Aging isn't bad, it just makes you "Half Fast"

Recently, my friends and I were sitting, chatting with a cup of coffee following our morning workout. It took us approximately 50:00 minutes to run the 5 mile loop that we had chosen at the outset. Not bad for some 50 somethings who do this as much for the socialization, as for its' obvious benefits. The converstion drifted between topics, nothing new. We ended up talking about the times recently posted by one of the member's children in the previous night's swim meet; impressive, for them, in their season opener.

Naturally, we began to make some comparisons to the times we had when were, shall we say, more youthful. As a group, we used to run that same 5 mile loop in approximately 40 minutes, give or take the day or conditions. Additionally, instead of 50 minutes, we formerly would run for 60 or 70 minutes. While we are grinding out our 10:00 minute/mile pace, world class marathoners are zipping along at 5:00 minutes/mile. Our swim workouts, which generally would leave us breathless, were quite a bit slower compared to the "kids", usually twice their times. Overall, we were consistently slower, and of course, that comes as no revelation.

Wisdom would dictate our justification, of course. Being older, we were more cautious, thus becoming slower. We clearly didn't want to go "too fast", as that might cause injuries. Heavens, we had had enough of those over the years. And when you get injured at our age, going faster simply doesn't justify the potential loss of training time, compounding our slowness. We unanimously agreed, speed should be reserved for the youth of America.

Have you ever listened to NPR's Kai Ryssdal? Before he reviews the stock market report for the day, before a commercial break, he says, " When we get back, we'll do the numbers". So let's do the numbers. The marathoners and the swimmers are consistently faster than we are; the average for us would be about twice their speed. As a group, we have slowed over the years, but we also have cut down on our workouts, sometimes by at least a half. Granted, this comes as no big surprise. But facts are facts, I am afraid. I'm no mathematician, and the numbers don't lie. I can only conclude with this. Even on a good day, we are at best, "half fast", and that's a fact!