Running from running

I’d fallen into the habit of saying “I no longer run. You know, it’s not very good for you, especially once you’re past your twenties and thirties.” Walking briskly? Yes, I can get fanatically committed to a daily trek around town. But rare is the day that I run, even though less than a year ago, I would enjoy the runner’s high as much as the next young marathoner out there.

Today I no longer can justify my running abstinence. The papers are reporting the findings of a Yale study (for example here) that whips my excuse right out the door. It appears that older runners (past 50 – I qualify!) are even more likely to improve their running performance during training than younger runners (take THAT you baby sprinters!). The researchers are concluding that whatever innards you have that are conducive to running (the article uses more medically precise words, such as musculature, oxygen absorption, etc etc) do not deteriorate or atrophy as a result of aging. They wilt and wither because people do not use them. In simple words: we get lazy.

One researcher notes:
“You can maintain a very high performance standard into the sixth or seventh decade of life.”

At least this gives me an excuse to put off training for a few more months or even years. What’s the rush? I can still improve my running time a quarter of a century from now.