50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

full disclosure: i'm only 49, but pete magill is 55! i'm trying a 4 mile tempo with my h.s. kids today--usually i'd wait until friday for that, so we'll see how it goes...

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Week 298

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Greetings, 50+ers! We had unseasonably mild temperatures this week, which should have been conducive to lots of miles, but I still ended up cobbling together my mileage on too many short little runs. As I said before, it's hard to call what I'm doing training, but at least I'm getting something in. With 33.6 miles on 11 runs, the log reads as such:

Sun: 7.3 (2.1+5.2) both @7:20/mi

Mon: Off, too much to catch up on

Tue: 7.0 (1.4am+4.0+1.6) hill reps on the 4.0

Wed: 4.0 (1.6am+2.4pm) AM w/backpack, PM easy no pack

Thu: 3.2 (1.4am+1.8pm) AM moderately hard, PM w/pack

Fri: 5.0 (8:20 -> 7:20) easy-to-moderate

Sat: 7.0 (7:28) variable pace

On Sunday, I dropped off the rental and ran home, then later joined my running club; though the pace was 7:20 for the club run, it felt pretty controlled. Tuesday through Thursday I ran into work each day, Wednesday and Thursday were runs home from work, too. Typically, these runs are in the 7:40-8:10 pace range (even with a heavy pack), but Thursday morning, it was 7:12 pace (no pack). Tuesday I did my usual hill repeats (6x72ft hill) then drove over to the track and cooled down with my buddies who were doing a track workout. Friday and Saturday, I just ran by feel, with no real agenda other than to get some miles in. There were a few miles that encroached on the 7-minute mark amongst those 12 miles.

-thanks for the race report, amkelley...the season is still early, and I always figure that going out a little fast just means you're prepared to be bold; I've surprised myself a few times with that strategy. You never know when that might turn into the right pace.

-Props to Dave on his win last week.

-Props, too, to pretzel man, allen1959, and SCgal on toeing the line and getting the year off to a good start (I know, SCgal, you weren't thrilled with your race, those last miles hit hard without propper speed work. Consider it a rust-buster.)

-Welcome to "not half fast"--wish I could get myself to do more cross-training, and to "GutsIsEnough..."--tell us your training, and "Track Fan 1979"--good to have long-term goals; I could use a few!

-Agree with Cush, that they've got an awesome training group in SoCal. Inspiring stuff...though a little intimidating for this middle-of-the-packer.

-Loved the throwback reference to "world domination"....LOL!

There was so much good stuff last week, so apologies if I missed any warranted kudos.

That's it from me. I'm not anticipating that this modus operandi will change much given current schedule. Hope you all have had good weeks.

All the Best!

Sort of a moderate week, because I had a 10 mile race yesterday. Only workout was 4X 800 on dirt paths on Tuesday, otherwise I just ran on the other days and took Thursday as a rest day.

The race went well, better than planned.

Elev: 5,300', 55 degrees and high clouds with just a slight breeze from the south.

Plan/goal was 6:20, with a little slower for the first mile or two. Ran those more like 6:12 and 6:20, and then settled in to a very consistent 6:18 or so until the turn around (follows a bike path along a river). Then I picked it up a bit to shake a pack of runners off (6:10 for 6th mile) and the rest of the way in no man's land, about 12 to 15 sec behind the next runner. Cruised the upward grades, and then let it open up when the course dropped a little. Finished 15th overall in 1:02:39 and 1st grand masters (actually 1st masters too). Ran this course in 2015 and 2016, and this was a minute faster than my best.

Mon. Trying to kayak down the Coliban River toward Lake Eppalock. Too many sandbanks, logs and rocks. Gave up turned around and eventually carried the kayak up some steep hills to the road. A tough hour or so.

Tue. Hilly 40 min mountain bike.

5.6 km steep running 130 metres elevation gain. 37 min.

Wed. 12.1 km run with some mates on my old stomping grounds. 320 metres elevation gain. 1 h 11 min.

Thu. 30 min kayak. 3 km run 17 min. 5.8 km mtn bike 18 min.

Fri. 1 hr hike with weighted backpack hills.

1 hr 15 min mtn bike in the hills.

Sat. 53 min mtn bike and 8.6 km run 200 metres elevation gain 52 min.

Sun. 10km run with 400 metres elevation gain 1 hr 25 min.

Quite a solid week. Monday turned into a beast hauling and carrying the kayak was pretty brutal.

Wednesday was a good hard run did some tempo efforts on steep hills to catch a mate.

Some good steep hill running on Sunday.

40 mile week

2 workouts

16 x 20sec hill

1mile 4:48 (road)

6 x 800M at 2:26

starting when hr hit 120

cheers

A "keep your nose to the grindstone" week for me. I got in my first interval session since December and covered 41 miles in 6 sessions:

Sun 10 E

Mon 5.7 E + 2500 swim

Tue 6.3 E

W off

Thu 7 (5 x 1000 @ 4:34-40)

Fri 6.3 E

Sat 6 E + 2500 swim

I'm trying to decide whether to jump into a HM next weekend or race the "easier" 5K. I haven't been doing the miles to run what I'd like in the HM but I could use it as a LR. On the other hand, I haven't done the speed work to do what I'd like in the 5k either. I'm headed out for a 12 miler in a minute so I'll decide after I see how that goes...

Some fast times coming out of Albuquerque at the Masters Meet despite the elevation. Good luck to our masters racing there today!

Good morning from Eagle, Idaho. Weather improving daily, early spring temperatures low 40-50s with rain. My week started up, later a little stiffness in the ankle slowed me down, Achilles improving though. I have a hunch the stiffness is coming from a new battery of exercises.

Monday: 10:00 spin; PT therapy and exercises; AlterG @ 85%, 7 miles as fast as 6:40 pace

Tuesday: 40:00 spin

Wednesday: Off

Thursday: 10:00 spin; PT therapy and exercises; AlterG @ 85%, 3 miles easy

Friday: Mile walk

Saturday: 3 mile walk

Sunday: Off

Have a good week.

Igy

[quote]racerdb wrote:

Ran a 5K yesterday and set a record....for my slowest 5k ever in a race! It was my 126th 5k and smashed my old personal worse of 17:48 set in 1998. It was my first time ever over 18 minutes.

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Dave, that's an incredible streak. It's up there with Kareem and Jordan scoring in double figures in every game for about 10 years. Someone as fast as you running sub-18 is not surprising (just like a star scoring 10 points in an NBA game is not), but never not doing it is amazing when you think of all the ways it could go wrong --hilly course, hot day, triple-low biorhythmn, coming back from injury.....congratulations, and good luck with the new streak I'm sure you'll start soon.

I had a fun week of training in early-Spring DC weather. 9 hours of running and 3 hours cross-training. hard days were:

--5 X 1000 (2:00 recovery) Tuesday at 5k effort. total time 19:06 so a bit slower than recent 5k race.

--hill repeats Friday

have a great week,

Dave

Just 37 miles for the week but they included a track workout and a race...still, wanted 40 ;)

The Tuesday track session was just my second of the year (first was just 3 days prior)...needed to do something a little quicker if I was going to 'race' on the track on Saturday...psychologically probably more than physiologically

TUES: 8 x 300 (w/ 100 walk jog)

72, 70, 69, 67, 69, 66, 66, 62...was concerned after number one...possibly the slowest 300 of my life...but they eventually came around

SAT: 1500 meters 'rust buster' in all comers track meet at UC Berkeley...was in a heat with just high schoolers...started WAY too fast but still managed to surpass my hoped for time (barely) 5:57.69

First time competing since last May. The hardest part?? Having the courage to show up when you know that it's going to be an embarrassing time. Unlike a road race, there's no hiding or blending in on the track.

So, now I know precisely 'where I'm at' with 6 weeks remaining before the season starts...then it's 7 meets in an 11 week period...including one (maybe two) at famed Hayward Field in Eugene, OR...where I've not competed in 11 years.

That's my story and I'm stayin' with it... continued thanks for the support you provide with your weekly war stories...helps keep this grumpy old man honest

your pal,

MF

5 Days 34 Miles

Prostate cancer holding my training back a little

Appointments and treatments so invasive that it keeps my back sore..

Very sore

The great American Health Care system...

Biopsy which normally they put me out for..they couldn't this time.

The Anatheseia people said that unless there are 6 people at the office for the procedure at one time, its not worth their time to do it..

So, the patient has to go through the procedure with just a local and a valium.

Then, when I chose proton therapy, the only place to get it done is Mayo in Scottsdale.

They don't accept Blue Cross/Blue Shield Fed

So, you have to go through 16th century biopsies with 16th century treatments.

Plus trying to keep up with my girlfriend whose 60 years old and running 60 miles a week heading towards her 12th Boston....

I was a better runner than her for decades, but I don't think when the great day happens that we finally are living together that I will be able to train with her.

Tough situation klm, but keep hanging in there. I had a better than expected week. Last Saturday I thought I had strained my achilles at the end of my tempo run. I took Sun. and Mon. off and could tell that it was the calf muscle right at the achilles attachment point that I had slightly strained, not the achilles itself. It was feeling much better Tue. so I walked 5 mi. Wed. I did a 5 mi. walk/run fartlek. Thur. an easy 9:40 ave. 6 mile run. Fri. a 6 mi hill run with 2 miles of :30 hard/:30 easy with the hard sections at about mile race pace. Sat. I felt really fatigued and did an easy 3 at 10:30 pace, and this morning an easy 6 at 9:32 pace for a total of 32 miles for the week and my calf back to feeling pretty close to normal.

About five weeks ago I quit cold-turkey the eccentric heel drops that I had been doing religiously for many months to try to rehab my Achilles. Since then the heel has done nothing but get better. I certainly still have a problem and I still feel like I'm right on the edge of having it blow up again, but for the time being it appears that I can train fairly normally as long as I don't do any hills to speak of. All my life I have found that any sort of stretching just makes injuries worse or causes new ones, and this one seems to be no exception.

So, running with a constant but very mild pain in my Achilles that doesn't get much worse or much better, I pounded out 77 miles last week following my half-marathon a week ago Saturday. Finished up with a 16-miler today at a comfortable pace that still felt good at the end. It helped that the weather cooperated this week--only one of my seven runs was in the rain (and strong winds), and that one was at least fairly warm (low 50s). The forecast for tomorrow (Presidents' Day) is for strong winds and heavy rain, so I may take the day off from running and spin the trainer in the garage instead.

Hopefully this is tongue-in-cheek. I learned about age 16 that women could give a flying crap about how fast you can run, unless maybe it is while carrying a football to the end zone.

Alan Bennet wrote:

You don't have to outrun her. You just have to outrun any other guy she might be looking at.

Greetings, all!

I haven't gotten to the library, so my bedtime reading has been old posts on this thread. Fastinating to follow the true-life challenges, losses and triumphs that folks here have experienced over the years. I'm up to February 2013 ... and anxious to see how all the individual stories unfold during the four years from then to now ...

I took a couple unscheduled days off this week. Last week's 10-mile race exacted a toll, I think ... all my persistent little aches and pains were greatly amplified in the days following. My race pace was much faster than anything I have done in training (except for short VO2max repeats and strides). And the race was entirely on pavement, while 95 percent of my training is on soft road shoulders and crushed-stone trails.

This past week:

M..Off

T...VO2max: 1.5-mile warmup; 6 x 880y w/2:20 walk/jog recoveries: 3:15, 3:13, 3:12, 3:11, 3:12, 3:10; 1.5-mile cooldown

W..Easy: 7.0 miles @ 9:02/mi

Th.Off

F..LR: 15.2 miles @ 7:49/mi (Miles 11-14: 7:27, 7:22, 7:16, 6:50)

Sa.Easy: 4.0 miles @ 9:00/mi

Su.Easy: Bike - 23.1-mile road loop @ 17.4 mph

Goal Pace

5K: 6:13/mi

Marathon: 7:26/mi

Most Recent Pace

5K: 6:26/mi (Feb 2017)

10 Mile: 6:45/mi (Feb 2017)

Marathon: 7:51/mi (Oct 2016)

Question: I am targeting a spring half marathon and an autumn marathon. I have been questioned recently regarding the advisability of regularly including VO2max workouts. My instinct is that it's good to invest time at all the specific training paces. But is it counterproductive, and/or an unncessary injury risk? The Pfitzinger half-marathon plans I'm using as a rough guide schedule two VO2max workouts per month; I've been scheduling three.

I may also want to race a few 5Ks along the way, so the VO2max efforts would be important. My all-time 5K PR was run a week before my marathon PR. But, can I truly be "race ready" for the 5K and a marathon simultaneously? Or is one or both events being compromised?

Perhaps it reflected the less sophisticated training of the day, but my recollection of the 1970s and early 80s was that everyone was racing a wide range of distances. Certainly the local club runners did. And I remember watching Dick Buerkle win a marathon around the same time he was an Olympian at 5000m, and not long before he set the world indoor mile record. Bill Rogers, Frank Shorter, etc. all raced at many different distances, year-round, right?

Regarding injury risk, just how biomechanically stressful can 6:10/mile pace be? That's slower than Marathon Pace used to be! What aging factors impact the biomechanics? Reduced range-of-motion at age 57 versus 23? Reduced flexibility or resilience of muscles, tendons, ligaments?

Be well!

-Allen

Congrats on that race Coyote! I think I remember you being 58? So, that’s an 86.2 age grade, but with the altitude that time converts to 1:00:11, which is a 90% age grade.

I know that’s got to suck klm but keep moving. One of our old compatriots here, Ken Martin has a site, workoutcancer, that has some good resources and hard science on the benefits of training with cancer. I can’t get the web link to populate but here is the facebook link:

https://www.facebook.com/WorkoutCancer.org/

My week:

Tue = 3 miles, medium easy @ 8:36 pace: 8:43, 8:33, 8:35

Fri = 3 miles, medium @ 8:41 pace: 8:34, 8:44, 8:44. Sick

Sun = 3 miles, track, hard @ 8:45 pace: 8:38 (easy), 8:51 (medium), 8:445 (hard, hard), sick

Picked up a virus Wed night and it has kicked my butt this week. I’ve been one grumpy old man this week! I don’t think I hurt myself and I kept my legs moving so next week will be a better week.

Have a good week folks!

Cush sounds like fun, wish I still had the wheels to do that! Great that you have a group like that to train with... keep up the good work!

cheers!

Allen1959,

I raced marathons and mid-distance races within several months both as a young man and master. In fact ran my best 880 yards and masters mile within this time period. In fact the strength gained from marathon training provides a great base for the more stressful track training.

In regards to aging, for me, the resilience of connective tissue has been the limiting factor. I joke the "engine is good but suspension needs an overhaul."

Igy

Thanks for the welcome, LucKY.

Was able to cram and sneak the workouts in thru work disruptions and weather. Running got sacrificed a bit.

3 runs totaling 21 miles

4 swims totaling 5.25 miles

3 spins totaling 2:15 minutes

1 lifting session.

7.6 miler next Sunday => I have compulsively not taken a day off this year but will rest next Saturday. I'll have a good sense of where I am after the race.

22.6 miles this week. Rundown the first part of the week so I took an extra day off. Kept pace easy the rest of the week.

-Hang in the klm. Glad you can still get some miles in.

-Keep healthy all. Great to read what others are doing.

Mon: off

Tue: off

Wed: 6.8 miles in 72 minutes

Thu: 4.1 miles in 41 minutes

Fri: off

Sat: 8.3 miles in 79 minutes

Sun: 3.3 miles in 31 minutes