Old(er) guys, when did your running fall off a cliff?

I'm 82, began running at 13 and never stopped, though never had a time better than a 27 minute 5 miler, a 4:30 mile, or a 3 hour marathon. I still compete nearly every week and find my times increasing about 10 percent a year--5Ks now running near 28 minutes, 10Ks at 58m, half marathons around 2 hours 10 minutes. As I grow older, I find myself increasingly doing uphill runs at a slow pace as a way to undergo stress without injury. In the winter I do cross country skiing (skate style).

57 the wheels came off, achilles, and some sort of excercise induced breathing (asthma?) issue.

Started in 1977, all my PR’s were in 1988, started the precipitous fall in 1993. Never quit though ha

Well I'm going to be 60 soon and today's run was pretty hellish and slow. So I'm going to have to say today was the cliff. Damn you, OP! Damn you to hell!

Age 27 I sold my soul to the devil to take 5k from 17:15 to 15:50 and run 2:35 marathon. Fell off the cliff at age 28 and been injured for 2 years with nerve/back damage from “bad form” (?). Sounds early but can’t imagine ever coming back.

being 35+ and getting an injury that stops you for 3 months will basically end careers. if something like this happens to you but you want to continue running once the injury is over, you must watch your diet and find new ways to stay in shape. once you get fat and out of shape, it takes a long time and a ton of motivation to get back to where you were.

did you at least get the super hero landing so that you at least look cool in your final moments?

Why don’t you just pivot to walking in ultras and afterwards making “so I did a thing…” posts on social media? You can do that till you bite the big one and most non runner friends will think it’s phenomenal.

Turned 60 this year, and I really felt the lost of strength: push-ups (50), pull-ups (10), 1RM for bench (1.5x body weight) and squat (1.25x body weight) were just a lot harder and gains were slower. I've added plyometrics to help keep up my "speed."

2:29 800 and sub 6:00 mile were goals this year, but I was slower to get there this year than in previous years. I guess my goal is to run as fast as I can on 30 minutes running every other day (on average) with at least one hard run (200s, 400s, time trial) per week. I'm not sure how much longer 2:29 and sub-6:00 are attainable with that level of running (12-20 mph). High 19s for 5k from 55-59.

Any wisdom is appreciated. My best advice: "Do the run you can recover from (not the run you can do; aka avoid injuries)." And ... brief swimming after a run and time in the hammock (legs elevated) help with recovery and stiffness more than anything else for me.

Best wishes!

Just working through these posts, much like I'm trying to work through regaining fitness in my mid-40s - slowly.... which is what drew me to this thread. I'm starting to see small improvements, but am very aware that I need to be more controlled and, finally, that I need to start doing the 'small' things right (plyometrics, stretching, core, weights, etc) to regain fitness.

In the meantime though, whilst unaware of where the guy who posted the original comment is from, he is not incorrect that there are a bunch of people running 15s and 16s (and even 14s) across their 40s and 50s.

Those 4 links are, in order, v40, v45, v50 and v55.

At 71, I can relate to your post a bit. Never quite as fast, but had great times through my 40s - always an age grouper contender. I still get out most days for 3-8, including treadmill, but honestly, I find find my interest waning. Many mtn. runs turn into pleasant hikes. But, trying out newer high-tech soft shoes has led to PF and peroneal problems which I never, ever experienced. ( Bill Rodgers is still my hero; I sincerely miss the original ASICS gel-lyte, the adidas Oregon, and the Nike terra TC). Amazingly, I still see myself as a runner, for life.

I'm 59 and was running quite well (for me, anyway) until 51. Since then, it's been all downhill

I'm 51 now, but running died for me at age 20 at a D1 program due to chronic back problems. I gave it a rest for a couple years and then got back into it some, but it died for good at age 28 when I started road cycling. Haven't run a step since.

Actually, my speed failed me when we started having kids in my mid-30s. I continued training with the same volume and intensity but all the factors of parenthood took away a lot of my competitiveness: loss of sleep, extra work around the house, constant noise, etc. The decline continued until the youngest reached about 7 and then plateaued. Then I started to occasionally beat a “best” time I’d run from the last few years (not from pre-kids). In a nutshell, a big part of the the decline is usually from lifestyle. Fix that, and you might be able to slow it down.

I never let it happen. I won a couple of big races (for my level) in my early 40’s and hung it up.

A lot of my friends who did not can hardly walk around anymore much less run.

I've been running essentially daily since 1975 with about 60,000 lifetime miles and maybe 20 years during which I was competing seriously while just maintaining fitness during other times (20 miles/week to maintain). When I hit about 40 I could not complete 2 hard workouts/week and needed to choose whether I wanted to do a hard tempo run or long intervals but could otherwise run 50 - 60 miles/week without injury. When I hit about 55 I begin to get calf or hamstring injuries when running 1K and 800M intervals. So what I would say is that there is not a "cliff" but a gradual decline in muscular strength/connective tissues being capable of withstanding sudden sharp forces. Probably, even this could be offset with the right stretching and strength training program. Running a 7 minute/mile when you are in your 60s is not a piece of cake but if you train steadily, understanding your limitations I don't think there is any reason why you could not train into your 70's at least with hard workouts

I'm 60 now and managed a 5:27 mile and 31st in my age group at Boston Marathon. For me I assume that super shoes and cross training (outrigger canoeing) have contributed greatly to durability.

I only run in super shoes (Alphafly 1's) and I don't actually run that much, only around 50k a week when training for a marathon.

Hey Getting Faster Dude, was it your peroneal tendon? Got a cortisone shot a few months ago after bothering me for a year, it’s helped but still gets shockingly painful randomly, any specific ankle PT that helped? Thanks!