Besides retirement, is there anything to look forward to in middle and old age?

I should also clarify that when I say "brain", I'm not referring to the pursuit of intellectual study, but I literally mean using your legs competitively to the max will reduce the atrophy of your brain. You have to push your muscle fibres to the max and your cardio to the max to preserve your youthfulness and vitality. If you don't keep a youthful spirit and pursue youthful challenges, you will simply atrophy faster and race to your grave. As a side-note, marathon running is not youthful and is a cop-out by those who have given up on youthful events for the very purpose that you state "can't get PRs". It is a flawed way of thinking. Marathon running actually wears you down and accelerates aging, loss of fast muscle fibres, etc. And for what? Because we don't look as bed when running against young people? Marathon running is a choice made out of insecurity. People can run the mile at any age and it is sad that they stop running these events due to embarrassment about their age. People need to accept their age and move mast the embarrassment and run the races that they always valued in their youth.... this is a truly inspiring and graceful way to age.

Thanks for the responses, everyone.

This might have been unclear in the original post, but I'm not interested in having a wife and kids for myself. My friends' kids, on the other hand, are usually quite fun to be with. I think the closest analogy would be penguins or pandas in a zoo. They're cute and fun to be around, but I definitely wouldn't want to have one as a pet.

California. I'm glad that I don't live in or near the ridiculously expensive Bay Area, but it would be nice to get out before the Big One hits! I get an occasional Tinder hookup, but I haven't been in a serious relationship in close to a decade and am not really interested in one.

The things I'd like to do in retirement mostly involve flexibility and change that wouldn't be compatible with my current job or career. Even simple things like being able to get up whenever I want would be good for breaking up the monotony. Things like being able to see/do things during the less crowded and cheaper weekdays would be a bonus, and trying out something like RVing across the country for a year or flying a Cessna from California to Europe for a few months might be an epic experience. Plus, it's easier to try living in different places if you don't need to worry about finding a job there (this is especially true if the place you'd like to try living in for a while is an isolated rural area).

Keep going with your AI work. I don't know if it'll happen in my lifetime, but having true artificial general intelligence that can learn and improve itself with no or minimal human intervention would certainly be exciting!

Who knows? I haven't ruled out a return to masters running in my 50s or 60s, though the experience might not be as good as when I was racing in my teens and 20s. I guess there's only one way to find out.

I was mainly an 800/1500 guy. Those were my best events, and I liked the fact that you had to have both speed and endurance/strength to be good in them. Unlike most people here, I didn't really like road or trail races, though I certainly gave them a try.

Sex with young(er) women. Always good....

correction: "look as good when running against young people"

Look it up, running with intensity is important at every age, yet people abandon this practice due to embarrassment about aging... like they want to hide the fact that they are old and slower, so they do the events that mask their slowness... it is a psychological disfunction. You cannot hide the fact that you are old. Throw of the masks, makeup, etc. and just be what you are and challenge yourself against your own physical limits. To feel the need to have to be competitive with younger people is as logical as a wrestler believing he is weak unless he can wrestle grizzly bears. In fact, all humans are quite pathetic athletically, but this doesn't discourage us from doing athletics.

You might want to consider therapy. Seriously, you sound depressed.

Born in 1985 wrote:

I was mainly an 800/1500 guy. Those were my best events, and I liked the fact that you had to have both speed and endurance/strength to be good in them. Unlike most people here, I didn't really like road or trail races, though I certainly gave them a try.

I'm in exactly the same boat as you and I've decided to get back on the track after over a decade of deciding I was past my prime and losing focus on running. I've been "training" for only a few months now and did my first competitive 1500m/800m two weeks ago even though I still haven't been able to do what I'd consider a full track workout without getting major calve soreness. I'm confident that I can get my body back into shape without injuring it by progressing carefully. So mostly relatively easy runs off the track and trying to gradually get back to a point where I'm even able to do full track workouts without stopping prematurely without fear of injury. My first 1500m was in 4:22, and 800m in 1:07, I expect to take quite a bit off that this weekend and every successive meet and am pretty sure I can get back to running a decent 1:04 lap pace in track workouts and I will challenge myself to see what I can do in the 1500m after taking over a decade away from any competitive running and being now 36. For me running is about totally pushing your cardio to the max. 1500m/800m, mile are the most perfect events for holding a fast pace and working your cardiovascular system to the max. I don't want to ever feel weak and like I can easily go short of breath while playing with intensity. Being able to wear out easily is frustrating. At 40 years of age, it is possible to get down to 4 minute mile pace... it has been done. I will challenge myself to see how close I can get to that.

Ca$hclay wrote:

Go jump out of an airplane. Worked for me.

Already done (both tandem and AFF) in my mid 20s. I tried bungee jumping and indoor skydiving as well, and while they're fun, you get to a point where the novelty wears off and/or you start doing things that are way too risky for my taste (like wingsuit base jumping) to get that same thrill and excitement.

intenserunner wrote:

My first 1500m was in 4:22, and 800m in 1:07

Obviously I mean 2:07....

Born in 65 wrote:

You might want to consider therapy. Seriously, you sound depressed.

Ironically, running is one of the best treatments for depression.

I’ve been retired since 2001, and I don’t know how I ever found time to work. I can’t run very well any more, having snapped a hip doing what else, a mountain run. But now I take long bike rides with friends, swim open water events, hike, kayak, volunteer. I got my grandkids who despite being teenagers are still huggers. I’m a gamer so that takes up time. I try to get my wife out on a tandem which is fun. I’ll keep going the best I can as long as I can. I wouldn’t trade a day of my life away. I made lots of mistakes but they didn’t kill me. Of course it helps to not be poor. I was homeless for a short while in the 60’s but I made it back. I’ll be 75 in August.

More traveling. Go to things, i.e. play, concerts, festivals. What you have to look forward to is the fact that you are alive. It will soon be over.

Born in 1985 wrote:

So, is there anything exciting I can look forward to besides retirement? .

No. And retirement is not exciting unless you have something to do. If all you do is work, you'll have nothing to do when you're retired.

I suggest finding a hobby. For example, marathon running. It gives you a reason to train, visit a new city, and set goals that you'll feel personal satisfaction from when you acheive them. It also gives you something to talk about other than bowel movements.

Marathons are a little adventure. You can vary them by going out way-to-fast or way-too-slow. Also, if you qualify for Boston, you can tell everyone about it, like you made the olympics. Also, your BQ times will have you running with a lot of younger women. Thank God for yoga pants! Life's greatest invention!

I feel like you can go HAM on a career once you've got some money tucked away, right? Asking for a friend.

take the edge off wrote:

porn

Dirty Grandpa wrote:

High speed internet, strip clubs

Troll posts, but your sex drive in your 40s and 50s is not as strong as in your teens - early 30s when your testosterone levels peak. Your sex life in your 70s and beyond may be minimal to nonexistent if you even make it that far.

All of the posters here saying "sex with younger women" are most likely trolling as well, but let's be honest. If everything else is equal, would you rather get an occasional random hookup maybe once a month max as a 25 year old, or would you be able to f*** any 18+ year old woman on Earth as an 85 year old? The former still gets something once in a while. The latter is most likely stuck in a wheelchair and has no interest whatsoever.

intenserunner wrote:

Not being able to beat your PRs from your 20's is meaningless. 10 year olds cannot compete against 20 year olds, that doesn't mean that it is meaningless for them to try to do well for a 10 year old.

The difference is that if you try to run fast as a 10 year old, that will most likely be a lifetime PR. Your time will almost certainly be faster than what you ran as an 8 year old, and you can look forward to more PRs in the future.

But if you try to run fast as a 40 year old, it will not be a lifetime PR if you've been running competitively in your teens and 20s. The worst part of that is that instead of being able to look forward to more PRs, your times will only get worse and worse.

100% honesty here. Your lack of interest in a family means that you will feel unfulfilled for the rest of your life because raising a family is what a man is supposed to do. The things that don't interest you anymore don't interest you because they are the things that a boy should be interested in. Time for some reflection my friend. Good luck to you.

Unfortunately, agree with It Can Be Better. Running etc. are fun but are fundamentally distractions from the reality of life and aging.

Hey, Born in '85!

Get to know yourself. Look inside, rumble around in your heart and mind.

What do you really want to do? Do it.

Dreams, desires, ambitions don't end at 33. They've barely started!

Move your assemblage point to a new position.

As for running, redefine what it means to you, with an open mind.

A miler in college, I started running half marathons at age 58. So, I can still claim PRs, but that is just me. You'll figure it out.

reality sucks wrote:

The difference is that if you try to run fast as a 10 year old, that will most likely be a lifetime PR. Your time will almost certainly be faster than what you ran as an 8 year old, and you can look forward to more PRs in the future.

The point is, when you are 20, you are a different person with different physical makeup than when you are 10. A 10 year old with foresight, would realize that the times he is pulling off as a 10 year old will be laughable and disappointing to himself as a 20 year old, but it shouldn't stop him from achieving those times, given the physical makeup that he has to work with. Likewise, males who go through puberty prematurely have a significant physical advantage over the rest of their peers. The point is, no matter what age you are at, the most meaningful achievement is one that reaches your own physical limits at that time. As an older person, you physical makeup is completely different so you should expect to be able to do what you could when you had a completely different body, but that shouldn't take all the meaning out of achievement. You need to realize the different between being disappointed with your physical makeup, and being disappointed with how hard you were able to push yourself. This is why I compared humans to other species of animals to further this point. We'd all be extremely disappointed with our achievements of we set our goals based on what is possible by beings with a wholly different physical makeup and different physical limitations. Even the world record holders would be extremely disappointed with their inadequacy when they see a greyhound blast past them at twice their speed. A dog runs a 100m in 5 seconds. A dog runs a 1500m in 1:40. Does that mean we should all just givup running because we have a human build? Likewise, we should not give up running due to being older and slower than a younger human. Doing so is to delude oneself into believing that being the fastest was ever the point of running in the first place. No person is ever the fastest. All humans are all pathetic at running. What brings meaning to our achievements is how close we come to our individual limitations.