50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Greetings, fellow 50+ers! I hope you all are making progress on your New Year’s resolutions.

I am still dealing with a left quad issue. After last Sunday’s failed attempt at a run, I took 3 days off before giving it a go on Thursday. While there was still some moderate soreness, there were no sharp pains like there had been in some previous runs. I got out on Saturday, too, with similar results. It appears “slow and steady” may be the mantra for awhile. I’m hoping to get out again tomorrow, but this weekend storm is supposed to conclude tonight with a flash freeze, so my next run may be delayed a day or so. Meanwhile I am keeping the heating pad close by. Put me down for 9 miles of actual running for the week.

Sun: 9’ CR (aborted)

Mon-Wed: off

Thu: 49’ CR; body wt ex

Fri: off

Sat: 48’ CR; body wt ex + med ball routine

Best to most!

Congrats on that seventh Boston finish. Sorry the race didn't go well for you. Michael Jordan, who played well below his prior abilities at the end of his career put it best: "Father time is undefeated!"

The best advice I can give you is to train within your limits so you avoid injury, and work on accepting the fact that we all slow down eventually. Good luck on your next race (or, if you've already run it, hope it went well)!

sounds like your training is going well. I'm also intending on a spring (late march) marathon, though having been injured and unable to start past couple marathons I'm considering it a low-key tentative plan for now! The one I'm aiming for does not sell out and is close enough to me that I can drive there the morning of the race, so I don't need to do much practical planning way ahead of time

good week this week -- I was able to work out yesterday before the storm hit -- sleet and (mostly) rain here in DC area, no snow. Condolences to any of you further north on shoveling duty today

M 1:15

Tu 1:35 double

W 1:40 w/ 5 X 3:00 moderately hard hills

Th 1:20

F 1:20 w/drills and strides

Sa 1:25 w/5 X 4:30 (3:00 jog) at 5k pace (averaged 4:06 coming thru 1000m)

Su 1:20 + 1:00 x-t

have a great week,

Dave

Greetings!

Good week for me: 7 hrs and 26 min of training.

Ran 5 days in a Red Sea resort enjoying 77F weather. Returned back home on Fri/Sat night and faced -10F (-24С). Too cold for skiing, so continued on elliptical and arc trainers.

Happy and injury-free training to all.

I haven't been posting in here for very long, but I don't get the downvotes. How do people get downvoted for just posting their training week or a few words of encouragement? Am I missing something?

There is a troll who used to post here that is responsible for the down votes.

Best to most.

Anyone doing the Naples Half this Sunday 1/14? I see both Jeannie Rice & Gene Dykes are eyeing age group World Records!

Welcome dawnrunner - Your 120k volume per week caught my eye! I'm also in a marathon build, but with modest goals. Here's my week (40 miles total.)

Mon 5.12 miles (warm up & 23:05 New Year's 5k, run as a workout)
Tue 5.33 miles, 8:47 pace
Wed 4.82 miles, 9:13 pace
Thurs 8.02 miles, 9:00 pace
Fri rest
Sat 13.12 miles, 9:19 pace
Sun 3.59 miles, 9:05 pace

I'm 8 weeks out from a marathon. I plan to get in a weekly long run, getting in at least one 20-miler. I want to log some 50 mile + weeks, but I also take rest days as needed which can affect volume.

A main goal is to stay healthy! Ran a 3:33 marathon 4 years back, but suffered A) tendonitis and B) Plantar F. -- started running again without injury just over a year ago.
The injuries resulted from too many hard workouts per week. I'm trying to run smarter. It ain't easy, ha ha. I love to "throw it down" -- but I've scaled it back.

Happy running to all.

-- Steve (former redhead, now happily bald)

Hi Steve ;-)

you have quite an early race if it is in 8 weeks, around here in the austria/germany/italy area there is not much before end of march. I hardly found 1 half marathon as test race mid march that is not too far away.

I found the effect of runs >30k interesting in the last few training cycles. A run with maybe 1min/k slower than race pace of <30k seems to leave little race specific effect. After a ~25..30k run I can have a tempo session the next day. Above 30k, i need 1 easy day and above 35k another day for each ~5k more. In the past I also did >50k but for a marathon training but this feels useless, it just ruins the rest of the week without a lot of benefit. Below 30k i do not feel much marathon specific training effect (i do one ~32..38k each week in the last ~10weeks before the race, but avoid >38k.

I am very lucky of being injured very rarely - hope it keeps being this way... but one effect of getting older seems to be that the time to recover after a longer session increases - before a tempo run is possible. It remember it was easier 5 years back to do 35k on monday, 2x 10k on tuesday and a 18k race pace run on wednesday. Maybe it would even be more effective to skip one tempo session every other week?

good luck for the next 8 weeks, looking forward to read about your race

For its first half dozen years or so this thread was a island of sanity and good will in the letsrun sea of spite, troll posts, and one-upmanship. That stuff has crept in, and there seem to be a troll or two but generally posters are supportive. You kind of have to be somewhat of a fool otherwise to get much flack on this thread. The downvotes are rather odd, but it's just a reflection of the site at large and not enough to take personally.

to asdflkjh and skuja, thanks for the response and explanation. Got it.

No problem. I’m not sure what happened to the poor guy, but he used to be a regular contributor to this thread before he suddenly went off the deep end. Hopefully he can get the help he needs.

dawnrunner, to be sure we need more recovery as we age! I'm 66 and it is a huge adjustment, mainly to back off the pace on non-workout/easy days. I really got the message as I over trained and suffered injuries.

There are plenty of races in throughout the year my area, Northern California. I am lucky to be in a club that offers many low-key races.

Anybody has ever attended the national XC championships? is it an event worth attending?
I never run the XC championsips, but this year they are is within a few hours driving distance. I am quite out-of-shape, so I know that I will not run well. I am considering signing up just to have a fun run, hang out with the old geezers and then watch the pros.
Based on your previous experiences, is the event fun enough that it is worth waking up at 4AM and driving 5 hours each way to attend it?

Had my first cold in six years with symptoms starting Jan. 2, ran 5km every second day but felt like crap until last Monday (negative covid test).

Last night went to grass track, felt like crap striding out but did 3km jogging and 3x200m with 3m rest between at 36, 36, and 38.

Hi,

I've been lurking on this thread for a couple of years, I will also be running a spring marathon - my local, London. Not quite sure on targets for the race, I expect I'll figure that out nearer the time :-) Training-wise, just getting back into a routine post-Christmas and post-Valencia (where I ran a PB). I'll get into a marathon-specific block towards the end of this month. Last week's training looked like this:

M: 10m

T: 4.4m + 9m (incl. track session 2400,2000,1600 off 400 j/r, 4x400 off 60s static, 400s were 77/72/72/72)

W: 5.4m + 6.3m

Th: 5.4m (incl. 4m avg. 6m/m) + 6.3m

F: 8.6m

Sa: 10m

Su: 15.1m (avg. 6:29m/m)

Kind of focused on a good track session, then something quick towards the end of the week Th/Fr/Sa (whenever the legs start to freshen up), then a solid long run.

I have done US nationals as a masters twice and club xc five or six times. US Nationals are a lot of fun, because the open races are high stakes, although the meet itself is much smaller. Club XC is also great, but there the atmosphere is around the club aspect. At US nationals the stakes are higher because the top 6 are automatic qualifiers for World Cross or other international teams. (Club XC also has a role, as the winners of those get a spot as well). I ran at nationals in Boulder and in Tallahassee those were great.

Hi All

Continuing my latest comeback, I managed a little more than the previous week.

Mon - 35min run

Tue - 30mins stationary bike

Wed - 40mins track session including 3x400 (ave 99), 2x1000 (ave 2:35) and 2x400 (ave 98)

Thu - rest day

Fri - 30min stationary bike

Sat - 30min run including parkrun at 24:19 - a few seconds slower than the previous week, but rather more mud

Sun - 30min stationary bike

Looking to continue the mix of running and stationary bike, slowly changing the emphasis towards running.

Best to all