I think that an individual only has so many years at which they can train at a very high level. Those who are outside the U.S. college system probably start earlier than Americans do. Most American runners do not train seriously until college and many not until after college. Thus the peak ages probably differ a bit.
It could very well be that the later American peak is also later than optimal. If we look into the past we find some top performances by Americans at a young age (Shorter, 24 in Munich for example). Personally, I'd rather have my peak at 21 than 31 (and hey I did!). If you are going to run a certain time in the end I'd rather not have to spend an extra 10 years training to do it. Worst of all, I've seen plenty of people at a plateau they never get beyond after about 25. They have years of frustration trying to break through it and few ever do. Regards, Paul Talbot -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Michael Contopoulos Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2002 11:14 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: t-and-f: Peak age... Americans have it wrong? Anyone ever notice that out of every sub 13 ever run the majority (i.e. all but 2 or 3) of the guys are 28 or younger? And that has nothing to do with Kenyans "lying" about their ages. We have Ethiopia, Germany, Morocco, USA , Algeria, Belgium, France, all listed there (granted the German was over 30 and the Belgian and French men are Moroccon by birth I believe). I mean even BK was only 26!!!!!!! Think about it a second. Our fastest 5k guys are usually 3:40low 1500 guys and 13:30ish 5k guys in college. If we assume that 24-28 are the peak years for a 5k runner (against the American idea that its 28-32), and the average elite athlete graduates at 23, then that means you have to improve A LOT and FAST if you are going to maximize your peak physical years. I'll be 25 in October, and I'll tell ya one thing, I'm past my physical peak. When I was 21/22 I could run 100 mile weeks, 2 workouts and a race... with easy days at 6:00 pace... but I would break if I tried half of that now (note: do not take the good training as a direct correlation to good racing)! Has anyone ever thought that the whole "peak in you late 20s early 30's" idea is outdated and maybe a by-product of the sentiment that college is the best thing for an 18 year old? I mean come on, how could college be bad... think of all the time you have when you are done! (sarcasm there). If you're halfway through your peak, training and racing like a wuss, not maximizing the body's healing capabilities at that age, you may miss the biological boat! Ideas? Oh yeah, the rare examples of those running fast late doesn't hold much water. What is fast today (in the 5k) is not what was fast 10 or 20 years ago. I'm talking sub 13:00s here. M _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com
