Over 50's club

16 lurkers | 319 watchers

Sharkie Feb 2021 2:57pm, 15 Feb 2021 17,276 posts	0 Sharkie I might have slightly bucked the trend. Started running in my early 50s, switched to serious sprint training and racing at around 55, PBs and most of my highest wavas BOTH at age 58 in 2011 It's certainly got harder to maintain that level and I 'do' work hard - I'm 68 now and most of my PBs are but distant dreams. Wavas still closish to my best ten years on (in a good year!) However. My top end (raw) speed is as good if not better than ever. I got my highest ever wava last year for 60m and very close to my PB (3/100ths of a second over - sprinting's like that!)
Sharkie Feb 2021 2:58pm, 15 Feb 2021 17,277 posts	0 Sharkie Over 100-200m my stride length is improved, turnover slower, I think.
Sharkie Feb 2021 2:59pm, 15 Feb 2021 17,278 posts	0 Sharkie Meters not mile. Obvs. Probs super duper irrelevant to anyone else posting here.
Rosehip Feb 2021 3:03pm, 15 Feb 2021 19,704 posts	0 Rosehip I'd say very relevant, Sharkie Holding top-end speed means keeping your strength and power, doesn't it? which means that we should all be taking note of your non-running workouts.
RichHL Feb 2021 3:05pm, 15 Feb 2021 15,393 posts	0 RichHL We were talking about the aging athlete during the Virtual Reps a couple of weeks ago. I've written up the training talk to go onto the C&C website, probably this week.
jda Feb 2021 3:05pm, 15 Feb 2021 9,442 posts	0 jda yes that seems very impressive as I'm pretty sure that my short-term power and speed, which was never up to much in the first place, has dropped off over the years.
bja61 Feb 2021 4:14pm, 15 Feb 2021 672 posts	0 bja61 That's very impressive Sharkie! I feel my top end speed (which was never great) is definitely fading. However I ran my second fastest ever 5k last year, at 58 and I think I can faster over all distances fro 5k up. I'm picturing it as everyone having their own theoretical curve of potential best time over a given distance and age (ie potential, driven by genetics, training history etc), and only professional athletes get anywhere close to it. The rest of us bumble about somewhere below the curve, and even as the potential curve declines as we age we can still improve by narrowing the gap between actual and potential. Obviously none of us knows what our potential is/was so it's all guess work... that's my theory anyway!!!
Sharkie Feb 2021 4:22pm, 15 Feb 2021 17,279 posts	0 Sharkie With the 60m it's partly down to improved technique - but sprint technique is - as Rosehip suggests - dependent on strength and power. I'm not some freak of nature - my 100m has slowed in a most disappointing way, 200 is worse.
57.5 Degrees of Pain Feb 2021 10:09pm, 15 Feb 2021 6,614 posts	0 57.5 Degrees of Pain I'm another blaming weight at the moment, though I appreciate my great good fortune in not having to worry in the past. Always stayed around 12st (thanks for the good genetics dad!), and dropped a little when training hard. Not been able to get below 12st 8lb since Lockdown 1, not sure if this is age or lifestyle. Also feel like I lost some lung function to a chest infection last winter, the same unpleasant bug which saw people claiming to have had Covid in Jan 2020 (you didn't, it was nasty but no one died!). Hills slow me down especially. One day we can all race again and quantify the deterioration!
Mrs Jigs (Luverlylegs) Feb 2021 11:51pm, 15 Feb 2021 31,470 posts	0 Mrs Jigs (Luverlylegs) Similar to you Sharkie, I started running at 50, best times set 2010 & 2012 saw my highest wava at age 58, difference is you are a superb track athlete where as I favour long distance.