Is it possible to approach my PRs from 7-8 yrs ago? (Read 300 times)

 

He's not.  If he really said that.  I don't know a single runner who has done that.  I know a lot of long time runners.  Some have held pretty steady into their late 30s, but all had some degree of slowdown by their early 40s with a much more significant decline by 50.

 

Even Mr. Ageless himself, Bernard Lagat, while still very good, is not as fast as he was when much younger.

Yes.

63=19? That'd be pretty difficult to do. Maybe 53 for someone who really worked at it and maybe underachieved as a youngster.

I did not run in high school and only started training half way through my freshman year in college, and that was for mid-distance/sprints.

PRs at 19 were somewhat scattered due to inexperience and overall flakiness.

4:49 mile (time trialed a 4:47 after XC)

17:45 5K (but that was a debut, ran more than a minute faster less than 2 mo after turning 20)

27:25 5 mile road

36:00 10K XC

5:52-5:54 pace for 9 mile road race soon after I turned 20

Peaked and PRd at all distances from age 24-33.

For 50-54 age group these were my bests, moderately compatible with age 19.

5:00 mile

17:01 5K

29:20 8K

35:45 10K

1:18 half marathon (6:00 pace)

marathon yup, have done a few since turning 50.

So you might say the distance races (10K and up) were fairly equal. Now that I'm 56 the wheels are about to come off, and it would be very difficult to run sub 1:20--in another 7 years. Or sub 3 for a marathon--which I'm pretty sure I could have done at 19 at the end of my XC season. By 63 (not that far off) I'll be happy to be running for an hour a few times a week.

I've been running since junior high school and I am still setting PRs in my mid-40s. In my experience most runners start to slow down sometime in their 50s, ultramarathons being the exception.

 

Andy

 

If this is the case, you either way under-performed when you were younger or are training a lot more/harder than you did then.  If you were to have people contribute examples, you would find that most runners who consistently apply themselves will peak in 7-9 years, regardless of age.  To say you have been improving for ~25 years is way out there on the curve of experiences.

I'm not aware of a since semi-serious runner, having run since their teens (to have age 19 times to compare to), who can touch their PRs past their early 40s.  Even then only at longer distances, forget 5K.

At age 19 most people will not have reached their peak as they are too young to have fully developed.  But the thought that someone in their 50s or 60+ is not going to have lost more than a 19yo has to gain is now believable to me.

Hello all,

 

So when I was 18, just graduated from high school, I was running my fastest 5K times ever.  Certainly not at an elite level, but usually in the low 17 minute range -- I think my PR was actually like 17:23.  Where I'm from that was good enough for usually placing top 5 in any given cross country race. I was an 800m runner in track, breaking 2 minutes more than a few times.

 

So my question is --- fast forward 8 years later to now when I'm 26 and wanting to get back into running again.  What's your opinion: is it physically possible for me to ever see times like that again?  Should I even hope for that goal? I've been running off and on since high school, but more like 90% "off." As I started running again in July I usually stay in the 9-10 mile pace on my easy runs.  Back in high school 6-7 minute miles were easy and 9-10 would have been unheard of...lol.

 

So just wondering everyone's thoughts on this.

 

Many thanks!

Easily possible and probable as you're still in your prime.   Of course, you'd have to dedicate yourself to a sensible training plan and maybe diet plan as well.  I don't think it'd be that difficult at all for you to run 17:23 again.  Maybe 2 or 3 years, max, of good training and watching what you eat.  Do you really want to run 17:23 again?  That's really about all that matters here.

I was in high school cross country and track and worked harder than anyone.  Named MVP my senior year of the track team.  It was a small school.  I have no idea why I am running just as fast now than then.  The only time I have to compare to high school is the mile which I ran in 5:10 at age 17.  I ran a mile on the track in 5:09 a couple weeks ago.

 

After high school, I didn't start running consistently again until 2001 and started to get faster so it has been 13 years.   Some of my PRs are getting old, but I have broken both my track mile and 4 mile PR this year.  I wouldn't be surprised if I could break my 5K PR if I tried this year but right now I am more focused on my ultrarunning.

 

Andy

 

I am happy you are having such success.  But mid-40s is nowhere close to the age 63 I was responding to...night and day.  Just look at results of the age 60-64 age group at any race.

I train with a fast 60 year old and he has started to slow down in the last year but is still really fast for his age.  I think you should keep trying.  You may not be the fastest.  You may train as hard as you wish but if you keep showing up, sometimes you win something.

Andy

 

I'll say - 63 sucks with regard to speed.   Without the age grading numbers to compare to it would be tough to figure out why I should continue to try so hard.  But using those I can at least pretend I'm still running sub 17 minute 5Ks.  

 

To the OP's question - damn son, hit the track, you have quite a few years before you reach your peak.

Knowing that all my competitive outright PR's are all long in the past, when I turned 50, I went to setting over-50 PR's, and that's kept me as motivated as ever. I plan to do the same thing when I hit 60 etc.

What is super motivating is how much easier it is to age group these days. I've won my age group in 6 out of the 8 races I've entered this year. 30 years ago I could run a sub 3 marathon and not even crack the top 20 in my age group. Today I can run a 3:30 marathon and age group. I used to train so freaking hard, and race even harder, and often come home empty handed. Today, I train comfortably (still pretty hard, but nothing like the past) and clean up in my age group. That's fun. I'm running out of room on my hardware shelf.

I train with a fast 60 year old and he has started to slow down in the last year but is still really fast for his age.  I think you should keep trying.  You may not be the fastest.  You may train as hard as you wish but if you keep showing up, sometimes you win something.

 

Andy

 

Oh, I'm still plugging away.  I started back running at the age of 57 and have been running now for 6 years.  That was after a 23 year lay off.  This year I've run my fastest 5K, 10K, and mile since starting back.  So I am fitting into that category of steady improvement for about 7 years.  But it still seems so     s      l       o       w.   All things are relative.  Just depends on what you compare against.