How age affects running speed

In our previous article about running over 40, we asked the question ‘how will age affect our speed?’

Of course, there is not one simple answer to how our advancing years will slow us down. Indeed, it may even be incorrect to assume that we will in fact slow down as we age. For example, a runner who takes up running at the age of 45 will — like anyone else — improve as their fitness develops, and that improvement rate will almost certainly be greater than the slow down due to age.

But what about those of us who have already been running for a number of years? Most people who have been running consistently for 5+ years will have reached their potential at their normal training level, especially at the shorter distances. If they want to improve then they really have to increase the training, either in quality or quantity. At the longer distances other factors come into play, for example mental strength, and this can be developed increasingly with advancing years.

The good news is that many people (probably the vast majority), over-estimate the effect their age will have on their running. There are many things we can do to minimise the age effect and we’ll look at these in the near future. For now, as a good starting point, it might be worth setting out current thinking on the age/speed subject.
As already implied, without personal consultation, we can only generalise here, so we’ll look at a typically matured runner (one who has been running at least 3 years).
Luckily, much research has been done on this and there are many records to use for data, so the figures that follow are pretty well accepted and recognised.

In his book, Running over Forty, Bruce Tulloh examined established research from reliable sources, he also detailed his own experiences of the age factor. His slow down was between 1.3 and 1.5 seconds per km per year at distances of between 4k and 10k. Unsurprisingly, the greater slow-down was over the shorter distance.  Tulloh then went on to analyse data he’d obtained from nearly 200 runners. The data was difficult to sift due to the variety of runners who responded, but there were some interesting and surprising reports of runners who had managed to improve well into their fifties and even sixties. When Tulloh looked at performance tables from the British Veterans Federation he saw similar patterns to his own records over 5k: between the ages of 40 and 60 a drop in speed of 1.6 seconds per km per year. Between the ages of 60 and 70 the drop was greater, in the region of 2.4secs/km/year.

Current, ratified, 5k and marathon world records for athletes over 35 — according to the excellent and regularly updated Wikipedia Masters Athletic Records page — are shown below (we’ve added some columns to indicate age-related slowdown).

Data such as this can of course be skewed. The athletes achieving these times are elite and some are more elite than others. The most obvious is the M35 record for the marathon, which until Berlin on 25th September 2011 was also the open record too (illustrating perfectly what an astonishing runner Haile Gebrselassie is). Similarly Bernard Lagat’s M35 record at 5k (and his recent World Championship silver medal at age 36) shows that reaching the age of 35 needn’t worry most runners; even over the shorter distances. So, we cannot just look at these times in isolation and draw conclusions. Rather we need to look at the overall picture and see how the figures compare to those already mentioned.

5000m		Difference to previous age category
Men	World record	total	secs/km/yr	slower per yr
Open	12.37
M35	12.54	0.17	0.7	0.45%
M40	13.43	0.49	2.0	1.27%
M45	14.23	0.40	1.6	0.97%
M50	14.53	0.30	1.2	0.70%
M55	15.37	0.44	1.8	0.99%
M60	16.12	0.35	1.4	0.75%
M65	16.38	0.26	1.0	0.53%
M70	18.33	1.55	4.6	2.30%
Ladies
Open	14.11
W35	14.33	0.22	0.9	0.52%
W40	15.20	0.47	1.9	1.08%
W45	15.55	0.35	1.4	0.76%
W50	16.51	0.56	2.2	1.17%
W55	17.52	1.01	2.4	1.21%
W60	18.51	0.59	2.4	1.10%
W65	20.27	1.36	3.8	1.70%
W70	22.06	1.39	4.0	1.61%
Marathon		Difference to previous age category
Men	World record	total	secs/km/yr	slower per yr
Open	2.03.38
M35	2.03.59	0.21	0.1	0.06%
M40	2.08.46	4.47	1.4	0.77%
M45	2.15.51	7.05	2.0	1.10%
M50	2.19.29	3.38	1.0	0.53%
M55	2.25.56	6.27	1.8	0.92%
M60	2.36.30	10.34	3.0	1.45%
M65	2.41.57	5.27	1.5	0.70%
M70	2.54.48	12.51	3.7	1.59%
Ladies
Open	2.15.25
W35	2.19.19	3.54	1.1	0.58%
W40	2.26.51	7.32	2.1	1.08%
W45	2.29.00	2.09	0.6	0.29%
W50	2.48.47	19.47	5.6	2.66%
W55	2.52.14	3.27	1.0	0.41%
W60	3.14.50	22.36	6.4	2.62%
W65	3.28.10	13.20	3.8	1.37%
W70	3.46.18	18.08	5.2	1.74%

So how do these figures compare to Bruce Tulloh’s findings? Allowing for the anomalies, they do appear to support them. One surprise is that in percentage terms, age-related slowdown is not markedly different over the different distances. Another is that ladies appear to slow down at a slightly greater rate, although this could be explained by the smaller pool of highly trained female runners at higher ages. Distance running is also quite a recent activity amongst female runners: it is only since 1995/96 that women have run 5000m or more at World Championship or Olympic Games. In general terms (and we really have to look in general terms at this data), an average slowdown of about 1% per year is usual, with the greatest decline unsurprisingly seen in later years.

Incidentally and significantly, there is evidence that slowdown is less for highly trained athletes.
We’ll look at the physiological reasons for age-related slowdown in our next article, and also how you as a runner can train effectively to reduce the effect advancing years has on your running performances. In the meantime, take a look at your own records over the past few years and see how your results compare.