50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Plyometrics (depth jumps, oinking, etc.) have proven valuable in the development of explosiveness. On the other hand, I never found much value in those sprint drills (A/Bs, high knees, etc.).

Cush, for me the appropriate Emily D is this one ...

Success is counted sweetest

By those who ne'er succeed

To comprehend a nectar

Requires sorest need

Not one of all the purple Host

Who took the Flag today

Can tell the definition

So clear of victory

As he defeated – dying –

On whose forbidden ear

The distant strains of triumph

Burst agonized and clear!

The big news out of my world is that last week while on her neighborhood walk, the bride spotted a Schwinn 418 elliptical sitting by a curbside. Her walking buddy immediately fetched a pickup truck and now it's in our garage. I haven't figured out how to power it on, but just as it is I'm able to use it and keep my HR around 130 while watching Youtube. It's a great way to increase my aerobic work without adding more miles or leaving my driveway.

Looks like 2 of my next 3 races are going to be underground. KC has all these old limestone caves converted into climate-controlled storage and office facilities. It's a guarantee singlet-and-shorts run even in December! Still haven't located an enormous turkey suit, may have to defer that dream until next year ...

15 x 400 metres in 75 secs with 100 metre recovery jogs.

This session was done on Tuesday by a 50 plus UK fell/mountain runner, former top liner in this area of the sport. He still finishes near the pointy end of his races. Never races road or track but regularly hits out these type of track sessions.

What do you reckon he could run for 5k/10k/HM.

16:15.....

mo’pac,

My friend went as far north as Cairns. He had a good time, lots of scuba diving along the coast.

Igy

From one of my buds who has run XC Nats numerous times:

“I ran the nationals XC course in Spokane yesterday. It is going to be very challenging with quite turns and a few small ups and downs on every loop. Grass is thick in many areas. I had a hard time maintaining rhythm. “

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

From one of my buds who has run XC Nats numerous times:

“I ran the nationals XC course in Spokane yesterday. It is going to be very challenging with quite turns and a few small ups and downs on every loop. Grass is thick in many areas. I had a hard time maintaining rhythm. “

What are “quite turns”?

As for the thick grass, I would expect that to be well tamped down by race time.

Mut wrote:

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

From one of my buds who has run XC Nats numerous times:

“I ran the nationals XC course in Spokane yesterday. It is going to be very challenging with quite turns and a few small ups and downs on every loop. Grass is thick in many areas. I had a hard time maintaining rhythm. “

What are “quite turns”?

As for the thick grass, I would expect that to be well tamped down by race time.

What would one expect from a mut?

Insert “a few” if that is too much to ask.

*Week 388*

Greetings, 50+ers! It's been another off week. Thanks for the concerns regarding my current state of health. My right ear finally started to hear on Friday, but the tinnitus is still pretty loud. Took a few long walks this week, will hopefully start back into run/walk today, and maybe evolve into running again later this week. It's been a rough stretch. I was supposed to see my primary Thursday, but they cancelled last minute due to a death in the family; I'll get in first thing Monday morning to hopefully get some referral to an ENT specialist.

Sorry I've not been participating on the thread lately. My mind has been on other things. It'll get better. Glad to have you all there to keep it going. Have a good Thanksgiving.

All the Best!

PS-Congrats to Badger Morgan McDonald on his NCAA XC Individual Title.

lucKY: Hang in there. I know it’s not much consolation but, all the little dings are now getting time to heal up.

Tue = 4 miles road: 10:04, 7:34, 7:48, 10:22

Thr = 4 miles easy on treadmill (rain, ice, cold, dark, rocks, slippery leaves = Treadmill)

Sat = 5 miles, imperial track: miles of 7:48, 7:00: 440’s of 1:38, 1:39, 1:42, 1:41

Sun = 50 minutes easy trail

Another good week. For Saturday’s workout I leaned on the 2nd warm up mile just to see what kinda juice is in the legs. I’d call it “medium” and it was a good hard bit of work. I just cruised the 4 440’s as I was afraid of irritating my left knee.

My feet are doing well but I have a little soreness on my left knee which is left over from that really rough trail run on election day. Kinda ironic that trails really don’t help my knees at all, but do wonders for my feet.

Have a good ‘ern!

No long run this morning so I could sleep in and still get my report in early. I ran my 20k road race yesterday in perfect weather. I thought I could break the SC AG record (1:59:57), but wasn't sure by how much, since I hadn't run this race for a few years.

The race began with a 3 mile unrelenting climb to the top of Paris Mountain. My legs felt good and I passed quite a few people who had either taken off too fast or weren't in shape. I averaged 10:08/mi on this section. The next part was a 4 mile downhill quad-killer. Some of the slopes were so steep I was afraid to run at full speed but I averaged 7:56/mi for the downhill. At the base of the mountain, most people think the worst is over - wrong! The course then goes up and down and twists and turns for the last 5 miles and is a test of mental endurance. I was running in a group with a woman in her 30s and a guy in his 50s and we encouraged each other to keep running because the temptation to stop on the many uphills was huge. Finally, we ran up a long hill to the finish and the two of them took off. My legs had nothing left for a sprint but I finished in 1:48:27, as 2nd master and 11:30 under the old record! In the end, it probably was good that I didn't race in FL last week.

Although I did a good cool down, my quads are so sore I can hardly walk. I'll take an easy day tomorrow and then back at it for Club XC. I'm volunteering at Footlocker Southeast this week so I'll be in Charlotte from Thurs-Sat. If any of you have runners racing, stop by the retail area and say "Hi".

Sending good thoughts to our CA contributors. Hope you're safe and haven't suffered as so many have.

congratulations! that sounds like an extremely challenging course.

easy week of cross-training for me after marathon [thanks everyone for your kind words on that] and now back to running Monday.

have a great week,

Dave

SCgal, great job on being mentally tough for 20 km and congrats on a very solid state record. I keep the state records for MO, so every so often I get notes about how it's a motivator for people here. I keep them for residents and for all-comers, so come on over and take on a race here! I find that with having at least 3 different 15 km races in the state, people are finding that to be a fun challenge to take on, and it's does not require marathon fitness.

Nothing for me to report. After the required 10 day wait, I was prescribed antibiotics for my sinus infection. Am now on them at day 3. Only now am I started to feel like I am going to live. Did my first "workout" yesterday in a couple weeks, a stunning 15 minutes on our Schwinn Air-Dyne, for 3.7 miles and 103 kcals. A whopping 6 kcals per minute! And I was tired afterwards. Boy, am I going to have a long re-build.

lucKY2b- heal up, and regards for you and your family.

SCgal- sounds like a great effort and a good ending to the previous week’s story.

I took a bit of recovery week in preparation for a couple of races. Saturday I raced with my team in the YMCA Turkey Trot. Each of four member runs a two mile course and your placing is based on your predicted time. I have run this event a half a dozen times so there is some history, not that it matters at this point. My teammates are some accomplished masters, and I was the anchor in more than one sense. Our predicted time was 58:00 and we ran 57:50 and change. That was good for victory and turkeys for each runner that we donated to a homeless shelter. My leg was the slowest by far with a 17:22. I was hoping to run 17:00, but my time was 14 seconds faster than an equivalent 2 mile race 9/15 right before I started radiotherapy. Last year I ran 14:14 and raced two legs as a 56 year old in 11:35 and 11:38 as a two man team. Certainly can be discouraging to run so hard and get nowhere, but what does that get you? Suck it up and move on. Boise Turkey Day 5K Thursday and I will try to best my 30:39 from August. My week (24 miles):

Monday: AM- 2 miles easy; 2 x ( 5 x 200m good speed / 100m easy; 400m easy; 1 x 1,000m good swing / 600m easy); mile easy/walk; PM- 3 mile walk

Tuesday: Off

Wednesday: 2 miles easy; mile I @ 8:37; mile easy/walk

Thursday: 3 miles easy/walk

Friday: 1.5 miles easy; 8 x 100m 2 easy, 2 good

Saturday: 2 miles easy; 6 x strides; 2 miles @ 17:22; mile easy/walk

Sunday: Off

Have a good week everyone.

Igy

SCgal, congratulations on a great race on what sounds like a very tough course. After finishing our local XC series last Sunday, I'm now working on getting in a couple of good steady routine training weeks prior to Spokane. 48 miles for the week.

M- walk 4

T- 7 hills 10:38/mi ave

W- walk 7 with 150M stride every 1/2 mile

Th- 8 hills 9:23/mi ave

F- walk 7 with 150M stride every 1/2 mile

S- 8 hills 8:50/mi ave

Su- walk 7 with 150M stride every 1/2 mile

SCgal wrote:

Although I did a good cool down, my quads are so sore I can hardly walk.

A cool down does nothing for the microtears produced from long bouts of hard downhill running. I would think it counterproductive actually, especially after 20k of racing.

A week on the upswing with increasing volume and quality on the way back to status quo. I’m slowly working back to the full post-jog stretching routine, but still limiting ROM in the hip/glute area. But things were good enough for me to confidently pre-register for Thursday’s turkey trot. I even threw in a few striders today. Life is good. Staying away from golf for obvious reasons. Maybe I’ll be back on the links next week.

Sun: walk w/ the bride

Mom: 41’ jog

Tues: off

Wed: 42’ jog

Thu: walk w/ the bride

Fri: 45’ jog

Sat: walk w/ the bride

Sun: 50’ jog w/ utility pole fartlek (5 x 1 on / 2 off)

Best to most. Happy Thanksgiving.

L2B- Hope you get some relief soon.

SCgal - A fine race! Good to see you doing so well after missing your goal competition last week. Your time was a state single-age record on a tough course like that?! Wow! With the proliferation of half marathons, the 20K has been an orphan event. Nice distance. For me, lately, 15K has hit the "sweet spot." Long enough to not be panicked right from the gun, but short enough to consider it just one component of a racing "season."

Igy - Some nice racing, and a "speedy" week, altogether. Looking forward to seeing your progression through 2019.

Old Guy 2 - How many from this thread are headed to Spokane? I've been considering some club running next year at 60, and XC was always my favorite ... but I think I may be too fragile these days.

This week was my second consecutive week off from running/exercise. Busy with work, and some medical issues. Looking to start base-building toward a spring half marathon ... maybe I will get on the roads tomorrow. 15 days off = 8-pound weight gain! Easy-on, not so easy off.

Carry on. Be well.

Old Fart,

I have found this hip/glute stretch to help range of motion:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=37uchqMuTLU

Igy

Per my post, that is exactly what I’m trying to avoid.