Runners in your 60's & 70's - How are you holding up?

These days I also find myself in pretty good shape but no thanks to running.

Just turn 60 - been running for 25 yrs. After playing college football, I did 10 yrs of competitive powerlifting & bodybuilding before transitioning to running & triathlon. But in the last year or so running has been regulated to once or twice a week and maybe 3 to 4 miles of a walk/jog combo (I use to run 40 - 50 mpw & race year-round in the my younger years). This is do to chronic injuries & post-traumatic OA.

Around the time that I turned 50, I started sustaining major injuries over the next several years including some biggies; complete rupture of the PTT, partial Achilles tear, two partial hamstring tears, hip OA. None of this was helped by being a bigger, heavier running (this really is a sport for the very light of weight - especially for those 50+). Nowadays it's weight training (doing bodybuilding again) and lots of spin bike sessions for my cardio fix.

I sure miss running - you get a much bigger bang for your buck. But as one of my sports medicine doctors once said to me about running; "All good things must come to an end."

Sad but true. 😬

Holding up pretty well at 65, just ran a 3:16 marathon. About exactly where I have been, age graded, for 15 years (with some ups and down). Mileage is down to about 50, and interval sessions down to 3 miles of fast stuff, but otherwise same training as ever, at slower speed. I'm doing long runs in old Vaporflys, they are so forgiving, and good for hundreds of miles.

I'm 54 and started running again 10 months ago when everything was shut down. Prior to that, the last time I ran was in 1978 when I "ran" a 10k with my mom as a child. My first few months of running was all on the road and all as fast and as far as I could manage. In other words, I was a moron and always in pain. The last 6 months I have been gradually adding miles and running on dirt / sand trails. I'm averaging 55mpw and ran 65 last week while feeling great! I'm slow, so 65 miles = 10 hours. I've never felt better than I do now, and I hope to continue for many years.

I also do squats and deadlifts a few days a week. My son and I both study and teach taekwondo, and warmups for that typically involve hundreds of pushups and crunches, so that's all the upper body I do. I used to bench and standing presses but it hurt my shoulders.

Cavorty wrote:

sigh. . . wrote:

Sorry, but my (65 years old) immediate reaction was, "I want to kill you"!

If it's any consolation I was out to 8:30 pace today....

It has taken quite a bit of work to get into that shape though. Probably helps that I've never really had more than a few weeks off since I was a kid.

Now you're just humblebragging. That really doesn't help.

When I was around 40 I ran a 1:15 half and 55 10-mile (in other words, decently fast), but 8:30 would be a respectable jogging pace for me now, one I probably rarely hit.

My lesson from observing running is that nothing is "fair" or "typical." Everyone has different life, running, and physical issues, and the combination of those results in a huge variation in runners' decline, stasis, or, even, improvement in time.

Enjoy those runs! You are one of the lucky!

We have similar backgrounds with the college football thing. Started running seriously at age 28 at almost 200 pounds. Got hooked and got down to 150 pounds quickly. Ran as a “B” runner for years with numerous injuries (little did we football players know about recurring injuries). Long story short, turning 70 later this year and if I am lucky( and do all the right training) hope to break 21 in 5k. I know, a far cry from the old days but a goal nonetheless to shoot for. Keeps us old guys “young,” right?

sigh. . . wrote:

Cavorty wrote:

If it's any consolation I was out to 8:30 pace today....

It has taken quite a bit of work to get into that shape though. Probably helps that I've never really had more than a few weeks off since I was a kid.

Now you're just humblebragging. That really doesn't help.

When I was around 40 I ran a 1:15 half and 55 10-mile (in other words, decently fast), but 8:30 would be a respectable jogging pace for me now, one I probably rarely hit.

My lesson from observing running is that nothing is "fair" or "typical." Everyone has different life, running, and physical issues, and the combination of those results in a huge variation in runners' decline, stasis, or, even, improvement in time.

Enjoy those runs! You are one of the lucky!

Actually, it was just tongue in cheek, and I thought in line with the "I want to kill you" joke(?).

In all seriousness, until the COVID cancelled everything, I had raced every year since I was 14, so going on 50 straight years.

I did x-county, road and track league in England until my late 30s (800m, 1500m, 3000m s/c mostly). Moved to the US and mostly competed in road 5ks, although I placed in the USATF Masters in the 3000m s/c, 5000m and 3000m indoors on some rare track excursions.

I had 12 weeks off this fall - mostly work related, it was too tempting to use the extra time for work with nothing to aim for - and started again the last week of December. I ran 2 miles at 8:00, the first day back and could hardly walk the next day.

It's taken a ton of hard work to get back and the 8.3 miles in 7:05 is my best longer run since. The next day 8:27 was all I could muster for 3.14 miles (although I did 5 at 7:31 today).

I guess I've got two points 1) "sigh...wrote" - "I want to kill you" presumably because he thought the 8.3 miles was quite quick (although I'm well aware that it's pretty tepid relative to the better 60-64) and I was remarking that he'd probably hate me a lot less when he realized that all I was able to day the next day was jog 3 miles.

My broader point 2) was that there seem to be two schools of thought here. One is that you should give up serious racing and training at 50 (or whatever arbitrary age you pick). I'm from the opposite school that believes that with sufficient intensity you can still keep running at reasonable pace at a fairly advanced age, and that I'm personally still going at least respectably, even after a lifetime of training and racing. Personally, without competition, I'd find it hard to have the motivation do anything much exercise-wise.

falling quickly wrote:

This is a timely thread for me. 55, been running for 33 years and i am sore and tired all the time. I suspect it's because i still do 2 workouts 5 days per week mixing up running, biking, swimming, and lifting. I haven't taken a real down week in 3+ years since i haven't had to and it seems like i'm just fighting to not get any slower which makes me hesitant to cut back.

My HR, which i've been watching since the first polar HRM came out, dramatically climbed for a slower pace.

Do any of you take a week of just nothing? Does it help or hurt?

Thanks

For me, it hurts. If I have a week of nothing it takes 4 weeks of training to be back where I was in terms of fitness. A week of running every second day for 30-45 minutes easy if you need time off.

Myself, 64, running for 45 years, still racing twice a month, sometimes more although some of those races are "tempo" effort only. Now run about 35 miles a week, 60-70 in the old days. Start each run Kenyan style very slow jogging then progress to faster, most days to easy/fresh effort. Same for intervals or fartlek runs, start at marathon pace or slower and progressively faster if feeling good, walk for recoveries. Hike hills for leg strength. Racing a lot slower, 24-25 for 5k, but still enjoy it and the motivation from racing.

RI red now Bluehen wrote:

We have similar backgrounds with the college football thing. Started running seriously at age 28 at almost 200 pounds. Got hooked and got down to 150 pounds quickly. Ran as a “B” runner for years with numerous injuries (little did we football players know about recurring injuries). Long story short, turning 70 later this year and if I am lucky( and do all the right training) hope to break 21 in 5k. I know, a far cry from the old days but a goal nonetheless to shoot for. Keeps us old guys “young,” right?

21 at 70 is very legit.