When did age start slowing you down?

I'm 48 and decided to invest my time to a new persuit in Olympic Weightlifting. I am 25 percent stronger then I was as a 47 year old and even lighter body weight. I am confident in my outlook for this season. When you think you might be declining, find new goals to excel in. This may be a way to maintain or even grow as a master. Good luck to all my fellow age endurance friends and realize your dreams.

Fortunatel, I ran my last marathon at age 51 but I did race too many in the hot sun and with no water or other liquids. The majority of my running friends are in their 70s and 80s and many have atrial fibrillation. I have atrial flutter along with the high blood pressure I inherited. The doctors in our group (some are cardiologists) are now saying do not run Marathons after 50. I say at least do not race them after 50. Continue to run because it is good for you although an hour of walking a day is probably all one needs for a fit heart. We are losing our Sunday breakfast group members to cancer, not heart attacks. Good luck to all and enjoy your running.

imarunr wrote:

Maybe I'd actually be faster if I reduced my mileage and only did ONE hard workout per week??? Thoughts?

I think you should try it and let us know whether it worked.

I'm a woman who started running seriously again at age 27 and as I said in my earlier post I saw the slow down at age 42 (I'm 45 now) My biggest mistake was too many marathons in a short period of time 35 in 13 years and addition to that I probably started about 20 I didn't finish. Ran under 3 hours 13 times with a pr of 2:50 the year I ran that I ran 6 marathons in 11 months.

Don't get caught up in doing too many marathons and it will serve you well for your future running. For me it was a lack of recovery that put me over the edge as I got older.

I have one child who was born when I was 37 and I ran my two fastest marathons at age 38 & 39. Honestly I think the break in training due to some pregnancy complications was good for me.

Also, I've only had one major injury but I've had a ton of medical problems that have hampered me over the years. Between illnesses and other health problems I think I'd rather have running injuries.

Sounds like you have a good plan with sticking to one marathon a year. If you do that you probably won't suffer from the burnout and your body breaking down like many of us have.

There are just so many fewer women runners in the over 60 age group that it's not surprising. Remember NO ONE in that age group ran as a younger woman. (I wrote a college paper about why they should let the women run marathon in the Olympics - in 1979! This was still being debated then!)

There was a pretty steady increase in women running when Title 9 opened the doors to HS running to females and I've been at many national races were the biggest 40+ age group has been the 50-54s (who were in HS when Title 9 took effect in 1974-75). But it is really sparse starting in the late 50s and up. Some older women started up in their 20s and 30s, but the numbers were definitely smaller.

We are only now starting to get some information about how menopause and hormonal changes affect women's running. I haven't hit that yet, so I have no idea what's going to happen.

Some women just never make it back to competitive running after childbirth for many reasons. Others bounce back effortlessly (it seems) and still others bounce back fast and then succumb to injuries later. By the time you get to that age, maybe there will be more answers.

I've been able to run relatively successfully for 38 years, but I pretty much quit marathons at age 25. I did a couple attempts since then (the last when I was 43), but had 2 disasters and chickened out and ran a fast 1/2 instead for the last one. I felt a little bad about not being a "real" runner (I run xc and trails), but maybe it has helped me.

imarunr - You know I'm going to say this, but YES, cut back to ONE hard workout a week for a while (or maybe 3 every two weeks) and I am guessing you may see an improvement. Sticking to the "routine" that the younger guys do isn't beneficial for us older runners.

This is impressive; you've aged well.

agip wrote:

I'm 45 and still waiting for a material slowdown - I ran around 10:15 regularly for two miles in HS and I can still do around 10:40. But if I raced as much as I did in HS I bet I could get back down near HS times.

But the question on body change - I've found that since I turned 40 I have changed almost every year. I was pretty much the same runner for 25 yrs, but the last 5 yrs...every year seems different. Different races go well, different workouts, different injuries, different motivations, etc..

harder to coach myself, but at least I am not in a rut.

Let me add one more voice to the chorus...

Age 35. Just had knee surgery from an injury caused by...wait for it...marathons! From age 25 to 35, I was in marathon training/racing mode almost non-stop. I peaked just before 30 and then started to slow down. If I'm able to return to running after surgery (and I do think that's a big IF), I'm not doing any more marathons. I'll be content to stick with 5ks and 10ks.

Tigerox wrote:I think luck2b's observation is a good one in general.

For the record, it was not my observation, but one of a seasoned coach. He told me this while I was commenting to him how surprised I was that I was continuing to get faster as I approached 50. Of course, I'd started back at 45. By 51, I'd peaked and have been maintaining at a slightly lower (18-flat vs. mid 17's) level since (now 53-1/2). I'm still hoping to be the exception to his rule, but so far, I've followed the trend just as he said it would be. Sigh.

Racerdb, on the other hand, is definitely an outlier. So Dave, you haven't quite thrown in the towel, then? One more shot? Go for it!

BTW-I've done 2 marathons (one @49 in 3:07, one @50 in 3:02)....hated them both. I didn't properly train for them (only 45-55 mpw, hit 60 for just one week...but I did get a few 20+ milers in), and not sure I really want to. I *might* do one more just to try one last time to get under 3:00, but it'd probably be my last.

BUMP. Very interesting to see this. Im a college student taking a break from studying for finals and stumbled on this from another thread. post collegiate running plans are something you think about now and again as a competitive runner, this thread has probably made me plan for sure to do no more than one marathon a year and stick to mainly 5ks and 10ks, maybe a few halves. Thanks for the insight.

65 here. I never ran competitively until I was 30. I tried a few marathons and realized that 1) I would get injured/sick a LOT 2) I didn't like the way I felt when training. I dropped down to shorter distances and improved until I was 58.

After age 58, I just couldn't stay uninjured for the extended periods needed to get in a full training cycle. I also found that my max heart rate declined with age.

I haven't run since the Masters Indoor Championships. My ankle just isn't healing. When I start back eventually, it will be difficult to get back to where I was before the injury. It gets worse with age.

My best advice is avoid injury, avoid injury, stay healthy, and avoid injury.

I hate to sound like the pill-popping old guy, which I am absolutely not. However, glucosamine has helped my joints feel better, which I can't say I expected.

As a kid I put way too many miles in on the "crete" and had some joint pain come up as a result. The glucosamine has removed every bit of pain.

I just grab these off amazon:

http://amzn.to/13lK4Jm

They are cheap you old farts...atleast cheap enough to try once

Same experience for me. I'm about to turn 33 and the past couple years I've been riddled with injuries that have made attempts at serious racing impossible. I didn't have this problem in my 20's.

I noticed my top-end speed died around age 36-38. Rolling 28's to 32's in a 200m workout became very difficult to do. I also ran around 30-40 miles per week year round in my thirties with 12 mile long runs and hard intervals during the week on the track, so I still have some legs left.

I'm 44 now and I'm having fun with half-marathons and full marathons. I PR'd last year in the half with a lot of slow easy mileage and using the Pfitz plan, topping out at a 65-mile week. More mileage than ever, but most of it slow.

I'm 38 female and still getting better. More at the longer stuff (mainly because shorter/track races I like are far and few between). I do a yearly or bi-yearly mile time trail and train to break 5 min and I've don't that for years. My hs PR is faster but I also was racing often and doing lots of track workouts so I don't think it's fair to compare. I did have a period where I slowed down because all I did was run easy at 5am (young children/baby and too tired). I realized I had to do some faster stuff so I didn't get slow. I enjoy the structure of hard workouts mixed in with easy runs still.

As far as my body. I think I have more soreness/aches that pop up but I know my body enough to know what I can/can't run through at this point. Recovery is longer so after a hard run or race I usually need 2 sometimes 3 days easy. I also think nutrition is very important and sleep. I've always been a good eater and cook often so I think just paying attn to that and post run recovery stuff and you'll be good.

I'm 44 and I'm not any slower at race distances 10k and up. Slightly slower at 5k. Below 5k, I'm definitely slower and couldn't touch 800/1500 lifetime PBs at this point.

"slow down between 45 and 50 and fall off cliff at 50".

That is precisely what happened to me. I ran well until 45 and a few days then declined until 49 then precipitously . I fell into a crevasse at age 51.

Just curious…if you can’t run any more due to osteoarthritis, what, if anything do you do to stay fit.

Im sure that I’ve read somewhere that running can be managed with osteoarthritis, but you’ve just got to be clever with it and know your limitations. Run when it’s not hurting, rest when it is. Obviously the volume that you can manage, and probably the intensity will be less. So racing may be out, but perhaps not running per se.

Never mind…I think that you’ve answered my question here…I asked it before I’d read this post…

Played my last tackle football game in pads at 34, it was a high school alumni game, had to sign a form releasing the school from any obligation if I got injured or killed,

But, did play city flag football up until my mid 40's. Took a seriously sprained ankle to wake me up to just maybe a football retirement might be a good idea,

While my long range speed left rght after high school I never lost those quicks, always had quicks and still have quicks.