This morning I awoke to start my fifth decade, to some a perhaps depressing thought, but what the heck you can’t go through life trying to be like King Canute. This past year though I’ve definitely noticed that training to try and maintain consistency has become harder, not in a negative sense, just that my body definitely adapts at a slower pace. Digging around the internet, I stumbled across an article that studied endurance performance in masters athletes.

Abstract

Masters athletes are typically older than 35 years of age and systematically train for, and compete in, organized forms of sport specifically designed for older adults. They are motivated to participate in masters sport for a wide variety of reasons. Age-related declines in endurance performance are observed across the endurance sports of running, orienteering, rowing, and swimming. These declines are curvilinear from age 35 years until approximately age 60 - 70 years and exponential thereafter.
The decline in endurance performance appears primarily due to an age-related decrease in VO2max secondary to an age-related decrease in HRmax and possible age-related declines in stroke volume and arteriovenous oxygen difference. While performance velocity at lactate threshold decreases with age in masters endurance athletes, it appears to increase relative to VO2max while exercise economy is maintained. There also appears an age-related decrease in active muscle mass, type II muscle fiber size, and blood volume that contribute to decreased endurance performance. However, research suggests that maintenance of training intensity and volume into older age may mediate the rate of age-related decline in VO2max, stroke volume, arteriovenous oxygen difference, blood volume, and muscle mass in masters endurance athletes.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the current research suggests that age-related reductions in endurance performance observed in masters athletes are primarily related to age-related decreases in VO2max secondary to age-related decreases in HRmax, lactate threshold velocity, blood volumes, and muscle mass.
However, the age-related declines in endurance performance and its physiological determinants appear to be mediated by a reduction in the intensity and volume of training commonly observed in masters endurance athletes.

 OK, so maybe the outcome is no surprise, but some of the details are interesting and the decline in motivation to train because of life’s other pressures is definitely a reality many older athletes have to deal with. To admit a lack of motivate can be regarded as negative, so perhaps it is fairer to call it changing priorities. On the other hand, for all of you glass half full runners out there, while athletic performance might seem to be downhill from here on, at least there aren’t any major up hills to contend with!