runners approaching 60 - what has your decline looked like?

Joking. Good for hm getting straight, and a history of great running. Congratulations!

All my life I have been off and on just another halfway decent runner. I never raced much, too big for distance running and too slow for sprints. I was always stressed and choked when I did race. For speed, I was pretty average, 54seconds, for 400 in my prime not specifically 400 trained.

At 55-year-old almost Clydesdale PR's, 185lbs. I ran a 30 sec. 200M and road 5k's a little above and below 21:30. I proved I can not do high mileage unless it is extremely slow. That's mostly due to being a big man for a runner though.

I'll be 60 this summer, Just recently started jogging 2 miles every other day. What's dawning on me is that running makes me do all kinds of self-care things that I won't do quite as well without it. It just snaps in old habit patterns I guess. Completely aside from any PR's, running just feels right in my life and to my body. Plus, as others have said, it's great just to be able to do it at this age. I am going with that being the reason to jog now, If life gives me the chance I'll see if I can run my last 6-minute mile just for kicks, at such a point in time as it looks doable, or I'll just do what is my reasonable best without risking my ability to walk in the future. Maybe I'd like to tell my kids they can do it too if they take care of themselves.

Interesting thread, I posted decade by decade 5K times earlier.

Here is post-50 a year-to-year summary with some notes on training and diet.
From my mid-40s through late 50s I ran usually ran a modified Pftiz or Daniels, with some blocks (5K-10K specific) closer to Dellinger. So a mix of V02, tempo/threshold, with
race-specific work mixed in depending on what was coming up. Did plyos/drills,
core, strength work 2-3X a week but nothing too serious (did get up to 21 pull
ups a couple years).

I still do plyos/drills/core on a regular basis, not much strength work other than body training. Stopped competitive xc skiing at 56, where I’d spend almost half the year skiing, with only a little supplemental running). After that focused year-round on running.
I think there is more than one way to train. No one size fits all. You just have to find a combination of factors, hopefully stay healthy, and see what works for you. I do better with 60-70 mpw than 50-55. At 75-85 things get risky and I feel beat down, and that includes marathon blocks. (but might try more once I retire within a year or so). I do
some cross training with xc skiing in the winter and light cycling throughout
the year.

To Armstronglivs and others, my half marathon time from PR at 24 to age 63 (older than fck) slowed by 10 minutes which is kind of in-line of a true elite like Alistair’s marathon times.
50 – 17:20/1:19, 60-70 mpw, marathon training coming off xc skiing (xc ski through age 56)
51 – 17:01/1:18, 50-60 mpw, 10K/HM training (bad knee injury at end of year)
52 – 18:05/injured, 40 mpw for just few weeks, injured rest of year
53 – 17:35/1:20, 50 mpw (had to start out slowly post-injury)
54 – 17:37/1:21, 50-55 mpw
55 – 17:50/1:21, 50-55 mpw
56 – 17:40/1:19, 50-60 mpw (move back to Colorado, altitude, focus on year-round running)
57 – 17:50/1:21, 50-60 mpw
58 – 18:00/1:24, 50-60 mpw (started focusing more on diet due to health reasons)
59 – 17:42/1:18, 60-70 mpw
60 – 17:28/1:19, 60-70 mpw (revised training some, weekly CV workouts)
61 – 17:28/1:17, 65-75 mpw (got injured at end of year, SI joint)
62 – 18:10/1:26, 50 mpw (coming off injury, pandemic year so time trial format)
63 – 18:11/1:21, 60-70 mpw
64 - ?/1:21, 60-70 mpw (marathon training block)
(wonder how many downvotes I’ll get!)
good thread everyone

the supershoes have helped some

probably 2:36 without them (still impressive) but much more in line with current world records.

My 5k decline:

Age 25 - 15:19

Age 35 - 15:35

Age 45 - 15:57

Age 50 - 17:18

I seemed to hit a brick wall starting in my late-40’s

I was very much in the same area as you in the 53-58 age range.

Had a torn meniscus and surgery at 59, and then quite an on-going injury cascade. I'm now 65 and have been training solidly for close to 18 months, and would probably be in about 19:30 5k - 41:00 10k shape (did a 5.8 mile time trial at 40:40 10k pace), so you have held on a lot better than me.

The big difference - other than our times - is the amount of mileage you are able to do. I can't recover enough to get much past 35 - 40 a week.

That's also the big difference I'm seeing with the two recent guys that have stirred up interest, Tommy Hughes with his marathon and V65 Alistair Walker with his 34:32 - both are able to run considerable mileage.

Of course, both were a lot better than me to start with, but Alistair Walker has gone from about 2 minutes quicker to 6 minutes quicker.

I think the formula is high talent level to start with (which probably includes the ability to do a lot of training), and then genetics that are 'aging resistant' so a compound effect of being genetically exceptional in two areas. That means they are double outliers, which multiplies the effect and takes them right away from the pack, who are generally one or the other - talented and aging at a normal rate, or less talented but aging less slowly.

I'm age graded slower than my 15:20 when I was young, which I got down to a 14:5* equivalent in my 50s, but I'm slower over 5k now (I'd have to run 18:55), although I think my age graded 10k would be better.

I haven't raced in over 30 years so I can't give an actual rate of decline. I do know that my running ability has dropped off significantly.

Of course you were joking. There can be no serious answer that explains the absence of significant decline in 30 years.