Middle Masters: 45-54

While the increase in recovery time and the decline in top performances are impossible to ignore, this age can be one of the most rewarding of a runner's life. Each age group represents a chance to be the young runner again, providing anticipation as the turn-year approaches and offering the thrill of setting new marks and competing for awards as you enter the new group.

Some people who had busy family lives when they were younger may suddenly find new time for training. Consider Colleen Rocereto of Tigard, Oregon. At 49, with the last of her three sons in college (and a 40:56 10K already in her arsenal), she has started joining groups—one on the track and another for weekend runs—in preparation for seeing what she can do in the 50–54 age group. The opportunity to do such workouts with partners, rather than just running out the door, has opened a new window on her training. "I feel like I can get faster and stronger," she says.

Another motivation is simply to beat the age-grading curve. In fact, you can easily channel the energy you once put into chasing PRs into chasing age-graded PRs, with similar, if not greater satisfaction as you defy the hands of time.

But this is also the age when masters reality truly sets in. Not only do you have to be exceptional to still be fighting for the type of position you might once have had among the open-class runners, but if you haven't already adjusted training to accommodate your changing body, you're in danger of spending this decade fighting off injuries. "Keep health before fitness," Cotner says. "If you're always having to compromise workouts by what hurts, you're not going to get very far."

Part of staying healthy is maintaining muscle strength and flexibility. "That's a real change from a number of years ago," says Bob Williams, a Portland, Oregon, coach. "People are now in the gym—they're really doing it."

Two muscle groups of particular importance are the calves and hip flexors.

For the calves, the most common problems are inflexibility and muscle pulls. But aging calves can also lose power. To see if this applies to you, Cotner suggests finding a steep hill and running up it, counting strides. He uses a hill that's about 500 meters long, with a grade of 12 to 14 percent, but there's no magic to that formula, especially in places where long, steep hills are hard to find. What matters is that the fewer strides it takes to cover the course, the more power you have in your calves—and that you repeat this test on the same hill periodically to see whether you're improving, declining or maintaining.

As for hip flexors, they are the muscles that help lift your knees and swing them forward between strides—meaning that there is a strong correlation between hip flexor strength and running speed. But they can lose strength and flexibility, especially if your job entails increasing amounts of sitting as you get older.

Tight hip flexors can also lead to hamstring problems. That's because the hip flexors attach to the pelvis and to several vertebrae of the lower back. When they get tight, Cotner says, they change the tilt of the pelvis. The result is a reduced ability to activate the glute muscles, less hip extension (the upper leg going out behind) and hamstrings that are overstretched and weak—so much so that Cotner sees the combination of these problems as a common syndrome.

The solution to any of these problems, of course, is strength and flexibility training. You can no longer get away with perfunctory stretches and just running. All those articles about supplemental training that you ignored in your 20s now make the difference between continuing as a successful racer and dropping out with injury or dropping off with a compromised stride.

Other training tips for runners in this age group are simpler. Pretty much every coach, for example, recommends spending as much time as possible on soft surfaces. "Run too much pavement," Cleary says, "and your days are numbered." He feels that even tempo runs should be on a track, trail or other soft surface. "I'll do 24 laps around a sports park, on grass," he says. Cleary is 56; if you insist on spending all your time pounding the pavement, he says, "I'll be running 10 years from now when you're not."

Priorities for a Middle Masters Runner