The Fountain of Youth is Real
If you track information on aging and fitness…and if you’re here, you maybe do…you are probably frustrated by the research summaries that begin with: “1,000 volunteers, aged 25-30…” Our wholly unsubstantiated theory holds that fitness research focuses on younger people because much of it is funded—directly or indirectly—by shoe and apparel companies that see free-spending...
An article about arteries. And runners. And tribes.
No young person thinks about their arteries, nor should they. But arterial health looms large as one ages and larger with each year. That’s why Gretchen Reynold’s piece in the New York Times might be of interest. The details are fairly straightforward: Researchers tracked the arteries of sedentary people who, God knows why, decided to...
Fauja Singh, the Harold Stassen of road racing
Fauja Singh, the baddest 101-year-old vegetarian marathoner on the planet, has maybe possibly (but not really) retired from competitive racing. Singh, who turns 102 on April 1, finished last weekend’s Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon’s 10-kilometer (6.25-mile) race in 1 hour, 32 minutes, 28 seconds—half a minute faster than he ran it last year...
Fauja Singh: don’t want to look, can’t turn away
When you’re, say, 50, it’s easy to feel like you’re dull. Uninteresting. You can feel invisible. So when you find something that puts you in high relief, that gives you an identity—especially if you excel at it and it demonstrates what a complete badass you are—you’re going to hold on to it. No. More...
Can seniors run barefoot? (Redux.)
If you’ve lived long enough, you’ve learned to be skeptical. Maybe cynical. You may even have crafted a few homemade conspiracy theories that you’re reluctant to divulge because everyone knows what conspiracy theories mean. (They mean you’ve taken the first step on the meandering trail to someone’s-been-sneaking-into-my-apartment-and-moving-my-reading-glasses-and-car-keys.) You might even think that Nike’s huge advertising...
How dangerous is distance running for old folks?
Older runners who are in excellent shape, with years of marathons under their collective and not very long belts, can still be cut down in mid-stride by a cardiac arrest. That’s the lesson suggested by the autopsy of famed 58-year-old endurance runner Micah True (AKA Caballo Blanco), who reportedly died from an undiagnosed enlarged left...
The Boston Marathon is thundering toward you
Patriot’s Day is coming on April 15, which means the granddaddy of marathons (well, American marathons) will be run in Boston, which means we’ll see a lot of stories about granddaddies who run marathons. Older marathoners are considered feature-bait, because they are thought to be unusual. Marathon-running preteens are also unusual but also possibly a...
Can seniors run barefoot? Should they?
Running barefoot combines the joys of being naked (at least on your lowest extremities) and not paying for expensive footwear (although most of the major shoe companies have introduced poorly identified “five-finger” shoes, some of which cost $150 or more). And then there is this other joy: If you read...
Doing well with less: older runners slower but just as efficient
When olds are active…really active…they are a special class. They don’t perform like younger athletes. They don’t recuperate like younger athletes. And they shouldn’t train like younger athletes. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t similarities. A study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (and summarized in yesterday’s New...
Put down the ginger curry and applaud Fauja Singh, 100-year-old marathoner
At age 100, British runner Fauja Singh completed Sunday’s Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 8:25:16, placing 3,850 out of 3,855. Which means first that he is a phenomenal athlete and second that five people had to slink home after the race and admit they were beat by someone who was born the...
Exercise and weight loss: Do these running shorts make me look “skinny fat”?
Over the past month or so, the web has blessed us with a handful of articles on the limited effect that exercise—especially running—can have on weight loss. Some of the arguments are simplistic (albeit accurate enough): people who work out a lot tend to eat...
Olds just won’t stop running marathons
If you were out pounding the pavement yesterday morning, you might have missed the New York Times story on the aging world of competitive running. Writer Tom Sims notes that 30 years ago, “the median age for a marathon runner was 34 for men and 31 for women....
