Old guy daily running

I knew a 72 year old who ran over 100 miles per week and all was done between 2:00 AM and 6:00 AM. He never ran during daylight. Also ran a 10mile race and averaged 7:20 per mile. There are lots of people out there.

RyecorDone wrote:

I'm "old" (close to 73) and feeling bulletproof lately. I wonder, has anyone here, who is not a career speedster, and is not younger than 70, made great progress by running daily, as opposed to skipping a couple days in the week? All the literature keeps saying I need rest/recovery days, but they seem to just halt my progress. Never tried to 'run' every day, or nearly every day. At my age, and given my late start in running over the past 10 years, anything EZ is almost walking. So it's usually a moderate effort.

I'm not as old as you -- late 50s. As I work toward 73, I've found that running every day feels better, even if some days are no more than a 20-30 minute jog. The definitive literature on old people training remains to be written, in my opinion, so run every day you want to and see how it goes.

RyecorDone wrote:

I'm "old" (close to 73) and feeling bulletproof lately. I wonder, has anyone here, who is not a career speedster, and is not younger than 70, made great progress by running daily, as opposed to skipping a couple days in the week? All the literature keeps saying I need rest/recovery days, but they seem to just halt my progress. Never tried to 'run' every day, or nearly every day. At my age, and given my late start in running over the past 10 years, anything EZ is almost walking. So it's usually a moderate effort.

You must have genetics off the chart! - and I bet you're a lightweight; i.e. thin, lean, small built, etc. I'm not your age - just turned 60, but I can barely run anymore due to post-traumatic osteoarthritis and other chronic injuries. I can only muster 3 days a week of running at no more than 5 miles a pop. And on those run days I'm packed in ice for the rest of the evening and wake up pretty sore. The rest of the week is spent on a boring stationary bike and lifting weights to try and keep fit. This is what happens after decades of running & racing year round and you don't have the good running genetics. And being a short, stocky body type certainly doesn't help either if you want to run in your middle-age. The roof really caved in for me starting in my 50s with acute tendon ruptures and development of OA. Bottomline: if you're not built for distance running and don't have the superb genetics, running in your middle-age will literally beat the snot out of you! ?

Ed Whiltlock, multiple age group records. Apparently trained ~3hrs daily running dead slow.

RyecorDone wrote:

I'm "old" (close to 73) and feeling bulletproof lately. I wonder, has anyone here, who is not a career speedster, and is not younger than 70, made great progress by running daily, as opposed to skipping a couple days in the week? All the literature keeps saying I need rest/recovery days, but they seem to just halt my progress. Never tried to 'run' every day, or nearly every day. At my age, and given my late start in running over the past 10 years, anything EZ is almost walking. So it's usually a moderate effort.

I'm younger, but old enough to know that your approach is the right one and the "you need more recovery as you get older" approach will often be less effective in maintaining good biomechanics and overall health. Simply because the more often you exercise, the less of a shock it is to your body.

Not quite 40 yet here, so I can't add anything personal.

However, I listened to a podcast not that long ago with Meb's coach Bob Larsen. He's in his early 80s and he talked about how he used to do light runs every other day but was having some problems with his knees and such. He ended up switching over to daily running and all his problems went away.

I don't remember where in the interview he talks about it, but he's pretty fun to listen to, and the whole interview has some interesting thoughts from him.

https://www.marathontrainingacademy.com/bob-larsen

RyecorDone wrote:

I'm "old" (close to 73) and feeling bulletproof lately. I wonder, has anyone here, who is not a career speedster, and is not younger than 70, made great progress by running daily, as opposed to skipping a couple days in the week? All the literature keeps saying I need rest/recovery days, but they seem to just halt my progress. Never tried to 'run' every day, or nearly every day. At my age, and given my late start in running over the past 10 years, anything EZ is almost walking. So it's usually a moderate effort.

Serious questions here - "made great progress" at what? "halt your progress" in what way?

What are you trying to attain? If improved physical fitness is the progress you seek, you would be way better off running just a few days per week and hitting the weight room instead.

If your goal is improved running/racing times- then running daily is probably worth a shot, but in my opinion, I cannot fathom a purpose to such an endeavor. At 73, your prime directive should be to avoid injuries and do the minimum effective dose needed to improve all around fitness.

I'm convinced that there are no hard set rules when it comes to Masters running. While all runners are somewhat of an "experiment of one" older Masters runners are even more so.

For every masters runner that has success piling up a lot of slow easy miles, there are guys that swear that the secret of their success and longevity is low miles but very very HIGH quality days.

The only things I know that seem to be universal:

-The need to watch your diet is amplified. Even for those of us that have never had to watch our waistline, as you age. weight is hard to drop and easy to gain.

-Some form of cross training is needed. Whatever that may be, yoga, cross fit, lifting, hiking, biking, pilates, swimming... especially if you are a lifelong runner the cumulative, repetitive working on the same set of muscles catches up to you unless you do a little bit of something else. Maybe this helps address strength and injury prevention, maybe it helps with problem #1 (weight control) maybe both.

Absolutely...relatively speaking.

I love the feeling of feeling good after a decent run. If I laze around on days off, I usually have a troublesome run the day after. And, I feel 'off' from not enough activity. I also know that if I do an afternoon hike on rough terrain, the following morning's run goes easier.

Looking over the other comments, a few thoughts come to mind.

I'm not a lifetime runner. Started near retirement age, and have had to deal with the usual raft of stupid runner injuries. No giftedness here. But, have kept weight down below 160 (5' 10") and eat 'well'.

Goals (progress) for old runners are simply "don't get slower". So, the biggest thing for me is to avoid muscle or tendon damage. Healthy stress, yes. But no "pain for gain".

Applying the "minimum effective dose" is probably the safe route, but I think I prefer a "maximum effective dose". That is the confirmation bias point of this thread.

Bob Larson and Ed Whitlock don't count, for me. They must be aliens.

I'd like to see a supermasters category for 70 and older, who are healthy (genetically blessed). Seems strange that "masters" encompasses everyone over 50. 50 is way too young. And sometimes there is a "supermasters" category for those over 60. But it is pretty frustrating when all the older runner discussions center around cronic health or injury conditions. Looking to share training strategies and support with my own age group, who aren't broken, or lifetims speedster aliens. Hard to find.

Well, I'm just shy of 65, but I do have over 100,000 on me, from 50+ years of running, so perhaps I qualify. I run every day, and never understand why people tell me I should take days off. I'd be like choosing not to eat or breathe.

To be fair, both my mileage and my pace aren't anything like they once were, but so it goes.

"Maximum Effective Dose" = highest risk of injury. Everyone has their own reasons for doing things, and it sounds like you are getting benefits from running that make the risk worth it to you. Just know that an overuse injury at age 73 is a whole other ballgame compared to getting one at say 35 years of age.

1955 wrote:

Well, I'm just shy of 65, but I do have over 100,000 on me, from 50+ years of running, so perhaps I qualify. I run every day, and never understand why people tell me I should take days off. I'd be like choosing not to eat or breathe.

To be fair, both my mileage and my pace aren't anything like they once were, but so it goes.

I'm 2 months shy of 62 and have been running regularly for about 40 years. I normally run every day when not sick or injured, although I have no problem taking days off when sick or cross-training when injured. When healthy, I'm still averaging around 70 mpw although much, much slower than I used to be. I really enjoy running and I see no good reason to take days off routinely.