28 years old and feeling washed up/past my peak...racing is harder/getting in shape is harder

Crosstrain. Learn to lap swim. Start playing ultimate or pickup BBall. It's fun to get excited about something besides running and it won't hurt your fitness.

The biggest mistake I've ever made was thinking that family and job were more important than the physical training part of my life. If you let it go then getting it back is a long, hard, tenuous journey

For what it's worth, I ran track in England from mid-teens until nearly 40 - a lot of club track competition there - when I moved to the US, and I ran my fastest ever steeplechase at the age of 36 after coming back from a knee op. I probably ran my best 800m-3000m times at 28/29.

It's highly unlikely that you're physically done just becaise of age at 28. It might be worth a health check to make sure everything is Ok first.

If you've had a long period of intense track sessions, the adrenal/endocrinal system might need a break.

You might also need to space intense track sessions a little more. When I got into my 30's I couldn't handle two track sessions and a race most weeks, so had to go two one session + a race, or two sessions.

As far as track work in England I trained with a club, but in the U.S. I've trained by myself for years, and actually have a lot of age graded PRs. I've found that it's just a question of setting a realistic goal for track sessions or repeats and focusing on that. I've done things like 24x200m, or 6x 1 mile by myself.

Anyway, I hope this is at least a little encouragement. Good luck!

whatsmyname wrote:

It is very hard to match HS/College track times. Not because you're physically past your peak, but because you likely don't have the same training environment. ...

Uh, no, regardless of what people wish to say, it IS INDEED QUITE POSSIBLE that the physical peak of males is there early 20's. Look it up. So, for example, at what age did Bekele 'peak' (setting his 5000m and 10000m WR's?)

Also, going off the OP's original post:

As a personal case study - I'm currently 28 and in the best shape of my life. Literally, PR'ed this year from the 800 through the half. I'm a true distance guy too. Prob would PR in the marathon if I did it this year as well. So there's hope.

Keep in mind though, you need to train differently now than you did 10 years ago. Your body does change, so your training needs to as well.

pack it in grampa.. game over.. assisted living

What weight were you in High School, College...

Weight has a lot to do with running, and race weight is important to hit those PB's...

Make training fun again. Get a drive back...

You want to try it in 20 years time!

Try a different distance or surface

Running is an individual sport but you do need people to do do workouts with look out for local teams or people to train with

Ha! I'm 51 and just ran 2:43 last weekend, 4 plus minutes off my pr from when I was 28! (injuries and time off played a roll). Never quit, stop feeling sorry for yourself, and go do it or give up and whine about it.

My 800 & 1500 pr's are from age 29 - 1:53 & 3:57. Also ran 1:55 & 3:58 at age 33. I'm injured at the moment at age 34.

If not for the injuries I haven't noticed any changes in training or racing. You do can do this OP.

If you aren't running PRs at 27 - 28, you're doing it wrong. These are typically your absolute peak years physically.

OP

It sounds like you are just burnt out. Take a break. I remember seeing Amy Hastings say after the marathon OT's in Houston, that her coach told her to not run for 2 weeks.

That was unique advice, and I thought it might be just what you need.

Thanks guys. I'm def not burnt out. I say this because some of my training is low mileage and not too intense.

Anyway, this thread has brought up some good information. I think it has been a bit tough to match what I did when I was 18-19 years old because I'm just not giving it enough time. I also agree with some of you about running with a team or a partner. I would LOVE to have that option. It just isn't easy around my neck of the woods.

Funny thing, these past couple weeks since I started this thread, I have been putting in some good mileage, feeling great. I guess we will have to see how racing is in the next few months. It gives me motivation to hear some of you have ran PRs in your late 20s. That is my main goal. Since I was injured most of college, I don't see what I wouldn't be able to do this!

One of my main issues the past few years has been maintaining motivation to keep training at a high level. The more I think of it, that might be the big issue here. Any advice on that?

You don't have to take off 2 full weeks, just go easy, real easy.

Me3 wrote:

OP

It sounds like you are just burnt out. Take a break. I remember seeing Amy Hastings say after the marathon OT's in Houston, that her coach told her to not run for 2 weeks.

That was unique advice, and I thought it might be just what you need.

As others have stated, you are not likely to be physcially limited. Some people find that they have less time and less focus on training due to other priorities. Do you have kids or a busy job? How does the time and effort you want to put into running PRs compare to what it was in college? If you lived and breathed running in college but now don't care much, it could be tough to run as well again. If you can find the time and drive to succeed you will be able to do so. If you were often hurt in college (sounds like you were) you may be able to succeed just by staying healthy and keeping it rolling for a decent period of time.

Oldmanhere -

Dude I hear ya. I'm 27 and ran in HS and college. I struggle to run the same pace I did back in my "peak" training times. You were way better than me with a 4:13 mile as I only got down to 4:38 but it seems like real life and the pressures of constantly needing to outperform myself and others at work eek their way into physical training. One poster a while back made a good point by saying it doesn't matter if you run slower than you used to but if you feel the same while training than you're good. I say, keep it up. It's cool to hear you still train hard and try.

"oldmanhere" every individual is a bit different, but here are some general thoughts:

- the body tends to slowly lose elasticity starting around the onset of puberty. with consistent moderate training that decline can be slowed down considerably or even reversed to a certain extent after a long layoff.

- the PRs of international-class athletes are typically set when we would expect their bone mass to be highest.

- bone mass, in a well trained life-long athlete, will generally peak about 7 years after they have stopped growing in height.

- most WRs are set around the age of 23-24.

- motivation issues tend to mean a few possible things: the balance of stress in your life is too high. you need some combination of more sleep, a better diet, less relationship stress, less work stress, less time commuting, less financial stress, etc. AND you may need to make your workouts more enjoyable.

- you may have forgotten how much time you put into general athletics and running in the 7-8 years preceding your PRs around the age of 18-19. i very highly doubt you were a chubby kid who mostly played video games and then joined the XC team as a senior and went on to run blazing times in track 6 months later. you need years of consistent work to get close to your peak.

- how much did you weigh when you graduated HS vs. now?

- recap: work on your elasticity, lift weights moderately to increase bone density, use fork-control to lean out, enjoy your workouts more so that you'll have consistency over the next several years, plan on being faster than you ever have in about 3-4 years.