To any masters or near masters - has anybody experienced any enormous drop offs in performance capacity (much greater than you would expect from aging alone?)
Obviously I'm not naive enough to expect to be able to maintain ability indefinitely, and life circumstances have impacted on my ability to train anywhere near as hard or as much as I used to. However, I must admit to being shocked at how much I seem to have lost over the last couple of years.
Bit of background - I'm 39 and have been running consistently since I was 13. At times I have trained extremely hard (certainly too hard on occasion), but achieved some reasonable results, mainly as a MD track runner (sub 3.45 1500m and sub 4 for 16 consecutive seasons). I never did much in the way of road or XC at my best, but could occasionally produce a good run on the country as long as it wasn't too muddy.I stopped running on the track a few years ago as it was all getting a bit stale and I just didnt have time due to career / family etc. However, I thought I'd try some road races just to stay in touch with the scene and maybe try some masters events when I turned 40.
However, my ability to put any 'proper' training together at all seems to be just gone altogether. No injuries as such, and I feel fine, but 4 days a week is about the most training I can do before I get very tired. Recovery times have increased hugely (I kind of expected that) but most depressingly I'm just getting slower and slower. I ran a 5 mile recently had had to absolutely bust a gut to barely break 30 and still can hardly walk as I'm so sore days later.
I know its all a first world problem, so not expecting any sympathy, but has anybody else dealt with similar issues? At the moment I'm really questioning if its even worth carrying on racing, as the results just don't justify the continual soreness & fatigue. I've no problems just becoming an occasional hobbyjogger if things cant get any better. However, some masters obviously are holding together very well, so I'd be interested to hear how you do it. At the moment I'm toying with the idea of just cutting mileage to an absolute bare minimum and concentrating on a few higher intensity sessions, but am a little concerned that this could backfire and make me even more tired. Any advice?