At what age did performance start to decline?

Sussex18

And how does one adapt? Did a course a few months ago and age 45 was mentioned as the point where the body starts to change.

I'm approaching that stage of life myself and just wondering how running has progressed for other's as they've gotten older?

I'm aware of the need to consume enough protein and some strength work in lieu of muscle loss, but any other insights would be welcome.

Thanks

S🙂

thehairygrape

It depends on how you measure it. I was always a mediocre runner when I was younger so, in a way, I’ve got better! Slower, but actually further up in my age category. So, for me, it’s not too bad. I can’t relate to the very good runners, so someone like that might comment.

Watching your nutrition as you mentioned is important. Strength work definitely helps. At times I’ve felt fitter and stronger as I got older. I’d say just keep going and don’t overthink it. Enjoy yourself and remember that getting older is a privilege denied to many. Might sound a bit daft, but it’s true.

DukeCaboom

When I become a father!!!!

kirk.

They say 50s the decline is sharp

Lumen

You know when you're at the age when you find yourself grateful that everything still works.

Murph_D

Well, I started running at 50. I suppose I started at a fairly average level (4:02 marathon). I'm 62 now and marathon PB is just under 3:20 and I hope to improve that next month. It doesn't prove anything of course - I've no doubt if I'd started running younger I'd have had much faster times to compare. But there's no doubt if you keep training well at a sustainable level you can continue to improve, or at least keep any decline to a very slow rate for a while yet.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121026721#Comment_121026721

If you started younger, you probably wouldve been more competitive and chances are you would've worn your body down more. I read about some of the athletes on here who were super club runners and they're in a jock these days. Another advantage you have is your weight. Theres not a pick on you.

Murph_D

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121026802#Comment_121026802

Well yes I suppose that was my point - if you take up the sport later in life (like the majority of runners on this forum) your rate of improvement will most likely be greater than the rate of natural age-related decline.

Didn't realise you were so well up on my physique! I have a healthy weight alright and of course that helps as much as it would help anyone at any age.

robinph

More to do with age in running rather than since birth. You might have 10 years of serious running before things start to fall away, but will also depend on how much work and decent training happens in that time. If you start running at 20 then you'll likely be fading from your peak by 30, but if you start at 50 you may still be improving until you're knocking on the door of 60. There will be a point at which the natural aging decline and the years of running decline curves cross, but I'd guess it is a lot older than people think.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121029335#Comment_121029335

Did you not write a little article with a picture called 'Sexy in my Sixties'?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121029539#Comment_121029539

I think theres also the motivational aspect of it, even if you're physically okay it can be difficult to get going after you tick off the boxes such as completing a marathon etc.

Murph_D

..

DownByTheGarden

I think you notice its harder and harder after about 40. I noticed age 44 there was a massive performance drop and its just as big a drop again for each year after that, so far anyway. Not a chance of competing with anything even approaching my best years again after 44 for me. Most people older than me tell me the same. Knees started to feel stiffer from about 40 though. They are actually squeeking now. Started cycling and the knees were getting worse. Had a chat with a consultant who is also im my cycling club and he said worst thing ever for your knees is cycling, even though most people think that cycling is easier on the knees. Says he has more patients, including himself, whos knees wore out after taking up cycling in their early 40s but they put up with it because they get addicted to cycling.

kirk.

Interesting about the cycling. I managed to banjax my knees in a short space of time with the wrong exercises

Important to remember the most important thing is to be able to walk pain free

Murph_D

..

Lumen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121032089#Comment_121032089

I know tens of cyclists that have cycled for decades and none that has "worn out their knees" through cycling. There are people racing as vets in their seventies who started racing as teenagers. It's often the case that when a fit person switches sport they are injury prone because they have loads of aerobic capacity but the body isn't used to those specific demands of that sport.

echancrure

I think it is a very difficult question to answer because so many factors are at play. I think one thing to consider is that whatever age you start running as an adult, you get injured a few times, but you improve fast. Then, because of the buzz of improvement, you think that if you try harder, you will improve even more, and that's a big mistake. You have to give time to time. Because then you often overtrain, run tired too much, and improvements stall and performances go backwards, and that's not necessarily because of age or because you hit 10 years of running. It is due to a tired body and not enough focus on recovery.

You often see this in runners who start later in life: meteoric rise, top of their game for a year or two and then disappearance into the doldrum and disillusion. A good coach should help in these circumstances...

That is my current theory anyway, as a 52-year-old with 10 years of running experience and a 4-year-old marathon PB of 2:47: I am trying to focus on recovery, not run harder or more than I did when I last did my PB, but focus on not repeating mistakes (be it dietary or over-exhaustion) of previous training blocks. A detailed running diary helps... If it takes another year to get there, so be it!

DownByTheGarden

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121033139#Comment_121033139

Not everybodys knees will ever wear out, no matter what you do. But if your cartilage is going to wear out at some future point, cycling will definitely push it over the edge.

DownByTheGarden

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121034188#Comment_121034188

I notice that after 40 years old even cuts and bruises seem to take longer to heal. Never mind muscle injuries. Even your eyes take a second longer to focus. Im told by 50 i wont have to worry about that at all because they wont focus at all :)

Lazare

I'm orders of magnitude more fit at 47 than I was at 37 and loving life.

If I had been running since a teen I'd be of a higher fitness right now and looking at the wheels coming off, considering the scrap yard.

All relative.

Sometimes I wonder what could have been, but mostly I'm glad I started this craic late in life.

woody1

what about raw speed ?

creeping up on 50 and noticing that the 5 /10k time is getting marginally slower .. and harder to keep respectable .. thats taking away the advantage of the super shoes and comparing like with like, late 30s early 40s sub 20 5k was easy enough to get to, now it can only be done with the super shoes

endurance stuff, half marathon onwards , is definitely improving and it feels like there is still a decent margin to improve further , but speed for me is definitely declining ,

marathon2022

Did my first marathon in my mid 40s and as I'm just about to slide into my 50s I feel better than ever. If life stops getting in the way I reckon I have a good few years left to improve.

In saying that I'm not running at a very high level so low hanging fruit and all that jazz.

Infoseeker1975

Joined a club earlier this year just before turning 48, was probably running for the previous 2 years on my own - the decision to join a club has massively improved my times and also my enjoyment. I think that is the best advice I would give to anyone starting out.

I do miss training regularly but the advice and team spirit along with the varied training instead of my clueless run the same route fast approach has meant that I reduced my 5km from 22 min to sub 20 & hope to get sub 19.

My 10 mile best was 75mins+ and it is under 70mins now and hope to get to 65mins in the next 12 months.

I even completed a half marathon and may do a full in the future though not sure if I would have the mental strength for it!!!

Krusty_Clown

I agree with previous posters, that it has more to do with running age, than age. I started jogging at around 36, and my marathon time a year or so later was 3:20. I peaked around 10 years later, but that was more related to my method of making progress, which was based on increasing running volume and intensity. Eventually I crossed the line of what my body was able to take in terms of training stimulus and ability to recover, and gradually, my performance disimproved and my injuries increased. Of course in my mind, poorer performance equated to a need for harder training... more physical breakdown. I'm sure that with some proper coaching advice and greater investment in strength, flexibility and conditioning, I could have prolonged my club-level competitive running 'career' for a few more years, but at that stage I was running 10-14 times a week, which wasn't very compatible with other life goals, so my body decided for me, that less was more. I still enjoy getting out 5-7 times a week, but don't beat myself up the way I used to.

Other seasonal visitors to these pages have run for 30-40 years (with breaks) and have very successful masters running careers (I'm looking at you Beepbeep!), despite having started running in their teens (which disproves my initial argument!), so perhaps prolonging your running career is more about adapting your goals and training accordingly.

Peterx

There was a very feelgood and beautifully shot programme on RTE1 last night about living well into older age and the basic point - rammed home repeatedly in a nice way - was to keep moving and exercising and being curious about the world around you and the aging process won't be so bad.

One of the hill running legends told me once that performance degrades very slowly in the 40s and then appreciably faster in your 50s. At the time he hadn't reached his 60s :)

But for many folk it'll be other life pressures taking time away from running - both the actual training andnearly more importantly the mental freedom to be thinking about running. Back in the day I spent all week thinking about sport and the weekend of sport to come and then spent the weekend at the sport and then spent the week thinking about the sport to come and what we had done at the weekend. It's just not as important anymore. And when something is less important then you don't do it as much and performance declines.

The good news from last night's programme appeared to be that the mental freedom comes back after that busy middle period of living a full life.

Trampas

I know someone who’s in their 60’s and broken the 3 hour marathon last year for the first time.

Some people have a goal and they’ll do everything they’ve got to do the time and will achieve it but in doing so they’ll break their bodies doing it with the amount of training.

People will make the assumption that when they hit 30 odd they’re on the downhill as they hear it on tv with sportspeople.

There is no right answer to do this. I’m still pb but I’m heading to mid 40’s but started in 30’s and really started training sensibly 5 years + after I started

Probably find decline comes with people reducing the number of sessions and effort because lost the hunger or other things taking over than due to age

The Black Oil

I caught some of the RTÉ documentary Superagers last night. Folks who are mid-70s or late 90s. I believe it's a repeat. Fair play to them.

walshb

Most humans are in the physical peak (track running) in their mid to late 20s really. 30 and over you start to decrease. Can be very very slight decreases, of course.

E.coli

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121047942#Comment_121047942

From a physiological perspective I would agree things like Vo2max and other factors have been proven to decrease as young as mid to late 20s.

I think the big question is how much do these metrics impact performance? this is very debatable. Many take decades to get to a level of expertise in terms of getting the best out of themselves training wise. From a performance perspective I would argue that age makes little difference to performance but where you will find it makes a difference is that the margin for error is a lot finer. You can't get away with training foolishly as you age as much.