Are there any people out there who have managed to set a personal best at Ironman after age 50? How did you do it? What did it take? How did you modify your training from when you were younger? Did you take any (legal) supplements? Do you have any tips for a guy turning 49?!

With all inputs static, I agree. However, at 50+ many of us are now empty nesters, more disposable income to buy speed and invest in a good coach, and if lucky more occupational flexibility to enable more training on a daily basis. The added experience built over time makes a difference when it comes to pacing, nutrition and race strategy.

Could somebody make a PB after 50? Sure. This is:

• when starting with triathlon at e.g. age 48 or
• when done his first IM distance after 50 or
• when training below 10h/week for the last 10 years and suddenly gave up work and dedicated >15h/week for training or
• when eventually got diagnosed with whatever illness (s)he been suffering from for year and finally received working medication or
• when always raced with 120psi tubulars and then switched to 30mm wide tire hookless tubeless setup etc..

There is an old saying with runners that you peak 8 years after you start serious training, at whatever age. I lost my peak 40 years ago :-)

Just to give some context when I was 25, I opened the front end of several open marathons sub 1:20 (generally 1:19xx). By 44, my open half marathon was 1:21. I could not even get close to my "jogging time from age 25". I did my half IM PB at 40 (4:14), but I never really raced a fast course at 25 (4:23 on 1990 gear, tech and training). My 56 year old PB on the same course I went 4:14 at 40 was 4:54). The 56 year old day was a lot slower on the bike due to wind, but also a 4km longer course (so 6.5 min there). The run alone was 23 minutes slower though, and granted transitions were longer (like 3 min longer) but 40 min slower is 40 min. Wind and a longer course only explains 10 min on 40. The rest is slowing down and at 58, I went 5:18 on the same course that I went 4:54 two years earlier (granted even a suckier day on the bike that was 12 min slower, swim was not wetsuit and 3 min slower and froze in a cold rain on the bike). I still THINK I can take it back under 5 hrs on a good day on that course this year at 59, but I gotta do it....times from the treadmill and the trainer and pool suggest it is possible, but that's cherry picking my good days in training....have to put them together in real life on a single day

All you guys talking about getting faster over 50 started late. You just did not race hard when you were 20-29 (or 30-34). Look at Lionel...he can't match his 20-29 times these days. Guys like Jan Frodeno are exceptional in their early 40's but they have to pick and choose battles. As is Cam Brown. That guy is insanely fast in his 50's, but he has the standard age degrading over his Kona podiums from his mid 20's.

If you started late 30's, got faster in 40's and think you'll be a stud in the 50's, you just may but eventually you become the guy with 25 years of miles in the legs who slows down. Enough miles in the legs and we all get slower. Some people start at 17 and hit that slowdown at 35 (example Alistair Brownlee). Some of you start at 35 and hit it at 50 - 52.

The fun part here is seeing who slows down less, but the funny things is the studs that beat me by 20 minutes when were were 25, beat me by 20 min now closing in on 60 !!! Just straight out age degradation from when we were younger (provided we stayed in decent shape...the guys who got waaaaay out of shape have zero chance...their age degradation is a disaster)

My guess is the only people doing that are folks that did their first IM after 50 (obviously a PB) or did their first at close to 50 and the next not long after turning 50.

There's just no way anyone is churning out a faster time at 50+ than they did in their 20s, 30s, or young 40s. Barring some kind of disaster at the race when they were younger or being a walking/talking pharmacological experiment.

I'll be 54 next month. Zero chance I'm setting a PB at this age. ZERO.

Father Time is and will always be undefeated.

I did my first 70.3 at age 35 and carried on doing 70.3s pretty much every year after that until I set a PB last year (at age 48). I'm on the exact same bike, with the same race set-up (wheels etc.), doing the same volume of training (8-10 hours most weeks, some up to 12). So I know it's possible to set a PB at nearly 50 over a half-ironman... I'm curious to know if there is anyone out there who perhaps started Ironman racing in their late 30s/early 40s and then continued to improve their times into their 50s. I realise there's not much chance of a PB if they started Ironman racing in their 20s, but I think there must be some people who come to the sport later in life (perhaps around 40) and still find ways to improve at 50.

Well... take this for what's it's worth:

My Ironman PB was Wisconsin in 2007. 10:19. Was my first IM. I have raced 6 IM distance races s after that, including Kona and Norseman. Other than outlier Norseman (black shirt), all were under 11 hrs (well, Kona 11:01)

Of those seven, my 7th full Irondistance was last September, age 53 in Chattanooga. I finished in 10:17. 3rd in AG (punched ticket to Kona again).

So... a PB at 53.

That said - yes, the swim is the swim there.

But that all said - more context: I ran Boston for the 4th time last year. Ran 3:08. Which was actually a PB from 9-10 standalone Marys. At Boston of all courses.

I'm running Boston again on 15th. And Unbound 200 on June 1. And Kona in October. Not a bad season.

Whether I'm better, near-same, or not, don't care... just having a hell of a lot of fun.

sure the CHOO swim is the swim AND the bike is 4miles long... :)

IMO, 10:17 at CHOO is incredible.

The question is very vague.
since you are asking the questions to AGers, there are tons of people out there who did their ironmans training with wrong strategy and methods, ending up in disasters for years and also for 10+ years. then at some point you meet the right guy/coach who makes you training smarter and you do your PB easy. this has nothing to do with your age.
professionals always peak in the 30s and this is due to genetic. then of course it is impossible for them to do a PB at 55 because they really hit their best at 30-35years

so asking this question to an AG means that you are searching for someone who performed well below his/her potential and then getting older, he/she trained only smarter.
so the answer is yes, there are many out there in this situation. not me :-)

I agree with that and there will be certainly be outliers and exceptions largely due to the reasons you and others mentioned.

But at a macro level look at the average times at any race by AG. The 50+ AGs are slower than the 18-49 AGs. Father Time always wins.

My best 70.3 in my early 30s was a 4:14, and I did a 4:12 at age 46 (ran 3min faster). Can I do it now I am 50? I don't know, ad I don't ride nearly as much so my bike fitness is way down, but I definitely can run the same or close to the same as my 30s and close to my best of 1:21...