The question
How should I train in my 50s?
The answer
When Ed Whitlock became the first septuagenarian to run a marathon in under three hours in 2003, it was thanks to a simple but gruelling training plan: two- to three-hour runs around a local cemetery, nearly every day.
That regimen presented two key challenges that are familiar to any masters athlete: staying healthy and – just as important but less obvious – staying motivated. In fact, when asked why his race performances in his 50s were less impressive than in the years before and after, Mr. Whitlock points to his motivation.
“The main reason – or excuse – is that I was busy at work, so while I did continue running throughout the decade, my training dedication fell off,” he says. “I am sure if I had been more dedicated and better organized I could have done more.”
The basic principles of training for older athletes are the same as for younger athletes, according to a review of the topic by University of Wisconsin-La Crosse sports scientist Carl Foster and his colleagues in 2007. However, the optimal mix of stimulus and recovery may be shifted by the risk of injury and hormonal changes that accompany aging.
Aches and pains are, to a certain extent, inevitable obstacles that simply have to be dealt with as best possible. Where once you might have done three hard sessions a week, Dr. Foster advises, cut back to two. Cross-training may also be more valuable for older athletes, since they're less able than younger ones to recover from doing the same activity every day. To combat the steady loss of muscle with age, Dr. Foster recommends weight training, even for skinny endurance athletes.
Despite this wealth of advice, there's strong evidence that the decline in masters athletic performance is steeper than physiology can explain. Indeed, experiments in which mice are given free lifelong access to exercise wheels have suggested that the “intrinsic drive” to exercise declines with age.
In this context, the motivation to continue training is a crucial determinant of success. Studies of elite masters athletes by University of Ottawa researcher Bradley Young and his colleagues have identified a complex mix of personal and social factors that make people more likely to continue training at a high level into their 50s and beyond.
The personal factors are what you'd expect: enjoyment of sport and personal challenges, improved health and fitness, and so on. Surprisingly, the social factors mix positive reinforcement, from family, training partners and the wider community, with more negative pressure – the feeling, for instance, that stopping training would make you a quitter.
The most powerful source of social pressure? Your spouse – a finding that wouldn't surprise Mr. Whitlock, who discovered his calling as a masters runner when he was 40, after a 15-year layoff, at the urging of his wife.
The question
How much will I slow down in my 50s?
The answer
The physical attributes that determine athletic performance – maximal oxygen uptake, as well as muscular strength and power – typically start to decline slowly at about the age of 35, and much more rapidly at about 60.
This pattern can be seen in the progression of marathon world records by age group, and very similar patterns are observed in activities ranging from sprinting and swimming to weightlifting.
There are a few subtleties: Women seem to decline more sharply than men, and strength and power appear to decline more rapidly than endurance. But this may be an artifact of the smaller number of women (and weightlifters) still competing at advanced ages. And the same may be true of the very sharp declines seen beyond the 70s, even in men.
