Do you think there's a limit to fitness for 'normal' people?

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I have been pondering this for some time. I'm no athlete and I was crap at sport at school. I just don't seem to get fitter or faster or more able past a certain point. I can now run a 5km distance but can never get quicker than 33mins. My average time is 35mins. I've tried interval training, i've tried running slower, running faster. I'm not particularly interested in getting quicker but I have tried over many decades and it just doesn't happen. I'm perfectly happy at around that pace but now that I'm about to get to 50, it does make me wonder whether I just had a natural 'limit' to my fitness.

It's the same with bike riding and swimming. I can do a certain amount but just no faster and no longer. I recently went on holiday for 2 weeks and did nothing more than long walks and when I came back and went for a short, slow run, my muscles hurt like I had never done a run before. The same happened when i hopped back on the bike. It's as though my body is so crap at sport, it has to relearn all the time.

Just interested whether others feel the same way. As mentioned, no interest in becoming an athlete at such but enjoy keeping fit for health reasons!

Hi all, wanted to come back and update this thread

Many years ago I went to the doctor convinced I had arthritis. They totally dismissed my concerns. I'm not an unhealthy person, so rarely go to the doctor. They ran some blood tests, I had signs of inflammation but not massive and I had signs of an auto immune condition but again nothing alarming and that was that. Told me there was nothing wrong with me, was too young for arthritis and that was that.

Well the last month or so I have been getting even slower at running. It never felt like a fitness thing. I went to the physio who immediately said that there is starting to be limited motion in my hips/knees/big toe. I have something called stiff big toe definitely and a real limited range in that one foot/ankle. He is convinced I have arthritis. This week, one finger in my left hand has developed a large cyst over the middle joint and one finger on my right hand has swollen so much I can't bend it.

I now think there probably wasn't a limit on my fitness but more that arthritis was developing and affecting my range of movement thus slowing me down. What annoys me is that I thought it was something like this and the GP was completely dismissive!

Would earlier treatment for arthritis have been a good thing?
Are NSAIDs the only medication, and those aren't good for you daily anyway, right?

I think the older I get, the harder it is to reach beyond the fitness plateaus I hit. That being said, I find mixing up what I do helps a lot. For me, heavy weight training, yoga, and HIIT, make running, cycling, swimming and other sports much easier. I don’t particularly enjoy distance running, but I love hiit and boxing, so I see myself still making gains there, even years later. I started an advanced yoga class 5 years ago and was quite surprised at the difference it made in other sports/fitness activities.

I agree with other posters though, it takes a lot more effort, consistency, and diet/sleep geared towards a higher functioning level of fitness.

@lljkk I think more for my peace of mind than anything else. I probably wouldn't have been so hard on myself if I had thought that's what it was! :)

we all have natural abilities some people are naturally better at sciences than languages and it requires more work to pass french than to get a high grade at Maths, the world of sport is the same some people are natural sprinters others long distance runners, others better at speed than stamina others better at power and strength no one is good at all and some are below average. You can enjoy any sport and get better at it to a degree but to excel requires both talent and effort