50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

I was happy to see this about Sean. I run with his group on occasion, plus he's a neighbor of sorts (he owns a rental property a couple doors down from me). I had a little chat about Beer Mile with him that was one of the best training conversations I've ever had.He's a good dude.

lucKY2b wrote:

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Week 244

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Greetings, 50+ers! It's continued to be crazy-busy again this week. With the chaotic all-over-the-map schedule, I'm continuing to have to find creative times to get some training in, it's not ideal, but I'm managed. In the end, this week was about like last, just a slight incremental improvement. Log reads as such:

Sun: 5.2 progressive (8:30 -> 6:30, 7:27/mi avg pace)

Mon: off

Tues: 5.5 (w/ 6 hill repeats)

Wed: off

Thur: 5.0 easy (8:06 pace)

Fri: 3.0 Hard/Easy w/2x800,2x400 (6:47 avg pace)

Sat: 7.0 steady easy (7:59 pace)

No niggles cropping up, weight still an issue, not much else to add. I'm glad to see y'all stepping up and giving some really good advice. Keep it up!

This time, I think I'm right. What about recent M50, Sean Wade? Wow!

http://masterstrack.com/sean-wade-shatters-m50-indoor-wr-in-mile-ar-in-3000-in-boston/

All the best!

nyloco is turning 50. Isn't that interesting?

@water under the bridge - Nice mantra!

water under the bridge wrote:

Just turned 68 in January. Not looking to race (5k) until mid April, and hope to get under 21:30ish. I was a bit "faster " than that before the hurts a couple of years ago. Most runs now on on my own treadmill (calibrated), and most workouts are done at Threshold heart rate. I'm getting VERT disheartened by all of the nagging i juries over the past couple of years...especially since training was going so well. Well...maybe it's just old age catching up with me. BUT I REFUSE TO LET IT PASS!!

A 21:30 at 68 sounds great to me. The article from Drew Hunters coach was useful for me at 61. The point that I got from it is running at 90% increases the number of fast twitch muscles that use glycogen rather than anaerobic means of combustion. So I am starting to train less "fast" and feeling better. The article is a good read if you haven't already it on LR.

Last week's training much like other weeks for me.

I use cycling (a la Jack Foster) and running and then swimming to get the tiredness out of my legs.

Monday - Outdoor ride of 16.6 miles in 62 on a hilly course. 5 min walk. 25 min swim felt cold after riding outdoors. Cut it short.

Tuesday - Hour swim for 2400 yards made up of 400s and 100s. 10 row for 2120 yards/125 watts. 60 weights giving up on 5x5 stronglifts as that was tearing me up and my results were dropping all last month. 50 min of machine weights15x50lbs legs, back, core, chest, arms.

Wednesday - 65 min spin class averaging 169 watts and 81 rpm. 25 min run drills on basketball court. 40 min swim for 1600 yards of 400s and 25s.

Thursday - 60 min swim for 2400 made up of 400s and 100s. 10 row at 2260 yards and 150 watts. 50 minutes weights 10x75 on legs, back, 5 minutes straight core, 10x62.5 chest and arms.

Friday - 72 spin averaging 170 watts and 84 rpm. 26:20 for 5k on treadmill doing 1min easy then 1 minute faster going from 9+ pace to sub 8 pace. 40 swim of 400s and 50s.

Saturday - 80 spin averaging 140 watts and 80 rpm. Legs tired, no run. 40 swim of 400s and 25s for a mile total.

Sunday - 30 outdoor bike to check out new bike 16.6mph. 60 swim of 400s and 100s. 10 row for 2294 yards and 155 watts. 10x75 legs and back, 5 minutes of core 10x65 of chest and arms.

Would like to run 100% of this time (used to do it). Now I have to split it among the activities above to average 2-3 hours a day. It is work to figure out what is making me sore before it becomes an injury that alters the workouts.

Keep up the good running that you are doing.

Mon. 26 km mountain bike ride 1.30. 190 m of elev gain

Tue. 11 km trail run 1.05.

Wed. 10.2 km run 52.00

Thu. 40 min kayak session on the lake.

10.5 km run 55.00

Fri. 26 km mountain bike ride 1.35. 300m of elevation gain.

Sat. 1 hour kayak session on the lake. Flying!

10.4 km run 49.00. 60 m of elevation gain on the railtrail. Moving well with 4.25 to 30 s km pace feeling pretty easy.

Sun. 11 km run and hike on trails in 1.25. Rough terrain. Right quad niggling so just jogging and hiking, some steep stuff.

A good solid week. Saturday was a pleasing run, steady state stuff getting down to sub 4.30s kms on a hot afternoon. Getting fitter.

It was a pretty good week for me. My right quad had been getting better after I reduced my daily run from 14km to 12kms and slowed down a bit. It felt good enough I did a 20 minute tempo run as part of my 12kms on Wednesday. It was my first tempo run in a couple of months and I really surprised myself. My GPS told me I did 4.97kms in 20 minutes. That's really fast for me and I didn't push hard, just a normal tempo effort. It bothered my leg though. On Saturday I wanted to do a 16km run but since right quad was still a bit sore I did an easy 12 instead. Sunday the leg was actually fine and I did intervals, 4 times 8 minutes with 2 minutes recovery.

After reading the Tinman thread on here I decided to reduce the intensity of my intervals, shoot for that 90 percent feeling. I surprised myself again, I covered almost 100 meters more than in my previous best workout. I think the big mileage a ran in December and January combined with a bit of rest is showing me my fitness is up. I am going to stick with an hour a day instead of 14 kms a day for the next couple of weeks. Winter is coming back so I am going to run much easier on the snowy roads.

I have added 35 minutes of Arc Training 5 days a week to keep my volume up. The first week on the Arc Trainer was brutal, my legs were not in shape for the new motion at all. It was much better by the end of the week. Plan for the next month is running an hour a day, with one twenty minute tempo, one interval workout per week and cross training on the Arc Trainer.

Any body have any Arc Trainer or Elliptical tales of success to keep me inspired?

Weekly total 88kms and 175 minutes on the Arc Trainer.

It's in Ithaca, NY at Barton Hall - same place as the Hartshorne mile. Not the fastest track, but convenient for me since I live ~40 miles away. It's likely that I'll be running in the same heat as one of my daughter's teammates who is trying to go sub 5 as well.I'll be traveling during Masters indoors this year, but I have the outdoor champs and road mile circled in red on my calendar.

Timmyshoy wrote:

Where is there a 1500mi door on the 21st feb? I'd be interested in running one

Speaking of the Tinman approach, it ends up quite similar to where my workout splits converge when I am in shape and training hard. When I turned 45 in 2011, I ran PRs in distances ranging from 800m to 5k with an average VO2max from my PRs of about 61. Doing intervals at 90% of that VO2max was easier for 300m (calculated 53s, was running 51s with 100m recovery jogs) and 400m (calculated 73s, was running 72s), but was in the right ballpark. But averaging 3:12 was beyond my reach for 5x1000m - I was in the 3:17-3:20 range for 5 intervals with 1 minute rest, but again, in the right ballpark.

In any case, keeping the easy days easy and long run days easy is wise, as are not allowing full recovery in an interval session and doing strides.

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Week 245

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Good Day, 50+ers! And a better week for me. Have finally gotten back over 30 miles for the first time since mid-December. Logged 33 miles as such:

Sun: 9.2 easy-to-moderate (7:36 average pace)

Mon: off

Tues: 5.5 (w/ 7 hill repeats)

Wed: 2.4 easy, untimed

Thur: 5.2 w/1.6@6:43 pace

Fri: 6.2 moderate (7:29 pace)

Sat: 5.0 fairly easy (7:42 pace)

For the past many weeks, I've been mostly running just by feel, and although I post them as a matter of record, I've really not been worrying much about pace. I've not explicitly timed the hill reps so as not to coax myself into working them too hard. The 1.6 steady hard on Thursday was just to open it up a bit without *really* going into debt. Things are on the uptick, with no real concerns. Well, OK, my back does get a little tight when I get past 5 miles, but I'm sure that'll subside once my body gets more accustom to the mileage. Still tipping the scales at 173-4 since the new year, so that's gotta change.

A lot of good stuff last week. Glad to read that others are starting to get out of the winter doldrums, as well.

Thanks and kudos, Muddy Girl, on the nice XC race and report.

Props to your Bowerman buddies, KP...and you've been doing pretty well, yourself!

Welcome, Nyloco; good to have you bring your body of knowledge to our thread!

And Welcome "water under the bridge", would like to read more about your training. Despite the recent niggles, you seem to still be kicking it pretty good @68!

Read some good stuff at masterstrack.com. Sean Wade continues his assault on the M50 record books--3k in 8:43 this week...yowza! How about those marathon trials with our Masters Olympian, Meb? And at 51, Colleen de Reuck still finished under 2:50 on this hot day. Sorry that Kevin Castille didn't make it past the mid-point.

As always, I look forward to reading about your week. Any indoor races to report?

All the best!

A solid week of running here...mostly easy. 60 miles with 51 of it on the treadmill. Only one workout but it was as solid as I've done in recent memory. Confidant of running a decent HM in 2 weeks. I think my goal of 1:18:15, which is a AG 90%, is do-able.

M: 8.77 Miles in 1:09:20 [7:54 per mile]

T: 8 Miles in 1:00:23 [7:32 per mile]

W: am: 3 Miles in 24:00 [8:00 per mile] pm: 2.25 Miles in 17:00 [7:33 per mile]

T: 9 Miles in 1:07:39 [7:31 per mile]

F: am: 3 Miles in 24:00 [8:00 per mile] pm: 6 Miles in 48:00 [8:00 per mile]

S: 14 Miles in 1:35:00 [6:47 per mile] 2 miles 15:00, 3 miles 18:00, 2 miles 15:00, 2 miles 11:30.5, 2 miles 15:00, 1 mile 5:30.1, 2 miles 15:00

S: 6 Miles in 46:55 [7:49 per mile]

Enjoyed the marathon trials yesterday while doing my Tempo/long run. I started my 14 miler when they did....I ended up more than 4 miles behind!

Hopeful of getting outside a few more days this week. The frigid air is supposed to break tomorrow and they're calling for 53 on Friday!

Have a good week,

Dave

Agree that Trials Marathon was a exciting. How 'bout the Pennel kid from Western State (listed as a Zap guy from my old NC stomping grounds) making the ballsy move at mile 15! And the teammate drama between Cragg & Flannagan.

Had my first breakthrough workout on the track Friday. 1200m in 3:49 followed by 3x400s in 73 and 2x200s in 33. Nothing stellar but chalking it up as a solid week #4 of indoor track fitness.

Have a great mid Feb week folks.

KP

Greetings all from the Pacific Northwest. 12 weeks after Achilles tendon surgery, the doc gave me the go ahead to start using it. He said it may hurt me but won't injure me. Ice will be my friend. My first week back.

Sat: one hour easy mountain bike

Sun off

Mon: 20 minutes on treadmill with heart rate avg 125

Tues same as Monday

Wed off

Thursday same as Monday

Friday 25 minutes on the flat pavement HR avg 125

Sat same as Friday

Sun off, traveling to Yuma Az

I plan on doing this same routine this week then bumping the time up by 5 minutes a week. When I get to an hour I plan on hanging there and then bump the intesity a bit. Does this sound like a good plan? I don't want to go too quickly but also not too slowly. The leg feels pretty good when I'm done running. No discomfort the next day either. Gotta make time for mountain bike racing season also.

Well, this week didn't go according to plan at all. Total miles this week = 3.5. Last week I wrote in my log that I had to hold myself back on my runs; I was feeling great! But on Monday, my stomach began to feel off. By Tuesday I was dealing with bad intestinal cramps. I had absolutely no interest in running or eating - even my hair hurt. On Wednesday, I almost passed out while I was teaching. Thursday I made it to the doctor who put me on antibiotics.

One of the antibiotics I was prescribed was cipro. When I read the warnings on the package insert, the first one was for tendon damage, especially in adults over 60. Even if the probability of damage was low, I didn't want to risk that if there were other treatment options. So the doctor prescribed an alternative and I began to take that yesterday.

I'm starting to feel better but since I still haven't eaten any solid food since last Sunday, I'm weak and sleeping a lot. Today is the first day I've even thought about running. I'm amazed how I went from being healthy to so sick in such a short time. I'm hoping I'll bounce back quickly so I can start to rebuild.

Glad to hear you getting back into it lucKY.

Whew, SCgal, when you are so sick your hair hurts…..that’s bad! Glad you are getting better.

Wow, what a great Oly marathon trials. Great story of Amy and Shalane. Someone could write a riveting short story on that one.

My week:

Mon = 30 min easy road and trail

Tue = Rest

Wed = 31 min easy road and trail

Thu = 32 min easy, sidewalks

Fri = Rest

Sat = 33 min easy road and trail

Sun = 34 min easy road and trail

Had a good week where the legs are starting to feel stronger. It’s been a while since they actually felt this springy. Running is fun again. Not coincidentally I yanked the Garmin ANT stick out of the computer and uninstalled the ANT agent app. My Garmin 405’s screen is blank and dead. Good riddance!

Tough break SCgal. I hope things improve quickly with the antibiotics. After increasing the mileage the last 3 weeks, (53, 54, 56) I took a down week this week and went 39 miles. Mid-week I felt really tired so the mileage drop was needed.

M - 8, 10:28/mi 165HR

T - 8, 10:29/mi 163HR

W - 4, 10:03/mi 169HR

Th - rest

F - 4, 10:08/mi 151HR

S - 9, 8:23/mi 169HR

Su - 6, 11:01/mi 121HR

Yes it's a good plan. I assume by +5mins/week you mean this:

Week2 20-20-x-20-25-25-x

Week3 25-25-x-25-30-30-x

The rule of thumb is +10% per week, but you can easily increase by more than 10% at low volume. At the beginning you will be increasing by 23% per week, at the end (55mins becomes 60mins) by 9%. So overall +5mins per week should be fine. Don't forget to include regular cutback weeks, that will moderate the weekly increase as well. To consolidate your fitness, you might want to hang out at 60 minutes for several weeks, followed by another cutback, before adding intensity.

I took many many months of running seven days and increasing just one minute per day per week, but I was battling an injury. At the end (59 minutes becomes 60 minutes) the increase was only 1.7% per week. In general you don't need to increase that slowly. But it is certainly safe.

Alan Bennet wrote:

Yes it's a good plan. I assume by +5mins/week you mean this:

Week2 20-20-x-20-25-25-x

Week3 25-25-x-25-30-30-x

Thank you Alan! The 125 HR involves some walking to keep it there but I'm going to use it as a gage. When I can jog the whole time without the HR going over 125 and the tendon feeling good, I will know the fitness is coming back. I feel like I should be wearing a sign that says "i'm really faster than this I'm coming off an injury". 14 minute miles is a blow to my ego :-).

SCgal my wife has taken Cipro a fair amount for bladder infections with no issues, although tendon damage is way outside her realm of possibility. Good luck !!!!!

Hit my first oops.

The 4 days of walking 15 miles last week was a bit too much.

Balls of both feet were hurting.

Cut back to 49 walking plus 1 running

4 tens , 2 fives and a day off

Ten today felt really good on the treadmill at 3.5 mph and 3000 feet elevation.

Walking injuries are like in slow motion compared to running injuries. You have more warning time to adjust.

Also had a good Id dream last night. I woke up after kicking the wall really hard. I usually do not remember dreams unless I suddenly wakeup like last night. In the dream I was running really fast on a cross country like course, effortlessly bounding up and down hills like a gazelle. I think this is my unconscious mind giving me positive feedback on my training;)

Mon. A windy, choppy 1 hour kayak session on the lake.

Tue. 25 km mtn bike ride with 240 m of elevation gain, 1 h 27 m.

Wed. Plodding 10.4 km run in the forest 1 h 8 m, 110 m of elevation gain. Walked a couple of kms to the start and walked about 3 kms home.

Thu. A brisk 7 km spin on the bike. A 2 km loosening jog. 10.4 km run, good hills, 300 m of elevation gain. 58 mins.

Fri. A very hilly 31.5 km mountain bike ride 540 m of elevation gain, 1 h 46 m.

Sat. A fast 1 hour kayak session on the Goulburn River. 8.7 km trail run in Graytown Forest. 90 m of elevation gain, 49 min, finishing along the flat final kms at 4.45 to 50 km pace.

Sun. 12.7 km trail run, 140 m of elevation gain, 1 h 15 m. Walked 2 km to start and 6 km back home.

Another fair week. Tired from night shift so mostly easy running. The right quad continues to be annoying post run and early into my runs. Loosening up once I get into it.

Week 245: 6 hours 54 minutes in 7 runs.

Mon - 1 hr easy

Tue - 1:08:05 Fartlek in the snow (12.52km), not as hard as last week

Wed - 1 hr slow

Thu - 1 hr 7 mins easy

Fri - 45 mins easy

Sat - 1:09:05 Tempo on the bikepath (12.97km) with 20 mins (4km + 2 mins) at 4:29/km, mild cramping at the end due to the cold

Sun - 45 mins easy

Somewhere near the end of my Thursday run, the question occurred to me: When is my next fallback week supposed to be? Looking up the answer later, I was supposed to be in the middle of it! So the adjustment is to run the fallback from Friday to Thursday. No harm done.

RE: The Olympic trials.

1. There were really a lot of DNF's -- partly the conditions, partly the once-every-four-years aspect. I can really respect the DNF's, they went for it. And then the marathon showed no mercy.

2. I think Linden ran the bravest race both men and women (even more so than the DNF's). As early as mile 8 she let four runners go, and later admitted she wasn't sure it was the right thing to do. It takes a lot of nerve to stick to the plan with so much at stake.

3. For the women:

In 2012 it was Flanagan, Davila, Gaucher, __Hastings__, Cherobon-Bawcom.

In 2016 it was Cragg, Linden, Flanagan, __Gaucher__, Bawcom.

One difference is that in 2012 Flanagan and Gaucher were training partners, in 2016 it was Flanagan and Cragg. Possibly just one factor amongst many to explain fourth place, but I find it interesting. If I am right about this, it also helps explain what Cragg did on the last loop.

@mopak - Is your right quad compensating for some other weakness? I ask because that is what mine is doing.

@racerdb - Dave, you have been running at 90% for a long time now. I assume you were only working with Tinman for your AR attempt, and are now back on your own. Correct? Anyway, I have some related questions: Did you show Tinman your previous training, and if so what did he think of it? Any plans to modify what you were doing before based on what Tinman had you do? Or is it just go back to what was already working? Thanks.