I feel stiff and sore most days.  The day after a hard workout, sometimes I'm walking like an 80 year old, for the first few steps anyway.  And I'm 31. 

I don't remember much about 31 except that i was fat from having babies and running

around after a 1 and 3 year old in a Mommy fog. They are almost 23 and 25 now a lot

of shit has happened since 31

 

Kids are not allowed in this thread. Out!

 

I don't remember much about 31 except that i was fat from having babies and running

around after a 1 and 3 year old in a Mommy fog. They are almost 23 and 25 now a lot

of shit has happened since 31

 

At 31, I had arms and abs like Jillian What's her name, but I couldn't run more than 5 minutes. Then I would collapse after. I'm so glad things have changed.

Shari, cheers! To the good years ahead of you!

Way back when I was 31 I had only been running for about  3 years, and probably ran a 10K race in about 39: xx with minimal training. My running  logs at that time were chiseled into stone tablets but have since been lost to the ages so there's no record. I'll be 59 in a couple of weeks and with 8 years of hard training under my belt currently I hope to equal that 39: xx in a 10K race this weekend. My running is about the only part of me that hasn't started wearing out significantly yet. I've lost partial vision in one eye, my ears ring full time and my hearing is getting worse, my hair is about half gone, and I've lost the ability to sleep for longer than 2 hours per night without pharmaceutical assistance.  But as long as I can still run like the wind, I'm ok with getting older. It's still much better than the alternative.

I've been a master for so long (actually, when I started running, I already was a master...) that I don't remember what exercising as a young woman was like. I think that maybe, yes, recovery was faster. But I'm also pretty certain that I never worked out as intensely as I do now. It's like my pain threshold has increased over the years.

 

But yeah... like Baboon, being tired and sore has become the norm for me. I don't even bother to ice, roll the stick, take pain killers, etc... I figure that as long as I can do my workouts with good energy, I don't care if I drag myself in discomfort the rest of the day. The negative side to all this is that I do less cleaning in general in the house, due to fatigue.

 

I will echo many of the comments already posted, I suppose the above describes me best.

Started running at ~44-45, will be 49 next month. Never heard of the Grand Master category; when I get there I will make people call me Grandmaster Flash. Walking around constantly sore kind of gives me a good feeling that I am working myself hard. And having been through an injury makes me appreciate that nothing I feel while not running matters too much, if the running is feeling good.

Also we late starters don't have PR's from our younger days to chase, our best days can be ahead of us.

At 31 I was fat from baby and I don't have the excuse of being female...

Likely the best shape of my life @ 42. I don't creak most days, but sore is normal.

At 31, I was overweight (don't think I'd made it to "obese" by that point), completely out of shape, and having the time of my life as a newly minted lawyer engage full time in the pursuit of women.