The New York Times Fitness and Health sections are the best parts of the newspaper.
For Older Runners, Good News and Bad
... goal was to assess running economy, a measure of how much oxygen someone uses to run at a certain pace. Economical runners can continue at a given speed longer than inefficient striders, outdistancing them.
Going into the study, the researchers had assumed that runners past age 60 would be less economical than youthful athletes, since older runners, as a group, are slower than younger ones. But as it turned out, when scientists fitted the volunteers with masks that measured their oxygen use as they ran on a treadmill and then compared the results by age group, the runners 60 and older were just as physiologically economical as younger runners, even those in their 20s and 30s.
So ... why do we slow down as we age?
Dr. Quinn’s group, too, found that some physiological parameters did worsen with age. Older runners scored poorly on tests of upper-body strength and lower-body flexibility, both of which can affect the ability to compete.
“You need upper-body strength to pump your arms and generate power and velocity, especially on hills,” Dr. Quinn said. Similarly, flexible tendons and muscles in the lower leg allow full, easy strides. “We didn’t measure step length,” he said, “but my guess is that it was shorter” among the runners who were 60 or older. With tighter tissues, older runners are constrained to choppy strides and, in general, a slower pace.
The entire not-very-long article is worth reading.
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