At what age did you stop feeling young?

I'm 27 and I feel sort of "old," in the sense that college kids look like children. Physically though, I don't feel old at all . . . I'm a f*cking monster!

Papa Roach wrote:

I am 53 and I will let you know when it happens.

I was about to post the same thing--only substituting 60! Favorite answer on this thread!

I started running in my mid-/late 30s, got just about all my PR's in my early/mid-forties. I've slowed down a lot since, and while I'd love to have some speed back and the ability to recover from injuries faster, I would say overall that I'm happy that I can race and train. For close to a year, I was out with plantar fasciitis. That made me feel older. Now I'm running (albeit not very fast) and I feel younger again.

But maybe "old" or "young" are just convenient labels for our state of health, energy, well being, etc. Speed I admit is part of it, but even that is a matter of outlook. So I am not running as fast as I was in my forties. I can choose to be depressed about that or just do my best with my current condition.

In my 20s, I smoked, so actually I felt older then--got a chronic cough and a heart rate of near 100 (not overweight, thankfully--in fact, thinner than average, but maintaining it in unhealthy ways). (RHR in the high 30s now; bp about 95/50). I think it was George Bernard Shaw who said that "youth is wasted on the young." I'm not sure he's 100% right about that, but I think he was in my case.

I could wonder what kind of runner I would have been had I taken better care of myself then, but looking back would age me a lot more than enjoying and appreciating my life as it is, with a great family and friends, with running, with work I find interesting. Thanks but I'll skip feeling old.

I recently just turned 95 and I'm finally starting to feel old. I'm unable to break 15:00 in the 5k now and my job is now forcing me to retire after 80 years on the job. At least my pension is $984,321 a year.

RedFred wrote:

I recently just turned 95 and I'm finally starting to feel old. I'm unable to break 15:00 in the 5k now and my job is now forcing me to retire after 80 years on the job. At least my pension is $984,321 a year.

why even post nonsense like this?

At 39 I broke my kneecap and that knee will never be OK again. This is what killed that "invincible" feel of youth.

Damn. I didn't start feeling older until around 53. Running started to suffer greatly around 45 and now at 57 it is pretty much non-existant. I have become what I said would never happen...........a f*#$ing jogger.

Right now.. I went out last night and I am dying right now. I used to be able to drink all the time and wake up for a 6am practice like it was nothing. Not sure how I woke up on time today.. Freakin masters, workin 60 hour weeks, and DJ-ing on the weekends. I'm 24 and dying. Enjoy the youngness

I'm 25 and I'm just starting to feel like an adult. I have a job, an apartment and a girlfriend. My running is not what it was 3 years ago, but old? No way. I didn't puberty until 8th grade and didn't sleep with a woman until college. I didn't even start shaving daily until I was 23. I still have yet to own a car. I feel like my peak is a long way off.

So how many more years do I have guys?

[quote]late bloomer? wrote:

I still have yet to own a car. quote]

By this do you mean you're making payments? leasing? If you have a job/apartment, why not splurge and buy a car?

My whole life I felt like things were getting better every year. Then last year my whole life fell apart. The school dropped our program my senior year, I got in trouble with the cops, got my reputation ruined, broke up with my hot girlfriend of three years, and somewhere along the line I lost my self respect.

I'm trying to regain everything back now, but it is long and f***ing hard. But you know what, I started running again and its one of the only things that make me feel young and alive still. Just gotta drop the lbs i gained when I was living as a depressed pussy.

I'm 28 and I definitely noticed a difference around 26/27. Physically/mentally I'm a very different person than when I was 22. Heck, 17-24 is all about the same, then you start to get old...

For me, it was about age 38... had been racing at a high level since 1980 (at age 15) and suddenly, with no real difference in training, diet, sleep... the legs got less resilient, more nagging injuries that seemed never to go away... The race times had stagnated or gotten slower, even though the workout times were still consistent and fast.

Once I hit 40 I started actually mentally accepting that many of my PRs were behind me and that I had to change the dynamics of my running, if I wanted to stay competitive. I began stretching more regularly, and not just the same stretches learned in high school PE. I did some more weight work and core work to balance out the muscle groups so long ignored. I reduced my racing, and planned my training more specifically to my life schedules.

It has worked to the extent that I am back running with more liveliness in my legs, not feeling injured all the time, and back to training at sub 6:00 pace. Can't wait to get my spring and summer racing under way. Still thinking I can try to win at the local road race level. Times will tell.

I'm 45 now, and I finally began to feel it at about 38, but having a small business in this economy has really made me feel like i have aged a tremendous amount in the last 2 years. Now its no longer gradual.

I think that the stress makes a lot of this manifest for us. If i was doing well financially i'd have more time to run and work out and i think that i wouldn't notice it so much, so our preceptions can certainly be fooled by a variety of things.

And having just turned 45, the guy in the mirror no longer looks like the person in my head. Whoever posted that earlier in the thread is dead right.

At 22, I feel like i've been beaten with a stick.

stupid.. wrote:

RedFred wrote:

I recently just turned 95 and I'm finally starting to feel old. I'm unable to break 15:00 in the 5k now and my job is now forcing me to retire after 80 years on the job. At least my pension is $984,321 a year.

why even post nonsense like this?

That is exactly what I thought. What makes this guy take the time to think of that and then reply with it.

I am 51 and am young at heart; my goal is 120! I am involved in my community in my hometown as a volunteer coach and mentor. I am always trying to learn and see things in a positive way, trying to find the beauty in people and each day. That begins with a quiet run each morning, just me and God in nature. I joined the Navy at age 30, switched to the Reserves at age 40, and with one year in the Reserves remaining, I am retraining for a career I have long wanted...physical therapy. So flexibility is important to feeling young.

I am in the midst of an aerobic threshold training experiment that began in early November. The experiment involves pool bottom running with some land running blended in. My average mileage since November is 84 miles per week. Since my mid-40's my resting heart rate has been 38-40, and my maximum 183. That's a heart rate reserve of 143. My experiment allowed me to raise my max heart rate to 190. That's the rate of a 30-year old. So the condition of your body can be improved to feel young.

I once took a job as a courier just so I could run on the Appalachian Trail in Shenandoah every workday. Another job was 50 miles away, but every morning for three years I ran on endless pines trails around a lake. So we can improve our spiritual life to feel young.

Find peace and beauty in each day and at all times. I think this is what Paul meant when he advised his flock to "pray without ceasing."

Peace,

FogRunner

The best runner leaves no tracks

like a fog moving across the mountains

At 48 I broke my kneecap and self-rehabbed with a program I devised myself. I would be happy to help you if you ask.

I'm 19 and it feels like I fell out of a plane then got ran over by a train and then attacked by a bear while laying on the tracks.

to infinity and beyond wrote:

attacked by a bear while laying on the tracks.

you mean "lying"