ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of how the metabolic determinants of endurance performance are affected by age and why this results in a decline in performance. Ageing is an inevitable fact that affects all runners, and their performance. Performance in endurance running events is relatively stable throughout an athlete’s career, with fluctuations owing primarily to physiological adaptations to training. As a result of the natural ageing process, however, the performance declines across all event distances irrespective of the competitive level of athlete or the training methods engaged in. Age-related reductions in race performance appear to be attributable, at least in part, to declines in the maximum metabolic steady state. It can therefore be surmised from the available evidence that when expressed as a performance velocity or intensity, the maximum metabolic steady state decreases as a result of the ageing process.
