Long Term Effects of Running on the Body

My Bio:

54 year old male runner. High school and college athlete, not running. Started road racing around age 24. I get to top 1% age group when fit. 0 to 70 miles per week last 30 years. 15 marathons, currently enjoying injury free training and racing. 2 medial meniscus surgeries late 30s. History of common running injuries except no plantar fascia issues. Started training hard again age 48 to qualify for Boston (which I did) however, I battled significant achilles issues from then to age 53.

My answer to your Q:

The thing often written / discussed: sensible training plans and listening to your body.

The thing I wish I knew when I was 24? Running form. This was paramount to my permanent achilles recovery. I’m certain I would have had better running health over the years if I didn’t run on my heels, didn’t use expensive motion control shoes.

I am 61 years old. I started running at 15 and ran in high school and college. My mileage has gone up and down over the years with work and family obligations, but not lower than about 30/wk or higher than 60/wk for any extended period. An average of 2,000mi/yr for the last 45 years probably is a conservative estimate. I have always done most of my training on the roads and have never been more than 10lbs over my college racing weight. I had chronic Achilles problems for a few years in my 40s and a stress fracture in my heel shortly after I turned 50. I never have had knee or other orthopedic problems and I have been running injury-free for the last 10 years. I have always run in minimalist shoes.

started age 13 in 8th grade (running the 800 -longest event in junior high at the time). Ran all through high school and Division I college. In college cross country, indoor 5,000, outdoor 10,000. First marathon age 15. Done about 30 marathons in total. After college ran with club for about 5 years then on my own since. I guess about 50-70 miles a week for the past 35 years. Never had any injuries, ever. Dont know why I have been so lucky - not even a slight knee pain. Also a good pair of sneakers lasts me almost 2 years. I started swimming at age 5 and did age group swimming till age 13 so maybe that helped who knows. Also since about age 30 I take off once a week and take off two weeks at end of Spring and end of Fall. Also do most of my running on grass and on trails.

Knee Replacement? wrote:

Since recently finishing competing collegiality, I plan to continue a full training regime over the next couple of years to bring down my 5k/10k PRs and eventually moving up to the marathon. Over the past year I've noticed that my body is becoming more sensitive to injury, especially in the knees. I've also found that I occasionally start to have pain in my knees when doing activities like hiking and skiing, where as these sorts of things had previously never happened

It's called getting old. Running has nothing to do with it. As you age collagen production drops.

First of all, I love running so I am not knocking the sport here or trying to discourage anyone from pursuing this as a life long interest.

Second of all I have no knowledge of any scientific studies about long term effect of running on knees, etc.

That said, I would just add to whatever else is said here that asking about long term health impacts of running here on LRC is guaranteed to provide a huge bias in responses. Not due to any bias of the responders. Simply due to the fact that anyone (whether this is hundreds or millions) of former runners who dropped the sport due to chronic running related health issues will probably NOT be frequenting this site - their interests having moved elsewhere.

The folks that you are asking this question to are by and large the ones who have not sustained running career ending issues. And this sample that you are asking may represent 90% of (former or current) runners or 2% - you have no way of knowing. But the answer to the 2% vs 90% is the real answer to your question - not the responses that you will see here.

I am a 56 year old male runner. I have run since I was 20 years old. I averaged 80 mpw til I was 40 then dropped to 50-60. This year I am averaging 70mpw. I have run 32 marathons and I am training for one now. I age grade 79-80% in all the distances. I have never had a major injury and never any knee problems. I train in trainers and race in flats.

the guy who replied above you had what you'd probably call career-ending injuries if I'm remembering correctly. Lots of older guys on this site don't run much any more.

This thread from a few days ago has links to a bunch of articles about how running won't mess up your knees: http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=3920810

39 years and going very well (no surgeries, probabaly two full decade in there of hard training). Listen to your damned body! Don't push against SPECIFIC (injury to joints), only against general fatigue, and even then, with care.

el oh el wrote:

the guy who replied above you had what you'd probably call career-ending injuries if I'm remembering correctly. Lots of older guys on this site don't run much any more.

So you are suggesting that the probability of someone who has long ceased running and that of someone who is still active in the sport to be actively engaged on these message boards is roughly equal?

If so, you are an idiot.

If not, your point lies somewhere in the trivial semantics realm, and you are an idiot.

The idiot conclusion is inescapable.

el oh el wrote:

the guy who replied above you had what you'd probably call career-ending injuries if I'm remembering correctly. Lots of older guys on this site don't run much any more.

You don't recall correctly.

Concerned Citizen wrote:

This thread from a few days ago has links to a bunch of articles about how running won't mess up your knees:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=3920810

You have to read the methods of many of those studies. Many such studies define "high mileage" as 25mpw or so.

I'm aware of one study that compared running club member aged 50-70 with those that never ran. The running club members had 1/3 the death rate and 1/3 the injury rate of those that never ran. BUT--the running club members were running 20-30mpw.

Chronic high mileage (much over 50mpw) is a different matter, and you cannot extend the results from 20mpw to 4-5 times as much volume.

One of the long effects of running is that you get to have long term effects.

malmo,i read in one of your recent posts that you are unable to run at the moment due to injury, and also that you used to (always?) train on hard surfaces.do u see any connection here?

malmo wrote:

It's called getting old. Running has nothing to do with it. As you age collagen production drops.

getting old too wrote:

malmo,

i read in one of your recent posts that you are unable to run at the moment due to injury, and also that you used to (always?) train on hard surfaces.

do u see any connection here?

There is no connection at all.

what exactly is keeping you from running.

to let u know where i am coming from

i think running on hard surfaces long term will lead to problems down the track. whether that is the case with you i don't know. that's why i'm asking.

i also recognize that running on grass my impact on technique.

one of the above posters mentioned that getting the right running form is important - not heel striking. I tend to agree with him. Do you have any thoughts on this?

Meniscus tears. A very common problem as you get older. It has nothing to do with running, or running on hard surfaces, or soft surfaces, or heel striking, or anything else.

I retired from running long ago, and with the exectoion of Osgood Schlatters as a 15 year old and smashing into a steeplechase barrier, I've never had as much as a sore knee.

There goes your conspiracy theories.

There were no conspiracies going on.

coach d wrote:

Concerned Citizen wrote:

This thread from a few days ago has links to a bunch of articles about how running won't mess up your knees:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=3920810

You have to read the methods of many of those studies. Many such studies define "high mileage" as 25mpw or so.

I'm aware of one study that compared running club member aged 50-70 with those that never ran. The running club members had 1/3 the death rate and 1/3 the injury rate of those that never ran. BUT--the running club members were running 20-30mpw.

Chronic high mileage (much over 50mpw) is a different matter, and you cannot extend the results from 20mpw to 4-5 times as much volume.

So those studies have some limitations. Do you have anything suggesting that "chronic high mileage (much over 50mpw)" will cause injury?