best marathon improvement after age 40?

2:58 to 2:43 at 41 years old. HANSONS all the way.

Great thread, old and slow! Best wishes to you on your quest.

I have 14 marathons between age 28 and present.

I'm going simpler than the other good, helpful posts: it's about consistent year round training and injury prevention. (Lot's of success stories in this thread, the side of the road is piled high with once ambitious, motivated, and now injured runners.)

The right training program is individualistic - can be very different for two people same sex, age, experience

and present ability.

I have devoured all books mentioned, and more. The best book that allows you to understand YOUR OWN individualism and assists your own experimentation is Hudson's Run Faster from the 5 K to Marathon. Written for experienced competitive runners. A chapter for masters runners, although that specific advice is relatively sparse.

karma baby wrote:

2:58 to 2:43 at 41 years old. HANSONS all the way.

What kind of weekly mileage did you use for the hansons plan to get such improvement? i am considering moving to the hansons plan and wondering about mileage in the published plan.

As for me, 2:59 at 44 years old -- improved from debut 3:59 at age 39. Still slogging away to PR further until i max out!

Awesome, Hobby Jogger! Never looked at my progression that way before. Here's mine -

35 - 3:57

36 - 3:42

37 - 3:11

38 - 2:58

39 - 3:03

40 - 3:01

41 - 3:11

42 - didn't run

43 - 3:20

44 - 3:19

45 - 3:33

46 - 3:14

47 - 2:55

48 - 2:59

49 - 2:54

50 - this December

This thread is inspiring and motivating.

Starting running at 39 is a great way to have good improvement after 40.

Hobby - that is outstanding! You are right up there with Ed Whitlock. Thanks for posting that.

Fantastic marathon career "Hobby Jogger". I'm pretty sure I know who you are. I saved that article about you from 2004, it was very inspiring. I had not heard much about you since then. I always thought you would be the next to run a sub 3 past 70. Are you retiring due to injury, lack of interest, no time to train..... What can you tell us about your training from 65-70. Was it about the same as you described, alternating 10M and 15M runs and throwing in some 20-25 milers? Pace between 8-9:30/mile. Will you still race at shorter distances? Thanks, best of luck.

Hi there, am a regular on the RW sub-3h thread and thought I'd post my experience.

I've run two marathons, both London.

2009 3'11 aged 45

2011 2'50 aged 47

I trained hard for both, but the second one was also coached with some midweek speed sessions and some very mixed pace long runs on Sundays which definitely helped. Overall mileage for 2009 was maybe 50-60 but was injury affected. 2011 I probably topped 70mpw but I don't think massive mileage is that important compared to consistency and definitely doing speed work. I was quite ill before VLM2011 with migraine and sickness and I should probably have broken 2'50.

I'm just beginning to get the mojo back ... is another marathon beckoning?!

I have a serious question about Testosterone levels.

I am 49 and have run Marathons for 5 years.

I have always run under 4hrs and have run 3:26 when I trained(Long Runs, Tempo, Speed).

I have put in an Average of 40mpw. I know I can train more and harder, but job gets in they way.

My question is: Has anyone had issues with Testosterone?

On my last physical I had a low level on my Free Testosterone.

Has anyone experienced this and what have you done?

My desire and ability to run has dropped.

Should I look at taking some sort of supplement?

Thanks

24 3:49:42 (no training, ouch)

28 3:22:29

29 3:22:35

30 3:17:54

31 3:07:49

32 3:04:36

34 3:07:40

35 3:09:33

36 2:57:27

37 3:10:24

38 2:59:51

39 3:07:35

40 3:03:19

41 3:03:54

42 3:08:03

44 3:11:39

Mostly New York City and Boston runs, now 46, would like to see a 2-handle again.

I found this thread recently and I'm fascinated by Hobby Jogger's marathon career. I'd love to know more about his training, and in particular what he did to move from the mid-2:40s to the mid-2:30s at an age when most runners are going backwards. If anyone could point me towards the 2004 article which Montego mentioned, or if Hobby Jogger himself would like to comment, I'd be very interested.

As for me:

Age 38 3:55

Age 39 3:05

Age 40 2:48

Age 41 2:44

Age 42 - I'll find out in a few weeks time...

I started running marathons at age 38 and ran a 3:19, and have managed to run a PR each year since. Am 42 this year and ran 3:04:05 in October. So you can keep improving - if you aren't coming from a high-end college running background or something! After my first two marathons I turned to the Pfitzinger Advanced Marathoning up-to-55-miles-per-week plan and have stuck with it since and made gains each time. But I'm considering changing it up this time preparing for Boston - have started the up-to-70 mile plan. But I may switch to something else that brings for focus to maximal speed improvement as well as endurance.

runerrre wrote:

karma baby wrote:

2:58 to 2:43 at 41 years old. HANSONS all the way.

What kind of weekly mileage did you use for the hansons plan to get such improvement? i am considering moving to the hansons plan and wondering about mileage in the published plan.

As for me, 2:59 at 44 years old -- improved from debut 3:59 at age 39. Still slogging away to PR further until i max out!

anyone know where i can find the Hansons plan? i'm mid 40s, and my last marathon was 15 years ago. but i've been working on half's for the past few years. i'm somewhat tempted to dip my happyfoot back into a marathon but i'm not exactly sure what the best plan to follow would be. i've thought about 2 options:

1) i have a really strong base from 25 years of running which makes me think the hansons plan might be the way to go. i think it has less mileage and you are running harder runs on tired legs. my concern is that this could lead to injury and overtraining.

2) i like pfitzinger's 1/2 marathon training and i think that the runs at 90% of planned pace make a lot of sense. but he also has several 20-22 milers in there. i'm not sure whether that would be really beneficially or just run me into the ground.

I've run sub 3 in 5 decades, including a 2:59 at age 58 in 2011. For the last one I came up with the idea to track sub 7 min miles per week and figured that if I could run 26 in a week I could break 3. Using tempo, long intervals, and short intervals with short rest I did it twice. Just an opinion, but unless you are Ed Whitlock the older you get, the more you should focus on quality. I've posted many of my workouts. http://www.daveelger.net/2011/06/miles-or-quality-for-marathon-training.html

You can get the "Hansons Marathon Method" book at Amazon. I'm going to try their program for a spring marathon.

This is a very informative and encouraging thread. As a 40+ year old runner, I am amazed at the results reported here. I would love to know who the "Hobby Jogger" is. What a fantastic runner. Do you still run and/or compete?

Fun to see this thread pop back up. I posted on this when I first hit 40 and had run a masters "debut" of 2:50. I hoped to break 2:40 at that time. I did get down to 2:47 and have run 2:48 (very windy), 2:58 (crash and burn for lots of reasons) and 2:52 (first race after bad injury cycle). I struggle with training and injuries after the 2:48 and thought that it was all over as far as improvement goes. But a renewed focus on strength and maintaining turnover (hills and strides/short intervals every week) has really helped me get out of a rut. I do not think that I will break 2:40, but further improvement seems to still be possible as I start to crest the mid point of my 40s.

Steve Way running the Commenwealth marathon was impressive for a 40 year old

Read anything about John Campbell of New Zealand.

2:11 at Boston at age 41

Read where he worked his sheep farm, lifting and working labor all day, and then doing 8 hour runs on Sundays.

Stud