Sub 17 at age 55

I started running again at age 45; now I'm 53.

Based on my experience, it will be hard to run much faster than your age-graded equivalent.

noway wrote:

There are only three men in the 55-59 age group who have broken 18 this year -- and two of those are over 17:40. I'm all for running at any age, but it's not possible for you to do it -- even if you spent the last 20 years racing.

There will be 4 sub 18's in three weeks. My brother routinely runs in the low 17's and turns 55 in October. He's built like an Ethiopian, 6' with a 1.5 m stride. Body fat lab tested at 2% last year and 3% this year. This is not normal and it would be quite a story for you to drop 45 lbs and hit what you are shooting for in 2 years.

I'd shoot for more reasonable goals or you may become quickly disenchanted. You may also find a longer race more in line with master's physiology. Once I hit 50 I found the HM to be a better fit. Tell the grand kids you ran Boston. They'd be more impressed than hearing about a 5k.

55 now. Started running again at 49 after almost 30 years. My feedback fwiw:

1. Weight loss will be hard and will come in spurts with lots of plateaus

2. Any speed you might have had will be gone. Fast twitch fibers will not be there. Sub 60 quarter mile ability has turned into inability to break 90. Not an aerobic issue, leg turnover is just not there

3. Injuries will be a bane. Mix up some cross training to avoid overuse injuries

4. Build volume slowly. I went from 500 miles my first year to 2000+ for two years, and the broke down

5. Real decline in performance after 52

Good luck

lose weight, work out, run until you can get to the point where you can do 6 miles with your HR under control (

I'm only have kidding when I say... find a nice little downhill 5k. Nothing major but enough to help.

I mean if you are going for time, you can increase the odds.

I'm 45 and with 45 secs of my 5k PR from college. But I've run continuously.

As you may know,I ran:28'16/10k,1h3/half marathon,2h11 marathon.as master ;age 52 ran 32'/10k,age53/33mn,I think i can run sub35'/10k at age 55,I m coach too i will be based in Qatar ,coaching qatari triathlon team,I can coach master runner s online contact dridac2002@yahoo.com

hopeful master wrote:

Maybe by 2017 or 2018 I can be competitive locally (Michigan).

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Good luck with that! Check out the Bobby Crim results from this year and notice how much drop-off between the 50-54 and 55-59 age group.

If you look at the 10th place finisher in each age group starting with 40-44 the pace per mile was 6:06.

45-49....6:15

50-54....6:32

55-59....6:56

60-64....7:36

65-69....8:20

Though the above results are a very small sampling, they do illustrate the fact that times slow down EXPONENTIALLY as we age (i.e.. the expected 8 second drop in your 5K time from age 50 to 51 becomes a nearly 20 second drop from age 55-56).

I’m 56 and have been running for 40 years. Here’s my, admittedly, tongue-in-cheek job posting for what you are trying to accomplish at 55+. I wish you the best.

Job Posting: Competitive 55+ Masters Runner:

Candidates for this position must possess the following qualifications:

1) Have a high pain tolerance as the candidate will encounter various injuries that will not subside.

2) Have a high frustration tolerance. The candidate will attempt various methodologies of training and see most of them fail. Of the few that succeed they will only succeed temporarily, requiring the candidate to start from the beginning with new and different training methodologies.

3) Have deep and comprehensive knowledge of various training methodologies; fully comprehending them to the degree that the candidate will be able to take the FEW parts of these methodologies that apply to them and implement them in a thoroughly scientific process.

4) The candidate will be required to have 200% more patience than younger runners as most timetables listed in the various training methodologies are completely irrelevant to those over 55.

5) The candidate must have excellent health insurance or be independently wealthy as this position requires regular visits to chiropractors, pain specialists, ART therapist, massage therapists, and orthopedists.

6) The candidate will understand that the Chinese Proverb: Fall down 7 times, Get up 8, is laughingly inadequate as the candidate will be required to “get back up” literally hundreds of times.

7) The candidate will be exceedingly humble, or be humbled by the position. The candidate will find humor and see, finally, the irony of comparing times from younger years to now.

This guy is over 55, he runs very low 17s EVERY WEEK at my parkrun. He is the most consistent runner I know.

Wow, no kidding! What a machine. Looks like he came to it late in life. Also I wonder if he took more of a periodized approach would he have an even better PB?What is that course like?

behealthy wrote:

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/hull/results/athletehistory/?athleteNumber=169444

This guy is over 55, he runs very low 17s EVERY WEEK at my parkrun. He is the most consistent runner I know.

Watching The Detectives wrote:

. Also I wonder if he took more of a periodized approach would he have an even better PB?

.

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Probably not. I've been running for years. My best times come when I am racing pretty much every week. It's really an exaggerated hard/easy approach. I try to run fairly hard a couple days after a race so I am worn down. I spend the next 3 days easy recovering and then race again. When I have had my best summers, it takes about 6-8 weeks of racing to get my times down and then improve slightly for a while longer before leveling off.

Course is pretty much flat, all asphalt. It's this.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?ll=53.766268%2C-0.300837&spn=0.008878%2C0.019312&hl=en&t=h&msa=0&z=15&source=embed&ie=UTF8&mid=zj7h2Fr7knm4.kkuU2vHMlJNE

Some photos of the course, you can see Mason rippin it here. He was sub 17 a year ago too!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.693330567466169&type=1

Interesting thread, having just read through most if it.

It is not even vaguely true that there are only 2-3 guys of our age who can run under 17. I live in Montana, not exactly a population center, and can do it, and I can think of others not too much younger than me (I'm 53, and my 5000 PR back in the day was almost identical to yours) who can beat me. So I would not let the skeptics convince you that you cannot run under 17. Most 50 year olds have better things to do with their time and money than go to some age group version of nationals, because we all have people who can kick our asses sideways right here at home.

I would, however, agree with many of the good suggestions that have been made about how to go about racing fast in your 50s. My suggestions--

1. Weight loss and gradual re-entry to training - I took 10 years off of running but gained no weight, which allowed me to bomb back into it but I was 38 at the time. Based on subsequent events, I doubt that would work well after 50, especially with extra weight. I get sore as a freaking dog after running intervals now. (If you want to experience the full splendor (!) of this phenomenon, do some steeple workouts.)

2. Once you're back to looking like a runner, the basic point that everyone has made is very true. Beginning right around 50 or so, it is pretty hard to run your basic "two good workouts and a long run" every week with decent mileage. I am not sure the best reaction to this. Mine is to go ahead a run a tempo, an interval workout and maybe a long run. Based on the ever-increasing ease of beating people my age, I think that the cautious approach that many people advocate will not make you as fast as you could be. Whether you're 20 or 50, you have to go put your nose to the grindstone on Tuesday and Thursday if you want to see what you're actually capable of on Saturday. You're 50, not dead.

3. That said, recovery has to be taken seriously once you're over 50. Easy days easy so hard days can be hard... truer than ever.

4. A few two a days remain your friend, now as before.

5. Someone made a great point about working on power and stride length. We have all seen the old guy out running who's front foot lands overlapping with the one he launched from, and we are slowly becoming him. Form drills and plyos are important to maintain some semblance of knee lift and heel kick. On the other hand, it IS probably possible to speed-walk 17 flat... but people will laugh.

Good luck. I'd not be surprised if you could do it.

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

I would be skeptical of some of the road times.

Igy

One road time you can bank is the one I posted above for the Carlsbad 5000, since they remeasured the course for Lagat's WR attempt, if I'm not mistaken.

Any 5k time posted on that supposedly 'fast' course is very legit, since the course is actually pretty challenging with two 180 hairpin turns, and it is not that flat. It nonetheless has WR's set on it because of the elite fields it attracts. I saw Eliud Kipchoge win there one year. socalcush posts here and has run it several times.

sc42: Feel free to re-post in a couple of years when you break 17 on a legit course at 55+ (include link).

If you have been grinding year in and year out, you are probably more worn out than the 50-something who remained active, raised a family, but did not log 70K miles on the legs between his 20s and 50s.

Breaking 17 at 55 is like breaking 13:30 as a young runner - the age-grade charts are bollocks- it's up there. Not that many can do it. Age grade charts are skewed because there are a few outliers and there are also old man cheats who are drastically enhanced by testosterone and other banned substances.

Arete wrote:

I started running again at age 45; now I'm 53.

Based on my experience, it will be hard to run much faster than your age-graded equivalent.

As much as I used to hate the age graded stuff, now I use it- as you just said.

It's hard to let go of those lofty goals as you age (54 saw a big drop for me).

I look up age graded equivalents and set new goals.

Getting old sucks but we can't avoid it.

hopeful master wrote:

For now, I'm eating better, walking more (mixing in jogging will be a few months down the road, at least), cycling, stretching and getting into some light weights (just joined a place this afternoon). Easy does it will be my mantra (until harder than "easy" becomes reasonable)! Figure I'll try and enter a few races (however slowly) by late next summer or fall. Maybe by 2017 or 2018 I can be competitive locally (Michigan).

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Why not start jogging some right away (a mile at first then keep adding some)? I am 47 years old, 5'10", 210-ish pounds -- so technically obese. I sometimes get up to 50 miles a week and have plodded through a couple of marathons the last couple of years. I ran a 3:34 marathon and a 1:13 mile last year when I watched what I ate and got down to 195 (not obese but still pretty chubby). My point is, even heavier guys like us can get out there. But, with that being said, losing the weight is a pretty good idea for both of us.