50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Another week mainly building mileage for me.

Mon 1 - 50min

Tue 2 - 40min

Wed 3 - am 40min, pm - 50min including 10x400m average 98sec

Thu 4 - 35min

Fri 5 - 55min

Sat 6 - 50min including 8x300m average 63sec. This was intended to be a set of longer reps, but it was too windy so I stuck to the best 300m around the track.

Sun 7 - 55min

Total 76km/47miles

Good running to all

I ran 32 miles last week, including a 10-miler in 1:32, the longest run I've done since my marathon 6 weeks back.

Tapering a bit this week, I am going to run a 10k rustbuster tomorrow to get a sense of current fitness.

AM - great to hear about your 29 mile week! Hope your 5k race went well.

Happy & healthy running to all.

Ran my 5K yesterday. It felt better than any of my previous races this year in that there was almost no hint of the dystonia in my left leg. My stride felt almost normal, no foot-scuffing, and I could run without fear of tripping and falling. My only problem was the complete lack of aerobic fitness. I was delighted to get a time of 30:16 (9:44/mile), way under my "A" goal for the race.

Unfortunately I'm 99% sure the course was short. I've done the half-marathon version of this race about a dozen times before. It starts on the street outside a minor-league ballpark, and at the finish you run past the starting line and into the stadium, and finish on the ball field. Today we finished at the starting line. The posted course maps still show the finish being inside the park, and I don't think the courses were adjusted for the new finish. Google Maps gave me a distance of 3.0 miles and that's what I'm calling it. Still a nice improvement on my last race.

This event has a half-marathon, 10K, and 5K, and the 5K caters to joggers and walkers. My 10:05/mile was good for 27th out of 199 women overall, and first out of 20 in my age group. My next 5K will be the featured race of the event and will be way more competitive.

Progress continues! I think my next race will be a 10K in four weeks.

fantastic! great to hear that you felt so much better. Questionable course length seems common, unfortunately.

Fun time of year for running in DC -- very windy a number of days this week, but generally pleasant -- feels great to be running in t-shirt and shorts but without the heat/humidity coming our way july/august. I'm thru "base week" and week 1 of a 5k plan from Pete Magill's Fast 5k book, targeting late June for breaking 20:00 (19:57 = best in 2023, so I don't have a lot of wiggle room).

Good luck to all running Boston (or finishing taxes) tomorrow,

Dave

Greetings!

amkelley, congratulations on your return back to competition. Hope it is just a start and very soon you will return to your best form. Good luck with upcoming 10K!

Dave, I wish you improve your previous 5K SB! Me too, will have my first 5K this season next Sun. A bit worried because I have twisted my ankle on Fri and now deal with ice, ortho and ibuprofen instead of hard weekend training. Nevertheless, hope to recover in a few days and let it be a "long tapering". Just need to have my mouth "wide shut" to avoid gaining extra kilos.

Great week to all!

69 years old. Runner for 47 years. Over 100,000 miles. 3 knee surgeries and many cortisone shots.
Already, I am DNS races.

My goal was to just show up but the secondary injuries ( tendinitis and nerve impingement on right foot) although starting to heal, won’t be ready for next weekend

So, May 20 is my next target date. I should have quit a long time ago but can’t. I should just lay off, the hobbling looks so pathetic, but I have old ladies in their golf carts here at my retirement place stopping to offer me rides home … of course that’s the positive side of all this ha

I did hobble 25 miles and rode stationary bike twice, lifted twice and did pull ups.

Tough year.

I understand where you're coming from. I'm almost 66 and was a runner all my adult life until four years ago, when a succession of health problems shut me down completely. Six months ago I got things well enough under control to start jogging again, and I started entering some races. At the start of 2020 I could race a 5K in under 24 min. Now I'm trying to get under 31 min as a first goal.

I don't necessarily agree that you should have quit a long time ago. I really enjoy the social aspects of running and racing, even though I'm now embarrassingly slow. Believe me, no one cares if you're slow or look bad when running. You're out there doing it, and that's way better than most people. Set new, reasonable goals and do the best you can. If you can't run, have you considered volunteering? That may not be your cup of tea, but I've done that a couple of times now and I enjoy being able to give something back to the sport.

Congrats to amk on a successful race! Here's to continued progress going forward.

Dave, good luck on the 20:00 5k race goal, come June. Sounds do-able, and keep healthy.

Today I ran a DSE Club 10K on the Great Highway by the San Francisco city beach, I just resumed training two weeks ago after my recent marathon, so this was a workout / rustbuster.

The course headed due north into a stiff headwind; tried to go easy but that wind was some work regardless. We ran a challenging uphill for about .35 miles to the turnaround, and back down. The tailwind was nice on the way back, I got loose and dug in a bit. Wind and hills made for wacky splits: 8:04, 8:03, 9:04, 7:45, 7:47, 7:33 and then 1:40 to the finish. Got a decent workout at 49:56 to finish, the good people of the DSE club were yelling at me to KICK hard to breat 50:00. Mission accomplished.

It was a decent run, but I have plenty of work to get back to true race fitness.

Meanwhile, I am working on my wine habit. I love a glass of red at night, but it wakes me up almost every time for a bit around 3am. So this week I had three days with my glass of wine, and four days no wine. It makes a big difference, good sleep is money in the bank.

I've had problems in my younger days with it. I ran a 4:22 mile at age 18, and only improved to a 4:01 1500m (worth a 4:19-20 mile), running for UMass. The problem was beer, and plenty of it. Anyhow, I'm still working on it! Happily, the worst of it is decades behind me, but as stated even one glass of that velvety red has a big effect. OK that's it, I hope I didn't bore the sh*t out of everyone with that.

Happy running!

I am overdue for some better racing luck. Last Saturday I came down with a stomach virus and had to scratch the Carlsbad 5k on Sunday. I was pretty well over it by Wednesday and back to base building. My highlight of the week was doing three about 80 meter strides every other day starting Wednesday. This was the start of this year's speed/VO2 max work for me. 51 miles for the week -

M- 4mi walk

T- 4mi walk

W- 10mi of walk 400/run 800, 3x stride

Th- 8mi of 2mi of 400 walk/800 run, 2x 1mi with 0:30 rest, repeat

F- 8mi of 2mi of 400 walk/800 run, 2x 1mi with 0:30 rest, repeat, 3x stride

S-9mi of 2mi of 400 walk/800 run, 2x 1mi with 0:30 rest, repeat plus 1 mi hard, 3x stride

Su- 8mi trails

Good running to all!

I have run some marathons out of my state, but never a shorter race until now. I was planning a road trip marathon with some running friends but a minor injury allowed me to cross-train, but I only had 45 miles of actual running in the last 5 weeks. So I switched to the half marathon, which went pretty well. I kept it a little easy, but felt good enough to pick it up a bit at the end, with mile 13 being my fastest by 10 seconds. Later the results showed I had won my age group by 8 seconds, so that worked out. I still plan a fair amount of cross-training, but hope to ramp up the running miles for a full marathon before too long.

Greetings!

My week was rather “black and white”. It started with healing the ankle that got twisted during the previous weekend. By Thu. it felt OK and I was even able to do an easy interval session, 3x5 min at about 10K pace. Of course, wearing an orthotics. Then, two easy days on an arc trainer before the 5K race today.

It was a regional race (though quite famous dedicated to the first manned spaceflight) this cold and windy morning, with start/finish 300 m from my home, so it is usually “a crime” when I do not attend this event (first time it was 20K in 1980). Tens of people then ask me in the street "where the hell were you?"

My plan was to start at 3:50/km and then accelerate after 2/3. It worked well initially, and 3 km was passed at 11:25, but then the ankle started “letting me know (loudly)” that it had not recovered yet. I got frightened and had to slow down. Anyway, there were young guys only ahead of me, so I was pretty confident regarding my age group (M65+). And indeed, I won it. The result is 19:23. This time looks disappointing, but things happen, could be worse.

Happy and injury free running to all!

M64, 5'11", 190 lbs

5K and Marathon history:
Age 23: 16:05, 2:40:30
Age 43: 17:10, 2:56:03
Age 58: 18:58, 3:07:23
May 2022, age 62: 3:44:06

APRIL 14-20, 2024
Su: Off
M: 4.0 miles (10:54, 10:31, 10:35, 10:28)
T: Bike 18.3 miles @ 17.3 mph
W: 20 mins Arc Trainer, 20 mins Elliptical
Th: 5.0 miles (10:54, 10:36, 10:29, 10:16, 8:47)
F: 20 mins Arc Trainer, 20 mins Elliptical
Sa: 4.0 miles (10:37, 10:20, 9:26, 8:36)
TOTAL: 13.0 MILES

After a challenging few years, this is yet another reboot attempt. Patellar bone spurs (and resulting tendon inflammation) limit my running to every other day. A routine pre-op x-ray in 2022 showed multiple spinal fractures, but further tests were inconclusive. Constant lower back pain is apparently unrelated (?). Although running increases the pain, I've decided tolerate it.

The May 2022 marathon was my last race, but this August I'm in a new age group. Hmmm ....

Be well!

best of luck with the reboot. Those injuries sound painful. Looks like you have a good plan with mixing in cross-training.

Last week I said I was targeting 20:00 for 5k in June. In one sense I can declare victory, as I ran a 10k today in 39:43 (91st OA, 4th AG), but I think I'll stick with original goal, as June race is hilly and likely warm/humid, whereas today was ideal (mid-40's, cloudy, no wind to speak of but tailwind if any [point to point race]; fast course).

I have felt good past couple weeks and thought 6:30/mile might be feasible. Got out in 6:38 (two gradual uphills in first mile), then low 6:20's steadily thereafter. All injuries manageable and felt like the effort was right, as I was pretty much on fumes after 5 miles but able to hold it together to get under 40:00, albeit with no real kick as I watched a couple people fly by me in the last 400 or so meters.

have a great week,

Dave

dhaaga, congrats on the nice race! That must feel good.

Allen1959, best of luck on your most recent attempt at a reboot. Yeah, that 65+ age group must look tempting.

I had a disappointing week. I ran 7 miles very slowly on both Monday and Tuesday, but then I had to be on a Zoom call from the east coast that started at 6:15 am both Weds and Thurs, and I decided not to try running off truncated sleep and little warmup, and I instead put on a loaded backpack and walked fast hill repeats for an hour each of those mornings. I came up with a very sore hip by Thursday night. Friday I just spun the bike trainer, and Saturday I went for a bike ride. I took off to run this morning but my left leg just wouldn't work properly. The hip didn't hurt any more but the dystonia is apparently back. I gave up after quarter-mile and went for a bike ride instead.

For the week I had 14 miles of running, 7 miles of backpack walking, 75 minutes on the bike trainer, 63 miles of outdoor cycling, and 5350 m of swimming. Not bad, but I'm really worried about the apparent return of the runner's dystonia. I will try again tomorrow.

69 years old, 47 years of training. Prostate Cancer, colectomy, 3 knee surgeries, many many great memories . Over 100,000 miles.

27 miles this week although I’m not sure I’d call it running. Knees are shot but what really held me up was the tendinitis in my right foot that impinged the nerve on top.

Also first week I finally relented to taking a statin for my cholesterol. I’ve had the problem for years but didn’t want to take anything that would hurt my running, even though it was just a passionate hobby ( 17:06/35:57/58:42 10 mile/1:19.59)

My cholesterol is 300, triglyceride 450.

I had to skip Saturday’s race. I gotta make myself go but not going to races when I’m not my best is not appealing.

I have a month to get to the next one. Then a homecoming in my hometown race. June 15th. The magical, mystical, memories of races back in the 80’s.

I was gonna sign up using a friend’s name ha…. but used my own. Potential for huge embarrassment ha

congrats on the over 100,000 miles. Impressive. I hope you find the statin helpful. I've been on one for a while, and it definitely has helped cholesterol numbers. No idea if it's influenced running -- I've gotten slower, but that's confounded with age and injuries.

Good week for me as school year winds down, and one daughter got a job after period of unemployment, while the other bought a house. Also did some running:

M 1:00

Tu 1:40 double

W 1:50 with 8 X 45-second fairly hard uphills

Th 1:20 double + 1:00 x-t

F 1:30 with drills and strides

Sa 1:15 with 6 X 3:00 (3:00 jog) at 5k effort (well short of 800; came thru 600 average of 2:23)

Su 1:20 + 1:00 x-t

have a great week,

Dave

I keep having to re-register. 69 years old. Training hard ( for me) since 1977. All sorts of breakdowns now. Nearing the end.

Mon: 3 miles running, 2 miles walking Severe right foot tendinitis causing nerve impingement

Tues: 3 miles running, 2 miles walking. 5 sets curls, pull downs and bench press

Wed: 6 miles walking. Right foot hurt too much to get into pace.

Thur: 1.5 mile running, 2.5 mile walk. Curls, bench and pull downs

Fri: 2 miles running,5 miles walking. Doctor finally talked me into taking statins as I think I stated before. Some stomach distress but slight.

Sat: 6 miles running. Had to stop 3 times the first two miles because of sharp tendinitis pain in right foot. Just walked a few steps then slowly get into pace again. After 3rd stop, I started off and the foot got warmed up I guess and the pain wasn’t as much. 4 uninterrupted miles. 1 mile walk

Sun: 3 mile walk, 4 sets of pull ups.

Its been a wonderful running life.

I'm still doing more cross-training than running because of a bit of an issue with my hip. I did run a local 10 mile race though. As an older runner I like races that keep track of age group course records, like the one I just ran. My goal was to beat the course record for my age, which was set a few years ago. I did beat it, but before I finished another very good runner beat it by more. Since he finished before I did I never had the course record, but I hit my goal. Also there were only 2 of us, so I beat the course record and finished last in our age group. But that's OK. After having cancer, a heart attack and open-heart surgery I'm very blessed not just to be able to run, but to be competing with some of the better runners my age and almost always finishing in the top half or better overall.

Overall, I had a good training week although I still struggle with kind of a roller coaster on fatigue levels from day to day despite trying not to overdo it on any one day. My Wednesday running group does a 5k time trial on the last Wednesday of every month. I went 21:51 which was a little better than I expected. 52 miles for the week -

M- 2 miles easy 11:58/mi average (tired)

T- 9 miles 2x(2mi of walk 200/run 400, 2x1mi), 1mi of walk 200/run 200 very easy -10:07/mi ave.

W- 13 miles of AM 4mi w.u., 5k TT in 21:51, 2mi w.d., PM walk 4 mi

Th- 6 miles very easy 11:31/mi ave.

F- 4 miles very easy walk/run 14:05/mi ave.

S- 9 miles trails 8:36/mi ave.

Su- 8 miles of 2x(2mi of walk 200/run 400, 2x1mi) 12:11/mi ave.

Good running to all!