50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

>86% at heat is outstanding.👍

Racerdb: Great mile. This is such a great comeback from that injury!

Mon = 60 min (hip/groin pain returns)
Tue = 30 min easy
Wed = 30 min easy
Thr = 30 min easy
Fri = Off
Sat = Very small 5K race. Finished 2nd overall only because a few folks took a wrong turn ahead of me (7:55, 8:05, 8:11).
Sun = 40 min easy

I spent the first 5 days of the week taking it easy on my sore hip/groin area. I have never had an injury in that location before. The area is so complex the actual cause could be a lot of different things.

Relatively OK with my race Sat, almost pulled out of it due to the hip issue. I did not go 100% for fear of aggravating it. It was almost embarrassing to get 1st overall male since two guys ahead of me took a wrong turn. I actually stopped and yelled at them to turn around and they briefly glanced back…..but it's funny how once folks make a decision they stick by it…until they run into a dead end.

I will have to reset my minute build up back a bit and restart the process. I’m surprised I got to 77 minutes before something fell apart. I won’t have to go so slow this time since I’ve already built a base…I hope…

Patience.
Have a good one!

I had a good week of preparation for next week's 5k XC race. 42 miles with Wed. as my last hard workout. I'm trying to keep my mileage up but back off the intensity a bit. I have been managing a couple of specific problems with my left leg for almost a year now. I have some tendonitis at the top of my hamstring, and calcaneal bursitis. The hamstring tendonitis prevents me from all out sprinting and gets worse with too much high intensity running. The heel bursitis makes my heel tender and sometimes painful but doesn't seem to really affect my running. I finally saw my doctor on Wednesday and talked to him about it. I explained that I wasn't going to back off on my training between now and Club XC in Dec. unless either problem worsened so much I couldn't run. He got me an orthopedist referral in two weeks that probably will get me a cortisone injection in both locations to try and reduce the inflammation and let them start healing. For now I'm just taking anti-inflammatories and training slower but longer. I'm trying to balance hanging on to some good fitness and racing without worsening the problems. Based on my past experience that goes wrong about as often as it goes right.

Try to stay healthy and good running to all!

28 Miles. 1 race where I volunteered and there wasn’t enough help that I could also jump into the race. The fellow who was supposed to help showed up and said “ the doctor told me that I can’t lift anything heavy” so I unloaded and loaded it all. I had the dolly out and I had 4 stacks of water on it and I couldn’t pull it back to wheel the water to the tubs. A guy in a blue shirt was walking by to the registration with his daughter and I said “ pardon me sir, could you just hold this stack while lean the dolly back so I can roll this water to the tubs. Sweat was just rolling off me and he gave me this look I’ll never forget and said “ certainly and thank you so much for your work as a volunteer “… I didn’t know what to say. That doesn’t happen as much as it did a decade or so ago and I could only sputter out “ thank you, well, I raced for 47 years and my legs just don’t work anymore ha”

I was supposed to race without volunteering this past Saturday but couldn’t do it.

I still train a lot but to get myself to the races again, I’m gonna have to work on…. something. I stood there before it was time to clean up and I clapped for each finisher that crossed the line. I looked at the time of finishers who are two minutes ahead of me and I can’t believe I can’t run with them. 30-40 years ago…well you know what I was thinking… I’m not proud of it.

summer season over. Since June 1, I did run 5 of the races and volunteered for 5 races…and skipped 3 races I was supposed to run which was an improvement from last year.

67, cancer, 3 knee surgeries, colectomy, severe GERD….

My sympathies to all who are dealing with severe heat/humidity. I have gotten a break on that recently, first by escaping for a week with family to just outside Asheville NC, where it was markedly cooler (than DC) albeit raining heavily most days. Got in some good hilly runs.

Now back in DC, and it's cooled down here as well -- 60 in am, 80 in afternoon, low humidity -- unusually nice for us this time of year. Celebrated yesterday with a good long-ish run -- 2:15 with a late parkrun tempo in 21:26

have a great week,

Dave

Greetings!

Good week for me, in spite of a relatively hot weather (not extremely hot, but 85-86F is well above average in my region).

Keep training for 5K on a track on 23 Sept (masters T&F national).

Mon – off
Tue – 6.5 miles with a 21 min tempo in the middle. CV effort on a trail in the forest.
Wed – 7 miles easy
Thu – 5 miles easy/moderate
Fri – off (unplanned, too late from work)
Sat – 6 miles with interval session on a trail in the middle. Started with 2 x 1:20 shake-up during warm-up, then 4 times hard: 4:35 (HR 144, then 114 in 1 min), 4:32 (150/120), 4:33 (152/122), 4:31 (156/126). Average 4:33/km on this course is an equivalent of 3:43/km (5:59/mile) on road.
Sun – 5.5 miles easy. 8:05-8:15 min/mi @114-120 HR.
Subtotal: 30 miles, 20% of which are “fast”.

Happy and injury-free running to all!

Good afternoon. Last week I managed a bit more running, along with walking, spin biking, and swimming. Wife and I celebrate our 48th anniversary mid-week, so festivities may conflict with plans to increase mileage.

Have a good week, and best health.

Igy

The heat is seemingly breaking here in Northern Indiana but the humidity for my morning runs is still close to 100%. So it's 55deg but still drenched in sweat! I had a solid 56 mile week. Still 100% physically healthy! Mostly 8:15-7:45 running with two decent efforts. Wednesday's workout was a butt kicker!...

2 mile warmup 822, 811 then...
1 min @ 5:46 pace, 1 min jog rest @ 7:56
2 min @ 6:04 pace, 2 min jog rest @ 8:17
3 min @ 6:09 pace, 3 min jog rest @ 8:17
4 min @ 6:05 pace, 4 min jog rest @ 8:42
3 min @ 6:00 pace, 3 min jog rest @ 8:22
2 min @ 5:56 pace, 2 min jog rest @ 8:29
1 min @ 5:56 pace
1.08 mile cool down @ 8:15

I ran with my 48 year old training partner. Those paces we're CV for him but closer to race pace for me. So yeah, I was a bit staggered by the time we were done!

Saturdays 11 mile long run at 8:03 went well. 8:15-7:37.

Hoping to keep the miles up this week. Two weeks before my next race!

Have a good run,

Dave

Still chugging away with aerobic reps. Last three weeks have got in each week-

3x2000m with 1000m easy recovery

6x1000m with 800m easy recovery

12x400m with 400m easy recovery

16x200m with 200m easy recovery

Usually 3 or 4 miles at about 8:00 to 8:30 per mile on the alternate days. Got up to 40 miles a week the week before last.

The sessions are all 7 or 8 miles so with warm-up strides and warm-down I'm often running for a little over an hour and averaging around 7:30 per mile. I'm hoping that means I'm OK without long (ish) steady runs.

Thinking of doing a low key 5k road race in mid September, then finishing up season with 3000m on the track the following month.

Mid-August reprieve was nice.
M: 9M - 5(5:30@MP/1:30jog)

T: 10M treadmill @ 12:30 pace

W: 6M @ 9:48 pace

Th: work

F: 7M - 15(0.11/0.10)

Sat: 18M

enjoy the week

Greetings!

A 30-mile week here with 2 days off. Started doing some 5K-specific work and the response is OK.

Mon, Tue – off (too much work and late from office)

Wed – 6 miles incl. 3.5 miles tempo on an “easy trail” (meaning only some 10-12 sec/km slower than road). 5K at 21:07, i.e. an equivalent of 20:07-20:17 on asphalt. Felt not tired at all.

Thu – 7 miles easy
Fri – 4 miles easy
Sat – 7 miles easy

Sun – 6 miles, incl. “classic” 5x1k interval on-road session with 2’ jog/walk.
No “supershoes”, just regular Saucony Triumph 18 trainers. Per km: 3:48, 3:41, 3:43, 3:42, 3:44. Average 3:43.6 (6:00/mile). Quite satisfied.

Happy an injury-free running to all!

A quiet week’s start turned slightly tumultuous by its end: we were informed that wife’s MS has now led to her continually declining physical abilities and cognitive decline will accelerate. Also, work has picked up to a high heat, just as I was purposefully slowing it downwards. Ah, but there is always good news: a pleasant week of running mixed in with August humidity returning.
M: 9M w/4(10:00 @MP/4:00recovery)

T: 1:45 treadmill @ 13:04 pace

W: 7.6M with hills @ 10:15 pace

Th: 35:00 treadmill

F: 6M w/15(1:00 on/1:00 off)

Sat: 12M @ 10:50 pace - high dew point has returned. Just sorta snuck in there.
enjoy the week

MagicShoes: Wishing the best for your wife. When I was an engineer for the Dept of Rehab I helped design computer equipment for a few of my folks that had MS. Every one of them was totally different and nothing ever seemed to stay stable for long. But, we did have some folks that responded to some of the newer meds pretty well. Hopefully her treatment team can come up with some ideas to help.

Mon = 50 min
Tue = 57 min with 3X(1 min on, 2 min off)
Wed = 60 min
Thr = 60 min
Fri = Off
Sat = 61 min with 3X(1 min on, 2 min off)
Sun = 61 min

Pretty good week of adding back running time. The hip/groin area is improving. I added some stretches and exercises originally designed for hip arthritis as well as some drills. These are clearly helping.

I got a Wahoo tickr chest strap HR monitor as the wrist monitor on my Garmin 35 was completely inaccurate. I’m stealing a page from OGII and adding in some fartleks of higher heart rate running mixed in with the slow stuff.

Have a good one!

Been away so long, I hardly knew the place
Gee, it's good to be back home

- Beatles 'Back in the USSR'

Magic Shoes, sending good vibes re: the management of your bride's MS

Not posted here in 5 or 6 weeks...had a long chunk of time in Eugene, OR for Worlds followed by a long hunk of time dealing with a nasty bout of COVID thereafter...finally coming back up for air.

Managed 30 miles this week...mostly jogging except for one session that included 6 x 2:00 with 1:00 run (not jog) between....first time I've been able to run real hard in seemingly forever.

Have a minor goal of hitting the year's 1,000 mile marker by end of September (at 837 miles year to date as of today) before getting fat and outta' shape in Italy for two weeks in early October (the obligatory 25th wedding anniversary / honeymoon re-visited trip).

Finally, while I haven't run a cross country race in 16 years, am hoping to run XC Nationals in San Francisco early December. Who else is intending to do that one??

Have a swell week of masters training and racing...will look forward to hearing about your most recent exploits.

your pal,

Mike F.

Best to Magic Shoes and spouse. Tough deal.

Little progress here. Mostly 57 years of running has me lazy and disinterested. I plan to change things up after Labor Day. More distance and cross country oriented. Who knows maybe I will end up at Golden Gate Park, site of two of my best masters cross country races. I can only dream at this point.

Have a good week.

Igy

First, congratulations to Igy for staying out of trouble at home for 48 straight years, and to his wife for putting up with a running obsession for that long.

My XC season got off to a good but not great start. I ran 21:48 for a slightly short 5k (3.07mi). That was 18 seconds slower than last year. 11 of those extra seconds were in the first mile, so, hopefully, that was mostly lack of recent race experience on pacing that first mile. That got me 2nd in the 70-74s with my 71yr old team mate beating me by 27 seconds. (He also was 9 seconds/mile faster than me at our 4th of July 10k, so I'm not closing the gap yet). I'm still happy with my plan of working on strength and endurance now and leaving the more intense VO2 max work to start about the end of September. Next XC race is a 4-mile in two weeks. I had a strong long run this morning which was definitely a confidence builder after yesterday's race effort. 48 miles for the week -

M- 4mi walk

T- 6mi easy run

W- 11mi hills easy 10:29/mi

Th- 4mi walk

F- 6mi run/walk of run until 150HR, then walk until 120HR, repeat

S- 6mi of 2mi w.u., 5k XC, 1mi w.d.

Su- 11mi hilly trails 8:57/mi

Good running and racing to all!

Likewise to you oldguy II; your fifty years may be the standard here. I cherish our time together. Now more than ever.

Sorry to hear you news. Hope they find some modalities that stabilize the condition...

Another week of aerobic intervals with easy 3 or 4 mile runs inbetween (intervals/easy run on alternate days).

3x2000m with 1000m easy recovery
6x1000m with 800m easy recovery
12x400m with 400m easy recovery
16x200m with 200m easy recovery

Some speed appears to be coming back. Put on spikes for the 200m reps and hit 15 sec/100m pace on a warm-up stride (according to Garmin). Averaged just under 42 sec for the 200ms with 90 sec/200m recovery.

sorry to hear of your wife's medical situation. I'll hope for the best for you both.

On my end a good week back home in humid DC:

M 2:00 double incl. drills/strides

Tu 1:25 w/ 5 X 3:00 moderately hard hills + 10:00 at half-marathon effort

W 2:00 double

Th 1:30

F 50:00

Sa 1:20 with 8k in 31:55 (4th OA, 1st AG)

Su 1:45

Three weeks to goal half-marathon. I feel encouraged by yesterday's race, which was 17 sec faster than last time I ran this course (3 years ago). Most of spring and summer I've been 6-10 sec/mile slower than 2019 for same races, so this is a pleasant surprise. More than 100% (26 sec) of the improvement yesterday was in last, almost entirely uphill, mile, so I'm thinking our vacation in a very hilly area did me some good.

have a great week,

Dave