50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Here's my late in the week report on last week, I ran 28.5 miles over 5 workouts, with a highlight 14KM run up the big hill near the 6000 ft. mark.

Feeling fit, and my electrical heart problem is under control. Cut my caffeine, upped my amino acid supplement and magnesium, and I'm rolling.

Happy to be feeling this fit!

For future posts, I will be "Steve L", as I want to be my real self here. I often post on these boards as "Horst Girth", a joke name. It's a fine name for the hurly-burly, contentious message boards on LR, but this thread is down to earth, the real world, so I'll start posting as my real self.

Bush'man wrote:

" It's a solace now to finish a 54K ski outing within 30 minutes of my fastest times as a 20YO,"

" We did take 2 bucks and I found out I was no longer even a remote match for the ",CC all conference" young fellow who hunts with us, when it comes to dragging a deer from the woods."

Bush'man, like you, I take a lot of pleasure that I am still participating with my children and their generation in physical outdoor pursuits, even though it's quite natural that the torch has been passed. Most Over 50s in society today no longer are even fit enough to try, or they "hunt" from the seat of a 4 wheeler.

More power to you sir, and keep up trying to keep up.

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Week 129

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Hello 50+ers. Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving (you Americans, that is.) Not much to offer up this week, so this is more of a weekly bump. I have slowly gotten accustom to the increased PT that had made me so sore in the gut last week. I probably could have run by Wednesday, but truth is that I'm liking not having that lingering discomfort that follows me around all day. I'm still a little tender, so I'm being mindful not to over-stress it, but it's not throbbing when I sit up or cough/sneeze. Also, the adductors are still an area of weakness, which I'll use as further justification for holding off running for a little longer. It may be wishful thinking, but I feel like we're finally making some progress. Time will tell.

The aerobic inactivity is starting to bother me, so I do plan to engage in something. The PT said I should try out stairmaster, elliptical, or stationary bike and just see which doesn't leave me sore in the abdomen the next day. So, it seems I'll probably be joining a gym for a while....not really my cup of tea, but....

@Steve L: really glad to hear that through supplements you've been able to get your electrical system is under control.

@Gretehund: I initially added ancillary training in response to injury, but now I look to it as preventative care, and a recognition that as we age, our bodies need a modified training mixture from when we were younger and more pliable. Unfortunately, it's still no guarantee that something won't sideline you.

OK. That's all I got. Any Turkey Trots to report?

All the Best!

Lucky, you'll know when to go for a run, good idea not to force it.

I had hernia repair two years ago, I started running after 5 weeks and I should have waited for 7-8 weeks, so I applaud your patience.

This week:

Ran roughly 31 miles over 5 workouts.

Sun Tempo run over 5K, 1.5 warm up, 1.5 cool down, total 6 miles.

Mon 3.75 miles medium

Tue 8 miles slow

Thur 8.5 miles medium, 5000 ft to 6000 ft & back

Sat 5 miles medium with build-up over last 1.75 to medium hard

I'll look to keep hitting 30 mile weeks overall. Holiday travel to the states beckons, it will dent the training but I know of two low key 5K races I can jump in. We'll see. No pressure, but it would be fun to test myself at sea level.

I've been posting as "Horst Girth", now I'm my real self on this thread (Steve)

No official Turkey race but I did turkey day mile on Amazon Trail while visiting in Eugene.

Every visit to Eugene always begins with a stop at South Eugene High School for a run on Sacred Ground, The one mile loop run by so many with so many dreams and efforts.

I was just going to walk the longer loop. After 90 minutes of walking the urge to do a hard mile made me giddy.

Forgot my watch so it was untimed. I felt fast. This trail has 100 meter markers and quarter mile markers. At 700 meters I saw a pretty fast runner coming back the other way who was closing on 900 meters. I shifted from comfortably hard to hard to see if I could close before the finish. Nothing like closing the gap when you feel like a million bucks. I went by with 100 to go and said hello . As I came round the old bus stop like enclosure part of me wanted to do another lap to turn left would have been so easy to do but I went right jogged to my car feeling GREAT SUPER CHARGED.

Many times while running I consider the idea of forming some type of flash mob racing. Send out distance location date time then who ever shows up races.

Rest of week was good a few hikes one uphill tempo and lots of walks.

A very good week here with three good hard runs with easy recovery days - on a nice streak of 11 days. One hard run was a local Turkey Trot which I finished 4th overall and 1st in my age group, so pleased with that. My first race in 16 months. Best part was hearing my little girl cheer me on as I neared the finish. She had run the 1 mile race with her mom – both races started at the same time – and had so much fun. I was much happier for her.

Made some good time improvements over some set runs in the desert. I am feeling that a nice fitness plateau has been reached. Lots of arm and core work during the week too.

Have a great week!

A big mileage improvement this week as I finally recover from my cold. 22 miles the prior week consisting of 4 on Fr, 10 on Sa, and 8 on Su. 53 miles this week with 6 days of 8 and 1 day of 5. I feel much better now than at the beginning of the week. I hope next week feels like the same kind of progress.

Charlie,

Like you, I always enjoy chasing ghosts around Eugene...and there are many of them...been doing so on a regular basis since 1975...keep me in mind for your flashmob event there ;)

Unmotivated and outta shape post surgery but managed to scratch out 41 for the week including a 'scintillating' 23 minute solo 5000 on the local high school track and a PW on my standard 11 miler through the vineyards...hard to categorize any of my current pedestrianism as actual running.

Time to go trot off some of this lingering turkey...have an outstanding week!

MF

Mon = Weights

Tue = 33 degree hard rain. Rest

Wed = 3 easy in heavy snow flurries

Thr = Weights

Fri = 4 miles, medium paved, flat greenway

Sat = Weights

Sun = 4 miles, rocky, leafy trail, 550 foot climb

11 miles running; a most excellent week of increasing fitness.

It was a good week where I began to bump the distance up a bit and the heel did not complain. Nice to not have anything interesting to report. No news is good news!

I had a week with only 3 training sessions but had other activity to keep me going. Workouts on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday were very strong...Saturday's was a killer-- I'm putting some speed endurance work into the mix. I still do my 8x50s but added 2x180. My legs were toast when I was done. I was out of town so was invited to accompany others to a yoga class (didn't embarrass myself) and walked one of their dogs in a 5K Turkey Trot. Both the doggie and I enjoyed it. Tonight I will coach my youth club and we'll have a session of abdominal work in which I'll participate. I can still outdo some of my high school kids in crunches and planks!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday.

Checking in after getting away from the boards for a while...Seemed like I was constantly whining about something and not having much to offer to the conversations...

Fall has been ok...Just running, about 50-60 mpw. Injuries seem to be under control. Kind of unbelievable I went 35:32 to win our 10K Turkey Trot on a freezing cold snowy morning. I still don't know how I ran 5:47 pace when 99.9% of my miles the past 10 weeks have been between 7:15 & 7:45 pace! That should tell me something about how I should be training next year.

Kind of excited about running the 2014 Bayshore HM. My daughter and I both were able to register this morning before it sold out in 2 hours! This will be her first race longer than 5 miles. She's pumped!

That's it for now...Stay healthy!

Dave

Seems like everyone here is plugging along pretty well.

Had a very good week...60miles of running, 2+hrs of steep incline walking on the treadmill, plus a bit of lifting and circuit training. Got in 4 runs of over 90mins or more...some with a bit of pace..for me. Included a 93min treadmill run with 4x7mins at 7:35 pace at 5%...not brutal...but kind of taxing.

Sticking with making my easy days truly easy with incline walking or a combo of short jog and incline walking.

In case anyone is interested...I made a list of all the supplementary exercises I do...or could remember doing...and how I felt they affected running. It's here:

http://www.capecodcoaching.com/1/post/2013/11/supplementary-exercises-for-runners-and-other-folks.html

Note...it's just my impressions based on a trial and error...not resembling anything scientific. I'd be interested to know what you guys/gals thought...or if you have any experiences you'd like to share.

All the best,

Paul

Argh. I hope xc club nationals never comes back to Oregon. The 3 years that it has been held here, I've been injured. I wasn't injured two weeks ago, but was entered in the regional race here last weekend. I really didn't want to run it because I a) had to go to a very important irish dance competition with my daughter that day and she was super stressed out, b) really didn't like the course (flat and windy) and c) don't especially like the race series and d) we didn't have any other masters women running and they don't need me on the open team. But I was entered by the team and figured I'd get a good workout in.

Except, I hurt my hip within the first 1k or so of the race and pulled my hip out of alignment. Since it was a local race, I was too embarrassed just to stop and not worsen the injury. So I muscled my way to the finish at not much faster than a moderate run, which was also embarrassing. And then I could barely walk.

I had to take 4 days completely off, and was hobbling so badly that each step hurt. I had two chiropractic adjustments and was finally able to jog/walk very slowly (5.5 miles) on Thanksgiving (nothing like not only having to diet for Thanksgiving BUT also not to be able to burn off "extra" calories from your run). Worst thing ever.

All season, I've been remembering my dear teammate (a national record holder) who had career ending surgery on November 11 and who will never run again. My other teammate and I have kept her in our thoughts as we've struggled through injuries, grateful that we can still run at all. But it's been hard now as I am not sure I can even run respectably in Bend - and this would be my 12th nationals in a row. Plus, our 3rd teammate bailed out on us last week, so we don't even have a full team.

I'm in a quandary. I have another appointment tomorrow afternoon, but my final 3 weeks before nationals were supposed to be sharpening type workouts that I so desperately need and I wasn't able to do anything for over a week. I couldn't even cross train (which I hate anyway), although I did a half-hour in the pool yesterday after my 5 mile run. The race is "relatively" local, so I'm not out a plane ticket, and I also hate racing and only do it for the team aspect -- and we don't have a full team. Lots of local will make their only nationals appearance and I hate to admit that it bothers me not to be able to run well. I was running a lot better than my last race - although who knows what I can do in two weeks.

Blah. Really bummed. If we had a full team, I'd for sure suck it up and run, but we don't. We don't even have a full 40+ team, so I might be on that one (and dragging them down). :(

Paul,

Thanks for link to your exercise list. I'm putting my rehab/get serious strength training plan together now.

The following thread had a lot of info

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=4266297

Somewhere in the middle of our (this) over 50 thread Eurodonkey commented some more on the subject of strenght training for masters.

Try searching Eurodonkey in the LRC archives; he tends to comment on this topic and offers good resources.

best of luck,

Over 50...thanks very much. I can see Eurodonkey is extremely knowledgeable.

I know that I also learned a lot from RunningArt over the years. His advice has always proved accurate.

Bye for now,

Paul

Muddy Sister

Just get there...be as healty as possible but don't overdo anything between now and then...ideal shape is one without expectations...no anxiety, instead, big hairy fun...take what you get AND be psyched to make the trip and hang with friends...in so doing, I guarantee you'll have a winning life experiernce.

Go out and run well...run with heart...but do it for those teammates and far flung pals who cannot be in Bend?..and do not stress on the end result.

Just go out and be yourself....whomever shows up that particular day...please be OUR ambassador of fitness and fun...no muss, no fuss...don't overthink this stuff...it's just runnin' ....running hard, yes...but mostly just giving it what you got as you would ordinarily but instead of stressin about scoring, just making you and US proud...let us live/race vicariously through you...Team Muddy...go.

Oh, and, the sooner you're done, the sooner the fun. ;)

MF

M-30min jog + 6 short strides + "100m" (17.9sec) inclined sprint + 7min jog.

T-30min jog + 3x30sec strides + "400m" (1:28) inclined push + 12min jog.

W-30min jog + 4x30sec strides + "1500m" (5:24) push + 10min jog.

T-no running.

F-25min jog + 6 short strides + "200m" (39sec) push + 10min jog.

S-30min jog + 4x100m strides + 800m surge (2:39) + 10min jog.

S-5k jog (26:33) + 4x30sec strides + 3k brisk tempo (11:16) + 2k jog (10:06).

Saturday's 2:39 was much MUCH easier and smoother than the previous week's 2:38. Wednesday's 1500m was also much livelier and quicker. Sunday was windy against, so I dropped my sub11 ambitions but did a hard tempo still. All inall this was a great week - something began to click - and I have fully embraced the concept of BIG warmups. I absolutely love my new 100m/400m/1500m/0/200m/800m/3000m weekly routine.

Mon. 7km kayak on the lake.

Tue. 20km hilly trail run with 680m of elevation gain.

Wed. 7km kayak on the lake.

Thu. 25km mountain bike ride up to the top of Mt Ida and back.

Sat. 11km run on rolling fire roads 59m mostly @. 5.10/20 per km.

Sun. 41km mountain bike ride on hilly dirt farm roads and tracks.

Enjoyable week with trip to DC with family to see the sights again, lots of walking. First long trip in car (9+ hours) without any sciatica or other leg/butt discomfort - credit calisthenics.

5k on treadmill in 18:37

2 easy treadmill hill sessions 2 sets of 2 min @ 4%, 5%, & 6% grade, all at 7.5mph.

Wrist was broken paying basketball, see ortho guy this week, don't expect anything major.

Have a good week all!