yeah i was thinking about that yesterday... i've been playing sport for approx twenty years, a third of my life. no wonder it hurts more now after a training session.

by the time your knees have gone.. maybe you could get these? http://www.katysullivan.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/riorunning.216142607_std.gif

Okay some background. I started running seriously (joined a club) and gave up being a soccer goalie aged 14. I ran seriously until various health problems aged 17/19 did for the running seriously. Subsequently getting married at 20 did not help. I tried to get back into it at various times over the years but raising a young family and a career always got in the way. I am back into it now in my mid 40s (after one false start a couple of years ago) after the offspring left home. I have been building up for 10-11 months now and am in a very interesting place, knocking on the door of some proper pace.

I can confirm that things take a bit longer to heal than they used to, also I have to build up more slowly than I ever had to in my youth. It doesn't help that I was pretty sedentary and it has taken several years of intermittent effort and these last months running a LOT of steep hills to get my legs near where they were when I was 17. The absence of 50miles a week of cycling (my knees no longer let me) has not helped.

How fast can I get? I reckon I could run 5k at 3.7min/km right now (at least if I hadn't just run up my favourite steep hill 10 times I could). If I stopped my conditioning now and took up some serious speed work (400m reps iow, I'm doing occasional mile reps now) I could get that down. One of the interesting things about where I am is that I seem to have a much greater tolerance and appetite for hard work (being hill and speed reps) than I did when I was younger when I was a distance freak in spades.

I am not as fast as my younger self, he could run a hilly 10miles in less than an hour, I'm 20min behind him on a good day and my not so steep 10mile circuit (I have a steeper one).

All I know is that the journey is a fascinating one and where I am is so pregnant with possibility it makes me giddy and afraid and seriously impatient.

Remember your main competitor is always yourself.

I'll be 40 in April, and have played sport in some shape or form most of my life. Over the last couple of years I've been in the best shape (in terms of muscle mass/defination & cardiovascular fitness) ever. As well as my 2/3 times a week gym habit and walking 5km to and from work most days I put this down to having taken up mountainbiking and doing 2 Karapotis, including hard-out training for 3 months prior to each. I really hope I can keep this level of fitness and shape up for many years to come.

When I hit my 30's, I thought I was the fittest I ever was. And I probably was. I then had a hiatus of 7 years of cycling, and although I wasn't fat, I definitely was unfit. Last year I got back into the cycling. Now that I have hit the magic 40 mark, I feel as though that 30 year old was a slow poke. There is a lot more energy and the body has become a lot more cunning. I even managed to complete a half marathon with minimal walking / running training. It wasn't a fast pace, but I still managed to do it and then get out on the bike that afternoon! Unlike muscleguy above, my recovery time seems to have improved as well. Mine could be more to do with brain fade, and the inability to remember what happened 5 minutes ago. Mine could be more to do with brain fade, and the inability to remember what happened 5 minutes ago. Mine could be

Interesting topic and really interesting responses. I have been reasonably slim (which I always assumed meant I was healthy!) but unfit for most of my life - a bit of swimming and mountain biking in my 20s but that's about it. 3 pregnancies one after another took a huge toll on my body - not just the excess baby weight but stiff joints, creaking and aching and generally feeling bad both physically and mentally. I decided back in March that exercise would surely help. It is a source of amazement to me that 8 months later, running consumes my thoughts. And it is amazing to see what my body is actually capable of. I have always assumed that I was not genetically built for running (being only 5ft 3inches tall, asthmatic as a child and terrible at sport when I was at school). Running was something other people could do but not me. On Tuesday I ran 5km in 31 min and am well on track to my sub 1 hour 10k goal that I have set myself over summer. I can run 10k comfortably in 1h10m at the moment and am working on distance too - planning the Auckland half marathon next year. At 37 I can honestly say that I am in the best shape I have ever been (albeit still carrying a few extra kilos). I second muscleguy's comment that the journey is fascinating and full of possibility. I would never have had the metal toughness to do this in my 20s.

My friend took up running for the first time in her late 50s (had played no other sport. At age 72 she held the world women's 70+ 5km record (around 21 mins). Hope for us all! Don't forget, it's your body and you're in charge - make it do the things you want it to.

its the shoes causing all the damage

Not read Stuff for six weeks and I come straight back to your blog Ann! After trying to start regular exercise over the years, I finally got into it April last year. Never had ridden a geared bike in my life, hadn't swum for 20 years and never ever ran more than I had to for training for netball when I was a teenager (twice around the perimeter of the courts was enough!!). Have since April done a couple of cycle events, some running/walking events. Yet to do a swim event, so will look at doing one in Jan. Might finally do a small Tri - I keep talking about it! But what I love is the feeling I get after training. That nice little natural high when all is good with the world (just before hitting that friggin' peak hour traffic to work!). I never would have dreamt I would be so active (and happy!). And pleased to say that over the last 6/7 years I've slowly lost around 30kg. A few more to go yet, but will probably take another couple of years - but a great journey. Age just gets better as you get older (I'm pushing towards mid 40's), and amazingly, so does the body. Wish I was this wise years ago!!

Since I didn't start any of this lark seriously until I was about 25 I always wonder about the years of building up athletic prowess and endurance thing starting to really come into play just as age starts knocking me back, thus cancelling each other out. It's going to start being a bit depressing when training just as hard stops seeing drops in the pb. I might have to start on 'pb of the season' instead! (although I still think my mark in the auckland stroke and stride series of 'beating that disturbingly fast old lady out of the water' will stand). Lucky I just do all this for fun at the end of the day really!

@EJT I became asthmatic as an adult living in London (I'm allergic to air pollution) and running definitely helps it. I think it is because when you exercise you breathe much more deeply and energetically and that loosens and breaks up the mucus that tends to form in your lungs. It doesn't happen any more but earlier this year when I was still building up, after a run if I had had a few days off I would spend the next couple of hours coughing, shifting that mucus. I have an inhaler for the few really cold dry days we get that set me off and when I visit London. They always go out of date long before I have any chance of finishing them, whereas I used to use a steroid inhaler daily and ventolin often.

@Kieran

I'm not convinced that all the cushioning is necessarily a good thing. For one thing it slows me down, if I want to run fast I have to wear harder shoes. My 17yo self ran 100miles/week in the sort of shoes Asics are selling as retro chic. I think we may need a rethink.