50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

I echo what others have said on Sean Wade’s sub 15. That is really, really outstanding. I was beginning to think Martin Rees was from another planet. Now he has company. But coming up on 8 years removed from 50 I tend to look forward. Ed Whitlock’s WR’s in the 1500 and 3000 seem pretty impressive to me.

Mon = 50 min easy road and trail

Tue = Rest

Wed = 51 min easy road and trail

Thu = 52 min easy road and trail

Fri = Rest

Sat = 53 min easy road

Sun = 120 min hike steep rocky trail

A nice week where my back pain dissolved and I felt like I was actually fit enough to handle the increased run time. Hiked 2 hours with my 27 yo daughter and 18 yo son today who are both in better shape than I thought. It was tough keeping up!

Week 250: 8 hours even in 6 runs; including Tues 5x hill and Sat 2h15 long run.

Missed posting last week. Last weekend was brutal with non-stop boxing and cleaning. No time for a run on Sunday, very little time for sleep all weekend, took Mon completely off to turn in early.

Week 251: 6 hours 46 minutes in 6 runs; including Tues 6x hill and Sat 5K race in 21:11 (chip time) -- 14th overall, 1st M50-59.

Some notable points about yesterday's 5K.

(1) 5th overall in 18:10 was listed as M70-99. He lives in my town yet I have never heard of him before. A F40-49 with the same last name from Philadelphia walked it in 52:31. I wonder if he only came out for "something fun to do" while family was in town. I need to meet this guy.

(2) The 1st female (F30-39) who finished one spot in front of me (20:54) did it with her boxer leashed to her waist. No doubt she could have run much faster; she did a lot of weaving to lead the boxer safely around the other runners.

(3) My splits were 4:07, 4:17, 4:17, 4:09, 4:06, 0:14 (0.06km -- I didn't stop the watch until a little after the line). Around 2km the boxer-woman passed me, I sped up a little in response and even so was thinking, "This is so easy!" Then I looked at my watch and it said 4:26. Oops. So I sped up some more and it stopped being easy. No kick at the finish, the next runner behind was nowhere in sight.

(4) After the finish the RD asked me and another guy for the distances on our Garmins. I had 5.06km, the other guy had 3.12mi. It seems two weeks ago the organizers wanted 3.14 miles for "Pi Day". So he moved the start/finish back that time to make it longer, and moved it up this time to make it shorter. I knew it! No mention of why he needed to double-check the distance with us. I suppose it means he just estimated....

@ Spikez - Not supposed to wear compression gear while sleeping. It wasn't clear from your narrative if you took them off.

@old guy II - This spring there was a woman in our training group who could not get her HR into recovery zone except by walking. Turns out her allergy inhaler was the culprit. If you are taking any meds, you might need to reread the labels.

This was a solid week of running for me with an interval workout that was more reps and shorter rest than I normally have plus a "long" run yesterday. My next race is the Monument Ave. 10k in Richmond on April 9 so the next two weeks should be a little easier. I've had lots of stress at work so I feel good that I didn't let my workouts slide.

Mon: 6.0 Hill run + strides

Tue: off

Weds: 8.9 8 X 800/200 (3:40-3:45)

Thu: 6.2 Easy

Fri: 6.3 Easy

Sat: 12.1 Easy

Sun: 6.3 Really easy

Total: 45.8

LucKY - do you have a goal race? That might help the motivation issue. I bet you'll feel more focused once school ends.

Spikex - don't the compression tights get hot? I use CEP compression socks for racing/recovery when it's cool. I could see that the tights would feel good but I don't know if I could get them off - the socks are hard enough!

kevin402can - good luck at the Hamilton race next weekend!

Much rather get the WR at 85 for the obvious reason;)

Take heart injured youngsters. Ed was banged up before his latest triumphs:

http://www.metronews.ca/sports/2014/10/23/whitlock-hopes-to-rebound-from-injuries.html

Here is a short Q&A after his latest 1500/3000 WRs:

http://masterstrack.com/ed-whitlock-targeting-m85-track-records-in-the-1500-and-up/

Really like the 2 hours a day of hiking up and down my hill. Started doing the last hill a quickly as possible without running(9:30 vs 6:08). So far so good.

Mon. A solid 1 hr walk then 1 hr 5 min kayak session on the Campaspe River.

Tue. 27 km of solid forest riding on the mountain bike 1 hr 40 m.

Wed. 3.5 km run in the morning inc 3 x 150 m strides and 10 x goal post shuttle runs. Also a mix of exercises and drills.

10 km run later 51 min on flat forest trails, 7th km 4.50, 8th 4.43, jogged the 9th then strong 10 th in 4.23.

Also walked 4 km into work and 3.5 km back after work.

Thu. A solid 1 hour kayak session on the Campaspe River.

Fri. A quick 3.2 km walk with 110 metrez of elevation gain then 27 km mountain bike in the forests 1 hr 40 mins.

Sat. 11 km hilly run on dirt roads 300 m of elevation gain. 1 hr.

Sun. 11.4 km hilly run on dirt roads. 350 m of elevation gain 1 h 10 min.q

A fair week of mixed activities. Fairly busy late in the week between work and lots of landscaping, wheel barrow pushing.

SCgal wrote:

LucKY - do you have a goal race? That might help the motivation issue. I bet you'll feel more focused once school ends.

No spring race goals. I'm so far behind where I should be this time of year; I've completely fallen off the fitness trajectory for any realistic racing this spring. It'll be a while before I'm "race ready" (whatever that means.) Hopefully, before July 4, I'll have my act together well enough to run a semi-competitive Bluegrass 10000 on that day. That'd be the closest I have to a race goal. Thanks for asking.

sub-50 here (though not by much) ... I've been lurking a while and thought I'd post. If you'd prefer to keep things 50+ then no worries.

From being in run clubs and reading plans online, I'm used to plans with heavy emphasis on 'quality runs' ... tempos, intervals, hills, etc. Lately I have been questioning the importance of all this. It seems like quality runs can give you a minor-to-moderate performance improvement, at a moderate-to-major risk of injury or overtraining. Plus, you have to actually do them.

Lately I've decided to focus on Volume, Volume, and Volume. Just focusing on running an appropriate volume every week (currently 20-25 mpw, planning to slowly build to 35), and not worrying how I do it. If I throw track and a tempo in, that's fine, and if I do easy runs of 8-6-6 on 3 consecutive days, that's fine too.

My goals are just to get in decent shape and approximate my hobbyist 5K/10K times of a few years ago.

Any thoughts, on (mostly) ignoring quality?

& thanks to all for making this the only civil, adult thread on LetsRun. Honestly that's a big reason I read it.

LucKY - Don't stress over "where you should be". You are where you are - just keep putting one foot ahead of the other. Like you, I don't want to run if I'm not fit and can't give a good effort. But I've come to the conclusion that if I wait to race until I'm what I consider "race ready" I'll never run any races!

Sunday: Intervals 4 x 8 minutes with two minutes recovery. Total with warmup and cool down was 12.1 kms. I covered more ground at a lower heart rate than at any time in the last three months. Things are looking good for the race.

Monday 13.09 kms in 1:04:05. Easy run and in the pm 50 minutes on an Arc Trainer

Tuesday 14.56 kms in 1:09:41. Easy run

Wednesday 12.06 kms with a 5km tempo in the middle. It was actually 5.14kms in 20:04. That is a 3:55/km pace. Heart rate average was 143. It didn't feel that hard, it was just a tempo run. I now think breaking 40 for 10km is reasonable and I feel good about the race on Sunday. 50 minutes on the Arc Trainer in the evening.

Thursday 13 kms in 1:06:13. Easy run.

Friday. Good Friday so I was aiming for 17kms. Apparently my aim is not so good and I ran 18.1 in 1:25:53. Average heart rate was 120 and the average pace was 4:45/km so it was reasonably fast but still an easy run.

Saturday: 15.15 kms in 1:11:24. Immediately after running I got on the Arc Trainer and did another 50 minutes.

The week was 98 kms of running with 150 minutes of Arc Training thrown in. Not sure it was the smartest week with 7 days to a race, it wore me out. I have a week taper though and I think I will be fine. Since December 2nd I have averaged 13.6kms a day. I am probably as fit as I have every been as an adult.

The weather forecast is not predicting good conditions for next Sundays 30km. Minus 3C with wind chill down to -8, 30 percent chance of snow. I keep telling myself that long term weather reports are unreliable.

I don't really like comparing myself to the field but if the weather is bad I will have to compare my placing this year to last year to gauge if my training worked.

SCgal wrote:

LucKY - Don't stress over "where you should be". You are where you are - just keep putting one foot ahead of the other. Like you, I don't want to run if I'm not fit and can't give a good effort. But I've come to the conclusion that if I wait to race until I'm what I consider "race ready" I'll never run any races!

+1.

Last year, I did my Independence Day 5k, even though I was far from "where I should be." (22+min. The slowest I ever ran on that course.) Of course, I have never been fast, so that made it easier for me to handle being slow.

My week.

M: swimming 1000m.

T: 4 miles / 7 miles.

W: 12 miles. (5th to 11th miles @ 7:51-7:44-7:37-7:30-7:30-7:30-7:30)

R: 4 miles / 7 miles.

F: 9 miles.

SA: 7 miles.

SU: 18.9miles.

I was planning to run 20 miles on Sunday, with the last 5 @ MP. After going 16th-18th miles @ 7:59-7:54-7:59, I realized it was too hot (mid- to high 70s) to push the pace, and decided to end my run one lap (1.1 mile) short. Not sure if I made the right decision, but I thought it was better to be safe than sorry. Otherwise, I had a decent week, and I will be taking a cut-back this week.

That's not necessarily going to avoid injury either. It's true that injuries crop up after the stress of a workout, but the workout may just be the proximate cause. The root cause may be that running is simply not a complete exercise. I have seen plenty of very experienced runners doing consistent volume and no workouts, training for marathons and half-marathons, who after several years of success suddenly get injured for "no reason". Running workouts might just speed up the injury process, that would happen eventually anyway. You should also consider that a 5K race is pretty stressful, so it might be a good idea to do some workouts to prepare your body for that.

these guys ... wrote:

Any thoughts, on (mostly) ignoring quality?

I agree with Alan, in that you've got to add some quality periodically. There is a balance that must be achieved. But it does not have to be a "classic" speed workout. It could be a fartlek just once a week, some hills, some drills, a tempo, or progression. I don't think it matters which, just something you are comfortable with.

Thanks Alan & RType. Luckily I find easy running just boring enough, that I tend to throw in intervals here and there just to pass time. It's more about not stressing if I replace a tempo with an easy run.Interesting study about the situps correlating with lack of injury. I've always been lucky with injuries, and I've also always tended to be fairly good at sit-ups and anything ab related. I dabble in XFit from time to time, and usually I can keep up with people on ab work and running, and get destroyed on everything else.Runningwise I will make sure to include a workout a week.

Rtype wrote:

I agree with Alan, in that you've got to add some quality periodically. There is a balance that must be achieved. But it does not have to be a "classic" speed workout. It could be a fartlek just once a week, some hills, some drills, a tempo, or progression. I don't think it matters which, just something you are comfortable with.

Bump. I'm occupied right now and don't have a computer. Someone else needs to start us off this week. I might be able to post tonight, but I may not be able to get to the thread until tomorrow.

All the Best!

I'll start since I am pretty pleased with this AM's effort. Overall 30 miles for the week. I ran the Carlsbad 5k this morning as a fitness check and expected that I would struggle to hit 21:00. I was pleased and surprised to run 20:13 - 6:20/6:31/6:36/0:46. That would have been good enough for 4th in the 65-69s last year. They were having some sort of difficulty with results this morning and still didn't have any results up when I left 2 hrs after the race finished. This was my first race using my Garmin heart rate/GPS I got for Christmas. The data said that I ran at about 183 bpm for most of the race with a jump to 191 for the last 0:45. When I had a Polar heart rate monitor back in my mid-40s I would hold about 187-189 bpm for a 5k with the finish at 193, so not much HR difference from 20 years ago. 4hrs after the race my legs feel fine, so today was a great data point on my effort to get fully healthy and strengthen my legs and core this year.

I hope everyone else had good runs and/or races this week. P.S. Christian Cushing-Murray won the Masters race in 15:11 this year.

Congratulations on your 5k OGII! What a great result for you!!!

I'm hoping for a good race next weekend in my 10k but I've had a setback so I'll have to see how the week plays out. I've had knee pain (IT band?) for the past two days so I've been icing and foam rolling. This morning it hurt so badly after 4 miles that I ended up walking home. I'm going to try to get in for ART this week to see if it helps.

Wouldn't you know that this would crop up in a week when I reduced my mileage! I only ran 33 miles this week with two days totally off and one day of cross-training. I'll keep the runs short and easy this week and see how my knee responds before I decide whether or not to race.

Hope y'all have a great week!

Congrats OGII!

Hope things smooth out for you SCgal. You are coming to Richmond for the big 10K?

I believe LucKY is off racing some big relay with his Bluegrass team and looks like they did well. Looking forward to a report.

Mon = 55 min easy road and trail

Tue = Rest

Wed = 56 min easy road

Thu = 57 min medium road and trail (tired)

Fri = Rest

Sat = 120 minutes medium, hike Appalachian Trail to Dragon's Tooth

Sun = 59 min medium hard greenway

It was a good week where I inched the minutes up. Next week if I feel good I’ll stick at 60 minutes. I’m looking at racing my first master’s 10K in May so I may add a few accelerations here and there. I’m really afraid to add too much speed as I’ve hurt myself far too many times in the past by getting carried away. LucKY coined it best: “irrational exuberance”. I’m guilty as charged.

Have a good week ya’ll!

Nice running, old guy II.

Week 252: 7 hours 57 minutes in 6 runs, including Tuesday long run 2h15 and Saturday 5x hill repeat.

A pretty good week, but now I'm temporarily sidelined with a bruised/separated/broken rib. Not yet sure which (by feel it seems one broken rib), but for running purposes it doesn't matter much. Yesterday in TKD I took a turning back kick to the ribs. It was a good kick, kind of hard but right on target, except the bottom lacing on the chest protector had come undone, and the chest protector wasn't there. Ouch. I'll take it day by day, but right now it hurts to draw a full breath. Oh well ....

Ouch, Alan B. - I'll take a sore IT band any day over a broken rib. I'm sending you good thoughts for quick healing.

Rtype - I'm planning on running Monument Ave. I don't have the chance to run many flat 10k's in cool weather. It sure looks like it will be cool on Saturday morning! Plus, it's a good excuse to visit my son.