Renown endurance sports coach, Joe Friel’s latest book, Fast After 50 (VeloPress.com) profiles amazing elite athletes who have all past (and sometimes well past) the half-century mark; including 59-year-old Ned Overend, who won the first National Fatbike Championships, against a field of much younger pros (USA Cycling).
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Friel attributes Overend’s longevity—and frankly the longevity of any older athlete—to maintaining high intensity workouts.
“Training with an emphasis on high-intensity intervals has been my preferred method of preparing for races throughout my career,” Overend writes in Fast After 50. “I’ve learned that by reducing volume, I’m more rested for high-intensity sessions, and by being rested I can push myself harder during the intervals.”
Friel argues that the biggest contributor to performance decline as we get older is nurture, not nature. He estimates nurture’s percentage at 60-70%. Which means that as much as 70% of your athletic power after turning 50 remains under your control!
Intensity is usually one of the first things to go from your workouts as you reach middle age. Many older athletes opt for running long, slow distances, not because they are no longer capable of redlining, but because this type of training feels less taxing. But Friel believes the key lies in intensity—that is, consistently jacking your heart rate into the upper echelons of its potential peak.
Obviously, anyone (no matter their age) just starting on a training program should screen for preexisting conditions and clear things with their doctor before starting a high-intensity program. But, Friel argues that the perception that high-intensity training is dangerous is overblown.
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Friel spends the second half of Fast After 50 helping readers develop their own programs. In addition to maintaining intensity he says you’ll also need to:
- Lift weights
“When you train with heavy loads for several weeks, you develop younger muscles,” Friel writes. “Lifting increases the body’s production of muscle building hormones such as growth hormone, testosterone, and insulin growth factor.”
- Eat more protein
“Recent research … strongly suggests that we need more [protein] as we age,” writes Friel. How much depends on myriad factors, which Friel gets into in his book. The general takeaway is to spread protein intake throughout the day, since the body is limited in how much protein it can process per meal.
- Sleep better, longer
“Sleep is definitely the key to better performance with aging,” writes Friel. How much? “If you’re using an alarm clock to wake up, you’re not getting enough.”
- Consider more passive recovery
If active recovery involves light activity—a short bike ride, an easy run—after a race or hard training session, passive recovery is doing basically nothing at all. Friel suggests weaving in more passive recovery as you age. Active recovery may still play a role, but you might find that taking a day (or two) completely off is even more beneficial. There may even be ways to enhance your passive recovery with things like compression tights, cold-water immersion, pneumatic sleeves, and massage.
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- Be conservative
Training hard at middle age and beyond can be fraught with risk, as anyone who’s felt their back go sproing during a hard workout will tell you. Injuries heal more slowly as you get older, and that downtime can be tough. “Moderation and consistency” are the best way to ensure longevity and success, counsels Friel.
Curated Article by Outside Magazine
Related Souces and Studies:
VeloPress
USA Cycling
