What's a reasonable age at which to lose the ability to run?

Many of us are able to run until the end but many others are not so lucky. The older one gets the harder running can be. If I was not jogging I would be jog/walking more or, if necessary, I would walk only. I will not race walk. I stroll

And For Hey now: Good genetics come from picking the correct parents.

For Hooves:

I do not remember much about the shoes we wore for running. I do no that we wore spikes on the dirt and cinder tracks. I believe that I raced and trained in the same shoes on the roads most of the time.

Lift to increase strength and increase bone density. Strong muscles plus strong bones equals running until you are 100!!!!!

Anyone remember a guy named Johnny Kelly (the elder)? He ran a few Boston Marathons in his 70s and 80s. I agree luck has alot to do with it. I have always said my career will end because of some injury I get playing with my kids, so far it hasn't happened yet. I'm 45 and still running fairly high mileage and racing well. I think you have to realize that we are all on borrowed time, appreciate every healthy day you have.

orthopedic hell wrote:

Doctor of Biology wrote:

That's simply not true. You can run til you die, or become too weak from disease, ie cancer.

That's simply not true. Try osteoarthritis

I believe Tim Noakes reported that there's essentially no correlation between running and arthritis except perhaps to a very small extent in runners who have been highly trained for a matter of years.(100+ mile weeks) Maybe this is because running itself strengthens the leg muscles and in doing so helps to prevents the type of friction that degenerates joints/cartilage. In any case, there's certainly no reason to believe that debilitating injury is inevitable for runners, or even likely.

I think Noakes also suggests that there's a limited period(like 5-10 years, I think) during which a runner can achive optimal performance. In other words, the runners who are performing at a world class level in their 20s are unlikely to be able to perform at a world class level in their 40s, and vice-versa.

ZachAttack wrote:

I believe Tim Noakes reported that there's essentially no correlation between running and arthritis except perhaps to a very small extent in runners who have been highly trained for a matter of years.(100+ mile weeks) Maybe this is because running itself strengthens the leg muscles and in doing so helps to prevents the type of friction that degenerates joints/cartilage. In any case, there's certainly no reason to believe that debilitating injury is inevitable for runners, or even likely.

Tim Noakes is correct and I was never implying that running causes arthritis. However..... runners can still develop arthritis secondarily to factors other than running.

Orville Atkins wrote:

If one is a competitive runner, all that can matter is how one does in ones own era and against ones own peers.

A hangup about racing. I'm still out there, traioning or I should say running per se but have some chronic injury problems....therefore very reluctant to race.

Someone a few days ago asked me why I'm not racing...felt a little defensive. Never actually said I have run my last race.

So that's my story.

Be happy with what can one still do.

Like someone posted to me, Keith 'Riffhard' Richards will continue to play his guitar even if no onwe comes to any more stones concerts or buys any more of his albums. i will continue to run

bump

bump