How old did you feel at 40? Old farts only.

sesame tahini thong patrol wrote:

But why the decline? What did you chane in your training and life that caused this? Running, cycling, swimming (triathlon): barring serious injury or burnout, the 40-50 dropoff isn't that steep except for elites.

One thing that contributes to slowing: In your teens through 30s, you get little niggles that usually go away after a day or three. Now (I'm 53, 110,000 lifetime miles) they stick around a lot longer. You can still run, but to keep the niggle from becoming more serious, you cut back on mileage and intensity until the niggle goes away. Sometimes you realize a few weeks have passed, and you haven't done things like striders or long runs or 800s, just easy to moderate hourish runs. Get a few of these a year, and you can have long stretches of the year with just sort of maintenance running. When you can resume more quality and mileage, you know you need to reintroduce them more gradually than used to be the case, so babying one little thing can mean two months pass between niggle onset and your training being like it was the day before niggle onset. And with that happening at an age where you're mostly trying to slow the rate of slowing, it adds up.

And this is with spending a lot more time on strengthening and flexibility than used to be the case.

Still, as others have said, it's a million times better than looking and (I'm guessing) feeling like average middle-aged people.

Gravy wrote:

I didn't start running until my 30s, but I'm still able to set a PR every now and then in my 40s. Also, I grew a few more inches down there, if you know what I mean 😚😚😚

🙄🙄🙄

At 40-42 I felt pretty good. Compared to 30-32 I ran about 15 seconds slower in the mile, a minute in the 5K, and 2 minutes in the 10K. But also had a lot more work and family responsibility in my 40s (and life stress). I was just happy to get out the door for an hour or so. Wheels came of by 43 and I couldn't re-attach them until 46. But since then I've enjoyed a good run, despite some setbacks along the way. Age grade 91% this year. That's very weak sauce by letsrun standards but I'm looking forward to 60 next year and to hell what they think or say.

Gotta agree - with me family, job - and I'll admit - just loss of interest were powerful factors. However, I raced very well into 40s and early 50s. I tend to agree w/ a lot of the research that cites loss of muscle mass as a factor in running decline, as VO max can be maintained, to some extent. I've kept this article for the occasional reread:

https://www.runnersworld.com/website-only/new-research-on-older-runners?nopaging=1

At 66, I just don't care as much anymore, but last week was still a 50 mile six day week.

I started running again in my late 30s after high school cross country. I improved every year, usually significantly, as I ramped up the mileage. Last year, at age 43, I encountered a spinal injury (several neck pain) after a downhill marathon. It's been close to 9 months since then and, although I resolved my neck issue, I feel as if someone turned off the lights in terms of running fitness. Hopefully with consistent training, I'll gain most of the endurance and speed but I have a feeling that my lifetime PRs are behind me.

At 40? Even at 50? I have to stop myself from doing too much.

It's the genes, they want to be broken out and cardio-ed to death.

But my Doctors told me "know you limits", so that's where I'm at.

But at the same time, remember the battle cry, "lifelong, health

and fitness", and not live by times, you'll be okay.

50yrs old, and I was fine at 40 but the last 2 years I have really started to notice the signs of aging.

Time, it's undefeated for a reason.

sesame tahini thong patrol wrote:

Terdferguson wrote:

Was running darn near college times (I sprint) when I was 39-40. I am 46 now and it has been a pretty drastic decline. The struggle is real my friend.

Basically went from being within a few percent of my PR's 20 years after I set them to over 10% off of them in 5-6 years.

This is why seeing Tom Brady and some other pros play until they are 40 doesn't floor me, but let's see if they make it to 42+

But why the decline? What did you chane in your training and life that caused this? Running, cycling, swimming (triathlon): barring serious injury or burnout, the 40-50 dropoff isn't that steep except for elites.

Training has remained pretty much the same, though little injuries here and there would not go away trying to train through, so there were spells of time off. Overall I am stronger in upperbody lifts and pretty close with lower body if my knees cooperate, compared to college days. I have found the most dramatic decline has been "spring", which has a direct correlation to sprinting. I am 160lbs and have recently (on different days), had multiple sets of deadlift with 275x10 and 315x2, but can't translate that to explosive block starts, verticle jump, overall spring. My vertical has decreased by 16-17% compared to college, while my 100m time has declined 13%, so I am hanging on with strict technique compared to my college self.

I feel just as fast now at 55 as I did at 35. The watch disagrees. F*** the watch and have fun.

If you think you are going to be the ONE runner that doesn't slow as you get older, you will be the runner that is always injured.

1977 wrote:

Where were you mentally and physically when you turned the big 4-0?

Was your body breaking down? Did it depress you that everything was about to start declining quickly? Did it piss you off that even if you trained your ass of you would be a shadow of your former self?

How about mentally? Were you still super motivated and full of goals?

I'm a fresh 40. I'm cautiously optimistic about my next 20 or 30 years.

The only thing that bothers me at this point is that I'm the same amount of years away from 50 as I am from 30!

Physically, I'm in good health and pretty fit. Feel good now but am getting stressed out about how fast time is going and what I'll feel like in 10 or 15 years.

You can see that there are many opinions on here. Everyone is an individual. It does help to be 5-7 120 pounds!

Felt wonderfully wonderful in my forties. Had two children in my forties. Started a running club for kids.

Still feeling a deep joy and running .

I have found having gratitude and appreciative of the goods things in your life goes a long way.

After declines in my late 20's and 30's, and now 40's, I look back now in context and the 20's decline was definitely almost all cardiovascular. The 30's I didn't know what was going on seemed like everything was falling apart. Now in the 40's its definitely more muscular. So I think there's a profile at least with me on the proportions of how exactly I was declining. For example, I've found doing downhills (not too much though) pay much more dividends to overall running performance these days than grunting uphill. That was patently not true when I was younger.