Question for the board members in their 40's or older
 

At what age, if it's happened yet, did you start to feel like your best days were behind you physically? I'm 37 and I am stronger than I've ever been in my life. I'm running again and am making pretty good gains after taking a few months off. In short, I feel like I still have some improvement and good days in front of me. However, I got a little down the other night thinking about how I'd feel 10 years from now. One thing that I have "going for me" is that I pretty much pissed away my 20's when it came to fitness. I spent age 20 on a mission, 21-27 finishing my undergrad and graduate work with little time made for fitness. So, perhaps I'm only feeling good about my 30's because I accomplished very little fitness wise in my 20's.

Have any of you ever reached a point where you realized there were certain standards that you'd never meet again? Do such realizations get you down or have you been able to focus on comparing with your peers etc..? At around what age can a man expect to realize that his best performances are behind him? Judging by some of the friends I've ridden and run with I think this age can be into one's 50's.

I was 24 when I played my last year of college ball and felt pretty dang good competing at that level. Even just two years later I realized that because I didn't continue playing, baseball had passed me by.

Now I'm out of shape and trying to get back to "reasonably" in shape. Now that I'm 43, I don't see me being in shape like I was in college because of too many other things going on in my life. In school, all I ever did was study, go to class and work out during the off season and play ball, work out, try to study and go to as little class as I could during the season.

I'm sure for people like you who were good enough to compete in college it's easy to reach a point where you won't get better than you were. That point likely comes right after college. Do you find though that when you pick up something new (ie cycling for you) that you can make gains continuously and stay interested?

Yes I do. When I finally accepted that I wasn't good enough to continue with baseball, I started golfing and love to play it.

I'm really starting to enjoy cycling. Right now, I only ride three times a week about 20-25 miles each ride, but I feel so much better during the day after an early morning ride that I'm going to start riding 5 times a week at the same mileage. I don't know if I'll ever have the passion for cycling that I did for baseball and like I now have for golf because I see it as a good way to get and remain in shape. Perhaps the more I ride, the more I'll pursue it to the point where I make gains.

My dad is in his late 50s and only started cycling about 3 years ago.

And he has raced in the amateur old guys state championship crits, and not embarrassed himself.

In the first Hotter n Hell 100 he did, he road off at the 70 mile mark and my friend and I, in furious pursuit and working together (friend does triathlons) couldn't catch him.

And my dad has a gut as well. :)

Point is, fitness isn't so much about age, esp. in cycling.

I remember reading something from Hal Higdon once about people who take up running later in life that do well because they're legs aren't beat up from a life spent running.

I have mentioned my father here and his athletic prowess before. He's 51 now and I couldn't ever really notice a sharp decline until this past year. Though he has had a serious injury, a completely torn tricep above the elbow that required extensive surgery and a lengthy rehab, which slowed him considerably.

He's in ridiculous shape though. He works out about 2 hours every day lifting, running, and playing basketball. In high school he was all state in Hawaii as a TE/DE in football and OH in volleyball. Could have played anywhere in the Pac-10 but gave up football to play volleyball and stay close to home. So he accepted a scholarship to play for BYU-HI. After using all his eligibility, he decided to become a body builder. He was accepted to the FBI right before the Mr. Hawaii competition and was never able to compete in it. He's competed in the Police Olympics with the FBI for several years and only stopped recently.

The biggest thing for him is warming up and recovery now. It takes him much longer to do both. And I think he's admitted that it really began in his mid 30's that he noted a decline especially in these areas. His agility and quickness is far from what it used to be. But he's strong as ever. Most people never think he's much older than 40. I hope to look half as good at his age. I think he substitutes what he lacks athletically for toughness. I have pulled out some nasty dislocated fingers he's had. He just keeps trucking. He plays through injuries all the time. In fact, I played 18 holes of golf with him and his torn tricep that was rolled up under his shoulder 2 weeks before his surgery. He could hardly swing a golf club, but he did it anyway.

This is the only thing about my 30's where I've noticed a difference from my 20's. I can't remember EVER having tendonitis in my 20's. Now, unless I'm uber diligent with my pre-workout routine I'm destined for tendonitis somewhere. I've been especially vulnerable with my itb, something I never had a problem with before. But overall, I still feel like a stronger more fit person than I did in my 20's.

I love hearing that your dad is still strong in his 50's. I love to lift weights, and though I'm not strong compared to your dad, I do pretty well with what little God gave me in that area. It's fun to think I could still be enjoying such activity into my 50's.

Mike, re: your dad (I still haven't figured out how to quote from multiple posts yet), I once rode a 60 miler with a man in his late 60's. It was a tough ride with some of the better riders in our town doing their Long Slow Distance which required those of us mere mortals to be at full speed trying to keep up. At the end of the day, he was right there with us and seemed to feel better than I did.

Obviously your dads toughness did not rub off on you. :)

I forgot to mention that my mom took up running about two years ago, and has run two or three marathons, and took first place in her age division.

So I get my mom's toughness, not my dad's.