When injuries started. They affect your training more than any other thing.
Same as 55YO. At age 43, it was like flipping a switch -- started getting injured. Cartilage, muscle, everything at some point. Background: On the teams in HS and college, "semi-training" in early-mid-20s, then pretty hard training from 28-38 yrs old, a couple more semi-training years, and hard again 40-43.
Enjoyed the good years enough that if I knew I'd be gimpy now, I'd do it again.
I personally learned this one from experience. When you're at a parkrun in any part of the world and you hear guys looking like they're mid 40s to mid 50s talking with a British accent, you'd better not slack off or they'll smoke you. Quite a few will still smoke you even if you go all out...
Every country has its share of competitive masters runners of course. But it seems that Britain has a disproportionally large share of guys in 40s-50s who somehow manage to stay at a bit lower, say 'local competitive', level without sacrificing all that much - they have a job, a family, don't train crazy hours per week and don't winter in Kenya. They just train and run like a moderately talented, moderately dedicated 30 yo hobbyjogger and hardly decline at all until they're 60+. If my impression is true, what's their secret?
I personally learned this one from experience. When you're at a parkrun in any part of the world and you hear guys looking like they're mid 40s to mid 50s talking with a British accent, you'd better not slack off or they'll smoke you. Quite a few will still smoke you even if you go all out...
Every country has its share of competitive masters runners of course. But it seems that Britain has a disproportionally large share of guys in 40s-50s who somehow manage to stay at a bit lower, say 'local competitive', level without sacrificing all that much - they have a job, a family, don't train crazy hours per week and don't winter in Kenya. They just train and run like a moderately talented, moderately dedicated 30 yo hobbyjogger and hardly decline at all until they're 60+. If my impression is true, what's their secret?
From what I've seen...They do more speed work and train more softer surfaces. I think concrete/asphalt really beats up a lot of American runners
I would like to thank all for this thread. It has been therapeutic. I am 56 in a hot climate and my paces in the heat this year are have been discouraging. If you told me 15 years ago that a 10:00 minute per mile pace on a 7 mile run would leave me fatigued I would not have understood why. Back then it would have been like walking. You think you can keep it going strong by simply getting out the door. But you can't. Mind over matter stops working.
I still have race time goals but unfortunately age is preventing me from getting in the hard work to get there. This thread helped me to appreciate that there is a community in exactly the same boat. If all you do is compare yourself to younger years or younger runners, it will bring you down.
52 year old, started running at 38. Big improvement in first year then stagnated for next 7 years, doing 2/3 sessions a week resulting in injuries and burnout. Calmed things down at 46, I now run very easy on easy days, 1 interval session a week at around 5k pace, 1 tempo run at marathon effort (never faster) every 2nd week, approx. 40 miles per week and race times started coming down again very slowly, 27:30 for 5 mile this year. Also started doing some weights, just lunges, squats, sit-ups, push-ups and plank twice per week, Do lunges and squats with 25kg, any more hurts my lower back.
I personally learned this one from experience. When you're at a parkrun in any part of the world and you hear guys looking like they're mid 40s to mid 50s talking with a British accent, you'd better not slack off or they'll smoke you. Quite a few will still smoke you even if you go all out...
Every country has its share of competitive masters runners of course. But it seems that Britain has a disproportionally large share of guys in 40s-50s who somehow manage to stay at a bit lower, say 'local competitive', level without sacrificing all that much - they have a job, a family, don't train crazy hours per week and don't winter in Kenya. They just train and run like a moderately talented, moderately dedicated 30 yo hobbyjogger and hardly decline at all until they're 60+. If my impression is true, what's their secret?
My first question is about their muscle definition and leanness. When I see any male above age 45-ish who is 'cut' and particularly lean, it's a dead give away that they are 'supplementing', usually on some sort of HRT/PEDs. I've known a few of these fellows in my day (and hated them) so my eye and ear are pretty good at picking them out of the crowd.
Are there a few who are natural, lucky, unadulterated? Sure, but a LOT of middle agers these days are finding ways to 'stay young', so...
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.
Same here in Switzerland. I used to be able to finish top 60 in the Shamrock Shuffle in Chicago in my mid-20s. Moved here after and was astounded how strong the 40-60 y o runners were. 49 y o now and still at it. One trend I see here is that a lot of people will take the winter off from running and do XC skiing or ski-touring. And lots of top runners do a crazy amount of cycling.
52 year old, started running at 38. Big improvement in first year then stagnated for next 7 years, doing 2/3 sessions a week resulting in injuries and burnout. Calmed things down at 46, I now run very easy on easy days, 1 interval session a week at around 5k pace, 1 tempo run at marathon effort (never faster) every 2nd week, approx. 40 miles per week and race times started coming down again very slowly, 27:30 for 5 mile this year. Also started doing some weights, just lunges, squats, sit-ups, push-ups and plank twice per week, Do lunges and squats with 25kg, any more hurts my lower back.
27:30 for 5 miles at age 52? Wow, that's very good!
Started running at 35 and have been setting PRs until 45. From 49-50 my times started to go down the drain. As other mentioned, lack of power and raw speed seems to be the culprit: used to knock 27 sec 200 repeats like nothing, now 30 flat feels incredibly hard. Also, injuries became more frequent and took longer and longer to heal.
I'm not sure the definition of fall off, but I'm 52 and ran a 5k road race in 24:53 with I mean NO training. It hurt! Lol. I'm 155 lbs now, and my racing weight in college was 128. I ran 13:56 at the Penn Relays in 1991. With some ok training I think I can break 20.
You were knocking out 27 200m repeats like they were nothing from ages 35-49 ? Jeez dude. How fast were you? I picked up distance running about the same age and came from a very fast twitch background and I am not sure I can break 25 all-out at this point much less turn in repeats at 27 with ease.
I personally learned this one from experience. When you're at a parkrun in any part of the world and you hear guys looking like they're mid 40s to mid 50s talking with a British accent, you'd better not slack off or they'll smoke you. Quite a few will still smoke you even if you go all out...
Every country has its share of competitive masters runners of course. But it seems that Britain has a disproportionally large share of guys in 40s-50s who somehow manage to stay at a bit lower, say 'local competitive', level without sacrificing all that much - they have a job, a family, don't train crazy hours per week and don't winter in Kenya. They just train and run like a moderately talented, moderately dedicated 30 yo hobbyjogger and hardly decline at all until they're 60+. If my impression is true, what's their secret?
My first question is about their muscle definition and leanness. When I see any male above age 45-ish who is 'cut' and particularly lean, it's a dead give away that they are 'supplementing', usually on some sort of HRT/PEDs. I've known a few of these fellows in my day (and hated them) so my eye and ear are pretty good at picking them out of the crowd.
Are there a few who are natural, lucky, unadulterated? Sure, but a LOT of middle agers these days are finding ways to 'stay young', so...
I think you are overestimating the need for TRT or other PEDs to stay looking VERY fit in your late 40s/50s. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition recommends 11%-21% body fat for this age range. 11% body fat for a muscular person will look quite lean through the lens of looking at a 50 year old - 11% bf results in good ab definition, 6pack, ribs showing, muscle definition throughout shoulders, back, etc. The more muscle the better - they still "pop" at that body fat composition. More so with a good skin tone. Google search realistic 11% bf images. You do NOT need to supplement to get that in your late 40s, especially with lucky genetics according to science. Yeah it's not 20 year old 6-8% body fat "cut", but almost anyone would say a 48 year old at 10-11% body fat is cut and lean. Achieving this AND fast 5k times would give me questions though, as I find it harder to achieve both looking cut and running significant miles while having a family, job, etc. Just don't have the time/energy for miles AND regular lifting (I'd have NO muscles without regular lifting) while keeping nutrition in check.
I personally learned this one from experience. When you're at a parkrun in any part of the world and you hear guys looking like they're mid 40s to mid 50s talking with a British accent, you'd better not slack off or they'll smoke you. Quite a few will still smoke you even if you go all out...
Every country has its share of competitive masters runners of course. But it seems that Britain has a disproportionally large share of guys in 40s-50s who somehow manage to stay at a bit lower, say 'local competitive', level without sacrificing all that much - they have a job, a family, don't train crazy hours per week and don't winter in Kenya. They just train and run like a moderately talented, moderately dedicated 30 yo hobbyjogger and hardly decline at all until they're 60+. If my impression is true, what's their secret?
My first question is about their muscle definition and leanness. When I see any male above age 45-ish who is 'cut' and particularly lean, it's a dead give away that they are 'supplementing', usually on some sort of HRT/PEDs. I've known a few of these fellows in my day (and hated them) so my eye and ear are pretty good at picking them out of the crowd.
Are there a few who are natural, lucky, unadulterated? Sure, but a LOT of middle agers these days are finding ways to 'stay young', so...
TRT/HRT is everywhere with middle-agers these days. I'm a gym rat & it seems like every other middle-aged guy at my gym is taking something whether it be TRT, HGH or even something like over-the-counter DHEA. They openly talk about it all the time & many of them have their own YouTube channel where they present workout videos & discuss their TRT program. And lot of them are not doing replacement dosages to where they should be at their current age but instead they're boosting to much higher levels conducive to when they were in their 20s.
It's amazing to see the kind of gains in lean muscle mass, strength & loss of BF these guys are achieving. And some of the them look 15-20 younger than their age - it's like they found the fountain of youth. Some of the guys that do running or cycling tell me their recovery from hard workouts is incredible and that they experience less injuries - similar to when they were in their 20s.
I think the cat is out of the bag and the future longevity with middle-aged men is anti-aging pharmaceuticals. There's a lot of money to be made in this area with so many baby boomers.There are so many "Low-T centers" cropping up all over the U.S. competing for the growing number of middle-aged men. The marketing of these products is everywhere: Sports talk radio shows, men's magazines, YouTube advertising, etc
Watch this & shake your head in amazement of how powerful TRT is with aging men:
More and more baby boomers taking extra prescription doses of the hormone. For more: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/09/19/testosterone-frequently-as...
Around age 54-55 it dropped off a lot. I hadn't been running that much anyways and had been cycling more. Now at age 63 I can barely run. Suffering from a tight hamstring (hamstring tendonitis?) but doesn't affect me cycling, hiking, or walking.
So as not to derail this excellent thread I'll leave my thoughts about HRT at this:
I'm greatly put off by the 'boosted' 50-something year old guy standing next to me at the starting line.
I respect people, runners or not, who age naturally. Declining hormone levels are part of the normal aging process and also likely protective against aggressive cancers. Slowing down, gaining body fat, greying hair, sagging, being humbled by all of it, they are essential parts of being a human being.
There's something about the psychology of trying to hold on against the natural arc of time that is arrogant, hubristic, selfish. It's also damned unfair to the rest of us out there when it comes to athletic endeavors.
So as not to derail this excellent thread I'll leave my thoughts about HRT at this:
I'm greatly put off by the 'boosted' 50-something year old guy standing next to me at the starting line.
I respect people, runners or not, who age naturally. Declining hormone levels are part of the normal aging process and also likely protective against aggressive cancers. Slowing down, gaining body fat, greying hair, sagging, being humbled by all of it, they are essential parts of being a human being.
There's something about the psychology of trying to hold on against the natural arc of time that is arrogant, hubristic, selfish. It's also damned unfair to the rest of us out there when it comes to athletic endeavors.
I think this is central to the topic, as HRT might change where the cliff is for people.
I think of it this way - if someone is so insecure (or sexually inadequate) that they feel the need to use HRT for race times or better abs when it's not otherwise needed, then I feel bad for them. I'll wouldn't trade a minute off my 5k time for a boatload of insecurity or whatever else is going on with them that drives them to HRT.
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