Our bodies are capable of performing at a high level later in life than we think.” Life gets in the way, of course: Families and careers make training more difficult as we age. “If a 40-year-old says he’s slower than a 25-year-old, I’m not sure that counts anymore. In 10 years, while her genetic capability may diminish to allow her to run only a 4:00, increased training may get her close to her maximum, maybe to a 4:05. For example, she might be genetically capable of running a 3:30 marathon, but her fitness level might allow her only to run a 5:00. There’s an element of suffering, which is why Smoliga says that “it’s easier to maintain suboptimal performance year after year than it is to maintain peak performance.” But a 35-year-old who starts intense training tomorrow will perform better than ever for the next 10 years because she’s never pushed her physiological limits. What it comes down to is that many recreational runners don’t train as intensely as they should. Many people in this group could likely run three hours or less, but they don’t, simply due to lack of training.” Smoliga says that “the median runner, if healthy, is physiologically capable of running a lot faster. The median runner in the 25-to-34-year-old group in their study ran about a four-hour marathon. James Smoliga, associate professor of physiology in the Department of Physical Therapy at High Point University and another co-author of the study, is similarly optimistic about the recreational runner.

“Because they never pushed themselves when they were younger, they can hold themselves longer.” “The average runners might push themselves much later in life even though their physical peak has passed,” says Zavorsky. Gerald Zavorsky, associate professor in the Department of Respiratory Therapy at Georgia State University and one of the authors of the study, says that these runners have more gas because they’ve never pushed themselves like elite runners. Elite runners, because of the intensity and duration of their training, will probably empty their tank faster.īut recreational runners don’t empty their tank as quickly. That tank empties slowly in our 20s and 30s, but once we hit 35, it starts emptying at a faster rate. Continuing the full-tank analogy, we are each given one tank of gas. This new study offers hope for recreational runners who are running to finish instead of racing for time. Or perhaps we never trained hard at all because it was too uncomfortable. As we age, we tend to reduce the volume and intensity of training because of these factors. This means our ability to maintain high-intensity exercise also begins to diminish. Once we turn 35, our muscle mass, bone density and maximal aerobic capacity begin to decrease. That’s many more years of personal bests than we probably thought we had in us.īut first, some bad news. One finding surprised them: Recreational runners have much more in the tank at 35 and may continue improving until they’re 50. They 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. Researchers set out to determine the age at which both elite runners and recreational runners - or the average runner, defined as the median finisher within each age group - begin to slow. These are the results of a new study that examined 16 years of data from the Chicago, New York and Boston marathons. But there’s good news, middle-of-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. While most of us appear to be in pain, their cadence and form belie any of that misery.

Elite road racers make running look effortless.

Mile repeats rest time