The long-slumbering Wall Street Journal springs to life with a thoughtful admonition to boomers who believe they can keep on winning. In two words: they can’t. The paper quotes Mark Allen, a 51-year-old athletic coach once known as the world’s
fittest man for winning six Ironman Triathlon World Championships and
co-author of a new book called “Fit Soul, Fit Body.” “If you can’t
let up on the competitive part of it,” says Allen,” if you have to go as fast at 50
as you did at 20, you will grind yourself into the ground and become
stressed out, bitter and unhealthy.”
Disturbing? Read more in the Wall Street Journal.
It’s all about perceived level of effort…
This is very misleading article on many fronts …
First it gives you the impression that when you are 50 you should hang it up and that you’ll never be fast, throw far, or jump high again. What rubbish!
Masters athletes who use the proper training methods are seeing 80-85% of their 20’s performances.
I’ve been to National Masters Championships for the USATF in the US, and in Holland for the Dutch National Championships and have seen folks at 50 who put in outstanding performances.
Incorporating the proper training techniques along with decent periodization training, weights, plyometrics and understanding the rest and recovery requirements should (over time) help anyone at or above 50 do quite well.
Never quit, it’s worth it!
I agree that the article is misleading, but it does bring up some interesting questions. I just turned 60. Do I spend 150% or 200% of the effort to attain 80% of the results? At what point, does the effort become overtraining? What level of results should I expect? What is healthy? Should I change my routine as I get older? If so, how, and to what? These are all questions we’d all like to know as we get older, and this article only suggests that there may be an answer, but we don’t know what it is…
Although I agree that this article is a scare tactic, it does raise some interseting questions. As a geezer, I just turned 60, what can I expect from my performance as I get older? Should I put forth 150% to 200% of the effort to get 80% of the results? When does it become unhealthy? How do I strike a balance between health, competitivness, and performance? All this article says is “give it up geezer”….. That’s not acceptable. Give us some answers. Geezers need to know this as we get older.