Older (45+) Runners

I'm not in the speed range you mentioned but following the Barry P plan I cut significant time off of my 5K and 10K times over the course of 2 years.

There's a local 5K I do each year and my time in 2009 was 24:11, 2010 was 23:26 and 2011 was 22:22.

Before that I was usually in the 25-26 minute 5K range. I turned 45 in 2010.

A lot of the "fast" older runners, as you call them, don't feel fast anymore.  I concur with Jonathon.  I used to be a sub 18, then sub 19, then sub 20 and now 20:xx is a good time.  A lot of it comes to lung/aerobic capacity.  Studies have shown that lung capacity drops substantially as a male crosses over the 35 y/o threshold and keeps dropping the older we become.  My theory is that most of the 20:xx 45-49 runners used to be sub 17/18 min runners in there teens and 20's and have a bit of natural speed.  Problem with speed is that it is hard to keep and train for.  Most injuries old guys get come from "speed work" and not necessarily the miles to build the base.  In fact the older I get the easier it is to put more miles on, probably because I'm doing them slower and more regularly.  I have to be very careful with my speed work.  One last thing...as we age we tend to pack on a few extra pounds as well and with 2 secs/mile per pound an extra 5-10 pounds makes a difference.

just my .02 worth...

Sub-20 5K split in sprint tri.  I've been running since college.  "Fast" has been a function of what else has been going on in my life--not when it's crazy busy, as in young children.  My fastest times have been in the last couple years, as I've been more serious about tri training, and paying better attention to form/cadence.  But I certainly think that 25+ years of running helps in having both a good base and having worked out some biomechanical issues.

40-45 mi/week in preparation for IMAZ. (yesterday!) (finished!) (PR!).

Probably an average of 30 mi/week for my adult life.

52 y/o female here.  I usually place in my age group at 5K's as well as sprint tri's.  I have been running since I was 15 (took a break when my kids were young). I ran track and cross country competetively in high school, and went to league finals. 

As the op said- I no longer feel fast.  I guess compared to other women my age- I am fast.  My level of training and miles fluctuate.  However, when I follow a training plan, I am very disciplined. 

My husband swears that I developed running muscles at a critical age.  I have very strong thighs, and can handle hills very well.  I also can talk and run, except when doing interval work.  I attribute it to genetics. 

The longer I live, the more I believe that genetics play a major role in both athletic ability (and in intelligence). 

62yrs old.Started running road races when I was 29yrs old, never ran in high school but played baseball and football. I was always a fast runner in those sports, when I started distance running I never really trained just ran.Now I normally run 23 5k after a tri and have this year ran 21 and 22 5k's in road races. I have never put in heavy miles per week, the most was for a 70.3 tri in 2010. I feel that I have gotten faster and less injurys because of the cross training and strenght training I do for triathlon. I also run everyother day if I can unless I'm training for a race. I also do speed work  and hill repeats when trianing for races. I don't know if that helps you but it has worked really well for me.

50 year old male. 19:30ish 5k on about 35-40 miles per week.

On the heavy side (172lbs)

I'm not exactly fast but I'm running past a lot of 20 something's at races these days. I started running in my late 30's with the C25K program so I could run in the City2Surf fun run in Sydney and got into tri's 3 years ago.

I'm sure there are many faster guys on the site, but I'm 51 and have been running since high school (4:31 miler).  I competed one year in college (not until senior year) and kept running during and after my grad school years but didn't really race much.  I got back into serious racing in 1998 when I started marathons and did a total of 10 marathons (8 sub 3, 2:51 PR in my last one in 2004).  I started tris in 2005 (Ironman focus starting in 2006) so I haven't had a dedicated running season since then.  While Ironman training I have done a few running races and did a 17:28 in an early spring 5k in 2010 (age 49) and my last half marathon was in 2007 (age 46) where I went 1:17 and my only goal was to run even 6:00 pace rather than actually "race" the HM.  I think I may have 1 or 2 10k races in the 37 range somewhere in there but nothing super fast.  Since I started tris I have still managed to go sub 6 pace in most Olympic tris and duathlons.  I still have a goal of going sub 2:50 in a marathon sometime in the next few years, but KQ is my focus right now. I'm averaging roughly 40 miles/week during my Ironman training.  Not sure if any of this anwers your questions.

Thanks for all of the responses. I enjoyed reading your different perspectives and experiences. As I had said my focus for 2013 is IM WI, but I can see myself entering a lot more 5 and 10K races in the future. I'm really interested to see what my times are like after doing a 17 week BarryP and then the 24 week IM plan. I'm hopeful that the volume will lead to faster times next fall.

It was very motivating (and humbling) to see so many guys my age (47) and older running at those kind of speeds.

Without getting into a big training discussion.....the volume will be important but the 5 and 10k races will make you faster. Good luck!

No argument there. I'm just hopeful that I can sort of kill 2 birds with one stone in the next 12 months. With the increased volume from IM training I'm hoping I can get faster at the shorter distances also. My last 5K was about a year ago at 23:17. This past weekend was 22:10 with nothing in between but HIM training. I think I have the potential to go faster but I have no experience to back that belief up.

I would love to have a training discussion with you! Maybe I should start a different thread for that.

50 years old.  My best 5k race time is 21:14.  I have been fairly active all my life but definitely not a life-time runner.  I have been running off and on for the last 10 years but the last couple of years have been more serious than previous years.  My PRs for both 5 and 10km distances were this summer.  I think that I have a 20:xx 5k race in me.

I typically run 20 - 25 miles per week.  If I decide to enter any marathon or HM races I would increase this considerably.

The last two summers I have used the FIRST "Run Less Run Faster" training program.  I know that a lot of people are concerned about injury risk with this program, but I like it and I think that it has worked pretty well for me.

48 yo, ran a 19:24 5k in the spring, and a 39-ish 10k a month earlier.  Won AG for both.

My background is cross country team in high school, though we were nothing special, and I biked everywhere before I got a car.  Played a couple other sports, but cross country was my strongest.  I was never a sprinter, so I guess I'm chock full of slow twitch...

Then college, cars, etc, for almost 30 years.  I did maintain some fitness throughout that in the Army and National Guard, 2 mile run on a PT test every year, some years that was almost all the exercise I got.  Maybe a few tune up runs the month prior to our test.  For me the run was never an issue.  In Army school, I think I ran an 11:34 at the track, for a 2 mile run.

I've also felt that it was genetics, combined with training at young ages.

My training these days is only running a couple times per week, with spinning and cross training mixed in.  Right now, no plan, just relaxing for November, then back into multisport mode in December.