Older runners, what was your decline like?

Biggest drop off is due to college and booze, for sure for males and a good chance for females.

I'm in my mid-50's and I can tell you that I can run faster and longer than anytime in my life. I tested myself recently on a perfectly measured course that I ran on almost exactly a year ago. I have been running regularly for over 30 years. Maybe this is due to my genetics or maybe it's the regular exercise over decades.

Some courses can add time. Maybe this is the case? It could also be your friend is stale. Possibly a layoff for a few months might do him well. On the other hand the difference of 1 minute is not too bad.

I have heard older people say they were fine then hit say the early fifties and they went downhill quick in various ways. So it's hard to say.

fgser wrote:

I'm in my mid-50's and I can tell you that I can run faster and longer than anytime in my life. I tested myself recently on a perfectly measured course that I ran on almost exactly a year ago. I have been running regularly for over 30 years. Maybe this is due to my genetics or maybe it's the regular exercise over decades.

Some courses can add time. Maybe this is the case? It could also be your friend is stale. Possibly a layoff for a few months might do him well. On the other hand the difference of 1 minute is not too bad.

I have heard older people say they were fine then hit say the early fifties and they went downhill quick in various ways. So it's hard to say.

Could you stop this garbage posting unless you actually run a race?

Thanks.

Old spice wrote:

Age could be a factor, but we both reason that the drop appears too sudden for it to be all age-related.

From the anecdotes I've read here, the drop-off is often sudden and dramatic. "The wheels just fell off!" seems to be a common refrain.

For decades, I followed a pattern of get fit (or reasonably so), lose fitness, get fit, etc. Various reasons for that -- work, family, injuries, etc.

But the fitness would always return quickly, even if my top performances were a bit lower with each passing decade.

Again at age 57-58, my fitness responded very quickly to a return to serious training, setting lifetime best age-graded times.

After that, I again bounced back from a four-month layoff, still racing well at 59.

Then after yet another short layoff, fitness simply DID NOT return, despite months of serious and careful training.

The decline and crash of my 15K time at ages 58, 59, 60:

59:59

1:02:35

1:10:46

There may of course be another explanation for your buddy. Hope he gets fast again.

My decline was from a stroke to do a carotid artery this summer I'm pretty much done.

There I laid in a hospital bed weakened after a month of nuisance sicknesses anywhere from uvulitus to painful myalgia. Inside of me was a near fatal case of double lung pneumonia.

Finally changed status to recovery toward the end of a 14-day stint in isolation at the hospital. I hadnt had a decent shower in a while because I had a tube hooked up to drain the worse of my two lungs. I was permitted to walk around slowly as long as I could pull the cart with me and be careful of the tube.

Weaker than you can imagine, stinking like crap and with bed sores near my tailbone I envisioned myself returning to my old form.

My doctor warned I would be starting over and not the same person who I was. One of the medicines I took gave me a reaction that stripped the lean muscle mass on my torso and made me weak. Up to that point I was a very dedicated distance runner and disciplined with fitness.

On Day 1 I could barely jog a mile and had to go very slow.

On Day 51 I ran an all out mile in 5:07 nearly a minute back of my personal best and I could noticeably feel the scar tissue flare. To keep myself going I told myself I was in eight grade again.

Seven months later I found myself at the start line of another mile. I was very strong again. I had maintained decent mileage with a focus on 5 mile threshold runs, fartleks and could demonstrate I was near my old form with 25-26s 200m repeat speed in trainers.

At the start line I decided to aim for 4:15. Out in 61 and 2:07 at the half I knew where I was and started to go for it. With 400 to go I couldnt find my final gear. I hit a wall. People passed me up that should have never passed me but I let them go without a fight. I felt the flares in my side where the puncture wound had scarred but that isnt an excuse to where I was mentally. Once known for sub-60 closing speed I finished well over 70s. It was more than physical it was reality.

As I coasted across the line in 4:32 one more person had the race of his life to outkick me. He was a to be freshman in high school. Though talented and he went on to run 15:35/4:13/1:54/9:22 as a freshman I was done.

I didnt stay for the awards. Didnt bother to cool down. I walked home and on that 1 mile walk the fire finally went out. The sounds of the claps and cheers went monotonous. The ghost racers and jasaris now just looked "weird". Running on an oval seemed meaningless and I concluded I wanted other things.

Yet here I am on this message board sharing it with other has been, never was, blown out losers.

Above, I didn't list my best 15K at age 59. The drop-off at age 60 was even greater. Should read:

The decline and crash of my 15K time at ages 58, 59, 60:

59:59

1:01:02

1:10:46

Pretzel Man wrote:

My decline was from a stroke to do a carotid artery this summer I'm pretty much done.

Dang, Pretzel Man, sorry to hear that. Dunno if misery loves company, but I've given up. I'm definitely done. Hope things improve for you.

I'm 58 and It happened fast. My running slipped over a period I was taking care of my parents and I got slower than I ever would have imagined. My easy runs used to be 8 minute miles, now everything seems to be a around 9:30 miles and recovery between runs is a lot slower and speed isn't coming back like I thought it would.

One thing that has really helped is I started running in the ASICS Glide Rides and my legs feel a lot better and stringing days together a lot easier. I'm hoping the ability to do that will make it easier to improve my times over the coming months.

I was always warned about taking off long periods after 50. I found out first hand it's true and very hard to get back what you lost.

I started running seriously at about age 30 and peaked at 33. Now, at age 61, I'm about 2 min/mile slower at every distance from 5K to the half-marathon. Until my mid-40s it was a rather steady, gentle decline. After that I started declining in steps, mostly caused by injuries; I'd run at a pretty constant level for a few years, suffer an injury, come back much slower and only recover part of the decline before hitting another plateau. My 5K times were just over 18 minutes at age 33, just over 20 minutes at age 47, about 21 minutes at age 50, and about 24 minutes at age 61. I've never completely fallen off a cliff, or at least when I have, I've always managed to scramble partway back up. But never all the way.

I'm 70 and have been running more or less continuously since high school. I have never been a big mileage runner, always less than 60mpw and in the 35-45mpw range for most of my masters career. My 5k performance was pretty steady from age 25-49 staying in the high 17s to low 18s. At age 47 I really began to notice that it took longer to recover from hard workouts, but times only slowed gradually as I still was running high 18s at 60. 60 to 70 also has been a very gradual fall off in performance to the high 19s low 20s 5k level now. I have gone through a number of running injuries since my early 50s, including a calcaneal stress fracture which required a 4 month complete lay off from running, and been able to regain fitness each time. So, no sudden drop offs yet.

"Could you stop this garbage posting unless you actually run a race?"

It's not garbage; it's the fact of my running life so far. I don't race competitively; I race against the clock on generally well measured routes. My favorite is in the ultra-flat Northern Europe. Let me tell you, there you actually see what the statistics say; a reality if you will - men and women in their 80's being as active, or more, as people who are far younger. Bicycling, long distance walking (with or without walking poles) and even running at fast speeds is all very common. 80's!

I was doing great in my early 40s. I was running lots of miles and doing hard workouts. Lots of great racing from 5k to the marathon. As I got closer to 45, my training got broken up by travel for work and family obligations. I had to back out of two marathons because of injuries and bad training. I ran a couple of halfs and went from consistently running under 1:20 to barely being able to get under 1:25. Then I got patellar tendinitis in both knees. I quit running for about a year. I started feeling better and then wiped trying to teach my son how to skateboard. That resulted in a weird knee injury that lasted a year. It took another year to go from running 11 min miles to being able to run 8-9 min miles for 5 miles. I am just now started to be able to run a few 7:XX miles every now and then. I am really not sure I have any interest in racing anymore. I have run 16 marathons and piles of other races. I am not sure I can keep up with my kids and still race. Maybe when they are older and do not want to have anything to do with me. So, I guess my answer to the decline is to not fight it. I would rather play some golf, tennis, go skiing, etc. Running was the most fun for me when I was improving and training well. I am not sure I am interested in getting slower.

old guy II wrote:

I'm 70 and have been running more or less continuously since high school. I have never been a big mileage runner, always less than 60mpw and in the 35-45mpw range for most of my masters career. My 5k performance was pretty steady from age 25-49 staying in the high 17s to low 18s. At age 47 I really began to notice that it took longer to recover from hard workouts, but times only slowed gradually as I still was running high 18s at 60. 60 to 70 also has been a very gradual fall off in performance to the high 19s low 20s 5k level now. I have gone through a number of running injuries since my early 50s, including a calcaneal stress fracture which required a 4 month complete lay off from running, and been able to regain fitness each time. So, no sudden drop offs yet.

A 20:00 AG for 70 years equals a 15:29 at 40 or 16:45 at 50, so your maintenance level has been stellar. Great job!

Reminds me of:

“How did you go bankrupt?"

“Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”

― Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

fgser wrote:

"Could you stop this garbage posting unless you actually run a race?"

It's not garbage; it's the fact of my running life so far. I don't race competitively; I race against the clock on generally well measured routes. My favorite is in the ultra-flat Northern Europe. Let me tell you, there you actually see what the statistics say; a reality if you will - men and women in their 80's being as active, or more, as people who are far younger. Bicycling, long distance walking (with or without walking poles) and even running at fast speeds is all very common. 80's!

It's garbage.

just stop already wrote:

fgser wrote:

"Could you stop this garbage posting unless you actually run a race?"

It's not garbage; it's the fact of my running life so far. I don't race competitively; I race against the clock on generally well measured routes. My favorite is in the ultra-flat Northern Europe. Let me tell you, there you actually see what the statistics say; a reality if you will - men and women in their 80's being as active, or more, as people who are far younger. Bicycling, long distance walking (with or without walking poles) and even running at fast speeds is all very common. 80's!

It's garbage.

+1

zaxz wrote:

I'm 58 and It happened fast. My running slipped over a period I was taking care of my parents and I got slower than I ever would have imagined. My easy runs used to be 8 minute miles, now everything seems to be a around 9:30 miles and recovery between runs is a lot slower and speed isn't coming back like I thought it would.

One thing that has really helped is I started running in the ASICS Glide Rides and my legs feel a lot better and stringing days together a lot easier. I'm hoping the ability to do that will make it easier to improve my times over the coming months.

I was always warned about taking off long periods after 50. I found out first hand it's true and very hard to get back what you lost.

I’m 59 and same for me. Happened when I hit 52. Easy pace went from 8:30 miles to 10:00 in the span of 2 months. Within a year 12 min miles was an effort. I used to do long runs more than 10 miles twice per week. Last time I went more than 10 miles was probably at 55, and last time I’ve run more than 1 hour is at least 2 years ago.

On the other hand, T levels have doubled.

Mine happened in stages. I'm 64,and have been running over 50 years.

About 10 years ago I broke my wrist slipping on ice, and I found that I was much more cautious in my pace after that, even when the weather was not bad. But I maintained my mileage fairly well. Then about 3 years ago I had a heart attack and since then my mileage has gone down by almost half, and I'm even slower. I have some hip issues that have impacted both of these declines as well.

It's not what I once would have considered running, but it's still what I want to do.