How is aging affecting you?

[Ice Cream]

I cannot complete a 4-mile run anymore the day after a 10 mile training run...
I am seriously considering a second rest day every week.

[Ice Cream]

I have a very healthy diet, and am not able to do supplements, due to allergic reactions to the non-active ingredients in pills.  I had no idea that I had suddenly developed these, until the dermatologist pointed it out.  I was skeptical, but when I stopped taking the supplements, I stopped itching all over.

The only thing I can safely take for supplementation is Kellogg's Special K cereal.  This is how I now get extra iron; I think vitamin D is in there, too.  I take that with milk that is fortified with vitamin D.

[iwuzwilson]

What's your pace for the 10 miler and 4 miler and what kind of surfaces are you running on?

I run almost as much as I did in my post-college early-mid 20s, at least for peak phase, but take more recovery weeks and recovery days. Usually I'll run 6 days a week, sometimes 10-14 days consecutively. 

Sleep and diet (as mentioned by TA) are also important.

[rocketgirl]

My hips hurt all the time and wake me up at night.  It is worse when I'm running, although I am better at doing exercises that combat some of the pain when I am running with some regularity. 

I don't know if it's age or what, but my tendons are fucked.  I've had achilles tendonitis on and off since my mid to late 30s.  (Currently, I'm 46).  It flares up intermittently "just because" and is guaranteed to flare up if I run more than 9 miles in a week.  Not miles in one run.  9 miles total.   I even occasionally sprain my wrist turning the steering wheel too sharply.

Lawn mowing has started to hurt.  Shoulders, wrists, hands, knees.

[Arrojo]

It's awesome, as I am among the youngest in my 55-59 age group.   

[Handsome Jack]

Little bothersome things tend remain bothersome a bit longer as compared to when I first started running.

[ZiggyStardust]

Not sure it's age as much as having a small kid around the house... I'm not as committed as I was when I was younger. I get up at 5 am every work day; I don't want to get up that early on weekends. I was always a mid-morning runner, but now I don't often go so long, because I don't want to be away from d'DH-and-kid for several hours. I don't sign up for a ton of races, mainly for the same reason. I just finished a fun marathon, and my legs feel fully recovered (great run yesterday!), but I'm not as...sharp?...as I used to be.

[siamesedream]

I now have more of a tendency to shout at clouds when I'm running.


I don't feel a significant difference physically, maybe a little less jaunty.

[Zapatista]

My legs seem to have gotten shorter. I can't accelerate like I used to could. I ripped off 20 second 100 meters easily just a few years ago. Now I can't break 30. My hips and back bother me sometimes but I still run almost every day.

[Ice Cream]

What's your pace for the 10 miler and 4 miler and what kind of surfaces are you running on?

I run almost as much as I did in my post-college early-mid 20s, at least for peak phase, but take more recovery weeks and recovery days. Usually I'll run 6 days a week, sometimes 10-14 days consecutively. 

Sleep and diet (as mentioned by TA) are also important.

I usually run a leisurely 9:20-9:40 in training. I just run at what feels comfortable at that time, and sometimes that can be faster, but I really never pay attention to pace, unless it's getting disturbingly difficult to run and I have to incorporate walking breaks.

[iwuzwilson]

What's the diff between your 5k race pace and easy? And marathon pace compared to your 9:20 and 9:40.

[Arrojo]

I've gotten significantly faster in short distances. I did an unofficial hand-timed 13.1 100 meters the other day I never ran that fast in a short burst in high school.

Wow - that's great!  Rolling start (ie jogging into it) or from a starting position?  Btw, standard is to add .24 to hand-timed sprints, but 13.34 is still outstanding!

[siamesedream]

I've gotten significantly faster in short distances. I did an unofficial hand-timed 13.1 100 meters the other day I never ran that fast in a short burst in high school.

That is fast.

 

[Ice Cream]

What's the diff between your 5k race pace and easy? And marathon pace compared to your 9:20 and 9:40.

Well, I do not "race" my races, for one thing. I haven't done a 5k race in 25 years, I think. And for marathon training, all I do is increase my long runs by two miles every other week, keeping weekly mileage more or less the same. I do taper, though. And then, whatever pace feels comfortable on race day I maintain. I am sure I could be faster if I incorporated speed work and used a training plan in preparation for a race, but that is not something that I enjoyed in the past.

What I have noticed is that I have developed far more tolerance for running through pain at the end of a marathon, and another good thing that came with age was the ability to consistently do negative splits in a marathon.

[Ice Cream]

It was a standing start and I used a tape measure to be sure of the distance.

BTW it was in the hallway of my apartment complex (the hallway is almost 200 meters...)

 

[Arrojo]

BTW it was in the hallway of my apartment complex (the hallway is almost 200 meters...)

   What if someone had walked out their front door into you??!

[iwuzwilson]

Well, I do not "race" my races, for one thing. I haven't done a 5k race in 25 years, I think. And for marathon training, all I do is increase my long runs by two miles every other week, keeping weekly mileage more or less the same. I do taper, though. And then, whatever pace feels comfortable on race day I maintain. I am sure I could be faster if I incorporated speed work and used a training plan in preparation for a race, but that is not something that I enjoyed in the past.

What I have noticed is that I have developed far more tolerance for running through pain at the end of a marathon, and another good thing that came with age was the ability to consistently do negative splits in a marathon.

Let's put it this way, if you are running your 10 milers <45 sec (or even a minute) over your marathon pace, then maybe that's too fast to ensure a quick recovery.

[Arrojo]

I'd be way too paranoid about people exiting their apartments (or coming around the corner) to sprint down that.

[Ice Cream]

I'd be way too paranoid about people exiting their apartments (or coming around the corner) to sprint down that.

I think you can choose your time, like 2 am, to be less paranoid about it.

[No Disrespect Whatsoever]

The only thing I can safely take for supplementation is Kellogg's Special K cereal.  This is how I now get extra iron

If you are low on iron, eating cereal won't fix it. You don't absorb appreciable amount of iron that don't come from Fe supplements or meat. That includes spinach, Popeye's bursts of awesome strength after eating it notwithstanding. Just telling you what my doc told me when I was anemic. And I find it hard to believe that the are NO multivitamin or multimineral supplements on the market that won't trigger an allergic reaction for you. You can't be a medical one-off. Talk to an allergist or at least real doctor instead of someone whose practice consists mainly of psoriasis and cystic acne.

I've gotten significantly faster in short distances. I did an unofficial hand-timed 13.1 100 meters the other day I never ran that fast in a short burst in high school.

It was a standing start and I used a tape measure to be sure of the distance.

BTW it was in the hallway of my apartment complex (the hallway is almost 200 meters...)

Without knowing anything about you except that you're apparently over 40, I believe everything about this story except for the part about the time being within even a second of 13.1 if the distance was 100 meters. What did you use to time yourself? An actual watch you started and stopped yourself? Or did you go by the old "ONE-one thousand! TWO-one thousand! THREE..." method of approximation? Because that one has issues with both accuracy and precision.

[Handsome Jack]

That picking up the pace often leads to injury  and coming to the conclusion that running is dumb, or at least unbearably frustrating.