Yes it takes a lot longer to heal. Wait till you're 60.
I stopped racing in my early 40's as I was not quite fast enough to hang with the local NYC masters crowd and found the Cat 4/5 a little scary with tons of 20 year olds taking chances. I could not then, and won't now, have to apologize to my wife for taking such risks. She's put up with a lot from me and thus deserves better then living with an old fart who thinks he's 20 still.