50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

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 22-28, 2024
M: 4.0 miles (10:49, 10:27, 10:27, 9:50)
T: Bike 18.3 miles @ 17.0 mph
W: 40 mins Arc Trainer
Th: 5.0 miles (10:39, 10:39, 10:38, 9:32, 8:49).
F: Off
Sa: 2.0 miles (9:58, 8:40)
Su: 3.0 miles (10:54, 10:02, 9:58)
TOTAL: 14.0 MILES

Week 2 of my latest reboot. No progress getting my weight under control (170 is "normal" for me, 160 is "race weight"). 190 is unsightly and unpleasant. Gotta eat less and move more!

Run well!

Hi Steve and all others here ;-)

back in this thread after a few months, after the spring races. How were your races?

Mine was great, target was 2:45, finished in 2:45:03. only 10sec slower second half even though it was pretty warm, almost 30C towards the end.

what are your next goals? any races ahead?

M64, 5'11", 191 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 29 - MAY 5, 2024
M: Bike 18.3 miles @ 18.1 mph
Tu: 2.5 miles (10:35, 10:25, 5:10 half-mile)
W: Off
Th: Off
F: Bike 18.3 miles @ 18.1 mph
Sa: 3.0 miles (9:55, 9:02, 8:07)
Su: Off
TOTAL: 5.5 MILES

Reboot Week Three. A step-back week mostly due to a mid-week medical procedure and work obligations the past couple days. Still, it was good to see a near-8-flat mile yesterday.

Run well!

I had a somewhat more encouraging week. I managed three runs of 7 miles each, all of which felt pretty good. I was limited to three days by pain in my left knee, which may be an incipient injury or may just be a result of the RA deciding to settle in that joint this week. For the week, I also did 14 miles of speed walking, 3 miles of walking with a loaded pack, 54 miles of cycling, and 5350 m of swimming.

I went ahead and entered a 10K a week from today. The course has one big hill, nearly twice the gain of the nearby "big hill" I sometimes run in training, and it's forecast to be the first hot day of the year, so this may get ugly. I'll report back next week!

Short post - 50 miles for the week. I hit my time and mileage goal for the week. Average HR 124, ave. pace 11:03/mi. I'm feeling really tired from the running at present. My wife's 93 yr old aunt, who is the last living relative of her parents' generation, lives alone back East, and has gone downhill health-wise really rapidly recently. We need to go back and get her moved to assisted living right now. We are scrambling to take care of travel arrangements and support services for her until we can get her relocated. My wife and I have a very good life, but that clearly is not the same as an easy life at times like this.

Good running to all!

Just joined LRC and enjoying the topics. Will be 62 in July and love 100-800m targets for PB's. This year am trying for a sub 2:30 for 800m time. Have it to 2:36 on road so maybe with spikes and a track can get close if training goes well.
Happy healthy running to all us middle aged runners!

Greetings!

My week was good. Took a short holiday and managed to run 5 times a week for the first time this season.

Mon – AM: easy intervals on a trail, 4 x (5:20 – 5:35), 6 miles in total. PM: 40 min indoors
on an arc trainer.

Tue – flight to the Caucusus mountains area. PM: 45 min on an arc trainer.

Wed – 1:02 up and down a 500 m height (1660 ft) mountain. LT HR on the way up (30 min). Easy on the way down.

Thu – 0:52 fartlek to explore new courses (about 50% of time at LTHR uphill). About 600-700 ft elevation gain.

Fri – similar to Thu, 1:02

Sat – 30 min warm-up on an arc and then 1:05 up (31 min, LT and LT+ HR) and down (34 min easy). Some 1 kft elevation gain.

Sun – 1:00 on an arc trainer (terrible cold arrived with 35F only as an afternoon max, accompanied with rain and wind. Was afraid of running in shorts and a t-shirt and stayed indoors).

Happy and injury-free running to all!

Where exactly if I may ask? How is trail running there?
You know, that they have a lot of bears and wolves there?

And just to be sure, you meant the Caucasus, right?

Right, Caucasus. My typo, sorry.
43°54′12″ North latitude, 42°43′28″ East longitude.
Kislovodsk city, a famous mineral water and spa resort.
900-1200 m (3-4 kft) above the sea level.

There is a huge and very well-maintained park there that progressively converts into a wild forest. All kinds of paths and roads - asphalt, gravel, clay, pine needles.

Different kinds of recovery procedures: baths, therapeutic mud, massage, compression pants, etc.
No risk to meet wolves and/or bears. Wolves do not like mountains, and bears are somewhere deep in the forest and are met by tourists quite rarely.

Hey fellow veteran runners! I've been scarce for a few weeks, lots of family & care-giving stuff.

I've been on the fence about whether to do a summer half, or full marathon. Was leaning towards a half, when my old high school team mate Nick messaged that he'd entered a local marathon. Hmmm.... The Santa Rosa Marathon, over a flat course. OK, I'm in!

Nick was a Div III steeplechase champ back in the day, not too shabby. So I'll be chasing him, I reckon. Here's the plan, Nick will go out too fast -- I'll run a negative split and crush him over the final 385 yards! OK, I am dreaming...

Back in reality, I ran 43 miles last week over 6 days. Mostly starting at mid-9 minutes tempo and finishing just over 8 minutes per mile. The first week of a marathon build.

Good cheer and good running to all.

Quick question, I am 50 now and have run since my teens. Never ran competitively except fun runs and then triathlons. I was a swimmer who crosstrained with running and enjoy it more than swimming now as an adult. Mileage varies 15-40 miles a week depending if ramping for a half.

My question is only the last 3-4 years I am pretty much sore all the time and have problems with stairs. The mornings are really bad going down my flight of stairs. Once my run gets going I feel good.

Is this typical for a 50 year old runner? Arthritis? So just comes with being a 50+ runner or should I be more concerned? My doctor hasn't been concerned and my blood tests are fine. It isn't an injury feeling and it isn't a hard training soreness feeling. It is how I imagine arthritis feels just feet and knees really scream on the stairs and walking after sitting. Advil helps 100%, but I avoid especially since on blood thinners.

Rob, I've had some success with holding off arthritis symptons by reducing sugar and bread in my diet. You can also do a web search on good foods to mitigate arthritis.

If your feel feel bad, you will want to be sure you are not suffering from plantar faciitus. I got through that one with doing heel drop exercises on the stairs. Good luck!

That is a fantastic marathon time for your age! Good luck in your weight loss goals. The little I know about it suggests it's harder to lose weight as you age, but you are doing the right thing by staying active.

I am not sure what you mean exactly by "sore", is it knee pain? Muscle pain? Some specific area? Anyway, unless you are really running a lot (15-40 miles is not really a lot), it does not sound "typical".

Checking in after just lurking for a while…

Things seem to be pretty good these days. I’m feeling 100%
healthy and 100% fit. Workouts this spring have indicated some decent times
though I have struggled with my first two races going 18:48 & 18:51. Weird
how 6:00 pace in a race is feeling fast while all of my speedwork has been at
5:45 pace. I really thought I was ready to run close to 18:00 minutes! Most of
it probably has to do with my job being pretty physical lately with a lot of
heavy lifting. Which has left me exhausted! The hard part of this project is
done so hopefully I can get back to feeling normal again.

So I know the fitness is there based on 4-1/2 months of
50-60 mile weeks and nailing my weekly workout and long run. I just need to get
rested up a bit and prove it in my three races over the next 4 weeks! (HM, 5k,
5k)

So with that being said, I decided in January that this will
be my last year of competitive racing. Actually, the June 8th 5k
will be it. I made it Facebook official last month so now it’s LetsRun
official! I’ll be 64 next week and this is my 50th year of racing. It’s
time. I really don’t feel like working this hard anymore, day in and day out,
just to run fast on Saturdays. There has to be an end game so I decided to just
end it while I’m seemingly at my best rather than be taken down by the
inevitable upcoming old age, injury, sickness or something that I can’t
control! It might not make sense to a lot of you but the purpose has lost a lot
of its appeal.

I’ll probably always run (always have, always will) but now
my hour+ running everyday will be replaced by long walks, rides or easy runs. Or
geez, I might even take a day off! I’m really looking forward to being a
normal, active, fit person rather than being a slave to the perpetual obsessiveness of getting runs in and running workouts, everyday, no matter what. Which has been me for way too long.

Have a good run.

Dave

Going out on top!

Congrats!

Dave,

Since you made your decision in Jan and have not changed it, it appears to be well-thought.
However, maybe not to reject the “never say never” paradigm and do not stay rock solid on what is your current feeling? You say that you feel 100% healthy and fit, and that is the main thing. Keep exercising for fun and health, keep the right weight and if you decide to come back and compete periodically, it will definitely not require a year or so of hard work. Maybe 3-4 months. As an example, there is a 67 y.o. guy in my age group who peaks only once a year (to compete at the 10K road nationals) and the rest of the time competes rather rarely. 5-10 k parkrun equivalents with (mediocre) slightly below 20 and slightly above 40, respectively. But 3-4 months before the main race he returns to hard training (and enjoys it) and shows low 38s at 10K. Something similar on my side: I give up running in early November and do elliptical and arc indoors and XC skiing outdoors until late March. By that time, I am getting hungry for running and stay motivated for 3-4 months until I start thinking "what for am I doing this?".

Best of luck to you!

Welcome! would love to hear more about your training. I ran one 800 (880 yds. back then) at about age 16 in an all-comers meet, and none since. Very exciting event to watch, and I'm guessing painful to race. I'll cite you to my wife as a fellow 62-y.o. who counts this as "middle aged" -- she seems to think i'm straight-up "old" instead.

Fun week for me in fairly cool weather for DC this time of year, highlights being 1:20 with 6 X 60 sec (3:00 jog) hill repeats monday; 1:10 with drills/strides Weds.; and 2:00 with parkrun done as a progression run in 23:12 Saturday.

Happy Mother's Day and have a great week,

Dave

After good 2022 - managed to win the 65+ 3000m at the Hayward Classic and World Senior Games - I started to have injury problems.

Even through 2022, I had problems running more than 8 miles, when pains in outside of bottom of right leg and glute would hurt. I also fell over sprinting flat out on the track warming up in the May of that year when the right leg sort of collapsed.

Was fit at the start of 2023 but the problems from 2022 began to come on earlier and earlier in a run. Physiotherapy seemed to give short term relief, but it was shorter and shorter lived.

Finally at the physio, we found that the right leg was so non-functional before treatment, that I couldn't do a single step-up on that side. Some sacro-cranial work that day restored the ability to do that by the end of the session (it seems a little weird, but my guy does a lot of work with the head and neck, and I've had marked improvement in a session just from that).

Looking back at a few things, there were some signs: when I did lateral hopping on the right leg, my body was leaning to the right; in film of the Hayward Classic, I could see that rather than the right leg being fairly central under my body in the stance phase, I was lurching to the right and landing with the right foot in a plumb line straight under the right hip, with the body leaning to the right.

Funnily enough, I tried the adduction/abduction machine at the local gym, and with my right leg I couldn't move into abduction on the minimum setting, whereas I could do 30lbs comfortably with the left leg. Seated single leg press was also weaker with the right leg.

I've now been on a program of alternating gym (30 min on Elliptical or Zero Runner, then weights) with short runs (2 miles generally, and then trying for 3 miles on the track on Sunday).

Still a long way to go with right leg strength, but at least I can do some minimal running without it being too painful.

Today after a half-mile jog manage 3 miles in 25:11, which is the best for about six months. Now all we need to do is to get about 2 minutes per mile faster - going to a long road, but at least I'm running again (sort of) which I was starting to fear I might not be able to do again...