Just show an example of a world record in any physical activity set by someone over 40 and you win the argument. Not something like planking, but a mainstream sport.
Just show an example of a world record in any physical activity set by someone over 40 and you win the argument. Not something like planking, but a mainstream sport.
I started in my mid 30s as a 5 hour marathoner. Over the years, I have brought that down to 3:12 at age 51. Starting late means that although your past your prime and can't reach your "lifetime highest possible potential," you can keep seeing improvement for quite a long time and, as coyote mentioned above, maintain a pretty high level of fitness for a pretty long time... if you do it right.
"Just show an example of a world record in any physical activity set by someone over 40 and you win the argument. Not something like planking, but a mainstream sport."
Ok. Jack LaLanne, on this 70th birthday, towed a flotilla of 70 row boats, some with people in them, for a mile!
tthxhx wrote:
I started running at 22. I'm now in my mid-50's. Every summer I go to the same place that has a route of 5 miles and I test myself. Each year I have gotten faster and faster. Last summer was incredible! I really pushed it. And that was after a 5 miles bicycle ride!
I hear what what you're saying but I really think aging is just simply under or over use or neglect, like in the case of health. In fact my dentist told me a person's teeth should be the same health at 20 than at 80! You do this by taking the right care of your teeth. Not many people do. The same with everything else.
Pretty high up in the LR stupidity scale. Uh-huh... 30 years of improvement. From a 50-something too. Actually this whole thread has some gems of idiocy.
Yeah, but it becomes a more valuable investment in terms of health the older you get. I'd rather spend time treating a sore muscle I got from running than weeks in a hospital recovering from heart surgery or whatever. For every hour of running a middle-aged person puts in they get back four years of extra life expectamcy (and probably more 'healthy' hours of life). If chasing 'meaningless' times provides the motivation then it's all good.
And you could be doing so many other things when you are young other than running 80 miles a week just so you can brag on internet forums 20 years later that you once ran a sub 16 min 5K in college. Like studying, socializing, chasing young skirt, working and investing and many other things that have a greater ROI when young.
Btw, nobody cares what 99.999% of young runners do either. Your sub 15.20 minutes at college is as meaningless or not as a 50 year old winning his age group in 19 minutes in a Parkrun. Unless you are an elite athlete it's all about personal.satisfaction and testing yourself.
tthxhx wrote:
"Just show an example of a world record in any physical activity set by someone over 40 and you win the argument. Not something like planking, but a mainstream sport."
Ok. Jack LaLanne, on this 70th birthday, towed a flotilla of 70 row boats, some with people in them, for a mile!
That's great. By how much did he beat the previous world record for towing a flotilla of 70 row boats, some with people in them, for a mile, at 6'0" and 215 lbs?
I can't be 100% certain that I'm able to run fast and further then my maximum in my 20's but I can say for sure 100% that my time last year was much better then the year before. The point I was making is just because someone is in aging into their 50's doesn't mean automatically mean a decline.
Back in the mid to late 80s' I read an article that quoted I believe the 27 or 28 year old son of a famous professional coach who said something like "At my age I have to loosen up before I can get into exercise now". Ha, ha. What a crock!
I also believed that a man peaks at 18 in everyway because everyone told me. Another bs myth. I'll tell you what, I believe that because I have run regularly all these years it's keeping not only young in everyway it's greatly enhancing those qualities!
There was a study out from McMaster University in Canada maybe several years ago. Some mice were allowed to on a treadmill. Some were not. They injected the mice with something that aged the mice. The treadmill running mice kept their youthfulness while the sedentary mice got old. I'm seeing the same effect in humans!
*for every hour of running you get back four hours of increased life expectancy.
*for every hour of running you get back four hours of increased life expectancy."
For every hour running you also dramatically increase the quality of life.
If there was ever a list of things that one goes through this life and should experience, running would be on it. I can't imagine all the people who never do.
I know about my dad. He's 59 and he can still run a mile. When I see him I feel like anything is possible.
At 50 I was a better runner than I was at 30. That's because I trained harder, and my body's capacity was not much different.
But I was nowhere near my high school level, ages 14-18, when I was almost effortlessly fast on light training. Those days will never come again.
After 50, it's been a real struggle for me to keep running at all. Injuries happen more easily, even at lower training loads. Since I can't train as consistently or with as high a training load, I am not able to run well. Now I have to be satisfied when I can run at all.
tthxhx wrote:
"Just show an example of a world record in any physical activity set by someone over 40 and you win the argument. Not something like planking, but a mainstream sport."
Ok. Jack LaLanne, on this 70th birthday, towed a flotilla of 70 row boats, some with people in them, for a mile!
Is that more boats than he could tow in his 20s or 30s?
My times improved almost every year from the time I picked running back up as a 45 y.o., after 19 years away from racing, through the age of 52. Seven years of improvement, just like you. I won two local 5Ks outright--and won $$$ in both. (My times were right around 19:30. It pays to run small races in rural Mississippi.)
Then things began to fall apart. But I was pretty cocky there for a while. :)
If your connective tissue--hamstrings, knees, achilles, etc.--is okay, then you can probably tweak your training and continue to improve. It's worth experimenting. Keep your easy days very easy.
kmaclam wrote:
7 years is about the average # of years before plateauing. Some can stretch it out to 10, but that's more likely if they started out in their late 30s/early 40s. I was still able to squeeze out a few prs at 55 (after 11 years) but had to get 'creative' and really max out my training. The slowing down process really kicks in (gets more exponential and less linear) for most, in their late 50s, all other things being equal.
Yep. Good post. For me a lot of it had to do with injuries. If you can stay healthy, find shoes that give you a good stride (for me, moving in the direction of very low offset shoes, 4 mm, was huge), and put in steady training with some hills mixed in, you can remain competitive within your AG.
PCTHikerrr wrote:
THAT's the problem many of us face as we age. It's not a matter of want, or dedication, it's the constant niggling tweaks that may or may not become injuries, that keep us off a plan, for weeks and months at a time, no matter how smart we train, no matter how careful we are. That's the thing for me. Every time I come back to running now, after decades of high mileage and no injuries that ever sidelined me, I can't build effectively without setbacks.
Yes! I've kept a daily running log for the past 18 years, since I started training seriously and competing, but as I age, there are long stretches where I just write down that's day's mileage, rather than--when things are working--mileage, time, pace, and HR. Because I'm just idling, maintaining. I'm not actually training, which is to say building towards something. That's the single biggest difference as I age.
The other difference is that I waste almost no time crying over spilled milk. If my L5 disc went out tomorrow, as it did three or four times in the past three of four years, I'd take that as my new normal and move back into power walking as soon as the Prednisone brought down the pain. I wouldn't think, "Three months of running and now this!" I'm much, much quicker to simply accept where I am and make the best of it. (I urge the young-uns to pay attention to what I'm saying.)
Yes!
However, not in running. Those days are long gone. My running PR's are all from when I was in my early to mid 20's.
"Is that more boats than he could tow in his 20s or 30s?"
On his 65th birthday he towed 65 boats! Look it up if you don't believe me.
LetsDoc wrote:
Just show an example of a world record in any physical activity set by someone over 40 and you win the argument. Not something like planking, but a mainstream sport.
Here is at least one.
Yiannis Kouros at 46 set the last 6 day record on 2005. He had a astonishing 20+ year ultrarunning career. The best of all times on roads.
https://statistik.d-u-v.org/getresultevent.php?event=217Here's a quote from Jack LaLanne:
"People can improve - people 60, 70, 80, 90 years old - people can improve with corrective exercise."