can get to minimal aging in a human being." And another researcher talks about his remarkable retention of muscle mass. The photos of him, not to mention his height and weight, certainly seem to dispute the latter. And the fact that he runs his amazing-for-an-85 year old marathon at roughly 9 minute pace, when he probably would have averaged 5:15-5:20 or better when young (based on his 2:31 in his late 40s), does not suggest minimal aging to me.

We all age. Ed Whitlock has fought off the physical decline that comes with aging better than virtually everyone. Yet even he is enormously diminished. The fact that he can still beat far younger runners does not change that reality.

My perspective/context: I'm 79. I'm no Ed Whitlock but I ran seriously for many decades, until arthritis, leading to replacing both hips, stopped me at age 58. I'm still fit (push-ups, dips, chin-ups, crunches etc plus exercise bike, street bike occasionally, lots of yard work and some walking). For most normal daily activities I feel little different than I did when young. But where running is concerned, the numbers don't lie. By the same token, thank god for those numbers. The times we ran in our best days can never be taken away from us.

I will never hold a world record, but am shooting for more like this in my 80's:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/46/Paytonjordan.jpg/220px-Paytonjordan.jpg

http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/photos/2009/february/5/7309_full.jpg

http://www.mtsacrelays.com/archives/HallFame/Jordan2.jpg

I'm surprised by how many interesting clips of Ed can be found on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka9eiSalT7A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2F_y3guIR54

He's hammering as he goes by here. Eighty years old!!!:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3605SFpALW4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzhytWs7erQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XfdHyedRkQ

Or even:

http://alchetron.com/Earl-Fee-535443-W

Earl and Ed are great but 30-40 years from now their performances will be like comparing Bannister to El G.

KudzuRunner wrote:

I'm surprised by how many interesting clips of Ed can be found on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka9eiSalT7Ahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2F_y3guIR54

He's hammering as he goes by here. Eighty years old!!!:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3605SFpALW4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzhytWs7erQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XfdHyedRkQ

Dude is on the spectrum for shizzle. Who runs that much and is that happy?

Turbogeezer wrote:

I will never hold a world record, but am shooting for more like this in my 80's:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/46/Paytonjordan.jpg/220px-Paytonjordan.jpghttp://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/photos/2009/february/5/7309_full.jpghttp://www.mtsacrelays.com/archives/HallFame/Jordan2.jpg

Payton Jordan? How old was he then? THAT is retaining muscle mass.

Wonder how many geezers here do anything like his training? At some point would faster intervals be of little value as we age?

I've been training like him for about three months. Most of my aches and pains have gone away and I have essentially doubled my mileage.The biggest opponent to 60+ runners is injury. You can train 95% of your potential while reducing injuries at least by that much simply by slow steady running and a brief sharpening using races and a few faster sessions. That may be Ed's strongest contribution to masters running, aside from his remarkable genetics.

iiagdtr wrote:

Wonder how many geezers here do anything like his training? At some point would faster intervals be of little value as we age?

Great article on Ed in NY Times. What a cool dude! Go Ed, may your success continue, I'm inspired.

I'm hitting 60 in March. I have a reasonable opportunity to train, and I take some lessons here. Thrived on intervals as a young man, but favor volume now.

In place of intervals, how about a twice weekly out-n-back run where you CRUSH the "back" part? No injuries, and reasonable race fitness.

Turbogeezer wrote:

I've been training like him for about three months. Most of my aches and pains have gone away and I have essentially doubled my mileage.

The biggest opponent to 60+ runners is injury. You can train 95% of your potential while reducing injuries at least by that much simply by slow steady running and a brief sharpening using races and a few faster sessions. That may be Ed's strongest contribution to masters running, aside from his remarkable genetics.

iiagdtr wrote:

Wonder how many geezers here do anything like his training? At some point would faster intervals be of little value as we age?

How do you calculate that "95% of your potential"? Not disputing it as it sounds about right if a little high. Running at that level as an older running would be great.

95% is being very conservative for the marathon. Compared to Ed W-style easy running + races, one can gain maybe 5 minutes with additional anaerobic training. That is more like 3% for a 3:00 marathoner. Of course, shorter distances will benefit more from speedwork, but even for a 5K it is 90+% aerobic.The point is that adding speedwork greatly increases injury risk, which is worth it for Olympians who are vying for every second of advantage, but for us older runners, 95% with few injuries makes a lot more sense.

iiagdtr wrote:

Turbogeezer wrote:

I've been training like him for about three months. Most of my aches and pains have gone away and I have essentially doubled my mileage.

The biggest opponent to 60+ runners is injury. You can train 95% of your potential while reducing injuries at least by that much simply by slow steady running and a brief sharpening using races and a few faster sessions. That may be Ed's strongest contribution to masters running, aside from his remarkable genetics.

How do you calculate that "95% of your potential"? Not disputing it as it sounds about right if a little high. Running at that level as an older running would be great.

LOL the "experts" are calling Ed's training "unremarkable", and can't figure out why it works. Maybe they should try running 2-3 hours a day for a few years and get back to us on that.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/scientists-baffled-by-85-year-old-marathon-man-1598809

But saying it "works" is a very hard thing to do with such a small sample size. Remember Ed is not actually improving which is how we generally tell if training is "working".

Also he does get injured. He takes whole years off at a time.

Ed at Work wrote:

But saying it "works" is a very hard thing to do with such a small sample size. Remember Ed is not actually improving which is how we generally tell if training is "working".

Also he does get injured. He takes whole years off at a time.

The reason Ed is not improving (year by year) is that he's at an age where natural physical decline is accelerating faster than any type of training can hope to overcome.

His training is "working" in that he's usually the fastest runner for his age as he ages.

I agree with Turbogeezer when he says you can reach 95% or more of your race potential off simple base mileage with regular short races being the only fast running. Not getting injured is the secret for older runners.