Aging doesn’t always mean running slower
Elite road racers make running look effortless. But there’s good news, middleof-the-pack runners, because we may have the last laugh: New research shows that, while elite runners peak at age 35, the rest of us may not peak until we’re 50.
These are the results of a new study that examined 16 years of data from the Chicago, New York and Boston marathons. Researchers found that the fastest marathoners for both men and women are in the 25-34 age group, and that performance begins to decline for elite runners around age 35.
One finding surprised them: Recreational runners have much more in the tank at 35 and may continue improving until they’re 50. That’s many more years of personal bests than we probably thought we had in us.
But first, some bad news. Once we turn 35, our muscle mass, bone density and maximal aerobic capacity begin to decrease. This means our ability to maintain high-intensity exercise also begins to diminish. As we age, we tend to reduce the volume and intensity of training because of these factors. Or perhaps we never trained hard at all because it was too uncomfortable.
This new study offers hope for recreational runners who are running to finish instead of racing for time. Continuing the full-tank analogy, we are each given one tank of gas. That tank empties slowly in our 20s and 30s but, once we hit 35, it starts emptying at a faster rate. The goal is to slow that emptying. Elite runners, because of the intensity and duration of their training, will probably empty their tank faster.