Runners in your 60's & 70's - How are you holding up?

Hiccup....er, ah...that’s right....

It's all pointless wrote:

seattle prattle wrote:

I believe you are a troll or someone trying to provoke others to post for whatever reason. I'm not biting.

Yes I am writing somewhat to provoke, but what I wrote is 100% true. I get tired of all posts about how great it is how much these old guys are running and their times.

It just is not a good goal for guys in their 50s to think they are going to do. And really, the MAJORITY of guys in their 60s agree with me.

Do your yourself a favor, exercise for fun and health. Stop racing and training for time! Over 60 it's important to think about your future.

Ok I am off the soap box now.

(And you do sound you are 12)

Without training for competition, I would find it hard to get enthusiastic about being active.

I'm 62, have been training and racing since I was 14, and now generally run around 5 miles in the 7:20/7:40 per mile range on road five days a week + some kind of rep session once a week, and a longer slow run (70-90 mins) often on trails, on Sunday.

Still enjoy racing and comparatively, I'm quicker over 5k or 3000m than I was in my 20s.

I know when I'm sidelined by injury both my weight and blood-pressure go up pretty quickly, so I'm better off training for competition that being inactive. I also find it mentally relaxing. For running a hard run or rep session is the one time I feel I've switched off and not thought about anything but trying run faster for a chunk of time. To me that total focus on one simple activity is really mentally freshening.

Overall, I feel good. No aches and pains when I get up in the morning, plenty of energy for my work, so I'll keep it going as long as I can.

I train harder because of competition; a matter of pride. Even when I was younger I noticed personalities that could not stand up to the truth of the watch. I suppose Mr. Pointless prefers the anonymity of other sports where he doesn’t have to measure up. It is a fact that one has to do more things correctly as a masters track athlete in their 60s and beyond. The dedication increases rather than lessens. Why else do the age groups progressively thin? Of course some of that is infirmaries of age, but a large segment is motivation. The watch shows very clearly the aging process, and many simply cannot handle the truth. So Mr. Pointless needs to take a closer look in the mirror. “I went in search of the truth, and found it was me.”

I take it you don't appreciate Mr. Pointless' advice? ?

Well, I already posted I planned to do what I have always done. But as I thought about it, Mr. Pointless reminded me of personalities that just cannot handle being measured. So rather than accepting a challenge, they hide from it.

Charlie wrote:

Typical day eating between 2-4 or 3-5pm:

1 cup of nuts half walnuts half almonds,

Large salad with various cruciferous veggies maybe some salmon or chicken ocassionally grass fed red meat and always apples cider vinegar+ good olive oil

about a half hour or so later I eat my carbs

beans a small loaf of bread I remove the soft part and just eat the crust

oatmeal with frozen organic strawberries

Also eat eggs on a regular basis and sometimes cheese

Charlie, that seems like a huge amount of calories for someone weighing 131 pounds.

1 cup nuts = 800 calories

salmon or chicken = 500 calories ?

beans + bread crust + oatmeal with strawberries = at least 500 calories ?

So you're eating at least 1800 calories per day. Does that sound about right?

I'm interested in your feedback about this.

P.S. I'm still on the OMAD.

So on average you "run" 10 miles a day, assume as it was all at once, it was not clear. At 7 minute miles. You say you are 62. I sir, claim without reservation BS. Look at the outstanding high for a 60 y/o in the current Army/Marine PT standards....1.5 mile run. Unless you can not do more than 5 situps, pushups and 2 pullups, and are unable to swim a single lap, even with no upperbody, it is still very unlikely.

Hey J73 missed your question.

I probably eat 2600 calories a day but I get 1000 calories a day on top of base metabolism

How is OMAD working for ya?

Charlie wrote:

Hey J73 missed your question.

I probably eat 2600 calories a day but I get 1000 calories a day on top of base metabolism

How is OMAD working for ya?

Thanks for that info. That sounds much better than aiming for 1500 calories!

I'm still doing OMAD, usually between 11am and 1pm right after my workouts in the mornings.

I tried eating nuts but they didn't agree with me.

However, I do like cashews, and I'm going to try garbanzo beans.

Today I'm having potatoes with bananas and dates, and might have sardines after that.

I've been spiking water with some juice, but think that I'm better off with just drinking water.

You can just look up Tom's race results if you don't believe him. He said 7 minutes was his race pace, not training pace. But that post was from eight years ago, he's slower now but still racing.

The rest of your post makes no sense.

Like the spirited discussions!!

Just crossed over the 60 threshold. Had a couple of injuries since the H.S. and college athletics (70's) but for the past few decades, have been able to pound the pavement 3-7 miles/day + weight work. Knew there were some others out there, but just see the fair weather competitors in two different cities. Take no meds at all, so freaks the people when I give blood. Make sure the shoes are good, and have been putting in two athletic foot pads instead of the mfg.'s foot pad. Prep for the below freezing & below zero runs with plastic on the hands/feet.

I am going on 83. Ran track and xc in h.s. in "52-"54; service, then started road running in "64. 70-120 mpweek from then until "95. Hundreds of races. Dozen Marathons in 2:45-2:54 range

Jogging from 2000-2018. Heart event in early 2019. Stents and tavr.

Rehabbing now and up to 3 mis daily jogging plus exercises.

One thing seems to have changed in terms of training: the traditional gradual progress from increasing mileage and pace is so far not working out. Loving being out there every day, but sort of miss not getting the progress/improvement pattern of earlier times .

Still, it's all good and rewarding anyway: movement is life and life is good!

jamese1045 wrote:

One thing seems to have changed in terms of training: the traditional gradual progress from increasing mileage and pace is so far not working out. Loving being out there every day, but sort of miss not getting the progress/improvement pattern of earlier times . Still, it's all good and rewarding anyway: movement is life and life is good!

Bravo. Good for you! I'm not able to run anymore due to a recurring knee pain when I try. However, I've been exercising even more since then, currently for two hours a day on bike and ski machines, which I plan to eventually cut back to much less.

jamese1045 wrote:

I am going on 83. Ran track and xc in h.s. in "52-"54; service, then started road running in "64. 70-120 mpweek from then until "95. Hundreds of races. Dozen Marathons in 2:45-2:54 range

Jogging from 2000-2018. Heart event in early 2019. Stents and tavr.

Rehabbing now and up to 3 mis daily jogging plus exercises.

One thing seems to have changed in terms of training: the traditional gradual progress from increasing mileage and pace is so far not working out. Loving being out there every day, but sort of miss not getting the progress/improvement pattern of earlier times .

Still, it's all good and rewarding anyway: movement is life and life is good!

Wejo/Rojo - you guys should do a LRC on this guy... Seems like it would be an absolutely amazing story!

Everyone is different, I keep myself in fairly good shape, but I still like to party and still do so.

I'm 68 years old on Monday. This morning I ran 3.26 miles at an 8:02 pace.

I actually can run faster, but it's more enjoyable to stay some what comfortable.

Just keep it going the speed is not that important. The more you keep at it, your speed will not decline as quickly.

Be careful of the traffic, that will really ruin your speed!

neither do I, like I said earlier everyone is different!

I am 50 wrote:

Thanks for the responses. I eat healthy. Lots of fruit and vegetables and usually eggs or oatmeal for breakfast, milk, juice, and at least on piece of fruit. Meats are mainly fish and chicken and red meat no more than 2x a week.

0-3 beers a week. Ice cream 0-2 times a week. I have been working out and hiking on the off days.

Seeing my uncle is very sobering. He was an amazing multisport athlete and only played HS football, HS basketball, and HS and collegiate track. But he continued to do very physical work in his line of employment and wrecked his joints and has carpal tunnel in both hands.

I don't know too many active runners in their 70's so I was curious how the body holds up in the late 60's and 70's after mileage for years into the 50's and 60's.

Milk is bad for your bones, the body draws calcium from the bones to neutralise the acidity of the milk. Also eggs are bad for you heart.

I am 68. I run four days a week and cycle three days a week. My weekly running mileage is 28-35 miles. If I do speed work it is one day of intervals of varying length on the road, but I don't have a speed day every week.

So far my knees and hips have held up fine. I make sure that my footstrike is more our less under my body and I land midfoot or forefoot. I don't let my shoes get too worn out before replacing them, and I'm willing to spend what it takes to get the shoes that work for me (i.e. firm, low stack and low drop).

I may be able to go forever, or it may all end tomorrow. No way to tell.