50+ Weekly Training Thread

You were going pretty good for awhile, but it still sounds like you had a fairly solid week even with out any track workouts.

30 miles in 4 runs.

Thurs- tried to do a progressive run of 2x4 miles but did terrible. Probably it was too hot, but everyone else did decently, including another geezer that is 1 1/2 years older.

Sat- did a 10 1/2 mi run (was going to do 7 or 8) that went pretty well with the middle 7 1/2 at around 7:30 pace, to put a good one on ending the week.

As for leg turnover, I pay no attention to the amount of steps...too much thinking. Not saying there isn't an advantage to do so. Am more worried about how the stride feels as I'm running. One of my friends does count his steps quite often, and feels it helps him.

Have a good week everyone!

No quaking around my way lucKY, instead we got floods, made a nice change from 10 years of drought.

Nothing fancy this week. Finished our winter season last weekend so just a couple of easy barefooters early in the week to wind the legs down. Did a bit of hiking in the hills to keep me from going stir crazy. I felt I needed a quiet week after more than 30 races in 6 months.

I was back into it today with a mtb ride, run, kyak, weights and a few hours landscaping.

I'm a high turnover guy. I count my strides once in a while just out of curiosity. Usually 180-190.

51 miles in 7 days. Did a couple of brief, preliminary investigations into the realm of speed and come away a better man for it.

Leg turnover, almost always.

43 miles in 5 days. 14 miler Sunday longest in 30 years. I'm increasing miles to prep for the OBX marathon. I'm doing my long runs at 8:45 or so pace. My base pace has never been fast. I hit the track hard when I want to get faster. I've never counted my steps but I'm very mindful of my turnover. Between my Garmin, my splits, and Heart Rate monitor I am about maxed out at information handling. So no step counting for me.

i had quite a fine week, culminating in a morning that felt like i was in running heaven -- one of those rare (for me, anyway) perfect runs.

coming off last sunday's 50K, which i raced hard and faded at the end (looking at online splits, all but two racers also faded similarly or worse), monday and tuesday were recovery hikes, and the rest of the week were three easy runs and one short hike with my husband to see if i'd be ready for another long jaunt on sunday. 58 miles running plus 16 miles hiking for my sunday-saturday week.

i felt good enough yesterday (sunday) to go ahead and run the very hilly, very rooty local marathon (5560' of climbing). i love this low-key race both for its beauty and for it's age-sex handicapped start, since, as an old(ish) woman, i get a HUGE head start over the young guys -- 53 minutes! generally, though, there's some not-so-young guy who gets a good head start too and runs me down, and yesterday was no different. it's a double out-and-back course with a HM taking place concurrently. other than the initial approach, it's all on narrow singletrack, which makes for great fun since even though the handicap makes it such that you're mostly running alone (when you pass or are passed, it happens decisively), you still have plenty of people to encourage coming and going on the trail. anyway, i took the first half decidedly easy, since i knew i was still recovering from last week and knew i'd be racing the dances with dirt relay just six days later. i didn't have a racing mindset, but was just out to enjoy the trail and the first day of delightful fall-like weather. the longer i was out there, the more i was surprised at how great i felt. after being passed minutes before the halfway point by a 49-yr-old man who made up over half an hour on me in those first 13 miles, i thought it was safe to start picking it up (i.e., that i wouldn't blow up if i did). in the second half i hiked only the very steepest of the hills and felt an incredible synergy with the woods as i flew along the trail, losing only another five minutes to mr. fast-guy in the second half and negative splitting by 12 minutes! the whole time i had a smile on my face and was simply having a blast.

as per the week's topic, now and then i check my cadence; road, track, or trail, i'm consistently very close to 185.

The usual 36 miles or so this week. I did throw in a tempo (or at least what passes for one these days - adding a minute plus to lucKY2b's pace)in the heat. My stride rate when I occasionally check it is a closer match to the 167/175 cited. Efforts to change it over the years have never ended well, so I generally ignore it.

Cold and rainy out this morning. Goodbye, summer.

30 miles this week with a 10 mile long run and a 4-miler with 2 miles tempo (7mpm). Ran every day but only 3-4 miles easy on the other days at 9-10 mpm. The cool weather makes it easier to get out every day.

I pay more attention to turnover in the winter. I tend to shuffle along when there's snow and ice. It's hard for me to get up to 180 strides pe min but at 160-170 I "feel" quicker. Thanks LucKY2b.

No Longer Stressed, your running life sounds so much more interesting than mine. In reading your weekly posts, it feels like every day is a whole new adventure. Good luck next week in the "Dances with Dirt" relay. I've always wanted to be able to run to hell and back. Enjoy the trip. :-)

Thanks Rich for your encouragement. It has been a good summer for me, setting "old man" PR's by 30s in 5k and 40s for 10k, so I really can't complain. I have had a nagging tightness in my right hip socket area from when I started more intense speed work (not sure if it's piriformis, sciatica, or what). Thus, I've backed off speed work for the time being. Hasn't affected my race pace, but it has made my training runs less enjoyable. Hoping it'll work itself out before long with tennis balls, stretches, and the like. As a last resort, I may plunk down money for some ART, but I'm loathe to do that. I really want to be running without therapeutic intervention; for me it kinda defeats my purpose (and I really mean "my" purpose, not trying to take anybody's inventory here).

From the responses so far, it sounds like stride rate is worth being mindful of, but probably not worth obsessing over.

Last week 6 days for a total of 80km with 20km long run and a 7km tempo run (+ wu and wd) and a couple of double days. Striders after tempo run and two easy runs. Legs feeling good. This was 5th 80km+ week in last 7 weeks. Started this week with a Sunday 20km in hot humid weather (legs sore so took epsom salt bath). Did another 20km today and legs felt excellent, ran this one a couple minutes faster than yesterday. 40km in two days...gonna be a big week, aiming for 85-90km.

Pizza;67 , Chinese ;88 , Happy Hour ; 192 . All on the first floor of my building . I hate those who abuse the elevator .

aborted run after 2 miles on Tuedsday

2 miles on treadmill on Friday

waiting for an MRI to check out my hip for a labral tear or other problems. It is an ongoing issue that is getting worse. I am doing a lot of hip capsule stretches and that got me able to do an 8 miler today.

I don't pay attention to the stride rate, except that my left leg is slower than my right (hip problems?) I bought a little electronic metronome once to try to get the stride rate up while running, but barely used it.

38 miles on 6 runs with an XC race Saturday. I won the 60+ age group with what felt like a good race. Sunday I ran with one of my sons and went surfing with him for about 90 minutes after the run. It was the first time I have been back out on a board in a couple of years. This morning I felt like someone had beaten with a baseball bat on my hams. glutes and lower back. My easy 8 mile loop this morning was 5 minutes slower than usual. I think I can use a little more stength work. While I rarely count my stride rate, I frequently focus on trying to keep my turnover quick, particularly when I am getting tired on a run.

ah, it's the trails that keep my running adventurous. what's not to love?

oh, another thing regarding stride rate: i'm quite excellent at going dead slow with quick turnover ;-)

old guy 11- good run!

lucKY2b- I remember your running a good 5k time, in a race that you had worked thru, not planning to run it, and so worked out up to a day before, and had to be tired going into the race.

If applicable, you've probably already tried to stretch your hip, but if not, you might have some luck with pulling the knee to your chest type stretches, or even across the chest...whatever way that gets the area in question. I've had success with injuries using exercises in a book called "Pain Free" by Pete Egoscue. I missed my almost all of my last track season in college because I never tried that silly hip stretch! Good luck!

I wanted to post here because I turned 50 in jan, but was shit on by several posters!

oh well....i am not welcome.......screw it...i can run and train without partners or posting

Hey all, hope all is well. On my 5th week with no running. I did jog a few steps this weekend but I didn't feel too good and stopped.

I used to count my strides (180 mostly) and tried to adopt a more efficient stride but eventually went back to what felt natural.

Have a great week!

Thanks Rich. You are right about the summer runs, but I really can't say how much better I would have done had I tapered; weekend warrior 5K's aren't too hard to jump into, I think a relaxed attitude helps as much as a good taper. I have done some stretching and strengthening up in the hip area. I've looked up some good Piriformis stretches (e.g.-knees to chest, leg turned inward, etc., etc.) and they've been helpful, but I'm probably not agressive enough with them.

RuKiddingMe!, sorry you had a bad experience. My experience has been that there is no hating on this thread. At 50+, I take any ribbing in good humor. For me, joking around with the people I meet along my journey is part of what makes life fun. But that's just me.

A vacation week involving mediocre training ( 15 miles maybe? with the last two days off to rest my aching achilles, plus my usual 75 situps and pushups daily) lots of house painting (decks, picnic, benches, bathroom and a bedroom...God Bless anyone who does that for a living), bracing for a hurricane which never developed, nasty 90+ degree F heat, taking a limping 78-yr old mother who (ironically) had to get a cortisone shot for PF (does it run in families?) and getting a balkly toilet fixed, ended with a modest triumph of breaking the top ten in the 50-59 men's bracket in 25:10 (9th out of 26 in age group and scoring 106th out of 419 overall to my surprise) at a local 5k. I wasn't fast, but I did NOT limp, to my delight.

This was 10 days after the worst race of my life, after which I was considering hangin' 'em up. I may have slowed, but everyone ELSE has slowed commensurately.

Bit of a surprise. I DID run with an attitude, which helped & the course was all road, thankfully. My old PR on this 10K course back in '89 (36:59) would've bagged 4th place this year OVERALL. Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

I made 2 decisions & have stuck to them:

1) NO MORE WATCH, for training OR racing...nope, no more ticktock

2) No more logbook...one day at a time & it is what it is

Onward and upward

LV

rb,

Have noted your success with low volume training. Do you jog or do any kind of cross training on those 3 days when you're not running? Do you find it easy/difficult to shut it down for a day or two? I'm guessing that you perform some kind of risk/benefit assessment regarding what to do on recovery days, run or no run.