SERIOUS TRAINING Part 8
Aging, Training, and Healthspan
I’ve written three books for athletes over the age of 50. Each was born from my desire to better understand my aging body as it related to training across the years in running, triathlon, and cycling. I gave each book to myself as a birthday gift while aging from my fifties into my eighties. Through writing them, I sought to understand why my body was changing and how I could train more effectively.
The first book, Cycling Past 50, was written in 1998, when there was very little research on aging athletes. I wrote largely from personal experience as a 50-something athlete—and, frankly, it was weak.
The second book, Fast After 50, came out in 2014. By then, much had changed, both for me and for the science of aging. I was entering my seventies, and research on aging and performance had grown substantially. I recently completed a total rewrite of Fast After 50 (it will be on shelves in June) and discovered that there is now even more research on aging and sport to explore and write about—making for happy writing.
The Baby Boomers played a major role in the growth of aging research. They were the first generation considered ‘old’ to take up sport seriously, beginning in the 1970s and 1980s. Before them, vigorous exercise was widely viewed as unsafe for older adults. Over the next three decades, Boomers helped reshape our thinking about aging and physical performance. Now in their sixties and seventies, many are still going strong. Generation X—today’s 50-somethings—is continuing that evolution and bringing a new look to sport.
In this post and the next three, I want to share what I’ve learned about training aging athletes—from being one myself, coaching others, and writing three books on the subject. Alongside current research, I’ll draw on lessons from more than 50 years as an athlete and coach. You may already recognize some of what I will discuss through your own reading and experience with aging, but I hope you’ll come away with a few takeaways that help you train more effectively as the candles on your birthday cake continue to multiply.
In this post and the next three, I’ll explore four broad topics important to aging athletes: healthspan, trainability, training, and recovery. Let’s get started—with mice.
