At what age or decade of life do you think your physical capabilities will fall off most sharply?

Watching Ed Whitlock still go under 4 hours at 85 - while dying of prostate cancer - continues to inspire. Once you are over 90 my understanding is that things get a lot harder, but it is still definitely possible to get after it. He was not a runner, but Fred Beckey continued to rock climbing in his early 90s. I highly recommend the movie Dirtbag about Becky's life. Always lots of excuses to give up, but I increasingly think it is always possible to keep on going.

In running terms I held things together quite well until about age 38 when a two month achilles problem happened. Nothing I hadn't dealt with before but the form never returned. A 1-2 year problem with a chronic hip injury (which I doubt will ever fully clear up) put the tin lid on it and that was that as far as running is concerned!

Now, 9-10 years on I am going OK for my age but the idea of being able to train enough to return to even a sub 16 5k (I was bang on 14:00 and just sub-8 for 3000 at my best) seems like a pipe dream. I am in a decent place mentally though as far as fitness is concerned - now fit enough to enjoy running and I do plenty of cycling especially in the summer.

I think if you can avoid serious injury then running well and competitively into mid 40s and beyond is very possible (I've seen people do it) but you have to keep in one piece! The older you are the less likely you are to come back strong.

General life? I take longer to recover from illness, I fall asleep in front of the TV (especially if I've had a beer or two) but generally feel young and stupid still.

Competitive running defined me as a person for 25 years and changing to being "a normal person" was tough but I'm at peace with it now - I could have done some things better and probably run faster but no point worrying about it, you do what you think is best at the time! Life is still fun and there's plenty to look forward to!

In terms of more profound physical / mental decline? I will have to wait and see but I intend to stay active and am realising that I probably need to pay more attention to body maintenance and eat more healthily.

Umm thats because of the sugars in beer...Sugars are harder on your body in general the older you get. Same reason why people feel the need to nap after a high carb lunch. Easy problem to fix. Sounds like your issue is an issue of sugar metabolism.

Life long runner here. PB of low 15s for 5K. Below is a look at loss of time (in percent) by age category from combination of 5K and half marathon. So a big loss from early 30s to 40s, and then again from 50s and early 60s to mid/late 60s.

30s -2.8%

40-44: -8.5%

45-49: -11.8%

50-54: -11.5%

55-59: -12.2%

60-64: -12.1%

65-69: -18.6%

I've experienced my sharpest decline so far in the past year, in which I turned 60

My mother fell off seriously after she passed 100. However, I have to grant that my deterioration after 80 has been significant, with my 5K dropping from 26 minutes to 31 (about 24%) and half marathon from 1:50 to 2:10 (some 17% or more). Having turned 85 without further catastrophes, I hope to be competitive in my global age group in crosscountry, 3K and 10K. We'll see.

If you're a runner and maintain a reasonably good diet and weight, you should make it past 70 before experiencing rapid declines.

In my case, I experienced only gradual declines until 71 when a string of 4 surgeries set me back. At 74, my ability to recover started to decline noticeably so I focused on recovery for the next few years. At 77, I have yet another "career ending" injury so I'm taking a year off serious competition to try to heal it without surgery.

I think within 30 years we'll have more options to extend health span and life expectancy, probably something to do with stem cells or telemere lengthening as those approaches tend to address everything related to aging.

If you're 50 or under, you should be able to live past 100 in reasonably good health IF... IF you take care of yourself now. Analogy: You can't drive a car 100,000 miles without an oil change and then add the newest miracle oil and expect it to run like a new car. Too much permanent damage has been done. It's the same with the human body.

34, when 6 years of knee surgeries started. At 44 I am now in overall better condition than at 35. Not better aerobic shape but able to actually use the fitness.

What evidence do you have that "if you maintain a reasonably good diet and weight, you should make it past 70 before experiencing rapid decline?" I think you're giving an opinion rather than anything based in scientific evidence.

I'm 64 & have been running for 30 yrs. Moderate milage & 5k/10k stuff - no marathons & crazy high mileage training. I'm barely able to run 1 - maybe 2 days a week due to chronic injuries & post-traumatic OA.

Starting at about age 50, I experienced some pretty significant injuries during racing & training such as a partial Achilles tear, complete posterior tibial tendon rupture, two significant hamstring tears and a partial ACL tear. I'm now left with ankle, hip & knee OA (that will eventually need replacement surgery) my running days number. 😖

I've maintained my weight over the years, always have indulged in a very healthy diet (100% organic whole foods diet) & even crossed trained. Perplexed by all this, the orthopedic surgeons that I have consulted with over the years have all told me "you just have bad running & aging genetics."

You're neglecting the genetic component of all this. With bad aging & running genetics, a person is going to experience a hell of a rapid decline well before 70. Lol.

Most people experience more physical decline in the age group of 60 and above, including muscle atrophy, reduced joint flexibility, and cardiovascular health issues. Although the decline in physical function with age is a natural phenomenon, these changes can be slowed down through appropriate exercise, balanced diet, and healthy lifestyle. Maintaining a positive lifestyle and regular exercise can help prolong the healthy state of physical function. level devil

Same. Turning 62 in January. My 60s have hit me like a tonne of bricks. Former sub-sub-sub-elite 31:00 10k runner. Building back to some level of fitness after shoulder surgery is taking forever. Not only is it harder to lose weight and get miles in but the motivation is flagging too.

42. I'm 41 now and plan to give it one more year of serious training to try and set lifetime PR in marathon, after that no puking on track after finishing a mile repeats session no double days no 2+ hour long runs and most importantly no identifying as "runner", just jogging several times a week to stay healthy and having common conversation topics with runner friends. My result as 41yo is 3 minutes slower than my PR set at 37 so it is possible that everything will go according to this plan.

You will always be a RUNNER 💪

these two posts underline a main rule of masters running...the age you think decline happens fastest...is the time you get an injury you can't recover from. Then the serious decline starts. Could be at 45, 55, could be at 70.

that said, from looking at people on my running team...63-65 is a tough age. Things seem to really go downhill there, speedwise.

I do wonder if it is mostly because people insist on training the same in their 60s as they could earlier, and they end up never recovering or getting hurt. I'm thinking past 60, running every other day and cross training other days might be the way to go, to preserve speed and stay healthy.

45 is when it all starts going south. I could pretty much train like someone in their late 20s early 30s when I hit 40. But by 45, hard workouts would leave me shuffling for the next 2-3 days. Rebounding from injuries took 2-3 times as long. Basically, by 45, you are as fast and strong as you will ever be and will not be improving much even with excellent adaptations on your training.

In your 50s, you can put off a lot of the decline by being very dedicated to strength training and stretching. I swapped out golf for running and can still hit the ball as far as I did 10-20 years ago thanks to a lot of work in the gym.

In your early 60s, the bottom can drop out if you do not get very serious about strength, stability and stretching. These are the use it or lose it years. A lot of people set themselves up for being relatively sedentary in their 70s by not getting serious about fitness in their 60s. My dad did the opposite. He was never athletic. In his early 60s, he was forced into retirement when his company merged with another. Being a busy body, my dad starting going to the gym every day and worked off and on with a pretty good personal trainer. He also spent half the year at a house in Vermont and would hike in the mountains just about every day. I did a hike with him that had about 1,500 ft of elevation gain and he just whipped up the trail like a mountain goat. He is now 86 and is still able to drive, take long walks every day and travel without needing any help. Still goes to the gym every day.

Sorry to hear about your dilemma. Genetics definitely play a part in aging.

However, most doctors don't know squat about healthy aging for extreme exercisers, like us. I prefer to look at my masters track and field peers for what aging can be like. I was told 27 years ago that I had arthritis in my right knee and it was due to aging. I said, "It can't be aging! My left knee is the same age and it's okay!" I found another doctor.

In 2001, I attended a lecture by Walter Bortz, MD, author of Dare to Be 100, The Roadmap to 100, Living Longer for Dummies, Next Medicine, Occupy Medicine, and a few more longevity books.

That lecture had a lasting impression on me. Based on his research, Dr. Bortz believed that around age 30, people began to age, losing what he termed "vitality" at a rate of about 2%/year. Once "vitality" dropped below 20%, life threatening health issues began to surface. Based on his research, Bortz found that this loss of "vitality" (again, it's a term he defines) could be slowed dramatically to about 0.5%/year. Thus, someone who made antiaging a top priority in life could reach age 70 with 60% of "vitality" left.

Bortz was an active marathoner and ran Boston at age 83. He was eventually forced to stop running due to a nerve issue in his legs. He died in 2023 at the age of 93 after a period of declining health. No cause of death was given.

Subsequent to reading Dare to Be 100, I read Younger Next Year. Again, it made a lasting impression on me... one point specifically. The author likened aging to floating downstream in a river. Sometimes the current (aging) is faster; sometimes the current is slower, but it is inevitably moving.

To fight aging, you need to swim against that current every day of your life. Some days you will be more successful than others. Some days you can actually reverse aging for a while. The current eventually wins, but you can stay far healthier to advanced age if you have the discipline to fight the current with your mind, body, and spirit.

Writing this was carthartic for me. Hopefully, it will give you an understanding of my perspective on aging.

Greetings to all aged runners!

My decline from 20-25 y.o. through 65 was some 22% in terms of 5k results. But I never was fast (low 15s min only) thus the cliff to fall off was not really high.

What has your diet in your 40's been like? I wonder if eating an anti-inflammatory diet might prevent a lot of issues.

A healthy diet may not always be a healthy diet. One might argue that eating a lot of fruits and grains is healthy but that's also going to contribute to issues with glucose metabolism and insulin over time. In order to know if your diet truly is healthy, you should get a metabolic panel done annually to see where your A1C, fasting glucose, lipid panels and liver markers are.

Don't rely on the FDA guidelines to lure you into the false belief that that is the healthy way to eat. FDA food pyramid is garbage.