Any > 50 year olds under 3:00 for the marathon?

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• 300 Brits aged 40-44 have run sub-3.00 for the marathon in 2008

• 164 aged 45-49

• 70 aged 50-54

• 16 aged 55-59

• 3 aged 60-64

• fastest 65 year old has run 3.09

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Wow. The numbers drop off quickly, don't they! What this tells me is that if I'm going to do it, I better get it done before I turn 55, cuz the odds are certainly against me after that.

Ed Whitlock wrote:

I have been doing light training for 6 weeks now, gradually increasing the time, now at 40 minutes per session. I am hopeful that my troubles are over for now and hope to be able to race again next year. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Ed

Good look Ed. I'll keep mine crossed too.

My coach in HS ran Boston in about 2:53. He was around 57. I can't say I know how much he ran (for sure over 50mpw), but I know he did the stair master like crazy (bout an hour every day and the floor would be drenched when he was done) in addition to running to limit pounding of the road. Also, he ran a 2mile at an indoor meet with us once and ran like 12:05 or something, so he had no speed.

that's a really good workout. I'm just over 40 but I think I'm at and advantage from having started later. I think as long as you're testing your speed limits from time to time and staying relaxed you're doing well.

Remember though, I'm keying my paces of the Daniels chart I sent you earlier, so you would need to adjust your splits accordingly. Even though I've run consistently in the low to mid 2:30 for the marathon, I still haven't broke 16 minutes for the 5k. I think I'm going to spend some time on that this winter/spring.

I view workout types/paces based on speed not age. As Dotato points out, if you follow Daniels's charts, they give you the pace, and Daniels (and others) follow the periodization approach, e.g., a 24-week season broken out into 4 phases of varying intensity.

Age does, however, have to be taken into account in workout and injury recovery.

Maybe Mr. Daniels could weigh in on this one. I wonder if there are some adjustments he would recommend for older runners wanting to use his training methods?

E.g., …

• Would speed work play a greater role?

• Would the 3-6 week period for adjusting to a training load be extended to 4-8 weeks?

• Would the 2 hard workouts p/week be the norm because of the increased recovery time?

diet vs running wrote:

There was a guy in the 1970's who ran a 2:22 marathon in his 50's, then perished from a heart attack a couple years after that.

That would have been Piet van Alphen of the Netherlands who ran 2:22 and change in his early 50s...I recall vividly because that this guy with stark white hair came flying past me at about mile 21 of the 1980 Nike OTC and put 3 minutes on me in those final 5 miles...I was just 23 or 24 and I was like "who was that dude"? He was crazy fast at 50+

MF (now age 52 and slower than all get out)

mike fanelli wrote:

diet vs running wrote:

There was a guy in the 1970's who ran a 2:22 marathon in his 50's, then perished from a heart attack a couple years after that.

That would have been Piet van Alphen of the Netherlands who ran 2:22 and change in his early 50s...I recall vividly because that this guy with stark white hair came flying past me at about mile 21 of the 1980 Nike OTC and put 3 minutes on me in those final 5 miles...I was just 23 or 24 and I was like "who was that dude"? He was crazy fast at 50+

MF (now age 52 and slower than all get out)

50y190d 2:19:29 Titus Mamabolo (RSA) 11 Jan 1941 20 Jul 1991 Durban RSA

51y 28d 2:24:18 Piet vanAlphen (NED) 16 Aug 1930 13 Sep 1981 Eugene OR USA

52y236d 2:22:14 Piet vanAlphen (NED) 16 Aug 1930 09 Apr 1983 Rotterdam NED

53y 67d 2:23:44 Piet vanAlphen (NED) 16 Aug 1930 22 Oct 1983 Etten-Leur NED

54y247d 2:26:35 Piet vanAlphen (NED) 16 Aug 1930 20 Apr 1985 Rotterdam NED

55y246d 2:25:56 Piet vanAlphen (NED) 16 Aug 1930 19 Apr 1986 Rotterdam NED

56y 47d 2:27:05 Erik Ostbye (SWE) 25 Jan 1921 18 Sep 1977 Goteborg SWE

Very inspirational thread going on here. I'll be 50 next month, have run for 17 years and attempted 6 marathons, all in my forties. I would really like to break 3 hrs and have come close, 3:02:00 in 05 and 3:03:12 about a month ago. I've felt lousy the last year or 2 and may have figured out why. If so I may be able to pick up the training intensity going forward. It's been great reading all the posts. Ed is absolutely amazing! Good luck to all and thanks for sharing some great stories!

Easy to see. Look athe results for the NYC, Boston and other big marathons. You'll see many over 50 marathoners breaking 3 hours. Some breaking 2:40

32 runners broke 3h @ Boston this year

dnixon: Maybe Mr. Daniels could weigh in on this one. I wonder if there are some adjustments he would recommend for older runners wanting to use his training methods?

There's a brief section in DRF, at least the first edition. Best I recall (corrections welcomed) he suggests older runners may do better with more tempo, less interval type stuff.

I initially assumed he meant older runners wouldn't be motivated to run his workouts, but after following his 10k program pretty faithfully for a 24 week season, had better success next season with a lot more tempo (longer, MP range) and less intervals. Kept the faster full-recovery reps though - those, I always respond to strongly. This was around age 40, having started at 35; but sadly a good bit slower than dotato.

Charlie wrote:

http://www.arrs.net/SA_Mara.htm

50y190d 2:19:29 Titus Mamabolo (RSA) 11 Jan 1941 20 Jul 1991 Durban RSA

51y 28d 2:24:18 Piet vanAlphen (NED) 16 Aug 1930 13 Sep 1981 Eugene OR USA

52y236d 2:22:14 Piet vanAlphen (NED) 16 Aug 1930 09 Apr 1983 Rotterdam NED

53y 67d 2:23:44 Piet vanAlphen (NED) 16 Aug 1930 22 Oct 1983 Etten-Leur NED

54y247d 2:26:35 Piet vanAlphen (NED) 16 Aug 1930 20 Apr 1985 Rotterdam NED

55y246d 2:25:56 Piet vanAlphen (NED) 16 Aug 1930 19 Apr 1986 Rotterdam NED

56y 47d 2:27:05 Erik Ostbye (SWE) 25 Jan 1921 18 Sep 1977 Goteborg SWE

Charlie,

Thanks for the stats verification...so he was "only" 50 then in 1980 when he ran 2:22 to my age 24 and 2:25... apparently, since that time this South African cat exceeded Piet's awesome age 50 time...honestly, the 1980 Nike OTC race by Piet was so mind boggling to me and I seriously wonder about the age/distance by the guy in Durban...that white haired guy flew past me as though I was standing still near the 7-11?? in Springfield that day and I never saw him again until the results booklet was mailed out a couple of months later...have a resource for those '80 Nike OTC results for us???

MF

Purely anecdotal. A friend from the UP and I both raced very well a week or 2 after partaking in relay events. 5x's 1 mile in his case. 3 x's 5K in mine. Both of us had our season best 10K's on the heels of these relay tests.

I thank the relays competetive format for effort I could never generate in a workout.

Bummer. I got the 2nd edition.

Help, Mr. Wizard, help! . . . er . . . Mr. Daniels.

dnixon wrote:

Bummer. I got the 2nd edition.

Help, Mr. Wizard, help! . . . er . . . Mr. Daniels.

Hey, dnixon,

another great source would be any one of Al Lawrence's books. He specializes in runners over 35 and provides detailed schedules and pre-qualifiers for different race distances. Google is your friend, as will be your local library.

erik

ShadowMan wrote:

Why are people on this forum such elitist a##holes?!? Where did the OP say it was a big deal?? He's just trying to get some benchmarks to gauge against. Christ!

Yes? What do you want?

Excellent! (And I laughed so hard my wife had to come in and ask what was going on.)

Great thread.

Good to hear that Ed is up to 40 minutes a day also.