Masters athletics: staying at the top of our game

8/4/2021

My recent blog post “The Power of Instructive Change” talked about a philosophical aspect of our approach to Masters’ athletics and competitions. Here I’ll provide our team with information that’s more technical.

Beyond our inherent reductions in sprint capacity as older athletes, there is also much good news on ways to avoid slowing physical capacities and how to be the best we can be at our sport.

Some encouraging findings appear in a recent technical paper titled “Why Are Masters Sprinters Slower Than Their Younger Counterparts? Physiological, Biomechanical, and Motor Control Related Implications for Training Program Design.” It’s summarized on Jimson Lee’s website, SpeedEndurance.com. Lee, a Masters athlete and coach based in London, describes his website as “a fun, no-nonsense, useful, and interesting approach to track & field, lifestyle, health, and fitness.” He summarizes the technical paper here.

Below the main text is a link to the full paper to be published in the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity by Human Kinetics, Inc.

The reading might seem challenging if you are unaccustomed to scientific papers, but hang in there for some great advice. Much of the information, I’m happy to report, covers points we already emphasize in our program. We are “spot-on” in many ways with what we are doing. But you can gain new knowledge from this paper, with an opportunity to change toward the better athletic you. I hope you will embrace the opportunity to read it.

Rick Riddle

1 Comment

william yelverton link

8/4/2021 05:32:49 pm

The loss of speed is inevitable with age as Jimson notes. However, there are some things we can control.
1) lean body mass
2) training
3) race execution

1) Lean body mass. It's obvious that as we age not only do we lose muscle mass but we become more adept at storing fat. For that reason, a masters athlete wanting to achieve optimum speed should weigh the same or LESS than you did when you reached your peak speed in your teens or 20s. And, strength training is a must, although that doesn't necessarily mean lifting heavy. Endeavoring to be 10% or lower in body fat is a good place to be. It's a matter of discipline, diet.

2) Old and wiser. We learn how to train better.

3) Technique and relaxation, recognizing one's flaws, and most importantly - pacing, especially in races 400m+.

Jimson's 'Attrition Predictors' aren't close at all in describing my attrition, perhaps for others they may be accurate, but they seem somewhat 'pessimistic' to me. I would urge my fellow masters to not accept these levels of attrition as 'expected' as outlined in these tables.

Track performances can sometimes be outliers, good and bad. Allan Tissenbaum just ran an 11.79 100m in Ames at age 61, faster than he's run at M55.

Personally, I don't put much stock in age graded tables or formulas. They have little meaning to me, especially in the case of outliers, like Jules Brims in W55 who presently has an age grade of 107% in the 200m. What does that even mean? Also, they seem to favor the shorter sprints for some unknown reason.

Bottom line: we all get slower, but be slow to accept it... :)

The inside lane

Masters athletics: staying at the top of our game

Leave a Reply.

your choice

Leah rewolinski

Archives