Should I run less as I get older?

Usually not less volume. Fewer hard days, spaced further apart, with the easy mileage kept intact. Cutting total volume is the intuitive move and it tends to cost more fitness than it saves.

Is the 220 minus age formula useful for masters runners?

Less than for anyone else. Maximum heart rate falls with age but the variation between individuals is large enough that the formula can be off by 15 beats or more. Use a measured max from a hard effort, or train by pace.

Can I still set personal bests after 40?

Frequently, especially at longer distances and especially if your earlier training was unstructured. The marathon in particular rewards accumulated aerobic development in a way that favours experience.

How important is strength training?

More important than any change to your running. Two sessions a week protects against the muscle and power loss that otherwise happens by default, and it is the best injury insurance available.

Train for

Training after 40

Most masters runners are given one of two useless messages: that nothing changes, or that they should slow down and take it easy. What actually changes is specific, and training around it is mostly a matter of recovery arithmetic.

What genuinely changes

Recovery takes longer. The single biggest factor. A hard session that needed 48 hours at 30 may need 72 at 50. Nothing about the session needs to change; the spacing does.
Maximum heart rate drifts down. Roughly a beat a year on average, with enormous individual variation. This is why age-based max HR formulas are worse for masters runners than for anyone else. Use a measured max or train by pace.
Muscle mass and power decline without resistance work. This is the one you can most directly fight. Two short strength sessions a week does more for a masters runner than any change to the running.
Connective tissue is less forgiving. Volume increases need to be gentler and down weeks need to be real. The injuries are the same ones; they arrive faster and leave slower.

What does not change

The training principles. Easy running still needs to be easy, threshold still moves your sustainable pace, and the long run still builds the base. Masters runners do not need a different kind of training, they need the same training with different spacing.

Trainability also does not go away. Masters runners respond to a well-structured block as reliably as anyone, and many people run lifetime bests in their forties simply because it is the first time they have trained properly.

How to restructure the week

1
Two quality days, not three
One threshold, one interval or hill session. A third hard day is where masters blocks break down.
2
Space them three days apart
Tuesday and Saturday rather than Tuesday and Thursday. The extra day is the whole adjustment.
3
Keep the volume
Do not cut mileage to make room. Cut a hard day and keep the easy running. Aerobic volume is what holds the fitness together.
4
Add two strength sessions
Twenty to thirty minutes, compound lifts and single-leg work. This is not optional after 40 in the way it arguably is before.
5
Take the down weeks seriously
Every third week, drop volume by a quarter. Skipping these is the most common masters mistake and it always shows up six weeks later.

Frequently asked

Should I run less as I get older?: Usually not less volume. Fewer hard days, spaced further apart, with the easy mileage kept intact. Cutting total volume is the intuitive move and it tends to cost more fitness than it saves.
Is the 220 minus age formula useful for masters runners?: Less than for anyone else. Maximum heart rate falls with age but the variation between individuals is large enough that the formula can be off by 15 beats or more. Use a measured max from a hard effort, or train by pace.
Can I still set personal bests after 40?: Frequently, especially at longer distances and especially if your earlier training was unstructured. The marathon in particular rewards accumulated aerobic development in a way that favours experience.
How important is strength training?: More important than any change to your running. Two sessions a week protects against the muscle and power loss that otherwise happens by default, and it is the best injury insurance available.

Your block, written

Put a date on it and Shed builds the weeks.

Shed takes your goal, your race date, and the days you can actually run, then writes every session between here and the start line. It reads each run off your Apple Watch the same day and moves what needs moving. No spreadsheet, no guessing at paces.

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