I turn 50 and a week later you’re calling me north of 50?
dang dude, that’s brutal, just brutal. The first round is certainly on you!
But yeah, as you age I often see the S decline a bit in people, mostly bc they neglect swimming missing an extra day or two per month and the R drops off while the B stays the same or even sometimes see a small year to year FTP gain, although mostly it’s still below their highest last 10yr FTP.
My regression has been minimal until recently.
2017 lost 4 month running to a soleus tear - didn’t race
2018 I ran just under 1:30 in a half. (also my first year back to LC racing in 8yr. I was probably on avg a 1:27:15 runner prior to the break, if you avg’d out all my halfs from 2006-10), had a run injury that kept me out of Tempe 70.3. Going into the last 3 weeks prior to the race did a few 5k park runs right at 5:54-6:00 pace where we’d run 5 miles to the park run, do it, then run 2-4 miles home. Figured I was going to run at worst 1:30 until I tweaked my soleus 10d before the race. Tried to run, made it out of T2 with a really big lead in the M45-49 and that was that and iirc was in the top 10 overall into T2.
2019 was a weird year. First half, Crystal Coast half Booty. Was told when ~ mile 2.5 that I had a 7:15 lead at the mile 1 timing mat so I shut it down and ran a 1:37 something. Next half had a duel over the first 7 miles of the run where I was leading, dropped, got back to them, then had to pee, dropped back, then caught back up & passed for the AG W running about 1:31:15. (I was 100% cool with this bc I had to stop on my pee break instead of walking like normal due to a lady walking towards me, figured it was sub 1:31 otherwise and when I crossed the line I was spent enough that medical sat with me in the grass for 10 minutes)
Last half of the year was coming off an injury where I didn’t run for 6 weeks. Did 4 weeks of run training, had 2 runs in the 10-11 mile range and got in ~ 100 miles before the race where I ran a 1:35 low.
At Choo this year I had what was my worst ever (that I can remember) run split in a half. I had zero get up and go. Basically was stuck in the same gear for the run & started fading a bit even. Usually I was a negative split type of guy. Had about 6 weeks of running under my belt from an injury. Ran a few ticks under 1:41. I knew my Choo 70.3 run wasn’t going to be great going in. But to run a 1:40:59…i mean I was WTFing myself the entire run. I had figured, worst case a high 1:37. Even when not in great shape I’ve always been able to ask more of my body on the run than my run fitness may have warranted. I’ve been able to punch up a bit coming off injury. Sure I may have been knackered for an extra day or two post race, but quite often I could really lay it out. At Choo? That was a big hard NO.
Flatted out after grabbing the lead in the M50-54 AG at Salem 70.3 this past weekend so no data point there.
Up until 2017 I may have missed at a few days here and there, at most a week tops from an ache or pain from running. Now I miss weeks and months. Since then I’ve never run more than 10 months in a year and have run as little as 7mo with an average of ~9mo all due to injury. Kinda sucks to see the yearly hit in overall volume, which for as a guy who does well if not better on higher volume/lower intensity is a hard knock.
The second strike that happened due to covid is I didn’t get on the track in 2019. That really did me no favors. I had an early season run injury pre Covid that knocked me out late February. Started running again the first week of April. Prior to that I was cruising along at 7:45-50, after it was was and still is 8:15 for the day in day out runs. The run fitness/speed did not come back/come back as fast as normal. I wonder if I should blame getting a puppy in May?
I’ve gone through this with numerous athletes over the decades coaching. It sucks. Yet Father Time favors no old person when it comes to running.
The reality is I’m having to change my paradigm a bit now that I’m 50, in fact we all probably should. That first break point was ~ 40 when I realized I was just a touch slower on the run, maybe :30-:45 over 10k. Then held steady until about 45-46 when I realized I was ~ :15-:20/5k slower compared to even 3 seasons prior. That held steady until now I guess.
We/you/I need to start thinking about other things when racing. Before maybe it was being in the top 25 AGers overall at a 70.3 or putting myself in a position where I could compete with anyone in 35+ AGs overall and be competitive with the 20-35s off the bike.
Now it may be realizing that you can still be there leaving T2 but the running fast is a young(er) person’s sport. It’s now about making your best race happen. In some respects, at least for me, it’s less tactical. Before I’d be concerned about everyone I was racing around, how could I capitalize on their errors, did they look like they were working too hard on the bike, could I break them or cause them to blow up, how was their breathing on the run, could I string them along for a few miles at slightly faster, what would that do to me and how would it impact my race? Racing was a big chess match…with everyone. Must slay you, you, you, oh hey friend you also, really everyone.
Now it’s more about it’d be cool to be the fastest 40+, 45+ but most importantly is how do I maximize my fitness for this race, what’s my strategy to be as fast as I can. I’m worried less about people not in my AG than ever before, at least at national/world level races. Locally I still want to beat the young pups bc you know old age and treachery!
FWIW I suffered my fair share of beatdowns at the hands of David when I was growing up. I mean a lot, a lot of beatdowns. Smith mtn lake, triangle tri, latta plantation, Pinehurst tri, the list could go on and on and on.
I’d get out of the water :30 behind him and then be 4 minutes back at T2 after riding a 58:00/40k.
While he may not have been the fastest runner in the area he was so fast on the S/B that he was often fighting for the W in the local/regional scene. A scene that was littered with guys who regularly went sub 1:55 for an oly/had their pro card/finished top 20 at pro nationals/finished top 20 pros at IMH/raced on the BLTS circuit/were on covers of the tri rags of the time. It was common to be the first non card carrying pro across the line at 10th or 11th overall in the regional scene with a 2:01 for an oly. It was not uncommon to drop from the top 5 overall with a 17:00 5k off the bike…ask me how I know.
The TLDR bullet point is
– as we age we can expect the earliest onset of decline to come from running and often 5, 10 or more years before we see it swimming or cycling.
– At some point we need to adjust our expectations and focus more on how we compare to our same aged peers rather than the race as a whole
-- Consistency is still king. Taking time off/getting injured is the fastest way to become slower
-- it would probably behoove every female 40+ and every male 45+ to go a minimal of 3 lifts 2x per week sets of 4-6 reps with a weight you can't do 8x. A back exercise like lat pull, a chest press and a squat. Mostly for muscle mass preservation, bone density preservation & strength preservation. Preserving strength as you age is performance enhancing. (wanders out to pull up bar does a set of 5, wanders back in)
-- The sport that often gets neglected the most is swimming, that seems to become more prevalent as we age. Making sure you stay in the water as frequently, maybe more frequently, might be an effective strategy to move up the pecking order in races, both overall and especially in your AG.
– In a weird twist of science if you’re in the M50-54 you should probably only S/B/R 1x per week as this has been shown to be most effective, along with gatorskin tires, rudy wingspans and only using 30-40mm deep rims when racing.
Hope that helps