77 Years Old, 27 Ironmans: Howard Glass on Training and Competing with LiveO2
Howard Glass has competed in 27 Ironman triathlons, finished 17.5 of them, and has no plans to stop. He talks with Tom Butler about what oxygen training adds to endurance at age 77.
The Numbers
Howard Glass is not slowing down. He’s training for more races. He uses LiveO2 Adaptive Contrast as a core part of how he prepares and recovers.
What This Episode Covers
Howard and Tom cover 30 minutes of conversation about training, competing, and recovering at the highest endurance level well into your 70s. Topics include:
- How we’ve shifted from a participant society to a spectator society — and why that matters for aging
- What “spiffing the blood” means in Howard’s training sessions with Tom
- How Howard uses LiveO2 to pre-adapt to altitude before races
- Recovery after long-distance events — what changes at 77 vs 50
- Why Howard believes endurance sports are about mentality, not just physiology
Oxygen and Endurance Performance After 70
Age-related decline in aerobic capacity is real. After 40, VO2 Max drops about 1% per year without intervention. By 70, most people are operating at roughly half their peak aerobic capacity.
But Howard isn’t. The reason is consistent aerobic training — and oxygen training specifically. LiveO2 Adaptive Contrast maintains the vascular flexibility, red blood cell production, and tissue oxygen delivery that normally decline with age.
“Spiffing the blood” — as Howard calls pre-race sessions — is a reference to using LiveO2 in the days before an event to raise blood oxygen levels and prime the cardiovascular system. The same principle used by altitude-training athletes, but achieved without 3 weeks at 10,000 feet.
Research in the Journal of Applied Physiology confirms that older athletes maintain aerobic capacity well above non-athletic peers of the same age — and that oxygen availability remains the primary limiting factor in endurance performance at any age.
Common Questions
Howard Glass is evidence that yes — significantly. At 77, he’s still training for and competing in Ironman triathlons. The key is maintaining the oxygen delivery system, which degrades with age but responds positively to the specific stimulus that adaptive contrast training provides.
Howard uses this phrase to describe pre-race LiveO2 sessions designed to raise blood oxygen and prime the cardiovascular system before competition. The idea is to go into the race with already-elevated oxygen capacity — similar to why altitude-training athletes perform better at sea level in the weeks following their altitude block.
After a long endurance event, muscle tissue is hypoxic — depleted of oxygen — and inflamed. LiveO2 floods the body with high-concentration oxygen during gentle movement, accelerating the clearance of lactic acid and inflammatory byproducts. For athletes in their 70s, recovery time is a bigger competitive factor than peak performance. Faster recovery means more consistent training.
VO2 Max declines primarily because of reduced cardiac output, decreased capillary density, and lower red blood cell count — all of which respond to training. LiveO2 directly targets the oxygen delivery side: more red blood cells, better vascular flexibility, higher plasma oxygen saturation. Consistent training can slow and even partially reverse age-related aerobic decline.