Leyk D, Erley O, Ridder D, Leurs M, Rüther T, Wunderlich M, Sievert A, Baum K, Essfeld D
Department of Physiology and Anatomy, German Sports University Cologne, Carl-Diem-Weg 6, 50933 Köln, Germany.
Int J Sports Med. 2007 Jun;28(6):513-7. doi: 10.1055/s-2006-924658.
We examined age-related changes in endurance performance of marathon and half-marathon finishers. A total of 405 515 running times were separated into groups based on age, sex, and distance. After exclusion of repetitive running times, 300 757 runners were analyzed by ANOVA (factors: age, sex). For each age group (six decades, 20-79 years), mean running times for all finishers, as well as top-ten performers, were assessed. As expected, age and sex had significant influence on running times. Female running times were about 10 % (marathon) and 13 % (half-marathon) above the corresponding times of their age-matched peers. The main finding is that in our sample of trained subjects significant age-related losses in endurance performance did not occur before the age of 50 years. Mean marathon and half-marathon times were virtually identical for the age groups from 20-49 years. Moreover, age-related performance decreases (p < 0.01) of the 50 - 69-year-old subjects were only in the range of 2.6 - 4.4 % per decade. These results suggest that the majority of older athletes are able to maintain a high degree of physical plasticity. The hypothesis that lifestyle factors have considerably stronger influences on functional capacity than the factor age is also supported by these findings from physically active and fit elderly.
我们研究了马拉松和半程马拉松完赛者耐力表现的年龄相关变化。总共405515个跑步成绩根据年龄、性别和距离进行分组。在排除重复的跑步成绩后，通过方差分析（因素：年龄、性别）对300757名跑步者进行了分析。对于每个年龄组（六个十年，20 - 79岁），评估了所有完赛者以及排名前十的选手的平均跑步成绩。正如预期的那样，年龄和性别对跑步成绩有显著影响。女性的跑步成绩比同龄男性相应成绩高出约10%（马拉松）和13%（半程马拉松）。主要发现是，在我们的训练有素的受试者样本中，50岁之前并未出现与年龄相关的耐力表现显著下降。20 - 49岁年龄组的马拉松和半程马拉松平均成绩实际上是相同的。此外，50 - 69岁受试者与年龄相关的成绩下降（p < 0.01）每十年仅在2.6 - 4.4%的范围内。这些结果表明，大多数老年运动员能够保持高度的身体可塑性。生活方式因素对功能能力的影响比年龄因素大得多这一假设也得到了这些身体活跃且健康的老年人研究结果的支持。
