Retired Runners

People today switch not just jobs, but careers several times in their work years. That wasn’t usually the case for the generation of people now retiring. These were the company men—you got a job with Industrial Behemoth, Inc. when you were young, and you stayed there until you retired. You weren’t encouraged to do much more than be an employee, a husband, and a father. The women were encouraged to stay home and raise the kids while tending to the endless household chores. You didn’t have hobbies; you had responsibilities.
But what now? You’ve retired, the kids are long gone and that dream of hours of leisure time might have become a nightmare. Throughout this book, I’ve shown how running is not just exercise; it’s a lifestyle. No, you’re not going to spend your entire day running, but it does help to center your day. Having this activity on your schedule has a way of organizing your day; there seems to be more of a purpose to what you do. I keep mentioning how running improves the quality of your life. This benefit is especially important for older people, who suffer from depression at a higher rate than young people. One of the most amazing runners I know of is Warren Utes of Park Forest, Illinois. Utes began running in 1978 at age 58. When he retired in 1985, he had several years of base behind him and went on a running rampage that hasn’t stopped. Among his many records are a 39:41 10K at age 74, making him the oldest person ever to break 40:00 for the distance. Need me to do the math? That’s almost 6:20 per mile for 6.2 miles! Utes runs 60 miles a week and is having the time of his life. Wouldn’t you like to join him?

Leaving Youth in the Dust

If you’re over the age of 50 and have been sedentary for a long time, do you remember how you felt more than 20 years ago? Probably pretty darned good, huh? Even if you weren’t brimming with vitality, you probably wouldn’t mind feeling like that again instead of how you feel now, right? Well, if you start running, you can feel that way again.
A study of runners age 50 and older compared them to healthy nonrunners in their 20s. The women runners had an average level of aerobic fitness the same as the sedentary 20-somethings, and the 50+ men runners had slightly higher aerobic capacities than the young couch potatoes. Based on these figures, you could say that running cuts 20 to 30 years from your age!

All Ages Welcome

It’s never too late to get in shape. People who start running in their 70s will see the same kinds of gains that people in their 20s do. The principles that underlie why your aerobic capacity and strength increase when you start running have no idea how old you are. That’s not what older people have traditionally been told. People past the age of 60 were told to take it easy—maybe putter around the garden a couple of times a week or walk the dog (assuming the dog is no bigger than a dachshund). Get the old ticker going, and you’ll be pushing up daisies, not pulling in Social Security. Getting sick and increasingly dependent on others is an inevitable part of getting old, we were told. Now we know that that advice, like history, is bunk. As one of the leading researchers in this area likes to say, what most people think of as the natural consequences of aging are really the “atrophy of disuse.” Our bodies are machines that like being used. Start them up at a good rate after years of practicing “atrophy of disuse,” and they will thank you for it.
One study started a group of sedentary men in their 60s on a walking and running program. They worked out four times a week for 30 minutes at 70 percent of their maximum heart rate. (Sound familiar? See Chapter 3.) After only four weeks, their aerobic capacity had increased by six percent, and their heart rate at their training pace decreased by 10 beats per minute. After another five weeks, they had another six percent increase in aerobic capacity, and their training heart rate fell another six beats.
Older people can benefit from strength training as well. One of the main reasons that older people lose independence, and with it, quality of life, is because they’ve lost so much muscle mass that they can’t perform basic daily tasks. Being unable to lift more than five pounds might not seem like much of a big deal until you do some quick math: Half a gallon of milk weighs three pounds. Go to the store and buy that, a few pieces of fruit, and maybe some chicken breast, and you better be able to lift more than five pounds unless you want to rely on others to carry even the lightest groceries for you.
A famous study at Tufts University started frail people in their 80s on a serious weight training program. The old folks did repetitions at 80 percent of their one-rep maximum. That’s hard work for anyone, believe me. In just eight weeks, their strength more than doubled.
The bottom line: Not only can older sedentary people start an exercise program like younger people, but they should. The benefits of exercise, as well as the principles for obtaining these benefits, are the same no matter what your age.