50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

I thought thread participants might benefit from my sage wisdom. Said differently, “some days a piece of cherry pie and a glass of milk, is more effective training than an eight mile run.” You can now quote me on this.

Igy

Serious questioner wrote:

So you ever shut up?

No, he doesn’t.

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

I thought thread participants might benefit from my sage wisdom. Said differently, “some days a piece of cherry pie and a glass of milk, is more effective training than an eight mile run.” You can now quote me on this.

Igy

Wise words, Mr. Ghost. Today was a cherry pie type of day because I suffered an ankle twist yesterday while doing plyometric drills on the football fields. My friend and I had some agility hurdles set up. All went well for quite a while and I was getting very fatigued. I should have stopped, but NO. One more set. I had an awkward landing and twisted my ankle. There was swelling but only a tiny bit of bruising so I think I dodged a bullet. I'm limping today but I can still walk and put weight on it, so I'm going to say the damage is not so bad. However I will probably be pool running for at least a week.

My week - Monday and Wednesday, weight and cardio circuits workout. Tuesday and Thursday - a track ladder of 300, 250, 200, 150, 100, then 4x50 with whatever I had left (which wasn't much). Friday rest, Saturday plyos, and you know how that turned out. Hope everyone's week ahead is better than my yesterday.

1/8/18 Mon. off

Tues. 6miles easy on treadmill

Wed. 2 mi WU 5 x 2min hill repeats with recovery of HR 108bpm ( 6% incline & 640 pace) 2 mi WD on treadmill

Thurs. 6miles easy on treadmill

Fri. 6 miles easy on treadmill

Sat. 2 mi WU 6 mile tempo alternate 600 pace to 625 pace 2 mi WD

Sun. 10 miles easy on the road.

More cold on the way!

Mon. 28 min. kayak then 11 km home 1 h 12 m. Walked 1st km then steady running over hilly trails 10th km in a sharper 4.36 then walked last km. Headed back out on the MTB for 40 mins back to pickup the car and kayak.

Tue. Down in Melbourne delivering a new fridge to my youngest daughter.

Stopped at the very hilly and very spongey Pyalong Golf Course.

11 km in 1 h 8 m. Walking 1st km then working solidly up and down the hills, rolled off the 10th km in 4.14 walking and strides for the 11th.

Wed. 23 min uphill MTB into forest then 8 slow kms trail running 51 mins then 12 min ride home.

Thu. 54 min MTB ride.

37 min walk into work with pack .

Late night 3.3 km jog back to car after work 22 min.

Fri. 55 min MTB ride.

10 km run into work 58 min. Walked 1st km then 5 easy jogging to the velodrome (opposite my workplace) then 3 progressive barefoot kms on the grass 4.54, 4.41, 4.16. Finished with some strides.

Late night 32 min walk back to the car with heavy pack.

Sat. 32 min kayak.

8.5 km hike/run on very rugged trails and steep climbs. One climb was pure bush bashing with no trail to follow. 1 h 13 m. 330 metres elevation gain.

Sun. 11 km in 1 h 14 m uphill km walk to start then rolling hills for 8 km. Worked about 1.5 km at threshold effort. Hilly trail walking last 2 km.

Managed some sort of running every day.

What a crazy weather week here in PA

I ran in shorts and t-shirt on on a 61 degree day on Friday and then Saturday it was 5 degrees and our meet was cancelled.

Monday AM 30 mintutes of frutration on Zwift PM 3 miles racewalk

Tuesday 7 miles at 8:03

Wednesday 7 miles 8:04 PM 60min trainer night ride

Thursday 7 miles 8:02 pace

Friday 7 miles 8:29 pace - felt lke garbage

Saturday AM FTP bike test - got a ways to go. PM 2WU 6*800 on treadmill at 6:55 pace 2 CD

Sunday 3 miles racewalk

41 miles this week 8 weeks in a row above 40 and 56 days running

An indoor meet was cancelled due to cold?

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

I thought thread participants might benefit from my sage wisdom. Said differently, “some days a piece of cherry pie and a glass of milk, is more effective training than an eight mile run.” You can now quote me on this.

Igy

And here, I thought you were a financial guy..;)

I have noticed this thread in the past, but always passed over it. However, I just turned 50, so thought it was time to check it out. I skimmed the last 3 pages and made connections to a lot of posts and comments - 8:00 miles, cross training, arthritis, hip pain... etc. I have never been a regular contributor to any threads, but this one might just make me register a username. About a month ago I decided that starting on my birthday I would run 50' each day for 50 consecutive days. 7 years ago this would have been easy as my basic routine was to run 40-60' six days a week. I have always believed in taking complete rest days when needed, so I have never run more than 20 days in a row. The past few years my routine has been to run 4 or 5 days a week for 20-40'. So, given my current fitness, 50 minutes for 50 consecutive days will be a challenge. One week in and feeling heavy (legs and belly). Living in the northeast has made the first week a challenge in itself with the crazy weather that many of you have mentioned.

Looking forward to using this thread as motivation.

A Bit Lurker wrote:

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

I thought thread participants might benefit from my sage wisdom. Said differently, “some days a piece of cherry pie and a glass of milk, is more effective training than an eight mile run.” You can now quote me on this.

Igy

And here, I thought you were a financial guy..;)

Yes, in both disciplines less can end up being more..;)

Hey Igy Arnold's got some advice for you:

https://youtu.be/O1nD3JAY63U?t=114

??

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

A Bit Lurker wrote:

And here, I thought you were a financial guy..;)

Yes, in both disciplines less can end up being more..;)

That’s certainly true regarding investments. Avoid commission based sales and seek out low fee platforms like Vanguard. It really adds up over the years...the Miracle of Compounding!

Ghost- good to know when to take it easy!

Old Guy II - A nice feeling to get that boost of running faster than you have in awhile!

Had typed out the last 2 weeks of workouts only to have it vanish, so basically I had 25 miles each for the last 2 weeks. This week I finished up with 12 x 200 between 37 -39. with 200+ jog back rec. No unusual aches and pains for the 2 days after, knock on wood. This is the 1st time in 2 years I've been able to do this, after getting plantar in the middle of indoors in 2016. I had tried to do 2 x 200 in August after doing some 400s but had to back off the 1st 200 part way thru and skipped the 2nd one.

Better post this as My normal computer is packed up for our move and this laptop is a bit spooky.

Cheers all!

M: off.

T; 7 miles.

W: 10 miles. (9th mile @7:53)

R: 7 miles.

F: 7 miles.

SA: 7 miles.

SU: 16.7 miles. (last mile @ 7:30)

So I did the first "long run" since my marathon in December, and also added a bit of intensity to my Wednesday's run. I think it's a decent start. The weather was not quite friendly, but I got my long run in before we were hit by snow this morning.

Straight on till morning.

Hi all. I ran the Houston Marathon on Sunday and am sad to report that the sub 3 didn't happen. Not entirely surprising, but I was hopeful.

The story...

Weather was pretty much perfect with temps at the start at about 36 and 42 at the end. A slight breeze but nothing a bit of drafting wouldn’t negate. Sunny but in a good way... enough to warm without annoying.

The start was a very hectic, as there was a LOT of security and everyone in both the half and full was herded through a blocks-long corridor, all fenced in with no way to get out and around the crowd. I didn’t get out there early enough to avoid getting tangled up in the masses, so I didn’t get any warm up at all. Well, I hopped in place a little. This is a critical detail.

I wasn’t able to find my brother in the crowd, so we started separately. Turns out he was in the port-john when the gun sounded. But no worry, as your timing starts when you cross the line. Turns out this is also a critical detail.

We started right on time and for the first couple of miles I ran conservatively (6:56 pace) and felt very comfortable. As the crowd thinned (how do all those joggers manage to get up to the front??) I picked it up and soon joined the 3 hour pace group, who were going out too fast. (My wife watched the pace group slowly dwindle until there was no one left except the guy with the balloons on a stick. Very poor pacing.) I was watching my HR because I have found in marathon-paced runs that 150 is about the point where things get difficult, and I was pleased to see that I was at 143 or so even while running 6:35 pace. So on I went...

...until 10km when my left hamstring cramped up and left me hopping like Usain Bolt. We both shoulda retired last year :-( I suppose I blame the lack of warm up, though I hurt it earlier in September in a half marathon, so who knows. Anyhow, I was really pissed and cussing and generally being quite immature about it all.

But then my brother came along a short time later and I thought, “Why not limp the rest of the way?” So I did. This worked out pretty well for both of us. He had come out of the toilet in a minor panic and flying and had run the first 10km 10 seconds a mile faster than planned. When I joined him, we settled down to a reasonable race pace for him and a tolerable limping pace for me. After 3-4 miles the leg kind of quit spasming and I was able to run without hopping. As long as I didn’t push it, I would survive.

The miles through 15 went well, with the pace staying right around 7:05. Then brother’s tummy flared up and we had several short and not so short porta-john breaks. I will admit that I took one as well. The stops were hard on my hamstring (or the getting going again was) but if he hadn’t stopped, things would have gotten messy. Anyhow, on we rolled.

The pace held steady through 23 or so but eventually the distance and perhaps the fast early pace got to brother and he slowed to 7:45 or so and it was a survival shuffle to the end. Meanwhile, a group of decidedly senior citizens came by, all in a clump. Since brother and I are also senior citizens, this was a disappointment. But the only response brother could muster was, “Son of a b*t*h!” But we stayed together through the finish and smiled at the cameras so we can buy the memories on line.

Big brother was pretty toasted and I was proud of how well he held together the last few miles. We walked back to the hotel and slept it off while the results were tabulated. It turns out that those three old guys were indeed in our age group. Because of the fact that we all crossed the starting mat at slightly different times, the finish order was not the same as the finish order... if you know what I mean. In the final reckoning, brother was second and I was fourth, even though we crossed the finish together. So lingering in the porta-john at the start had been a good strategy after all. The top five were all within a couple of minutes, so it was good racing all around.

So now my hamstring is very sore but I’m fine otherwise. The effort was just easy enough that I feel like I had a good long workout. I have mixed feelings about the race. I feel like I failed in my goals and am disappointed. But I am really glad to have gotten to share the race with my brother. And frankly, if he hadn’t come along and slowed a bit so I could join him, I likely would have dropped out right there. I’m pissed about the hamstring thing, but stuff happens. I feel like I could have picked it up and run those guys down at the end and won the AG and all the money, fame and glory, but I am really happy that I will have a picture of the two of us crossing the finish together. I guess that’s the most important thing, ain’t it? Ain't it??

Anyhow, it was a fun trip. Onward and upward!

Old Walker

Damn good story-telling OW! Thank you for sharing.

You brought me right back to most of my 20 marathons - even though #20 was some 15 yrs ago when I said "OK, I finally ran Boston in negative splits. Time to focus on Masters Track". Still, your tale made me nearly run to the john as my nerves flared a bit. All the best to you to channel this one towards many more competitive foot-races this new year.

KP

Thanks KP. It's nice to be able to share with folks that get it.