"The muscles of older men and women who have exercised for decades are indistinguishable in many ways from those of healthy 25-year-olds."
"The muscles of older men and women who have exercised for decades are indistinguishable in many ways from those of healthy 25-year-olds."
So if I keep running, I’ll be able to run the same times when I’m 48 as I do now?
LoneStarXC wrote:
So if I keep running, I’ll be able to run the same times when I’m 48 as I do now?
Not quite. From the article: “The active elderly group did have lower aerobic capacities than the young people, but their capacities were about 40 percent higher than those of their inactive peers.”
At 43 I can outrun most of the people in the local running club I usually pass on my favorite route and having no trouble beating people in my age group at races, but I wouldn’t go up against you.
Base on the over 40 women at my gym , this sounds like fake news.
This is only my second LRC post, and both times it has been to encourage life-long running, for all the usual reasons, but in particular to enjoy good health as you age.
One caveat: regular exercise and organized sports were more prevalent back in the day and TV was not much of a time suck compared to the glowing screens that are ubiquitous today. Habits matter.
A key passage from the popular book Born to Run:
“We monitored the results of the 2004 New York City Marathon and compared finishing times by age,” Dr. Dennis Bramble, of the University of Utah, tells McDougall. “What we found is that starting at age nineteen, runners get faster every year until they hit their peak at twenty-seven. After twenty-seven, they start to decline. So here’s the question – how old are you when you’re back to running the same speed you did at nineteen?”
... 64.
What more to be grateful for, than good health on Thanksgiving?
LoneStarXC wrote:
So if I keep running, I’ll be able to run the same times when I’m 48 as I do now?
I actually can.
I was admittedly a pretty middling XC runner in high school, but FWIW, at 37 I regularly run 5ks faster than my HS PR.
Earlier this year I was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma. For treatment I underwent 4 1/2 months of chemotherapy and a month of radiotherapy. I have been a runner fir over fifty years. The oncologists have been surprised by my ability to handle the therapy and my progress. Of course there are no guarantees and the road ahead is paved with uncertainties, but so is life at age 68. I am running a Turkey Trot in a couple of hours, so life could be worse.
Igy
God bless you!
LoneStarXC wrote:
So if I keep running, I’ll be able to run the same times when I’m 48 as I do now?
I ran 3:49 for 1500 age 23 in 1984, in 2009 I ran 4:45. I swear I felt the same at the end of both races (absolutely done in!). Obviously everyone is different (in my 40’s I was regularly beaten by a guy the same age who never ran close to my life time bests). The one thing I’ve noticed about myself (and please other long term runners chime in here) is that it feels the same, even though I’m so much slower now (I missed this year’s indoor and outdoor track seasons due to injury) , but at 56 last year ran 4:48 (my second fastest was only 4:52). I’m not sure how it’s going to feel when I can no longer break 5, which could be any time now.
Ghost of Igloi wrote:
Earlier this year I was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma. For treatment I underwent 4 1/2 months of chemotherapy and a month of radiotherapy. I have been a runner fir over fifty years. The oncologists have been surprised by my ability to handle the therapy and my progress. Of course there are no guarantees and the road ahead is paved with uncertainties, but so is life at age 68. I am running a Turkey Trot in a couple of hours, so life could be worse.
Igy
Godspeed you magnificent man
trevdog wrote:
Ghost of Igloi wrote:
Earlier this year I was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma. For treatment I underwent 4 1/2 months of chemotherapy and a month of radiotherapy. I have been a runner fir over fifty years. The oncologists have been surprised by my ability to handle the therapy and my progress. Of course there are no guarantees and the road ahead is paved with uncertainties, but so is life at age 68. I am running a Turkey Trot in a couple of hours, so life could be worse.
Igy
Godspeed you magnificent man
Thank you and Mikeh33! I ran 29:04, which was 1:45 faster than a 5k in August so improving. Started a little too fast and had to walk a couple of times.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Igy
I run anywhere between 2-6 miles per day. With bursts of way more *when I feel like it*. I make it a priority to run every day.
I started running XC back in college, and then took off about 2 years after. Then I got back into running, and haven't stopped ever since.
The health benefits of aerobic exercise are substantial. I noticed when I took my 2 years off, I got sick easier, I felt like crap most of the time, and always had a feeling I was "missing" something... As soon as a I started working out and doing more running, I felt "normal" and better than ever.
That was 8+ years ago.
People say I look the same as when I was in high school and college. I have a steady weight of 120 lbs, and my skin is clear, and people just say I look good. My blood pressure and heart rates and excellent. My organs are processing normally.
So I keep on truckin... or runnin. :)
Oh, and the fact I love wearing tights and shorts shorts all the time for legit reasons.... lol
In a similar path in life, I am 23 and entering the work world after graduating in 2017, and have consistently made time for running and working out 6-7 days a week for the last 10 years (HS-Coll-post) and hope to be liek you :D
Ghost of Igloi wrote:
Earlier this year I was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma. For treatment I underwent 4 1/2 months of chemotherapy and a month of radiotherapy. I have been a runner fir over fifty years. The oncologists have been surprised by my ability to handle the therapy and my progress. Of course there are no guarantees and the road ahead is paved with uncertainties, but so is life at age 68. I am running a Turkey Trot in a couple of hours, so life could be worse.
Igy
Awesome!
Great article.
Doesn't surprise me at all. I am following "old" runners my whole running life and it is quite astonishing what you can do if you get old, if you just keep doing it.
Now in my 4th running decade myself, I see the benefits. I just had a doctors check up and he said that he had not seen a healthy person like me for a month.
For all the young runners on letsrun: Just keep running, at one point your PR's are set and you have to life with them. But you can still chase age group PR's your whole life.
Ghost of Igloi wrote:
Earlier this year I was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma. For treatment I underwent 4 1/2 months of chemotherapy and a month of radiotherapy. I have been a runner fir over fifty years. The oncologists have been surprised by my ability to handle the therapy and my progress. Of course there are no guarantees and the road ahead is paved with uncertainties, but so is life at age 68. I am running a Turkey Trot in a couple of hours, so life could be worse.
Igy
It doesn't surprise me at all. While we all can get sick, if you are a healthy fit person you will recover a lot faster.
A good number of folks have to back off chemo therapy or radiotherapy because it becomes too stressful or they are hospitalized. I also think the mental discipline of distance running is very helpful to those undergoing cancer treatment.
Charlie wrote:
Mechanism
https://www.google.com/search?q=autophagy+exercise&oq=autophagy+exercise&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.9086j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Wow.
You have the highest IQ score in the entire Universe™.