50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

thanks!

*Week 344*

Greetings, 50+ers! Gonna be a quick note today. Our heating went out last night. Got down to 4 degrees, so it's a little chilly this morning. Thankfully, we've got a few space heaters and can get the gas fireplace going. Glad we'll get the extra day off in honor of Dr. ML King.

As for running, continuing to up the mileage bit by bit. Almost made it 23 miles on 5 days. Log reads as such:

Sun: 5.2 (7:58/mi) easy

Mon: Off

Tue: 3.8 w/6x70 hill

Wed: Off

Thur: 6.2(7:47/mi) harder (7:10-7:20 pace) for 2 in the middle

Fri: 3.0 (7:57/mi) easy

Sat: 4.6 (8:01/mi) easy

First week back to teaching was intense. Monday and Wednesday are going to be difficult to get any running in as I'm in the classroom both early and late. I also picked up an extra class that I'm teaching for free. They were going to cancel it for low enrollment, but there were a couple of really good students that were in the first semester off this two semester sequence, and I really wanted to be sure they could finish. This has completely crammed my Mondays and Wednesdays, so I can't even get out midday.

Not sure the Chondroitin is doing anything; I'll give it a few more weeks. Maybe slight improvement? Knees and toes still creaky and achy.

OK, gotta go take care of the heat! How's by you?

All the Best!

Dang, no heat at 4 degrees. Hope you get that fixed fast lucKY. I think folks report it takes at least a month for Glucosamine to do anything. If you are taking the combo with Chondroitin and MSM people report those work a little faster, but on other soft tissue problems, not arthritis.

This is my non-running-running report. My sore right heel is actually quite a bit better and I probably could start running…but I’m waiting until I cannot tell the difference between my left and right feet. Tu, Thur, Sat, and Sun were 4 miles on the elliptical at 7:20 to 7:25 pace with 50 pushups/crunches afterwards. I continue to make progress on weight loss despite not much exercise. I’m down to 158 since my Thanksgiving Day high of 167. So, the rate of loss is slowing now, which I think is healthier. My goal weight is 150 but if my natural set point goes a little lower that will be fine.

Have a great week folks!

Mild weather in Idaho. High twenties this morning, but hit 51 yesterday afternoon. I even washed a car and hosed off the patio and garage. That does’t happen often mid-January. I will still do the indoor track gig through mid-February.

Monday: 2 miles easy/walk

Tuesday: BSU-indoor, 2 miles easy; 2 x 200m R @ 44, 45 / 100m E; 400m R @ 93 / 200m E; 800m R @ 3:12 / 400m E; 400m R @ 93 / 200m E; 600m R @ 2:23 / 300m E; 300m R @ 68 / 200m; 200m F @ 38 / 100m E; 100m F @ 18; mile easy

Wednesday: 2 miles easy/walk

Thursday: Off

Friday: 2 miles easy/walk

Saturday: BSU Indoor track meet, 2 miles easy; 4 x 100m R @ 22-23 / 100m W; mile race 6:33.96, second out of 2, Werner Hoeger 60-64 won 6:05; mile easy

Sunday: TBD, probably a flat eight miler along the Eagle Greenbelt

The mile was my first indoor race in five years. Started conservatively, first 809 meters covered in 3:21, final 800 meters in 3:12. Last 200m in 43. Finish time was my highest VDOT equivalent race at 44 and considerably better than my 6:25 1500m from August.

Igy

A crazy week for me too with second semester starting after break. The buck stops with me in my department so I'm dealing with a faculty search and solving registration problems for our majors in addition to teaching. I did manage to squeeze in 24 mi running, 2:00 hrs of biking, 6,000 yds swimming, 1.5 hrs of strength/flex work and a massage. I just don't like not being in a routine with my workouts but that will come as the semester progresses.

Sun: 6mi E, 1600 swim, 30 strength

Mon: 1 hr biking

Tue: 6.25mi E + strides, 30 strength

Weds: 2100 swim

Thu: 6 E

Fri: massage!

Sat: 6.2 fartlek, 2300 swim, 1:08 biking

I'm off for an easy long run once it warms up and a swim today to try and recover from yesterday's triple header. Hope you all have a great week ;-)

good luck with the heat. rough luck on the timing.

fun week of training in very cold to mild/muggy conditions as we experienced some serious temperature swings.

M 1:50 double

Tu 1:00 with 20:00 at half-marathon pace

W 2:00 double

Th 1:10

F 1:15 with 3 X (4:00 at 5k pace [2:00 recovery] 3:00 hill [2:00 recovery)

Sa 1:00 + 30:00 x-t

Su 1:45

friday mash-up may not have made the most sense, but I find it useful for morale once in a while to Winter to do something novel for me.

have a great week,

Dave

Nice race, Igy! And SCgal, glad to see you getting back into it.

My classes start next week so I wanted to cram as much as possible into this week. I woke up on Monday with very little heel soreness from my longish run the previous day, and I had visions of being able to run more than five days this week. Then the head cold that had caused me to take one day off the previous week clamped down in earnest and I lost another two days. If it ain’t one thing, it’s another.

I did manage to get in a solid ~58 miles on five days of running:

Monday: A cautious 10.4 miles at 9:20 pace.

Tues: Sick and felt awful. Took no drugs, but blew through a couple boxes of Kleenex.

Weds: Felt better, but took another day off.

Thurs: Felt much better. 10.3 miles at 8:56 pace.

Friday: 10.7 miles at 9:07 pace.

Sat: 11.1 miles at 8:49 pace. More tired later in the day than I should have. Perhaps not entirely well yet.

Sun: 15.4 miles at 8:56 pace, still a little sniffly. Felt orthopedically sound, though.

I have half-marathons planned for February, March, April, and May, although so far I’ve only entered the March one, and only because I won a free entry. We’ll see how many I actually manage to do.

amkelley,

Thanks. Nice volume in five days. I will need to build up my mileage after indoor.

Igy

BREAKING news, 43 year old Bernard Lagat decimated US Masters 1/2 marathon record this morning with a 1:02:00...yikes. Glad to be 4 age groups north of that young man.

Igy, what a seriously rock and roll track workout you had...best one that I can recall in quite some time...and nice to cash in on it with that solid one mile time...well done old man ;)

While I only got 35 miles in this week, it was the highest "quality" one in six months or more...twice I scratched out on the track 8 x 100 meter cut downs plus a session of 8 x200...finished off the week with a sold 6 mile progression run...feeling good enough to more closely inspect the masters track meets calendar and even ordered up a pair of ZoomFly 4%

Lucky, re: MSM Chondriton (SP) supplement, I've found that Vitamin Shoppe's triple strength version has helped me the most...I take two of those big honking tabs twice a day AND also take a strong hyaluronic collagen supplement 3 times daily and 900 mg super strength Tumeric about 4 times a day...if nothing else the collagen keeps my lips nice and full... HA!!

Seriously though, I don't necessarily 'feel' the effects on a day to day basis, BUT, when I skip said supplements (especially the MSM deal) for a week, I notice way more aches. At any rate, something's working as I haven't missed a single day since November 2016 (today is day 411) and have averaged just a tad over 37 miles per week for 59 consecutive crusty old geezer weeks...just sayin'

Have a swell week of masters training and racing... remember to train, don't strain.

Your pal,

MF

Igy , Nice negative split and fast last 200. You really seem to be breaking into a new level of fitness for this time around.

The hardest part of running is not running hard or long it is dealing with injuries.

Well my week started Great but then went south. My left calf/soleus muscle started hurting about half way through a 5k easy temp so I sped up which sometimes helps but not this time so I bagged it at 4k. After 2 days of rehab feels pretty good so I might have dodged a bullet.

MF and Charlie,

Thanks. Appreciate your comments and support as always. As I move up through age groups it really does become “last man standing.” Trying to balance the perennial challenge of hard enough, yet not too hard.

Igy

Greetings, frends, on a cold but calm and sunny afternoon. Just returned from a pleasant jog. Single-digit temperature (Fahrenheit). Two days ago, I did the same out-and-back wearing shorts in 60-degree weather.

This week's report:

Male, 58, 5'11, 175.6 pounds

Short-term goal: Overcome injuries and race a few 5Ks before year-end

Long-term goal: 3-hour marathon at age 60, October 2019

Mon: off

Tues: 2 x 20 mins elliptical

Wed: off

Thurs: 2 x 20 mins elliptical

Fri: 3.0 miles @ 9:00/mi

Sat: 2 x 20 mins elliptical

Sun: 3.0 miles @ 9:36/mi

Yes, I did some actual running this week. Six miles total. Some knee discomfort, but I might truly be on the mend. Interestingly, that 27-minute 3-miler on Friday was pretty much all-out. Amazing how the fitness dissipated in just three months.

Igy, count me amongst those impressed with that mile race! Very nice, indeed.

An early check on the Houston Marathon results showed only one M55-59 under 3:00, with second place at 3:08. Makes me all the more satisfied with my 3:07 in October! I didn't see any 60-plus runners under three hours.

-Allen

Another week in the books. I ran my first hard road workout in a while yesterday with a group of the local fast "old men". They all are in their early to mid 50s. My week started a bit slowly but yesterday's workout was excellent.

M- 9 hills 10:34/mi ave

T- 6 at 10:03/mi ave (it was supposed to be a workout, but I felt too tired)

W- 7 walk (still tired)

Th- 9 hills 10:13/mi ave

F- 7 hills 12:05/mi ave

S- 10 with 2 w.u., 5 miles of 1 min hard/ 1 min moderate 6:54/mi ave, 3 w.d

S- 7 walk

I can't remember the last time I ran sub-7 pace for 5 straight miles in a workout so I was very pleased with that. Nice mile Igy.

after a couple of weeks of excellent training, both quality and quantity, during the winter break, i took this past week relatively easy leading up to a 5k race yesterday--but a funny thing happened on the way to the finish line...how would you like to line up as a 50 year old at your local 5k in january, run 16:06, place 6th overall, and get SECOND in your age group? the moral of the story: never get involved in a land war in asia, never invite doyle brunson to your home poker game, and don't invite sean wade to your local roadraces...

although i'm about 20 seconds slower at this time than i was two years ago during my last healthy season, i'm optimistic about upcoming races. while i've followed the fanelli adage of "train, don't strain" for much of this fall and winter, there is a point where if you're chasing your limits, you may have to risk the "strain" in more than a few workouts. my long run and tempo paces have almost come down to times of yesteryear--a recent 4 mile tempo run was at 5:21 pace, a recent 14 miler had the middle 8 miles at 6:01, with the last mile uphill at 6:00 pace--my track paces have been significantly slower. i'm lucky enough to have great training partners to keep up my enthusiasm--one partner just ran on the usa women's team for the x-c race in scotland yesterday, and one partner, a former h.s. athlete of mine, won the local race mentioned above, giving me a vicarious victory over wade--but i've got to start pushing the envelope a little bit more if i'm hoping to run sub-4 in the 1500 or sub-15 in the 5k this track season. i'd like to also see if i can podium in carlsbad--as far as i know, it hasn't been done by a 50 year old. sean wade may be an obstacle there, as he's planning on coming out for the first time in over 10 years...

as always, it's a pleasure to read your training logs. we had a few cold rainy days recently where my motivation was low, but when i consider some of your training environments and conditions, i knew i couldn't wuss out. reading about the continuing comeback of scgal from injury, and the racing progress of igy, and the steady training consistency of folks like allen, the daves, amkelley, and others is sometimes all it takes to get me out the door...

stay healthy my friends,

cush

The weather moderated nicely for a couple of days. It wasn’t enough to open the golf courses, but it was good for some bare-legged jogs. Winter returned today with low double-digit wind chills, but it was tolerable. Without the distraction of golf, I was able to pound the pavement 5 of the last 7 days. That’s a lot for me. Feel good, but my winter weight continues to creep northward.

Sun: 2 mi walk with the bride

Mon: 44' jog, body wt ex

Tues: off

Wed: 54' jog, body wt ex

Thu: 52' jog, body wt ex

Fri: off

Sat: 55' jog, body wt ex

Sun: 42' jog, body wt ex

Best to all!

Nice races igy and socal. A light week for me with only 21 miles. I was tired and the weather was lousy so I took 2 days in a row off. Felt a lot better and had a decent treadmill workout.

Mon- 4.2 miles run-walk in 51 min

Tue: 2.1 miles in 21 min

Wed: off

Thu: off

Fri: 4 miles run-walk on treadmill in 47 min

Sat: 6 miles with 5x4 mins at 7.5 mph on the treadmill in 60 min

Sun: 5 miles in 50 min

Good luck all

Did 63.6 miles in 6 days day of running--I took Monday off as a planned rest day. 3.2 mile tempo on Tuesday (rolling hills @6:21), 10 with some pick ups on Thursday, and 16.4 today, with 3.5 of the way at MP. These were early in the run, middle, and late.

Another week of solid riding; 170 miles on 6 rides with a 70 mile long ride yesterday, plus a 40 minute fartlek session on the indoor trainer on Monday because of rain and darkness when work issues kept me from riding at lunchtime. Tuesday's ride was also shortened by rain - only 8.5 miles. I've done rides in the rain before, but frankly I don't like it - especially when it's only mid-40s too.

No pain in my calf for about 10 days, but there's still a knot in there that won't go away so won't attempt a run this coming week either.

lucKY2b, I admire your dedication to your students. I'm sure they appreciate it.

The bar is set pretty high on this thread. I planned to run an easy eight miler on this beautiful day. My race, as short as it was, tired me out. Instead I opted for a piece of cherry pie and a glass of milk. It may be a reason I reach my racing goals this year, or perhaps not.

Igy