50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

“some very light hamstring curls on a bench”

I would think targeting the concentric contraction is the wrong component. Instead I would target the eccentric phase. Search “eccentric hamstring exercises” for ideas.

Also, too much stretching can irritate the injury at extension, imho.

I did pretty close to the same thing, plus step-ups onto about a 20 inch high box. I still do one ans two leg glute bridges every day as part of my pre-run warm up.

Hi,

Doing my stuff and trying to balance workouts and recovery. The week was:

Mo 11 km very easy with 4x100m strides and slow jog back

Tu 13.5 km with 5x800m with 400m slow jog

We same as Monday

Th 13.5 km with 4x1500m sub LT with 100m slow jog

Fr same as Monday

Sa 60 min very very slow jog (felt not for moderate LR)

Su 18 km moderate

Now, alternating Tuesday between 8x400m/400m jog and 5x800m/400m jog. All other KISS.

Have fun, stay healthy. BR

Thx Scobie - I am in fact doing the eccentric ham curl. Been avoided the hamstring stretching, learned that lesson the last time I had this. Did look up some other eccentric exercises which I'll try (have a standing one leg curl machine at the local gym), and I'm trying collagen supplements for the first time - may be voodoo science. Appreciate the feedback.

2 cortisone shots in knees last week.

The young ortho doc told me that I’m bone on bone.

Counting my walking miles I’ve gone over 1600 miles this year but I’m afraid that’s about a career for me.

Only hobby I ever had. Over 100,000 miles.

Now, it’s time to adjust to a new life. Right now I’m trying to burn 750 calories a day in walking or gym work. That’s the new plan.

who knows? A miracle may happen and I’ll make it back. Ortho doc says maybe gel next then replacement.

It’s been a great half century of training and racing. The shame of it is, I just started Strava.

Its fun. All the other years before this new fun running techno stuff, measuring courses with a pick up truck…. That was most of my career ha

Wish you all the best!

I had a fairly high mileage but otherwise nondescript training week, 47 miles with a "long" run of 10.2 miles this morning. It all felt pretty good, and I have to say (knock on wood) that the rheumatoid arthritis symptoms are largely in remission now, although I still get pain and stiffness in my hips from time to time that necessitates a naproxen and a day or two off from running. Unfortunately the rapid improvement that I was experiencing 6 to 12 months ago seems to have largely plateaued now, at a level way below where I was five years ago. But given that two years ago the idea of running ten miles, or even two miles, seemed impossible, I can't be too unhappy with where I am now.

The next goal is to run a half-marathon. Right now the thought of 13.1 miles still feels rather daunting, but this is something to work on over winter break on those days when the weather is favorable.

Happy and healthy running to all.

70yo

38 miles walking. 3 weight lifting sessions and two pull up sessions

Cortisone shots worked for the 8th time. Hardly feel any pain.
Dont want knee replacement.

im not a fan of doctors. I think it’s the result of taking my wife to MD Anderson in Houston every 6 weeks for 4 years and a lot of what I saw. She had what’s called Glioblastoma.

I got 100,000 miles in, I’ve got nothing to complain about. If by some miracle I can come back well, we will see.

I’ll shoot for the first page of my new running log. January 1.

Ive been keeping a running log religiously since 1977. There is only one year since 1979 I haven’t done well over 1000 miles. That was in 2013 when my wife was at her worst. 1000th mile on last day of year that year!

This year so far I’ve run 1191.2 and walked 450 miles but this may be it!

you've come a long way! I hope the symptoms continue to be manageable.

fun week for me incl. 6 X 2:00 (1:00) hard on thursday and parkrun progression run (24:34) Saturday. My analogue of a Sunday long run was making it through >2-hour Winter graduation ceremony without nodding off. Exciting event/day for each individual student, and I couldn't be happier for them, but it does drag on for quite a while.

have a great week,

Dave

I'm back home now from Club XC. It was challenging weather with 20mph wind gusting to 30-40mph and a soggy muddy course in a lot of areas. That said, I could hardly be happier with my effort and result. I ended up 2nd 75-79, with my team mate 3rd, and our 70+ team 3rd just a few seconds behind 2nd. My splits were 7:32, 7:46, 7:46, 7:46, 7:40 and I was at my absolute limit the last 400-500 meters trying to hold on to the pace with barely any kick.

Now it's definitely time for a mental and physical break from racing for me. I feel like I have gotten close to or hit my ceiling on what I can run with my current training. My training theme for the first half of next year is going to be a little less mileage and a lot more cross training to see if I can find a little more speed with the change. But first I am going to do some serious holiday dessert eating and hope I don't have too many additional pounds to shed after New Year's Day.

Happy holidays and good running to all!

I recently ran my 4th marathon of the year, all Boston qualifiers in new states for me. By running a little less than my fastest it makes it easier to recover for the next one. I also have a little left at the end, so 3 of the 4 I ran mile 26 as my fastest mile. At that point I know I will make it OK, and it's fun to pass people at the end. I told a couple of runners we use our slow twitch muscle fibers in a marathon, so time to switch to the fast twitch at the end. I remember when I started running reading that if you throw in some very fast pace for a little while in a long run your muscles can recover some. No idea where I saw that and don't know if there is any truth to it.

Great running OG11. Glad your body is allowing you to do plenty of running Amk.

My weeks aren't exciting these days. My training approach acronym is POLR, path of least resistance.

Mon. 64 min kayak session on the river, 3 x 400 m quite hard with 400 m easy recovery. Just nudging the body out of the comfort zone.

Tue. A 6 km rough trail hike in hot conditions I felt pretty good so shuffled along the last uphill 3 kms at about 7 min km pace.

Main session 26 km mountain bike ride 87 mins. Hot and windy. Threw in a 5 km "time trial" in 10.59. I had been 12 plus on that same section for a month so happy with that. Not all out effort more like threshold effort. Again just to nudge out of the cruisy comfortable pace for a bit.

Wed. Very hot, very windy 12 km xc fartlek hike and run session. 86 mins. Pretty much just alternating kms for 8 kms 4 faster kms in 5.30 down to 5.10. I reckon I would be struggling to break 25 for 5 atm so those are solid kms but not brutal.

Thu. 4 km hike shuffling along the last 2 km at 7 min km pace.

Main session. 25 km mountain bike ride 89 mins. Hot and windy yet again. No legs on this ride so did more tech stuff in the bush than normal.

Fri. 83 min kayak session, first time back at Serpentine Bridge to Weir for about 2 months, my favourite paddle course. I worked a solid km on the upstream return then a couple of fast 200s.

Did a 4 km hike from home later on.

Sat. 6 km hike In the morning.

Evening session a hot windy 25 kms on the mountain bike 84 mins. I did 2 fast 2 km efforts in 4.50 on resistive surfaces.

Sun. 12 km hike run fartlek in 89 mins. About 8 kms of mixed bag running inc 2 near flat out 400 m hills and a fast 1.2 kms at 5 min km pace and a strong/steady km in 5.20. Pretty hot but not much wind.

A good week with some strength training thrown in. Yeah very low running kms but all those niggles from 55 years of running are keeping reasonably quiet.

Exciting week locally for running. The local youngster who was showing plenty of promise 20 years ago had a good day in Valencia running 2 h 6 m 22 s. Yep those shoes help but it's a fair effort for someone who couldn't break 4 min for 1500 m at high school.

Hi all,

happy to read some nice running. My week was

Mo 11 km very easy with 4x100m

Tu 13.5 km with 8x400m with 400m jog

We same as Mo

Th 13 km easy with 4x100m

Fr 14.4 km with 8x1000m with 1:20min jog

Sa same as Mo

Su 15 km moderate

Will ease up a bit during the next weeks in order to reduce tiredness and get more pop for my social life.

All the best and a happy X-mas season!

Happy holidays to all! This week I have been in post-Club XC season end/holiday mode. 30 very easy miles for the week with a couple of off days when I didn't feel like running. Since the race last Saturday my resting HR was consistently 3 bpm above its usual average until Thursday when it dropped back to normal. This morning I did my first semi-serious but still easy run of an 8mi loop over an 800ft hill near my house. I have entered a half marathon on Jan 19, and I plan to just do easy mileage to rebuild my base between now and then.

Good running to all!

46.5 miles walking with one walk to go for the week

May try to start slowly getting back into running

Im bone on bone on both knees.

Had 8th cortisone shot in both knees a couple of weeks ago( 3 miniscus surgeries since 1977)

The shots worked pretty well.

Did hurt my lower back doing 3 sets of pull ups. It’s too bad, I really liked pull ups.

Ortho doc says I need replacements

OGII, that's pretty good when 30 miles is a recovery week! Best wishes on the upcoming half-marathon.

Following seven consecutive weeks of 40-50 miles of running and 6 km of swimming, I was rather suddenly forced to take a down week by coming down with the flu, several hours after my "long run" last Sunday. I felt terrible all week and logged a big ZERO running miles for the week ending today, although I did get to the gym for some resistance work yesterday and today. In a previous life I would have started running as soon as the fever broke, even if I was still coughing a lot. Sometimes that worked fine, but sometimes it led to a bronchitis that persisted for many weeks. So this time I decided to play it safe and do nothing until the cough is pretty much gone. I'm currently planning to jog a mile or two tomorrow morning, and if that feels OK, start building back from there.

So I missed the possible last race of the year, a 5K yesterday, although I hadn't entered it and had pretty much decided to skip it anyway since it looked like it would be a zoo with too many runners on a too narrow pedestrian path. I'm now pointing toward a 10K on Jan. 19, and assuming I can whip my sorry self into shape, a half-marathon on Feb. 15.

Happy holidays!

happy holidays! Good news here (besides epic Commanders win today) is that our younger daughter made it home for a visit......bad news being she tested positive for Covid almost right away. With luck she'll be out of quarantine and feeling ok in time to enjoy some of the trip

Good week of running for me in cold windy weather incl. 5 X 1:30 hills Monday, 2:00 steady Thursday, and 2 X 10:00 (2:00 jog) at half-marathon effort today, other days easy.

have a great week,

Dave

Greetings!

Kept doing cross-training. A mix of XC-skiing in the forest and elliptical at the gym, about 7-7.5 hrs per week since early November. No running at all. Letting my mitochondria breed and "getting fat". Will then start "training them" to "operate in a speedier environment" :-)

Happy and injury-free training and running to all!

Best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a happy, prosperous and peaceful New Year!

Not a great week for me between the tail end of the flu and a flareup of the rheumatoid arthritis in my hips. I only logged 30 miles for the week ending today, plus some swimming and cycling. I would have loved to take advantage of the winter break on campus and some unseasonably warm weather to get in some real mileage, but it didn't happen. Perhaps next week!