Sub 5 after 50?

Galvanized by this nice thread, went to the high school track at 52 yo, to see what I could run without doing speed work anymore (400's or 300's) that I did to break 5 at 50. Kept doing 535-540 mile with 60 sec rest x3 and still running around 35 miles/week

I finished in 5:08 for the mile. Still not inclined to do speed work as don't want to suffer that hard workouts induce. Also promised not to embarrass my high school kids by being sprawled out on the infield lying down in the fetal position in agony!

Agree with lexel that one needs some anaerobic capacity.

Thanks for your input. It is reassuring that this is similar to the type of training plan I laid out. At the moment I am clocking 78 for the 400s with 60s rest and I need a 60 sec walk/jog between the 300s to keep them at 56. Still hoping to get a touch faster with a couple of months of training. Fingers crossed.

hats off! nice thread indeed. perhaps there's no need for 400's or 300's if you finish some of your runs with full speed (start slow, finish hard). works for me.

Got married at 40 and we had our first kid 5 years later. Extra incentive to stay fit so I can keep up with them! I'm sure I will be mistaken for grandpa often when they're in high school.

Great work! In Missouri on a certified course and timed race, you would be the state record holder with that time! 5:16 for me if I can do it before May 14th, 5:25 after...

This is the way I would look at it, and am looking at it. Wouldn't it be fun to run a 6:00 minute mile after 60? Nobody really gives a crap. I would focus on doing it in a fun way, not a driven way. This is too old to lose any carefree sensibilities or life balance over a mile run.

Good post.

Refreshing to see people such as yourself, wisenheimer, triathlete guru, etc... providing insight as well as trials and tribulations in training to reach a goal as we all mature (at least in age). Yes, 6:00 min mile at 60 or keeping 1500 sub 5 for how many more years going forward without getting injured, seems like a goal to shoot for after reading these posts.

motivated by this thread, i would like to give a bit of input, although i would consider myself a hobby runner. the real masters stars like brad barton train like youngsters, i can't.

like others i wanted to perform well in my first year as a 50+ runner. the daily training paid off, but resulted in painful injuries like patellar tendonitis. personally i am better with these rules:
- always go to work by bike (for me daily at least 30 minutes, most of it steep uphills, in the winter often up to 45min, heavy backpack)
- only running every other day to avoid injury, no long runs, never more than 45min but always quality
- typical sessions: 3x8min hard, progression runs (up to 45min, really fast finish), 5x3min, 6x400m/30s rest @ about 3k pace (progression style for the 400's), 10-12x45s uphill/jog down
- intervals only four weeks prior race day
- very effective, if little time: 25-30min run, moderate, but the last 800m or 1200m of the run: all out, 100% (that has improved the time for 1200m by 10s within one month).

good luck, everybody!

V similar, married at 35, no kids at 44, and then by 48 had 5! (all adopted). Now at 63 I still have one in middle school, 2 in H.S. It's incentive to keep running and trying not to look our age.

...and as you get a bit closer to your goal, have lost some of that extra weight you referenced, and read Fitzgerald's book (or any of the similarly good ones out there), I'll chime in on my experience. Like you, I ran a bit when younger (just H.S. teams), didn't focus on it much at all till 45, and have now been at it with some success for 18 years. You've already gotten some good advice on here, but we can provide more pointed tips as you proceed and have more specific concerns. Suerte!

I ran sub6 last Fall doing half marathon training and I thought about trying something similar. Maybe that's what I'll do this summer instead of killing myself doing mileage in the heat.

at 54 I don't see how I could ever run sub5, at 50 I ran 5:35, I think I could get under 530 if I did 6-8 weeks of straight Miler type training.

I'm 65 - haven't tried a mile, but did do 4x800m in 3:04, 3:03, 3:02, 1:59.0 with 2 minutes recovery, so I think I'd have a shot.

That is a shot at sub 6:00 at 60+ not sub 5:00

I ran sub 5 for 1600m at 54. Hurt like hell. I’m not sure I ever want to try to do that again.

This bucket list is probably one of the best ones I've seen for the FOP amateur that wants to do a bit of everything. I raced triathlon through HS/college and was an average XC runner and now just bike and run (no swimming due to shoulder injuries).

The one that sticks out is the sub-2hr olympic triathlon. Seems harder than the rest. You'd be looking at round numbers of 20/60/40 for 1500m/40k/10k s/b/r, needing to find about 2-3mins for transitions. No one is perfectly well rounded, so for a runner type this is usually 22/58/36 + transitions. To me, stringing that together is a lot harder than the rest of these, other than maybe sub 17/35 for 5k/10k.

That last 800 indicates for sure you have a shot!!

Last year my 50+ teammates and I all went sub-5. We did a 12-week training block with a workout every 3 days alternating between strength (threshold training) and track workouts reps between 200m to 600m. The 200s we’re around 34-36”. The 400s were at 79” in week 1 down to 73” in week 11.

Teammates really helps. I got down to 5:10 on "accident" trying to stay with the younger group on workout Wed. at the track. Started thinking dumb as "I might be able to break 5 with some even speedier workouts." Ripped calf within a month doing 400s and out for 5 months. I'm 57 now and above was about 18 months ago. Fact I'm looking at this post is already a bad sign. I'm likely 5:2x shape again and starting to have dumb thoughts. I found the injury danger trying to train to get to 5 vs 5:20 is immense. Still, I'll probably do it again if I find myself close to 5:10 again. It's a tasty sweet just to brag to old college teammates about if you can pull it off but darn risky.