50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Mon. 1 hour kayak session on the lake.

Tue. 13.8km running on the tough stuff up behind my place. About 1h 30m.

The trails get rougher as summer kicks in and dries them out. This was basically the same course I ran last week.

Wed. 30kms mountain bike ride on dirt farm roads, about 1hr 30m.

Thu. My wife bought a bathroom vanity unit on ebay for 99c. Unfortunately it was 200kms away. So a long drive for me. I did make it worthwhile with visits to my brother, my daughters and grand daughters.

I stopped at Lysterfield Lake and rolled through a nice 10km "trail" run in abot 53 mins. Temps of 40 deg. C (105?).

Fri. Spent the morning mowing and brush cutting at my youngest daughter's house before heading for home. A powerful westerly bought the cool change in. Headed to the lake but decided not to go out for a paddle, the winds were wild and I felt too weary to face off with them. I stopped at the golf course and did a mix of barefoot walk, jog, strides and exercises.

Sat. A steady hour out on the lake paddling.

Sun. 3 laps of a testing little forest loop, 4.56km per lap. First lap was a steady 25 minutes. The 2d lap I did 1min walk, 1 min solid run, 1 min jog, 2 min solid run. Repeated the cycle 5 times on the lap. The 3d lap was a steady 24 mins.

I had a similar problem a couple of weeks ago but I think I stopped soon enough not to do any serious damage and only missed a week of running,

Well, Happy Holidays to all. Reached a 30 mile week last week, which does not happen easily, especially doing singles and skipping/missing a day. Glad that I was able to get to a podiatrist, who injected my plantar bursa with a bit of cortisone (all gone now) and burn off a couple of plantar warts on the same foot. Nothing as dramatic as what KP had. KP, did you have to be on bedrest for a week after your surgery, how are you getting around?

Hope to maintain 30+ miles/week this year, but more than anything, just stay running healthy. Starting to think of new year's goals. Just to run, that's probably primary, and just to run with my wife regularly is equal to that (great partner).

Today's temp here in the KC area may not reach 10 degrees, should make for a fun run. What we did to stay warm before Dry Fit, Breathe Thermo, Heater Hog, etc.?

Ken, your fitness is certainly returning, what's the latest from your docs, how often do they want to see you and what is the latest on managing the host/brother's cells? How often does that get checked now?

Sent in my check for another year of American College of Sports Medicine membership, $230, pretty pricey considering that I'm selling running shoes, but it keeps me informed on some good running research at times.

Shifting sports now, late for me due to USATF XC last week. But you know, I had so much fun that I'd like to keep going back. So maybe less skiing in the future, call it for personal and financial reasons.

Ran just 20 miles but skied about 4 hours, including a 15K race. The race is a qualifier for junior nationals, but it also had many top ranked senior/open level skiers and some good masters. Considering being on my feet, driving many hours, waxing skis etc. for 12 hours on Saturday and Sunday the race went pretty well. Very hilly three lap course. 3rd 50+ but 1st in M6 (55+) age group, and right in there with the other guys for much of the race.

Planning on masters nationals later this winter. And then back to running.

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Week 134

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Greetings semi-centenarians. It was a bad week exercise-wise---a half-hearted effort, at best. Did a few sets of these more dynamic exercises (I'll list them in another post some time later), but didn't balance them out with running yet. Did take a few longer walks, but they weren't at a fast enough pace to count for much. So that's the negative for the week.

Three positives:

1) had a small, but very pleasant, Christmas with just my wife and daughter (OK, we did also enjoy a wonderful choral Christmas Eve service with others);

2) finally had that endoscopy done: one very small "benign-looking" polyp removed (doc was very pleased with the outcome, but we'll get it tested anyways); and

3) signed up for membership at the church gym---family membership was $150 for the year. Only downside is that, since it's all run by volunteers, it'll be closed until the New Year. As such, I'll seriously start a more aerobic regimen with the New Year, but probably only after a quick trip to Wisconsin to attend to some family matters (not a pleasure trip, unfortunately.)

A friend of mine made a sobering comment that all the stuff I'm doing now is really just biding time, as my body heals, adjusts, and recalibrates to my new normal. These past three months of "rehab" suggest he's spot on. So as we come to the close of 2013, I look forward to 2014 being a time of healing and regeneration in this long, slow process.....there are no magic pills. And fingers crossed I won't require surgery.

Hope you all are having enjoyable Holidays with friends and family! And Best Wishes for the New Year!

Steady week, including 2 800's @ 5:00 pace, plus I did a treadmill workout based on a study in the latest issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.

The workout was originally designed for astronauts, wanting them to stay fit but not to burn extra calories (Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption [EPOC]) since they can develop a negative energy balance in space.

On a stationary bike: 3 x (3 min @ 85-90% VO2max with 2 min recovery between @ 50% VO2max, but the third interval is reduced to 80-85% VO2max because previous subjects couldn't do three in a row). On a treadmill this is a little harder because of the time it takes to get up to top speed and to slow down from it makes the recovery comparatively less.

The idea now for the protocol is for those with little time to train. The workout only takes 18 minutes, but it had better results than 45 @ 60-65% VO2max, or 5 minutes of sprint interval training (7 x (30 seconds with 15 sec recovery)) done @ 120% VO2max. I had to base my speed on heart rate % from recent workouts.

Mike Lundgren, they are checking my GVHD every 2 weeks now, unless it worsens and I call them. Back on cyclosporin for two weeks to calm down some of it, but they did reduce my prednisone down to 10 mgs. Otherwise, I feel fine. We check my brother's % this week, which I suspect is now in the 90's since GVHD has slightly increased.

Have a good week all!

Not much happened this week, workout-wise. I had a house full of out of town company plus I still had to work most of the week. I had a strong hurdle workout last weekend, coached my kids in a meet last Sunday, then squeezed in one lifting workout and one running workout. That was it. However, even with all of the company and eating/drinking I managed to keep my weight steady by eating lightly during the day in anticipation of each evening's big consumption. I did a light workout yesterday in order to ease myself back into it and it felt surprisingly good. I already have my workout days planned for next week ---my work commute can take awhile and that eats up time in the evening so I need to schedule things with my spouse. I find if I do this I am much more apt to stick with what I plan!

So, for 2014 (at least for the 1st quarter)my goals are to lose the final 6 lbs of extra weight, and compete in our association championships end of January and the national indoor championships mid-March. Continue coaching the HS kids, which I am thoroughly enjoying and build on my fitness and see what I can do in the outdoor season. Happy and Healthy New Year to all of you!

WOC wrote:

On a stationary bike: 3 x (3 min @ 85-90% VO2max with 2 min recovery between @ 50% VO2max, but the third interval is reduced to 80-85% VO2max because previous subjects couldn't do three in a row). On a treadmill this is a little harder because of the time it takes to get up to top speed and to slow down from it makes the recovery comparatively less.

The idea now for the protocol is for those with little time to train. The workout only takes 18 minutes, but it had better results than 45 @ 60-65% VO2max, or 5 minutes of sprint interval training (7 x (30 seconds with 15 sec recovery)) done @ 120% VO2max. I had to base my speed on heart rate % from recent workouts.

I’m going to give this a try. This seems close to 3x 800 reps. Interesting that more and more research is pointing towards the slightly longer elements of HIIT training as opposed to methods such as Tabata (8X 20 sec on, 10 sec rest). Except, I find 800 reps really hard.

Mon = 3, flat course, easy

Tue = Weights

Wed = 3, flat course, medium, testing calf a bit

Thr = Weights

Fri = 3, 2/3 road 1/3Trail (1:24 sec/per mile faster than one month ago), full test

Sat = Weights

Sun = 3, soft cinder track, easy

12 miles running

Despite the calf injury setback my fitness did not suffer as I continued to feel better and better this week. Mon and Wed I could not detect any discomfort in my calf at all.

So Fri I decided to fully test the calf. I picked the run that is 2/3 road, and 1/3 trail. It's a tough little hill getting in and out of the woods. I was feeling so good I pressed it a bit and was way ahead of pace when on the way back the calf reminded me it was still there. I slowed down and it was fine, but, obviously I'm not quite ready to, um, let ‘er rip. Still managed to knock off a good chunk of time from a month ago so I'm happy about that. I stayed away from the mountain today and just took it easy.

Merry Christmas and Happy new Year to all. I am 2/3rds through our holiday celebrations. We are doing 3 "Christmases" this year. We did the first one on the 23rd with one son, daughter-in-law and grandkids. We did Christmas dinner with daughter-in-law's family with her parents, two siblings and their 4 kids. We will do our final "Christmas" next Saturday when our other son is back in town with his wife for a few days. I am pleased to say that I have gained less than 2lbs so far this holiday season.

I suppose at age 64 I should not be surprised at how long it takes to recover from a race effort, but I still am pretty beat up from club Nationals. I managed 18 miles this week, but at much better paces than a week ago. On my usual Saturday run with son and d-in-l, a week ago I ran as hard as I could on our 6 mile trail loop and could only manage 8:42/mi pace. Yesterday on the same run at a similar effort level I ran 7:58/mi pace. It's going to take at least 3 weeks, and probably 4 weeks for me to get back to normal after a 10K race.

I also like the sound of WOC's 3x3min/2min recover workout. Monday-Friday I usually run a loop that has a 2 mile 800' elevation-gain hill in the first half of it. When healthy, I was doing a (15-18)x:30hard/:30easy up it once a week for VO2 max work. I think I will try alternating that with the 3x3min intervals.

In this morning's Parade Magazine:

http://www.parade.com/245849/brucegrierson/6-lessons-on-living-longer-and-staying-sharp-from-a-nonagenarian-track-star/

Season's greetings to you and all on this thread.

I've been lurking of late given my injuries and hectic travel schedule. I am happy to report that my calf has finally healed and I've been able to do some easy jogging whilst on holiday in Sydney catching up with family and friends. I hope to return to training when we get back to Europe next week.

I trust that 2014 will be a happy and healthy year for all of you and your loved ones.

DrT

Hi All...

lucKY2B...thanks for that article in Parade Magazine. Very inspiring.

Good week here...in fact the best in a very long time. 75 miles for week with a bit at decent pace. Finished up the week with a good 2hr run today...threw in a couple of miles at 6:42 pace at the end. I wrote the details down here:

http://www.capecodcoaching.com/training.html

Things that seem to helping: 1)converting to standing desk 2)less heavy weight lifting 3) cutting out the sweets, less carbs, more good fats 4) Extreme Endurance supplement. No scientific evidence for any of it. Just feelings.

Looking to race again after layoff...

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL WHO VISIT HERE!!

WOC, I like your workout and rationale!

8.7 hours this week--I was going to do a double today but went DH skiing with the kids instead.

Working on hills, I used to be a better hill climber but feel like that is diminishing in recent years, so training my weakness: I did 5X 3 to 3.5 min on the treadmill at 8% and close to a V02 effort the other day (too cold to run, and I don't even want to repeat the outside temp that day [-30s at the time]) so to the toughuns out there, treadmill offered better quality I think.

Looking forward to 2014, and already plotting on a visit to PA for USATF XC in December.

Checking in for the first time in about a month.

Been traveling in the states, away from my home in Oaxaca, Mexico.

I've only run 9 times in the past 3 weeks. It's OK as I'd reached my goal of hitting 30 mile weeks several times this fall. This week saw tempo runs of 13:50 over 2 miles and 23:12 over 5K. Good enough for "down time" runs.

Looking forward to stretching out my distance in 2014. I hope to try my first half marathon. Last similar effort was a 20K race in 1989. About time I tried again!

Happy New Year to all! Best wishes for continued success with running.

(formerly posting as "Horst Girth")

Hey all...

About ready to begin my 40th year of running. I've kind of got this ambitious plan of running 40 races this year. I'm about 50/50 committed right now...Just not real sure if I really want to yet...I laid out my race schedule so it can be done, pretty much locally. But that's a lot of races!

Running's been good, our Holidays have been very up and very down. Had an enjoyable week with our Sons family and two Grand-daughters spending the week with. Our daughter got engaged. But we received news last week our Nephew was killed in the Blackhawk crash in Afghanistan. My sister is devastated. It is as horrible as you can imagine...

I only need a 6 miler to hit 2400 miles for the year. It's my lowest total in 10 years but I'm good with it.

Here's to a healthy 2014 everyone...

Dave

Best wishes for the New Year everyone.

Mon. 30kms ride on the mtb.

Tue. Off, busy morning and working an evening shift.

Wed. Busy morning setting up. A low key bbq with a few friends and family.

Thu. Up early and a 2 hour drive to meet up with a mate and set up camp at Sawmill Settlement then a quick drive up onto Mt Stirling. Starting at Telephone Box Junction 1200m asl. we headed up to the summit at 1747m 5kms away. From the summit another 5 or 6kms of steep roller coaster out to Craig's Hut and then returned to Stirling, the return leg is very tough. We returned to TBJ via different, slightly longer route with a few uphills added.

Running time was probably only about 3 hrs. but we stop often to take photos and soak in the views so it took us closer to 4hrs.

A good long soak in the chilly waters of the Delatite River freshened up the legs.

Fri. Up at first light and off and running by 6.45. After 5mins of easy downhill warmup jog we crossed the main road and started the climb up Doughty Rd. This is a well maintained 4x4 road that climbs 500m in 5kms. The legs were heavy early on but I gradually worked into a rhythm. Unfortunately my rhythm was (as usual) a bit slower than my buddy Greg's (ex 2.26 mar.). Still I was pretty happy with 40m for the climb, Greg managed 37.

From there we picked up the overgrown hiking track up to the West Ridge of Mt Buller. The next 20 mins is often runnable and presents awesome views of the mountain. From there on it is almost all hike and scramble on loose rocky terrain. It is a 3 step ridge with remarkable views almost continuously.

Some sections do require some simple rock climbing.

The last section had the ticker nearly maxing out as it rises at 40%gradient on loose rock and at 1800 plus metres elevation. The summit was reached in around the 2.30 mark. Again we did lose plenty of time to gawking at the views and taking photos.

The descent of the summit took us through the ultra modern ski resort. Quite an odd feeling after the climb through absolute wild country on the other side.

Near the start of Buller's famous mtb courses we picked up the original bridle path used by the early settlers. This was a lovely shady 9km 1300m descent. We were able to roll along at a good pace, for once I had Greg doing the chasing.

From the bottom an easy 2.5km road run brought us back to the start and a chance to soak our legs in the Delatite. With the temps around the 100 deg f. the river was very welcome.

2 great 4 hour excursions in a period of 24 hours.

Sat. Back home. Down to the lake for a relaxed 75 min paddle.

Sun. Eased my weary legs through a relaxed 35km mtb ride.

Very sad news, Dave. Prayers and condolences to your extended family. God bless.

35 miles for the week, quite a bit for me, and with approaching 37 years of running on the legs (over 70,000 miles, by my calculations). It's a good running month if I can get over 100 miles! Between running and other aerobic cross-training, have averaged 43 minutes/day, or 5 hours per week. There is evidence that more than that can actually be beneficial (despite what some are still arguing is enough with 10-12 miles/week), but the 5 hours/week is pretty good for me, since I don't have huge amounts of sit-down time otherwise. And my weight is fairly constant around 152#. If I could only control my desire for chocolate and organic corn chips a bit more...

Have you all read that David McGillivray has admitted to having severe coronary artery disease? Is changing his diet and back on a statin. Hopefully, he'll maintain that, and get more sleep, too, he does a great job with being a race director. His Type A behavior probably helped him not give up in figuring out why he'd had significant shortness of breath with the start of his runs. The stress he must have felt after this year's Boston, too.....

Happy New Year to all, and peaceful feelings to those of you facing trying times.

I did the HIAT workout again, this time 90%, 80%, 90% plus a 4th @ 90%. It was a lot easier this way, although I forgot to set the grade to 1% like the previous effort, plus I felt very good warming up. Which brings me to the next point.

I think this Japanese High Intensity Aerobic-Interval Training (J-HIAT) is better suited for the bike like they originally tested it. To only warm-up for 3 minutes then jump into a 90% VO2max is asking a lot of a runner. Range of motion at higher speeds is more of an issue running, so I think a longer warm-up, including some strides at 90% VO2max pace, are needed. I did a 10 minute warm-up (vs. studies 3), including getting up to 11mph by the end of the first mile (7:04), then walk/jog/stride until getting to interval pace by minute 10. Total workout, including 2 min walking warm down was 32 minutes.