50+ Weekly Training Thread

I've ran in -20 twice in my life and I have a feeling another one of those runs is on the horizon for the next couple of days.

WINDBRIEFS!

Got in 30+ miles this past week on four days and 60 miles bike. Ran 12 miles yesterday in 50 degrees here in AZ, high of 70. Sorry Northerners. Hamstring flared up some on end of run, so looks like a few more bike rides this week to rest hammy.

Ran hundreds of miles in Michigan back in the 70/80s. Once ran 14 miles in 80 below wind chill in South Bend IN. So I feel your pain but do not miss that weather.

I once ran 15 miles with my hand you know where so I would not freeze it off and yes it hurts when it thaws. Use to put a sock down there, it worked.

Monty

Got in 55 miles this week, including a hill workout and a tempo run, but mostly just getting in some maintenance miles.

Nice thing about growing up in Wisconsin is that I didn't have to run when it was awful out. Reason: Speedskating and XC skiing. I would only run in the winter when I couldn't ski or skate.

That said, one year the National Speedskating meet held up in St. Paul in January had a high temperature for the day of -7F, so by the time the 10K race came around (last race) it was much colder than that (held after dark). There is a certain insanity in wanting to pur on thin socks, attach metal blades to your feet, wear skin-tight spandex, and race around an oval at 25-35MPH at those kinds of temperatures. Even with cardboard shoved down our pants, we froze our $%#*'s! It was brutal!

I live in the mid-south now, so I never have to complain about the cold, anymore. No matter how cold it may get here.

havent been able to run.. for like the past two days because of a sore throat and aches. Looks like this week im gonna be a couple miles short. keeeppp on running!!!!!!! or maaybe ill pull a long run just to break even...

Cold here in Omaha. -16 wind chill for yesterday's 12, and -10 for today's 10. Thanks to Brooks Running technical gear still managed 63 for the week, none on the treadmill.

Howdy fellow geezers,

Haven't posted in a few weeks and I'm sure you were all wondering if I was still alive. :)

Holding steady at ~40 miles per week and just started adding back a sixth day of running each week (Fridays). The problem left foot seems to be holding up so far. Maybe there's hope yet to start some "real" training and race a little this year.

Spent the Christmas holidays visiting an aunt/uncle in Vegas, so got to run in sunny, somewhat warm weather for a few days.

I currently live in Vancouver, WA. but am originally from Chicago, so I've had my share of running in pretty adverse conditions. My all-time records were a 4-mile run on a summer day with the heat index at 127, along with a couple miles on a winter day with the true temperature at -35 and windchill on almost -50.

A belated happy holidays and best wishes fro a great 2010 to you all!

Cheers,

Tim

Nursing a stiff achilles so I am not getting the miles in. I did an aborted indoor track workout and some slower treadmill miles this week. Yesterday ran my first snowshoe race of the year.

Back in college I ordered a pizza with some friends to eat when I got back from an hour run. It was night and there were blizzard conditions. Somehow I got lost, but thought I was near to my school after more than 2 hours of running. I was not. Fortunately I recognized a place and I was still 10 miles from my school. I recalled visiting a friend near there earlier so I found and banged on his door and got a ride back to school frozen to the core. Someone had eaten all my pizza.

Riding and walking the riding is coming back pretty good.

No good weather stories

So I have been riding the crit course on Mt. Tabor.It is about a 2k loop lots of fun

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=3225+SE+Alder+Ct,+Portland,+Multnomah,+Oregon+97214&ll=45.515098,-122.593646&spn=0.015276,0.038152&t=p&z=15&iwloc=lyrftr:com.panoramio.all,5938322785212369687,45.512091,-122.59532&lci=com.panoramio.all

I posted a very long story on the general Masters thread about my thoughts on the next decade (for me, it's the 50s), so I won't yammer on too long here. ;-)

I lived in Ithaca, NY in college and in the Twin Cities (Minnesota) for 11 years, so I have had more than my fair share of winter running - and have the frost-bitten fingers, toes, cheeks, chin and nose to prove it! ;-D Let's just say that since moving to Oregon 14 years ago, I am incredibly grateful for it's milder winters, even if 33 degrees and rainy can be pretty miserable. ;-)

I didn't quite keep track of miles this week, although I averaged about 8 miles a day, with about 14? this morning. I did my first "hard" workout since xc nationals - 8 min. of tempo, then 4 x 2:00 hills (quite possibly the most painful series I've done in a looooooong time), then about 5 "fast and smooth" strides with a loyal training partner. My legs are not liking the roads and an old injury is recurring. I did get in about an hour's run on soft trails mid-week, so I am hopeful that my return to the trails will come soon.

Probably will run winter xc (USA championships) in Feb. in Spokane, although I don't think I can convince anyone else to join me! ;-)

PS - Too chicken to run with Tim - he runs too fast for me, although he is lovely company!

36 last week. Started with 20x400 in 90 this morn. It was 18 deg. Felt pretty good and this is the workout i have been planning.

Another week of pretty random sort of training. Really just weight management and keeping the motor tuned.

Mon- easy hour run on one of my mtn bike loops -12kms.

Tue -Ran the last section of my commute -took the old railtrail for 49mins/10ish kms. About 38deg C or just over 100 F. Returned at 10pm with a 40min run, last part on soft sand.

Wed -Mountain bike ride in the forests and around the lake. 1hr 53m, about 40deg C. Once it hits 40 degrees I really notice the effects of the heat.

Thu - 800m jog barefoot on grass at 10pm before pulling the pin because of lightning activity.

Fri - 1 hour steep rough trail run in the hills behind home.

Sat - 5km run on one of the club's trail race loops -very hilly course, a tick under 23mins. Then straight onto the bike for 40 mins on 2 other trail race courses.

Sun - About 7kms of steep hiking with my wife, with heavy pack.

Storms. I've copped some wild days during the Mt Feathertop and Mt Hotham races over the years.

A couple of years ago we copped a snowstorm with winds over 150km per hour on Hotham. Across the top of the course it was hard to stay upright. A couple of times my left leg got blown across in front of my right leg. A smaller runner in front of me got blown over mid stride. We actually ducked down low and virtually ran on all 4s a couple of times.

The hardest thing was going back out along the course to check on my son after finishing. Of course he just thought the conditions were great fun.

Remember when we'd run with plastic bread bags over socks,

shorts over thermal underwear, and thick socks as mittens?

Managed a third consecutive 40 mile week and have not yet missed a single day of running this year...gotta love January!

MF

I got in a good solid 60mi this week with a little more speed work. Other than a couple of years in exotic places in the military in the Vietnam era, I have spent my entire running career in Southern California and never have run in anything worse than some hard rain and wind for a couple of XC races.

On a run this last summer I lost about 5% of my body weight (7-8 lbs) in sweat in less than 90 minutes; I was doing the survival shuffle to make it home. I have been MUCH more careful about hydration after that. Since I'm down in Texas, I don't have any cold weather stories that come close to yours.

And then there was that time that it was so hot that I actually melted into a puddle. Fortunately, a twister came by, remixed my molecules, and dropped me down on the final straightaway so that I set a 400 PR. Down in Texas, we call this a tall tale. :)

50.5 miles this week in five runs. Did my first intervals since injuring my piriformis, supposed to be 2x2 miles at 10 mile race pace, but cut the last one in half -- not because of any piriformis pain (it really seems to have healed well) but because I have a cold and was starting to see squiggly lights floating out there in my field of vision -- time to shut it down.

No good weather stories because I'm a wimp and run on my treadmill when it is bad out.

A Lot of rough conditions for training. Many of you are really tough to workout out in such adverse conditions!

A whopping 32 miles in 4 runs, still the best for this year...and last year as well. Would have had 5 days, but I did a stupid move by running a hard Tues.workout when my hip had become a little sore. Didn't bother me warming up or during the workout ( 8x1k @3:38-45 with 1:30 rec), yet the next day became sore enough that I had to walk like Fred Sanford. Fortunately it improved fast enough that I only missed 2 days, and was able to do 6x mild hill in 63-69 secs, that Saturday.

Lucky to have guessed stupidly, when just skipping the workout and jogging easy would have been the much wiser thing for someone that will turn 55 in a few weeks.

Healthy running to you all!

Just getting into the build up after a 12/12/09 marathon.

This week; 5x50 minutes, 90 minutes on Sunday.

The 90 minute run yesterday was an out and back with the last 5 miles into a 20+ mph headwind(wind chill about minus 10 F). I was warm everywhere except for Mr. Johnson, whom I had to hold against my skin at alternate telephone poles.

I was wearing a pair of thermal boxer briefs from Target under Sport Hill XC cross country ski pants.

Any suggestions as to how others avoid the above problem?

97 miles. Highlight was 30+ mile trail run/hike.

have not run in extremely bad conditions. The trail run/hike

yesterday was about theb worst weather I've ever run in. Somewhere between 17 and 22 degrees.

My hats off to all you cold weather runners.

53 miles last week, most of it on ice/hard-pack roads with screw shoes, which worked great. i highly recommend them. thanks, matt carpenter (http://www.skyrunner.com/screwshoe.htm). the rest of the miles were in snowshoes on 8 fresh inches of snow on local trails before the weather turned bitter cold this weekend, when, i admit, i wimped out and stayed close to the woodstove. this was my first snowshoe outing of the season, and i'm glad i have two more weeks to get back in the groove of it before my first race, because i had blocked out how tough a workout snowshoeing can be! today the windchill will be a balmy 6F, so i have no excuses and am, in fact, looking forward to breaking new trail.

as for worst conditions, i choose a day of nonextreme weather, but rather a confluence of conditions that made for discomfort. it was a 50K trail race a couple of winters ago with temps in the mid-to-upper 20s following a week of a lot of rain. there was a ton of mud and long stretches of thin ice over standing water. at the end of it all, my shoes were many times their normal weight due to the encrusted ice/mud, and i couldn't remove my shoes because the laces were buried under it all.