ReThinking Exercise at Age 60

I really enjoyed watching a couple of videos on Ryan Thomsons YouTube where he has documented his 60 year old dad- a lifelong runner- and his return to running sub 40 after a few health scares.
In one of the videos he’s described he has swapped a warm up at 6 min miles to a a long walk instead before any running these days!

Well done Sir. Just out of curiosity how long have you been running and what kind of milage have you done per year over the years ?

I'm 65 and over the last five years, the injuries have increased and the recovery time from each injury has gotten longer. I have always tried to run at 35 to 40 miles a week. I recently threw in the towel and started training very similar to this. My new routine has me doing something every day (running, biking, hiking, weight lifting, elliptical...) but never the same thing two days in a row. Most workouts are followed by a walk of 2 to 5 miles so and I only do a "hard" workout once or twice a week, otherwise everything is at fairly low intensity.

So far, I have been able to maintain (most) of my running fitness, the injuries are going away and I feel good most all the time.

It was hard for me to accept, but you can't keep training the same way as you age. You need to include more muscle groups, you need more strength training and, most important, more recovery.

I (M63) am convinced that one thing that has helped me over the years is taking dishes out of the dishwasher and putting them in high cabinets a couple of times a day, including just before runs if possible. It gives me a few minutes of low-intensity bending, twisting, and stretching, usually holding what are in effect light weights. Intentionally doing flexibility exercises would seem like a chore, but this is giving me a benefit while doing a chore I would have to do anyway (or convince my wife to do in return for me doing a different chore, I guess).

I haven’t read anyone discuss much about the mental struggle we have watching our paces drop. We have our gps watches and strava reminding us how pathetically slow we are getting.

Maybe I am unique but I get discouraged as I review my daily runs. We are told repeatedly not to compare ourselves to others or our younger selves. But I am really struggling with it. I really believed that as I got older I would be at peace accepting that all my PR days are long gone. And just be a satisfied older consistent runner. But I am not. I can’t put my finger on why it is troubling me so much. But I need to find joy somehow running so slow and less powerful.

Maybe I need to toss the gps watch.

Never sore? Never hurt? As in ever? Do you enjoy caffeine or other socially approved drugs? How about something for the occasional headache? And are you not, in fact, right now complaining about people who complain? Also, who wants to be a quitter at anything when quitting is frowned upon by real men and complaining just so happens to be one of very few things one can do more of the older one gets?

You seem to be a Type A, competitive person... same as me. Why don't you look for motivation elsewhere. For example, I'm recovering from a long-term chronic condition and I'm just burned out of training for my best event so, a bit on a whim, I decided to train to reach the All American standard for the 5k at my age. I don't even want to RACE a 5k. I just wanted to time trial the time. It took about two months. Next, I'm did a time trial faster than the All American standard for the next younger age group. Based on my improvement, I might go for the M75 state record in the 1500m and mile.... not sure about that, but it's something to look forward to. Maybe I'll just drop back to the 400m in spring.

Meanwhile, since I'm not racing, I'll repeat a workout I did a couple of months ago and see if I've improved. After one of these "time trials" I'll debrief the run and see where I could have done better and log it into my running journal. I'll also research it online with AI. As a result, I've made some tweaks to my gym routine, lifts, and recovery days. It's a fun way... for me at least... to stay in a learning mode.

For example, two years ago, I had to quit doing plyometrics due to a back injury. At a result of one of these run "debriefings" I realized that maybe I could do "mini plyos." so I've added these assisted plyometric jumps to my routine. Experimenting with something new keeps running fresh and fun even when I'm not racing.

Just curious, does your AI research tell you are old and will never run as fast you did back in the 80's?

68 here. I focus on age group strava segment times mostly uphills and don’t worry too much about past “flat” paces.

You have the right idea, avoiding getting hurt and missing a chunk of time vs. trying to train hard and get in top shape. I have shifted away from counting miles/week to getting 2-3 solid workout days a week. And have modified the hard/easy concept to a run/walk/walk concept. This year I followed this method for 5 months getting prepared to tackle the Pikes Peak Ascent. Tried getting 80 to 100 miles running per month but cross training the nonrunning days. The walk days I would target getting 15,000 steps. Other than a couple of slight strains that I monitored closely I got in a strong level of fitness and enjoyed my race day at age 71. The hard part is accepting we can't do as much as we remember we could do just 10 years ago. Just enjoy that at 65 or 70 years old, we CAN still finish, just slower than before.

A concept that may help some of you oldies here. I am 75, and met a little over a year ago now 78 and 81 year old transplants to our town. These two gents were friends in California, long times masters endurance athletes, that moved to Idaho. They are now two of the better long distance runners in their dwindling age groups. They use the Galloway Run-Walk concept with a Gym Boss timer. Typically setting the timer for 1:20 run and 0:10 walk, which equates to about 84% running. I was skeptical at first. I trained with Galloway some the summer of 1975, and the hammering was constant, and the last thing considered would be a walk. Also my background as a coach was antithetical to the thought of walking. Well it works, it becomes a tool some may benefit from as you age. :-)

This is great advice. Keeping the love of learning is important in all aspects of life and something I try to focus on. I view everything from training, nutrition and aging as a science experiment which always seems to intrigue me even if the outcome isn’t favorable to me.

all my life I have done the time trial thing to see where I stack up with things. I simply hate how I get when I do races from the amount of pressure I put on myself to my desire at beating someone which may set me back in life.

where do you find these all American standards? I’d like do to the same as you Frisky.

My fitness level was high. I was very consistent through my 40’s and 50’s. Yes that helps going into my 60’s. But I still had to scale down because of age. What ever level you’re at in your 60’s the basics apply. Stay in your fitness zone, build slow and be patient. Like always.

Being fit and healthy at any age is a worthwhile aspiration but wanting to be as fast as a 12 year old at 60 or older (which is all you might manage) hardly seems worth aiming for. Growing older is inevitable. It appears growing up isn't.

It's tricky, but I think that there's quite clearly a middle ground here.

When I take a break from vigorous exercise, I do feel great. But I know that if it stretches on too long, things will trend back the other way.

I'm 48, and have realized that continuing to struggle for performance is counterproductive at this point. But continued exercise for strength and health, and trying to maintain some level of athleticism...that's still important and correlates positively with my quality of life. Run 2-3 times a week, bike once or twice, and lift. As long as you're not punishing your body shooting for PRs all the time, it can still be good.

You just have to moderate it to a level that makes sense, which is not something many of us on this board are particularly good at doing, haha.

Thanks for taking a dump on any thread where you post!

But posting 5000 times a year on letsrun seems worth aiming for.

This is why at 72 you are an insufferable old fart, and other posters on this thread, older than you, are an inspiration to many.

I'm 66 and still running quite a bit. I run hard one day (60 min hard, or intervals, or 90 min easy), and then I run easy until I recover, which is usually 2-3 days with 45 min easy. Sometimes I try to rush the recovery and it does not end well.

As my wife says, the goal of masters racing is to get slower slower than everybody else is getting slower. You have to accept the reality that you can train harder and will still get slower. The passage of time is a relentless opponent, and you have to find your joy in the process and knowing that you have put in your best effort, and accepting whatever the result is when you have done that.