I saw some interesting times floating around on a master sprint forum… These are good times and keep me motivated!!!
Also on the road to Ames Outdoor Masters Nationals: sprinter extraordinaire Damien Leake, 66, pictured here winning Gold in both the M65 100m (12.42) and 200m (26.35) at last year’s Spokane Nationals. Damien returns to Ames to defend his titles.
10.76, M40 world lead.
Howard Clark, 69, today won Gold in the M65 400m with a time of 1:00.13.
Some local guys are trying to get me to do masters (at age 35!). I can’t bring myself to think about age-based competitions when Justin Gatlin just dropped a 9.87 at age 37. Age 40 is the bare minimum for masters IMO, but if someone is still out there running in the pros at that age or older, it’s pointless.
You are guaranteed to get slower if you hold yourself to a lower standard.
I found it very motivating to realise that I could be competitive at an international level and break state and possibly national records when I started competing in masters athletics. Without that motivation I would have probably stopped when I realised that I was not going to able to achieve PBs anymore.
Most people start getting slower and more injury prone once they hit their thirties. Justin Gatlin and Kim Collins are exceptions, and their longevity is probably related to the fact that they both had a few years away from track in the middle of their careers.
Nothing is stopping you from competing at senior and masters level at the same time, btw.
I’m closer to 40 then 30 but still look young. Last summer a coach was trying to get me to join his summer track club - he thought I was a senior in high school. LOL
If you remember that is the same thing I was trying tell you guys 2yrs ago. If you start treating yourself like a old master sprinter then you will never be able to train hard like you could in your younger years. I feel most master runners could train harder if they didn’t believe their age etc.
If I was getting daily therapy like Gatlin and didn’t have regular people daily stressors I could be running much better at my age also.
I agree with you here. There are realities with age, but I do believe a lot of people “check out” too early. Everyone on my club started referring to themselves as old when they hit 30. “I mean, we’re old.” “Hey, not bad for an old guy!” That mindset is guaranteed to limit you.
My PBs were in the season where I was exactly 30.5. The outside influence that has thrown me off was having a kid. Between that season and the next, I got married, had a kid, and work responsibilities skyrocketed. I was actually dropping practice PBs right before that next season at 31.5-years old, but the cumulative stress was too much and resulted in hamstring tendinopathy. That knocked me out for a couple of years (this was discussed in length on here in the past). The lack of training and poor patterns I developed during that period had effects that lasted quite a while.
I’m not one for hypotheticals, but I do truly believe the external factors are the main reason for running slow over the last number of seasons rather than age. It’s more about the things that come along with being in your young to mid 30s than actually being that age. I haven’t give up on the quest for another PB in 2020 at age 36.
Damien Leake trains 3-4 times per week on the track, 3-4 times in the gym. Some are double sessions. He clearly is not taking his age as an excuse to cut down.
He appears to take 2 months (?) of non training exercise. A lesson there, some masters try to train all year around without defined breaks.
Interesting that Leake quotes a fast 100yd time at school and is quoted as starting athletics in 2007 - in his 50s. Appears to be nothing in between those ages.
This matches a theory from Tim Noakes (endurance runners) that the top runner at 40 will be someone that was good at age 30. But at age 50 could be replaced by someone that did not start running until age 40.
Rather like someone who told me he was running seriously in his early 20s but by 45 was a clapped out old runner - he just thought he was burnt out mentally and physically.
10.76, M40 world lead.
I think the guy who has that 10.76 started out at 11.42 several years ago. Nice progress by a masters runner.
Sun: Drive and top speed (+ afternoon weight/plyos session if early season).
Mon: tempos and core
Tue: Weights
Wed: core, upper body
Thu: Speed endurance
Fri: Weights
Sat: Rest
I agree this is great progress.
My point was related to middle aged burnout/injury. Clearly anyone hitting world lead times has improved, or at least not declined much.
But a high performing statistic does not include the N number of athletes that declined or gave up.
Virtually every masters athlete I know has declined post 40, which is to be expected. More seriously a number have virtually given up through injury/burnout. They were all people with a long history of training.
With masters is managing life in addition to training and the body. My boy jeff Mack, has been winning everything fromthe time he hit 40 . He is 46 i think know. He ran 10.7 a few years back. His mid to late 30s he was stuck at 11.6. Then he leaned up, and the times started dropping again like he was in college.
http://www.areteac.com/jeff-mack-4-time-u-s-masters-national-champion-joins-arete-2/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUb_ZD_0eBh5rj6RYW8gb4w
I used to beat him on the regular then about 4-5 years ago he started rolling, and I got slower and injured more.
I just had my first child last august, but that hasnt added any real change to my training. Barring this quad strain, I expected to run 11 low byt the end of this season. Finally got my diet in order. So once im fully healed from this, Im gonna start getting therapy weekly to keep the body in check.
How’s his training?
Depends if you’re married, too. That’ll decrease a man’s testosterone even more rapidly.
How/why???
Well I don’t want to get into all the sociological and biological theories, there is a lot of assertions out there. But there certainly are legitimate longitudinal studies out there which show a significant decline in men’s testosterone after they get married. Check it up. I bring this up because it probably is one of the major physiological players in the decline we see in a lot of athletes once they hit about 30 - about the average age when a man gets married these days.
This looks like Lion Martinez structure. He is a gun masters sprinter…pushed Francis Obikwelu all the way at the recent Masters indoors. Would like to know what he does within his individual sessions.
What do you mean gun sprinter?
Its an Aussie term :Gun sprinter" means “one of the best”
For those interested in studies here is an interesting site.
https://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations
Lion is a great sprinter tbh and was around 10.5 when he was younger took a few years out, and then got back into the sport
If you check out him and TJ who is also in the m40, they will be pushing out some very good times between them.
They have some interviews where they both talk about their training too
Now the story makes sense…