50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Greetings!

Dave, congratulation on your good mile run!

As usual in summer, I am focusing on trail running. A 10.5K trail today was hard. It was hot (85-86F) and humid. Ups and downs only on a very muddy surface. Two times we had to run some 400-500 m totally in the water up a creek. No surprise that the winner's time was 43+ min (the guy who runs 31/10K on road).

I was out of shape this time. Three weeks ago, got injured (left hip and right knee) while moving some heavy stuff renovating the house, lame in the left leg. Nevertheless, the body was asking for adrenaline, endorphins and "other chemistry". So, "asked my liver" to forgive me, was taking ibuprofen for two days and finally decided to run. "Race magic" worked and though I ran conservatively managed to finish 16th out of 254 and 1st in the age group 45+. My time was 55:40, but I lost about 1 min while following a group of young guys who took a wrong path, we missed a turn and had to return back for quite some distance (filling the forest with bad words). But it was a great fun!

Happy running to all!

Congrats to dhaaga on a sub-6 mile and to Orient on a nice run in a tough trail race! I have run a competitive mile exactly once in my life, on the roads at age 55. I ran 6:45 and thought it was going to kill me. I really think that either 800 m or 1500/mile must be the hardest distance to race. Give me a marathon any day. And gosh, I wish I could run trails because it looks like so much fun, but I concluded 35 years ago that I'm just too clumsy. I do hiking and backpacking on rugged mountain trails during the summertime but I run only on trails that have good footing--no rocks, mud, or water.

I got in only 26 miles in three days of running this week including 11.3 miles this morning, starting at 4:59 am to avoid the heat. I also did a 12-mile hike up in the Sierras, where I managed to hook my toe on a tree root and do a face plant in the trail (see above comments), scraping my leg against some sharp vegetation and ripping a large section of skin off my shin. It's a huge mess, but very superficial and doesn't bother me at all when hiking, running, or cycling. Swimming, however, is a problem; it's a bad idea to go into a public pool with a large open wound, and I've spent considerable money on various supposedly waterproof wound coverings, none of which work. I'll keep experimenting, as I really want to keep swimming a few times per week.

Happy running to all, and try to avoid face plants!

I have tried a couple of different threads but realized this one would probably get me an answer: Does anyone have details on the 10k at USATF in Huntsville? I know it will be on the road but see no info about it on the site.

Also, the 5k and 10k for this meet seems … well, frankly, ugly. 80 degrees, 85 percent humidity and 73 degree dew point? Meet organizers have to be thinking twice about those events.

I logged 36 miles in four days of running this week including 12.1 miles this morning, which felt very good. It was a lovely morning to run, and how often can I say that on July 20? But we're going through an unseasonably cool stretch, and at the coolest part of the morning it was about 60 degrees and very dry. I ran some roads and paths that I haven't been on in over five years and are just as nice as I remembered them. I also logged 72 miles on the bike and 7500 y of swimming, so a good week overall.

Next week will be low mileage with an overnight backpacking trip scheduled for Monday-Tuesday. When I get back I'll see how I feel and check the weather forecast, and decide whether I want to run a 10K, almost entirely in the sun, on Saturday.

Happy and healthy running to all!

Another positive week. Took a good chunk of time off the 2 miles of 200m run/100m walk session and had a good (for where I'm at) session of 16x100m with 100m walk, eventually getting down to about 5:45 pace.

Definitely the key is going to be getting back quad strength.

If you are talking about USATF Track, I doubt the 10k is on the road.

I stand corrected, on the road? Why?

Anyway, ran the 10k track in Charlotte in 2006. Hot humid, probably the hardest race in my life.

Enjoyable week of training for me highlighted by:

2:30 monday

1:20 with 5 X 4:30 (3:00 jog) at 5k effort

1:20 with 5 X 3:00 (4:00 jog down) moderately hard hills today

best endurance accomplishment, though, was lasting for all 7 hours on a hot, humid Saturday watching rugby with our daughter, who played in college and knows the sport 20x better than I do, so she could explain a lot of what was happening. Saw doubleheader (plus two long weather delays) of our national teams -- women beat Fiji in a close exciting game, and men were routed by England. Judging from the number of fans with rose logos on their shirts, and the volume of those singing along with "God Save the King," I'd say it was 50-50 USA/England crowd, so not much of a home field advantage.

have a great week,

Dave

I think the rationale for the 10K on the roads was to send off everyone at the same time so the younger age groups would not have to run in the heat of the day. As it was thunderstorms held up the start for 2 hours and they started at 9 AM. Sounds brutal.

Former regular here, now posting less frequently. Recent weeks of 67 and 68 miles, racing next weekend. Moved from former habitat, need to think of a new name.

Another positive week of training for me although not quite what I planned. My current plan is easy recovery Mon., Tues., Vo2 Max intervals Wed., easy recovery Thu., Fri., 6mi./~60min threshold on trails Sat., and long 10-12mi at whatever pace feels right on Sun. My week started well with easy M, T, and an excellent 12x400 (1:41 ave) w/ 1:30 rest on Wed. Thur. my HR was up, and Fri. my HR was still way up (132 ave) for 3.5 mi just walking. Sat. HR finally came down to 80 ave for 4 mi walking. This morning I did my normal Saturday 10k loop on trails and ran 8:34/mi which was another 0:16/mi improvement from 2 weeks ago, and my fastest time on the loop since Sep 2023.

Good running to all!

Went to 50th race of my local 5k…over 100,000 miles since 1977.. 70 years old….many surgeries and cancer and I’m getting lower lumbar ablation on August 7th..37 years ago I got my pr on this course in 17:06

Brutal humidity and heat, my legs just didn’t work, hips, knees just howled. Took me 34:07 to get around the course.

Old friends that were minutes behind me here in those races long ago are minutes ahead now.

My buddy with two knee replacements ran 24 minutes…. Maybe I need a blood test ha

Prairie Dog……

My running had been down from an injury, but getting back to more running and less other training. 39.6 miles for the week. I did some intervals as planned, but did more other speed than planned. Some was with a younger running buddy who I found out running, and I didn't want to slow him down. Some was on a group run where the pace was around what I plan to run in a half marathon I have coming up. I felt pretty good at that pace, so that was all good. I have a November marathon to do, and if the training goes well I might do a second marathon yet this year.

I remember Charlotte. Did the 3000m s/c. It was just flat out miserable.

Monday. 5.2 kms on trails in 31.43 steady climb 1st half.

Tuesday. 25 kms mountain bike ride 78 mins. after 4 hour drive.

Wednesday.5.2 kms hilly trails in 32.42.

Thursday. 79 min kayak session cold wet and windy.

Friday. 5.2 km trail run, a bit muddy, 30.58.

Saturday. 26 km mountain bike ride fairly hilly, howling cold gale 90 mins.

Sunday. 5.2 kms on trails 31.29.

Ticked all the boxes for the week, babysitting duties meant juggling the days.

I had most of April/May off with a bit of a tendon strain and 3 weeks in New Zealand holidaying. Chose to take those 3 weeks to just do lots of hiking.

Easing back pretty cautiously. I need to be patient now more than ever. I am hoping to get back to a decent level of running fitness again. Not necessarily race fitness but just back to doing some comfortable 90 min runs regularly.

This week featured a two-day backpacking trip which, combined with my Achilles problems, allowed me only two running days for 15 miles total, including a 10K race yesterday. This used to be one of the standard races in my local area and used to draw a good crowd, but it almost died after Covid and, under new management, has never really come back. There were only 21 runners total in the 10K (and 30 in the accompanying 5K), no age-group awards, no T-shirt unless you entered over a month in advance, and only one filthy porta-potty for the whole race. However, it's a nice fast course on country roads with smooth, flat pavement and few turns, it had more shade than I remembered (the roadside orchards have grown taller!), and the weather was unseasonably cool, only low- to mid-60s during the race. I spent the whole race chasing after the second- and third-place women who ran together for the whole race. They put about a minute on me in the first mile, but by mile 2 they appeared to be no longer gaining on me, and when we hit the halfway turn-around I got the silly idea that I could possibly chase them down. I closed hard in the second half and almost caught them with 100 m to go, but they heard me coming and turned on the jets, outsprinting me to the finish. (The 16-year-old overall female winner beat us all by 13 minutes. Oh well.)

I was quite happy with my race. My time of 58:16 was almost a minute better than my last 10K six weeks ago. More importantly, this was maybe the first race I've run since I started my comeback 20 months ago in which I wasn't just hanging on over the second half, but was aggressively chasing runners ahead of me. I'm hoping for a repeat in the half-marathon that I'll probably run in six days, although I haven't yet entered.

Happy and healthy running to all!

70yrold over 100,000 in 49 years

1066.7 miles for the yr/11537.7 since 2018. ( only logs I can find now ha)

Im going to cancel my lower lumbar RFA tomorrow.

I honestly think it’s a scam. I thought I was getting shots the first two times but it was just some sort of blocking thing.

I guess I could feel improvement, I don’t know. And those blocking things cost me thousands !!!

Then, I came to my senses. I’m an old guy getting scammed by these pain doctors

I know they gotta make a living but I’ll find another way. Hopefully

After very little running because of a sore hip in May, and only slowly adding miles in June, I'm happy with where I'm at now. I was able to do a lot of other training, so I didn't lose much fitness. I have a half marathon coming up soon, and a marathon in late October, but I'm thinking I could be ready for another marathon late September. I will see how the next couple of weeks go. For the week 42.5 miles with a fair amount of speed, and some other training.

My half-marathon today was a little disappointing--2:06 mid. It's 2 mins faster than I ran this same course in February, but 2-3 mins slower than my HMs in March and April. I guess I chalk it up to being able to train only about every other day since April due to Achilles issues. This may also just be a somewhat slow course, as much of it is on sandy dirt which isn't deep at all but still feels a little "lossy" compared with pavement. I ran a pretty even race but had to back off just a bit in the last 2-3 miles as my calves were threatening to cramp. That happened on this course in February, too, and may be a function of the running surface. I won the F65 with only one other finisher and placed 36/133 women overall. The results also gave age graded numbers, and I placed 6/318 based on age grade. The course was entirely on a flat pedestrian path beside San Francisco bay, and at the start of August it was cloudy, breezy, and about 60 degrees for both temperature and dew point. Can't complain.

This week I logged 37 miles in four days of running. I'm taking off for a 3-day backpacking trip tomorrow, so next week won't have a lot of running. I hope the mosquitoes aren't bad (they should be mostly gone by now) and that I don't do any face-plants in the trail this time.

Happy and healthy running to all!