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Apologies if this has been asked before, but I was wondering if any of you vets of the masters scene, so to speak, can answer this. (Your own experiences really).
After completing my first outdoor season after my first winter’s training for 20 odd years and posting some half reasonable times over the sprints, I was wondering if I can expect to improve next season, assuming a solid winter’s training and limited injuries? Obviously I’ll be a year older (M45) but I’d be interested to hear if the general trend is to speed up for the first couple of years.
Cheers.
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I have no scientific evidence behind this, but I know of a handful of people like yourself. I think it is reasonable to expect improvements for the first 3-7 years, provided you stay injury-free and have solid training. Good luck and welcome back to the game.

This is my view, too. I returned from a very long, injury enforced layoff at the age of 46. That was nearly ten years ago. I ran my fastest 100 as a master last summer, and my fastest 200 as a master in 2008, having improved in both events year on year since my return. I also ran my fastest indoor 60 last winter since 2006.

IMO there are several underlying reasons. Others will probably want to add their own:

a) obvious, but regular training, competition preparation and competition simply gets you leaner, fitter and better prepared physically and mentally for what it takes to be an older athlete. This stuff is, up to a point, cumulative.
b) the world has moved on since any of us trained and competed as kids or younger adults. Clothing and footwear is better, tracks and gyms are better, there's more advice and science from which we can benefit. These things also have a cumulative effect on performance.
c) as a masters athlete you will find that learning what works for you, as well as un-learning what doesn't, will pay big dividends. The effect seems to me far more pronounced than was the case when I sprinted in my 20's and early 30's. In those days "the way you do it" was either a bit more firmly set, or one was quite a bit more reluctant, most of the time, to go well outside the norms.
d) (which follows from the lessons of c) you will want to experiment more, to accommodate how your body has developed, accommodate the effect of past injuries, and so on. You might not get the recipe right for your own situation to begin with. That may even mean you have a few really bad experiences, but that's all part of identifying and then eliminating what doesn't work for you, then building on what does.

I'd also say "Do the mental stuff well". We are surrounded by people and influences that will readily tell us we are "too old" etc. Wrong! You might be too old to do it like you used to do it, or too old to run some of the times you used to run, but you're not racing yourself as you were then. You're different, and so is the environment in which you are competing. Bill Collins stresses in his recent book the value of patience and perseverance. I share that view.

Don't give up, but don't ever stop learning and adapting, either.

Thanks for the responses guys.
If I’m honest I was fishing for an answer in the affirmative, so as to make these cold lonely winter’s sessions a little more bearable! I've found a great deal of what Tom said relevant already, and have discarded most of my younger days training. (Repetition 300’s with short recovery etc.) I stick firmly to the ‘speed with everything’ theory, and it seems to be paying off and, importantly, I’m thoroughly enjoying the second life afforded. Anyway, thanks again, and I hope to see some of you Brits on the starting line next year. (I’ll be the bloke that’s hopefully a little faster than last year!)

I jumped highest at age 50 after 5 years of steady improvements and my best triple jump and 200m after 7 years. But then inevitably...
I started learning javelin at age 55 and improved year after year.