Your older SO WHAT???? According to the New York Times....

As a kid, I'd watch my hero, Jack LaLanne go at it every single day. He knew he was mortal. None of us is getting out alive. But his attitude was/is exemplary.
You don't get old if you can do today what you did yesterday. Thanks Jack. read on.....and remove the excuse
"I am too old" and READ THE LINK AT THE BOTTOM over and over again.

Older runners lose muscle mass at the rate of 1-2% yearly after 30, depending on whose stats you look at. Not a good thing. What to do?

A. Lift weights 2 times a week, 3 at certain times in your training cycle, if you can squeeze it it. I will blog separately on this subject. Runners or not, weightlifting is the single core activity all adults should do, all the time, balanced with cardio workouts. Everything else is gravy.

B. Shorten longer runs, increase speed and intensity to lessen the effect of converting to protein(muscle)for energy when glycogen stores become depleted. This hopefully will leave more muscle mass on your emaciated frame. Also,harder shorter runs will demand a muscle building response. Exactly what you need.

C. Stress Your system. Oxygen processsing also drops. See #2 above. There's nothing like stressing lung capacity to increase oxygen processing. Offset or delay this loss due to age by small hard workouts, close to or at maximum heart rate. Of course, see your doc first for clearance. But this is as close to a magic bullet as there is.

D. Crosstrain. Everyone has favorites, but some are mo betta than others. The best for translating to running appears to be biking, with an out of the saddle component. Somehow, it seems to mimic the muscle specificity necessary for translation into running benefit. My guess is it's a combo of cardio, muscle, and turnover. Out of saddle has always helped my heels come up for running. Note that the maximal benefit I've read about is with interval training OUT OF THE SADDLE for a portion of the workout on the harder bike days. I will speak more to crosstraining in the future, including recommended weight training routine. You want "fast" in your stride? Weight train with a taper. Other "best of" crosstraing, besides biking (my fav is mountain biking... cars can't kill you, and out of saddle grinds are a necessity for hill climbs)are cross country skiing and snowshoeing.

E. Eat better, rest more. Protien and carb shakes may work. As we get older, ALL runners get an extra inch or so at the waist. Get over it, add muscle mass to your overall body frame, and don't obsess about it by starving.

F.Use Periodization training schedules. Everyone should do this, but it becomes more important for older runners to make sure they get the rest cycle every fourth week. OC 's (obsessive compulsives)can and will ignore this and plateau out and live in misery and self deprecation.

G.Accept aging, but make it a game to achieve your best performance under your specific conditions. I'd like to get back to sub 4 hour marathons. Surgery and age may make it impossible, but it's worth a try. Sub 3 or 4 hour goals may be irrational for YOU!

What is probably more reasonable is to IMPROVE your ranking on a local race every year. There can only be one FIRST PLACE in your division. So stop agonizing and just try to beat someone at YOUR OWN LEVEL. You'll both have a great time and a sense of accomplishment. Maybe you can both run over a 3rd runner! Make it fun! Life is short. And ALWAYS congratulate those who beat you. :>)

PLEASE READ THIS GREAT NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/aging-well-through-exercise/