Is ageing inevitable - or simply the result of 'detraining'

That's a question I've been asking for a long time. Reading peak performance issue 192 jan 2004 I found an article asking this exact question.

They provided some useful evidence such as http://tinyurl.com/y9hlqyf which is a list of single age marathon records for usa. They very clearly show times close to world record pace by much older athletes than expected. Like 2hr 25m for a 52yr old man.

4hr 28m for a 80 yr old man. A marathon at 80 in a a faster time than many half their age.

I see evidence all around me that lack of use and poor training methods lead to early ageing. This adds much to this view.