50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Greetings KP et al...thanks for joining our geriatric mile yesterday...nice run young man!

Thought I could crack 6:10...perhaps 6:08 and so was delighted with an early season 6:03.17 just a couple weeks shy of age 61...bodes well for the rest of the season.

As for the Ssn Francisco State Track & Cross Country scholarship foundation we started 11 years ago, it is now on the brink of being fully endowed thereby enabling us to give our first athletic scholarship for the 2017-2018 season...incredibly rewarding.

Wishing everyone an outstanding week of training and racing...looking forward to hearing your tales of glory

Your pal,

MF

Peak week, finishing at 81 miles with a 20 miler this morning. Ran some long tempo reps in the middle of the week with 2X3 mile and 1X 2 mile with short recovery (1:30), going 6:28 pace for the 3 mile and 6:15 pace for the 2 mile. Other than that mostly just logging in the miles.

your post intrigue me

I think I know who you are (if you are from the KC area) I raced you a few times...only beat you once! Race for the Cure in Wichita right at the line in 1992 - I think.

anyway...let talk training

I ran all my pr's when I backed my mileage off and only ran 4 time per week when I was 24 - I hit a sub 30:00 10K and 23:45 8k on about 35-40 miles per week and did this for about 9 months before it plateaued.

after trying to hammer out steady states year after year at too fast a pace, I finally listened to the internet advice and starting doing long slow runs - 8:00 pace - it was tough at first, but once my body learned to burn fat - it has gotten easy.

for a runner who seldom ran over 100 miles per week as a collegian, I went all the way up to 200 max about 3 summers ago and most of it was slow, slow running and it paid off big time. I got hurt before getting any great racing in but my training was as good or better at age 45+ than when I was running sub 30:00 10k's - or at least in that same range. I could do so much volume and needed very little recovery time.

Currently I am hitting about 80 miles per week where I try to get 3 long runs per week at slow 7:00-7:50 pace (any where form 16-24 miles on each of these) and am able to do workouts on the days in between....I plan to go for big miles this summer = 200+ . My body at over 50 seems to be handling everything fine - which I know is the opposite of what every other master runner is experiencing, why? what am I doing differently?

I like what you are doing because you are doing what your body allows and that is rule number one. but if this helps you in any way or any other runners then I am glad to help + your feeback can help me as I age.

I sleep well and always have - getting 9+ hr a day

I eat well and almost always have

I am learning to really listening to my body (for example I don't really overplan workouts anymore - I just go into each workout seeing what my body feels like and go from there.

If I do any kind of speed, i now have learned to allow a time for gradually getting faster (so if i am doing 200's - i may start at 36-40...but by the end i may hit 32, 31, 30 - sometimes even faster....but i try not to push for it.

i run all my runs in minimialst shoes - i think this may be the big thing. I was talking to a former teammate from college - he was a 2 time NAIA national champion in CC who kept getting injuired everytime he tried to make a come back. I think the way shoes are made today is a big culprit as to why masters runners are getting injuried. In 1990 when the shoe industry started to transition to the bulkier more protective shoes - my career took a nose dive as i simply could not run in those kind of shoes and finding a simple training shoe wasn't happening...eventually i learned to train in racing shoes (only) and suddenly i could run again - i was sore in the calves at first, but stretched a lot and now i can literally run 30 miles and be fine in the legs the next day - i could never do that when i was younger.

if your mileage is being limited to injury issues, i wonder if transitioning to racing shoes might also be the answer for you. maybe try an experiment where you run a few miles in them and see how your legs feel.

also i really think the slow running is huge - that is what Ed Whitlock did. For me, i can still run fast workouts, but going very easy on the easy days is key.

hope this helps

give me any insights you wish to share

Thanks Dave. Congrats to you. I half heartedly checked bibs for a low numbered "Dave" before and after. Your volume amazes me -- I don't think I would have made it to the starting line if I tried to keep your schedule. Those are incredible times by your teammates. That's why I drive hours almost every year to run it -- great competition and a super fast course.

Wow, some fine races this week! Congrats to Dhaaga, Not half fast, Allen1959, MikeF, and others.

SCgal, I would love to give up being faculty chair except that there is only one other logical candidate to do it and he is now totally burned out after doing the job for the two years ending last summer. I figure I need to hang in there for at least one more year before I ask him to take the job back. We also get no teaching relief, but we do get a small administrative stipend for all the hassle.

My week was spent recovering from the flu and trying to decide whether I was well enough to race today.

Monday: 8 miles at 9:45/mile pace. No longer acutely ill but I still felt weak and tired.

Tues: 10 miles at 9:00 pace, This felt pretty normal, and for the first time it seemed feasible to run a race on Sunday.

Weds: 10.5 miles at 8:36 pace. The time was somewhat slow for the perceived effort and I was wiped out for the rest of the day. Maybe not race on Sunday.

Thurs: 10 miles at 9:06, felt fine. Maybe the race is back on.

Fri: 10 miles at 8:49. Was supposed to be an easy day but the wind was gusting at 35+ mph and it's just impossible to go that easy into that sort of a headwind. And then with the tailwind it's just pick up your feet and fly. Anyway it still felt pretty good. Think I can race Sunday.

Sat: 3.5 miles of slow jogging, a stressful meeting at 8:15 in the morning, and a 2-hour drive back home. Hung out the rest of the day decompressing.

Sunday: So I decided to do the race. I'd already paid my entry fee and it's only a one-hour drive away. By one mile into the race I felt awful--just no power in my legs at all. I spent the next 6 miles trying to find a comfortable pace. Which I finally did, and in fact I finished up pretty strong, reeling in several women ahead of me in the final 3 miles. My time was 1:44:34, 83 seconds slower than two weeks ago, but far better than it felt. Only second in my age group, beaten about one minute.

All things considered, today's race was just fine. I only hope I don't suffer a relapse of my illness after putting out a hard effort.

I probably won't race again for five weeks, and focus on training up to my next race properly.

I must be getting really old when I see one of my sons' former college XC and track team mates got 3rd in a masters mile. Nice job by everybody up there. We had a beautiful day this morning at the Carlsbad 5K. I was slower than I wanted to be but not as slow as I feared I might be at about 21:18 this year. They didn't have any results up by the time I left so I don't know where that put me in the 65+ age group. 7 hours later my achilles only hurts a little bit more than it did before the race, so I didn't do anything too foolish this morning. Hopefully, another week or two will get it fully cleared up and I can get back to building the mileage to see the low side of 20:00 again in a 5k.

old guy II,

Looks like you were third. Good job on a recovering Achilles. Great effort.

Igy

So Cal Cush 2nd AG in excellent 16:14....

Did not feel like posting last week.

Week 303: 8 hours 11 minutes in 7 runs

Mon - 1 hr slow

Tue - 1 hr 18 min hilly

Wed - 45 min slow on grass

Thu - 1 hr 16 min hilly

Fri - 1 hr easy

Sat - 1 hr 52 min with 4x hill

Sun - 1 hr slow

Week 304: 4 hours 17 minutes in 4 runs

Mon - 45 min easy

Tue - 1 hr 16 min easy

Wed - OFF, planned

Thu - 1 hr 1 min easy

Fri - OFF, not planned

Sat - 1 hr 15 min easy

Sun - OFF, not planned

I was feeling a little run down, so, starting with week 303, I decided to do my hard runs easy and my easy runs even easier. What I was doing before wasn't making me faster anyway....

Week 304 was a fallback week, but I did not expect to miss a couple of 45-min easy runs. Friday I got stuck at work until after 11pm, so I bagged the run. Yesterday afternoon, well after my run, I had multiple calf spasms, mostly on the left but also on the right. This is no surprise, I get advance warning from the calves and I actually felt it coming on all week. When I got up this morning the calves still felt terrible so I did a total rest day.

I have been told I am looking a little run down, too. Maybe so. I try not to look in the mirror too much.

Congrats on all the good racing going on. I am still trying to digest SCgal's records-setting run.

Ghost, thanks for the update. Same place in the age group as last year at a little more than a minute slower. I don't think we ever crossed paths in Los Angeles, but I grew up in Compton, a stone's throw from the Compton JC track, and got to see a couple of Ryun's incredible miles in person is '67 and '68.

old guy II,

I went to Palisdaes High School graduated in 1968. Santa Monica College 1968-1970 (Igloi years), and Oklahoma State 1970-1973. I was active in the Southern California road and track races from 1967-1976. I wouldn't be surprised if we crossed paths years ago. I resurfaced in the masters competition around 2004. My family and my wife's family brought me back to Southern California in recent years. I ran Carlsbad a couple of times, best 3rd 2006 55-59 18:16 (if my memory is correct, behind Nolan Shaheed and Henry Rono).

Igy

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

old guy II,

I went to Palisdaes High School graduated in 1968. Santa Monica College 1968-1970 (Igloi years), and Oklahoma State 1970-1973. I was active in the Southern California road and track races from 1967-1976. I wouldn't be surprised if we crossed paths years ago. I resurfaced in the masters competition around 2004. My family and my wife's family brought me back to Southern California in recent years. I ran Carlsbad a couple of times, best 3rd 2006 55-59 18:16 (if my memory is correct, behind Nolan Shaheed and Henry Rono).

Igy

We were reasonably close then. I ran for Pius X HS in Downey in '67 and '68. My dad died 3 weeks before I started college and I had a rough go of it for a year. I ran for UC San Diego when it still was an NAIA school in '71 and '72. I remember running Carlsbad in 2006 and chasing Henry Rono. I think I was 5th in 18:48 that year.

Henry Rono, 55, marked his return to racing as he placed second in his age division (55-59) in a time of 17:48.

http://www.letsrun.com/2007/carlsbad.php

Henry where is he now?

I bought his book followed his masters come back after carlsbad we were hopeful

old guy II,

I couldn't imagine losing a parent at that age. It was hard enough losing my father when I was 46.

You are aging well.

Before the 2006 race I joked with Shaheed that he could take Rono, he said "today, yes," as acknowledging Rono's talent. I was amazed how fast he ran as big as he was.

Congratulations again.

Igy

Charlie,

Here is a photo of Henry at Carlsbad 2006:

http://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=QtwnXLGx&id=4EB5C1C73DAEBCA965E12BDEE8C75E1FBF537D3D&q=henry+rono+carlsbad+5k&simid=608024519910820016&selectedIndex=4

Igy

Thanks Igy.

Found this update Henry is doing good update to original article KP is in one of the photos looking lean and mean:

http://rw.runnersworld.com/selects/henry.html

Story Update · June 16, 2016

Henry Rono, now 63, is no longer chasing records. “I don’t miss competitiveness in my mind and soul,” he writes in an email to Runner’s World. “I’m fully satisfied with the job I’ve done in track and field.” He still lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he works as a skycap (airport porter) while also continuing to coach runners online and at area schools on weekends. He’s sober, runs about four times a week, cycles, and swims. Occasionally, he attends races to meet fans and sign autographs, as he did prior to the Austin Marathon in February alongside fellow distance great Steve Jones. Though his world records have been broken, his 1978 marks in the steeplechase and the 5,000 meters remain all-time bests by a U.S. collegian (his NCAA 10,000-meter record held until 2010). Writer Bill Donahue came away with an appreciation for what the running legend had to overcome. “When he came to this country, there was not a lot of sensitivity on how to handle a guy from such a dramatically different culture—he was milked for his talent and dropped,” Donahue says. “He contributed great things to the sport, and the fact that he ran a 5:45 at that size in his masters mile record attempt attests to the fact that he had talent and grit even then.” –Nick Weldon

The first t&f meet I ever went to had Henry running a mighty race over 10000 metres. I was hooked from that day forward. Thanks for the inspiration Henry.

My week was a bit disorganied but I managed to run a bit everyday as I have since returning from Nepal.

Mon. 25 min hill run, 30 min mtb ride.

Tue. 26 min hill run, 34 min mtb ride, 21 min kayak, 38 min walk with 25 kg.

12 min run with 6 x 10 sec steep hills.

40 min walk with 25 kg.

Wed. Steady 25 min run on flat dirt paths.

Thu. Hilly 63 min mtb, 31 min hilly tempo run. Downhill kms in 4.15 and 4.05.

Fri. 36 min easy run on the hilly thick grassed fairways of Pyalong G.C. finished with some fast strides. 30 min kayak.

Sat. 30 min mtb ride. 30 min kayak. 30 min run into work with light pack.

19 min jog back to car at 11pm.

Sun. 5 x 8 floors of 2 at a time fast stair walking in lunch break.

Very easy hour jog on trails in the evening.

The body is feeling pretty good and I seem to be running ok although I doubt I am in shape to run fast.

Quick post from dreary Greenville SC. I haven't seen a cloud for two days but today looks like a rainout.

My race on Saturday went well. Lack of any sort of hill training in my town definitely hurt me the last few miles. Took the lead around 3 miles and ran alone the rest of the way in (except for merging with the 5 & 10kers). Course was rolling the whole way but more shorter steeper hills from 7-9 slowed me considerably. Mile 7 was especially tough! But felt good and strong all the win. winning in 61:30. Overall I'm happy with the day!

Here's the race splits: 552,559,607,614,608,606,622,623,623,558

I'll take a few down days and get into my next 3 month training block when I get home. Next goal race will be 5K in early June.

Have a good week,

Dave