We don't know exactly why we age. But we do know what it means: we slow down. Normally, anyway. Some athletes, however, really turn up the heat as they get older. Daniel Vogel from Zurich is one such athlete. Vogel won his first Ironman at the age of 50. He won his age group at the Ironman Florida with a very good time of 9:44 hours. How did he do it? Did he quit his job and train 25 hours a week? "No, I mainly trained smarter than I did when I was younger," says the father of two, who has a full-time job. "Most weeks, I only train eight to ten hours a week, which I have calculated dynamically by an online training planner."
There are many athletes like Daniel Vogel. Age-group athletes have never been as fit as they are today. For 20 years, the records set by athletes over the age of 50 have been tumbling - across all sports. The sports scientists who analyse these performances even see room for improvement. And this is despite the fact that the list of age-related changes for the worse is quite long: declining maximum heart rate, less blood volume, lower oxygen uptake, shrinking muscles, falling hormone levels, slower nerve conduction - and so on and so forth ...
The best Masters athletes teach us that these changes are not as dramatic as they sound, and that ageing athletes are still capable of outstanding performance. A 2012 study of 173 highly trained cyclists between the ages of 35 and 64 concluded that although peak anaerobic power and anaerobic capacity decline by eight per cent per decade of life, aerobic capacity, i.e. endurance performance, did not decrease significantly in the group studied. Other studies come to the conclusion that maximum oxygen uptake falls linearly with age, but this is partly compensated for by the fact that older athletes can utilise a higher percentage of it for long-term performance.
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Interview: Uwe Schröder from the Institute for Sports Nutrition
Do older athletes need to eat differently to young athletes?
No, the recommended food mix is the same. In general, awareness of a healthy diet is even more pronounced in old age. However, some older athletes still have the image in their heads that sports nutrition primarily includes pasta. But protein also plays an important role in endurance sports, where proteins are broken down over long distances.
Which vitamins are particularly important for older athletes?
First and foremost is vitamin B12. This vitamin is important for haematopoiesis and cell renewal. B12 is contained in all animal foods, but its utilisation decreases with age. This process is often not noticeable if the long-term B12 stores are well filled - they last for three to five years. I recommend that older athletes - including vegans, by the way - take additional B12. They should also take vitamin D, at least during the winter months when there is less sun on the skin. Old skin produces less vitamin D than young skin. The classic vitamins such as C and E are sufficiently absorbed through food if you have a balanced diet.
What are the drinking recommendations for older athletes?
The same applies as for young ones. Larger fluid losses lead to loss of performance and should be avoided. We observe reduced thirst in older people. The risk of dehydration is therefore greater than in young athletes.
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