When olds are active…really active…they are a special class. They don’t perform like younger athletes. They don’t recuperate like younger athletes. And they shouldn’t train like younger athletes. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t similarities.

A study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (and summarized in yesterday’s New York Times ) illustrates some of the differences and commonalities. Researchers looked at 51 runners, aged 18 to 77, to gauge their “running economy,” which is a measure of “how much oxygen someone uses to run at a certain pace.” They expected to find that athletes over 60 wouldn’t be as efficient as the young folks because, and this seems like a reasonable tell, older athletes are slower.

Surprise: Based on oxygen use during a treadmill run, “runners 60 and older were just as physiologically economical as younger runners, even those in their 20s and 30s.”

But that doesn’t mean that older runners should try to hang in with the young pups. In another study cited by the Times–this one looking at injuries—researchers found that middle-age and older runners are much more likely to suffer from problems with “Achilles tendons and hamstring and calf muscles.” The reason, the authors speculate, is that old runners need more time to recover from the “normal muscle wear and tear” that comes from pounding the treadmill or the path, but they won’t dial back their workouts as they age. Older runners insist on training like the young’uns.

Another interesting finding showed that older runners lacked lower-body flexibility, which could inhibit full strides, which might be one reason why they are slower.

Thanks to age-related research like this…or maybe better nutrition…or make up your own bit of homespun sports sociology…older athletes seem to be performing at a higher level. A study of recent New York City Marathon racers showed that “the average finishing time for men 60 and older dropped by more than seven minutes; among older women, it plummeted by more than 16 minutes.”

(Photo of sunset runner by Josh Janssen via Flickr)