50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Quarter mile repeats at goal pace. Start with 4-8, depending your fitness. 60 seconds recovery (jog or do nothing). Twice a week. Add 2 to each session. Don't do more than 16, and if you can't handle the increment, stop there. If you have any health problems, consult a physician first.

That is an amazing time for your age, and you should be proud. Consider, as an alternative, just running to enjoy it and spending the time you would have spent on training with the grandkids.

So this thread is by far the best thing on this site, just wanted to say I appreciate all the encouragement you all provide one another, hope you give to younger runners, and passion you all personify.

While I’m 40 and making some progress in certain distances, I’ve always kind of dealt with joint/tendon/nerve pains here and there. Never ran competitively but have been running for about 20 years.

I keep reading these threads about how older runners wish they didn’t run because of all the aches and pains they now experience. It’s really depressing, and make me question myself and all the running I do. Deep inside I know I will always try to run, even if it’s going to make my life harder in the end. Love it too much.

Anyways, I hope ya’ll keep the spirit alive and keep posting bc it does help and inspire others.

If this helps, I recently joined a bowling league for seniors (50+), even though I didn't qualify for the demographic. It was a depressing sight. I saw bowler after bowler who you could tell used to have real talent often struggling to get down the lane and have a halfway-decent approach, much less release. (As a counterpoint, I also saw someone bowl a 300 game!)

Our bodies deteriorate as we age, whether we exercise or not. Exercise has so many benefits that they far outweigh the very real aches and pains that it produces. I am an average bowler, below average really. But I exercise, and that means my skills haven't fallen off a cliff.

You don't have to run. Staying active in any way is always a good idea.

I was not the same runner since undergoing chemotherapy and radiation therapy. It did correspond with entering my late 60s. My 78 and 81 year old training partners are older and faster, but thankfully these motivated friends push me. I have gotten great advice along the way including “lowering your expectations.” I think that is helpful in tolerating frustration that comes with the infirmities of age, although a tougher pill to swallow by a competitive personality. It is about personal growth, even if it comes in different ways.

Amen. I slowed down gradually from my early 30s until age 61, when the wheels totally fell off--some autoimmune disease (I've had four different diagnoses) and then runner's dystonia. I couldn't run at all for three years. I was able to resume running at age 65 and at 67 I have worked my way back to being able to run half-marathons, but my times are way slower (even age-graded) than before. But I still enjoy running and racing, even though I'm now losing to people I used to beat easily. I realize it could all go away in a flash, and I should enjoy it while I can.

I had a very satisfying week of training with a long run of 14.9 miles, the longest run I've done since the wheels came off 5.5 years ago, and a weekly total of 56 miles, also the most in the past 5.5 years. I was a little whacked after Saturday's long run but seem to be bouncing back OK today. My last half-marathon of the year is on deck for 14 days from today. Onward!

That's awesome! You deserve it after all you've been through.

71 been destroyed for a year or two after going over 100,000 miles since 1977.

Getting lower lumbar ablation on the 6th after a long try with physical therapy.

Gonna start going to races again anyway.

Only hobby I ever enjoyed and nothing else compares so I’ll limp through a Turkey Trot 10k again but lots of runners will be there.

its time to swallow my pride.

I haven't posted for a week or two due to non-running stuff. Grandkid activities, getting organized for finally putting solar on our house this coming week, and a few other things have kept me off LR for awhile. My running has been very mediocre for the last couple of months, and I think it is due to my lack of a good base early this year and a few subsequent breaks in training. I'm signed up for the Masters 5k XC championship in SF in two weeks and our local series XC championship the following weekend. After that I plan to take a little down time and then start back to base building and not race again until March or April of next year. I am hoping that I'm right in my analysis, and my slower race pace is not all a bigger than expected slow down with being another year older. Either way I am mentally ready for a break from racing and a stretch of more recreational running.

Good running to all!

Greetings!

My racing season is complete for this year. Just ran a mountain trail – 12.8 km with about 500 m total elevation gain. It was a good day for me – the course suited me ideally, was lucky to select the right shoes, the weather was fine. Since I live in a flat area, was specially training for it by “emulating” (1-2 times a week for 6 weeks) its vertical profile on a treadmill. E.g., “600 m @12%, 400 m flat, 700 m @9%, 350 m flat” and so on. Of course, could not run downhills and climbs above 15%, but in general it worked. There were two steep climbs (about 20%) 500-600 m long in the middle and I took over 2 boys and 2 girls that were previously ahead of me and were drifting away on a flat section. Though I was not able to run and switched to a “brisk walk”, they looked pretty cooked, moved much slower and did not catch me later.

Finally, was 11th OA of some 150+ and won the age group 45+ (I am 67). Surprisingly was also faster than the winner in the 35-44 AG.

Will now focus on healing my hip joint. Suffer from inflammation for some 3 months, am lame in the left leg. Pills do not help, will probably need to get some shots.

Happy and injury-free running to all!

I watched an interview with Grant Fisher’s coach and he is big on 300s instead of 400s for young runners. I think his logic applies to masters and grandmaster runners as well. I would set an aggressive goal then Run workouts of 200s at that pace, then move up to 300s. repeat the 300s workout until the 300s feel okay.

If your grandkids have good kicks, break them with a big move with 500 to go.

Congrats, Orient, on a nice result on that tough trail run. I wish you success in getting your hip healed.

I had another good week with 53 miles of running including 10 miles at about 15 sec/mile off half-marathon race pace. That was a tough workout but it went very well and gave me some confidence going into next Sunday's half-marathon. For unclear reasons, my chronic Achilles tendinosis has calmed down the past several weeks and has allowed me to resume running every day (or almost), while from late April through September I had to take almost every other day off. I hope the increased mileage recently will correlate to a better race performance.

Happy and healthy running to all.

A little late posting here, but another marathon done. It is always a challenge to get everything right in a marathon. In this one I didn't hydrate well before the start, and those little cups don't help much even if you take 2. Later in the race it was getting warm, and my heart rate got higher than I want to see, partly because I was getting dehydrated. So I slowed down and even walked a little, which I don't do very often. I still ran a decent time, not worth having a medical issue to save a few minutes. 36th state with a BQ. Have a good week everybody.

I ran the USATF Masters 5k SC championship yesterday. I was very happy with my effort and with the result, but it was something of a good news, bad news race. I got 3rd in the 75-79s, but was in 2nd and running well until 3k when my right hamstring started hurting. I had to back off quite a bit for the last 2k and Jerry Learned, who is a consistently excellent racer, came by me and got about 27 seconds ahead in that last 2k. Parts are always randomly breaking at our age though. My upper hamstring is pretty sore today, although I think it's a fairly mild strain. My guess is that I have about a 50/50 chance it will be healed enough for me to race our local XC series championship next Sunday ( I can finish 3rd 70+ in our series if I can run it at my normal warm up pace). After that I am taking a week or two of not running if I don't feel like it, and then start back into a good base building plan with the goal of getting back to racing some track and road races next Spring.

Good running and stay healthy to all!

Old guy II, congratulations on your excellent performance and podium place at the USATF Masters! Looking at all the results, I am really impressed with 22:22 from an 80 y.o. gentleman.

Also, congrats to CM on his 2nd place in his AG and great 88+ AG%!

Indeed! You guys give this 67yo woman great motivation.

I ran my sixth half-marathon of the year yesterday. The Clarksburg half-marathon was also the Pacific Association USATF half-marathon championship, so although not a big race (a little over 400 runners) the fields were pretty strong. I felt I'd trained very well coming into the race and was a little disappointed with my 2:06:18, faster than my HMs in August and October but slower than the two I ran 13 days apart in March and April. It was good for third in F65, but I was humbled to finish 16 minutes behind the winner of F70.

In my last HM five weeks ago I ran pretty comfortably for the first half and then picked lots of people off in the second half. I concluded that I'd gone too easy at first. I didn't make that mistake this time--I felt I was struggling by the 4-mile mark, and yet in the second half no one passed me and I went by a number of people. I felt good about holding it together for such a long time when I felt bad, but in the end it only got me about 1 minute faster. Phooey. Perhaps the conclusion is that this is just the best I can do now.

I'll take an easy week and then start prepping for my last two races of the year, both 5Ks. Perhaps I'll try to stretch out my long runs a little over the winter before tackling some more half-marathons next spring.

Happy and healthy running to all.

good race! Sounds like a well-executed experiment with changing up the pacing strategy.

I've been training moderately past couple of weeks after doing only cross-training for a week following early-October marathon. Ups and downs with my lower back, so I think I'll carry on in a conservative fashion the rest of 2025, jumping in a race or running a parkrun hard only if I feel up to it. I've signed up for Boston marathon 2026, so I'd like to be enthusiastic about training and healthy physically after new year's.

have a great week,

Dave

Had lower lumbar RFA on Thursday

I told them to use pro….. whatever it’s called for anesthesia but they used a fentanyl/versed cocktail and like I predicted, I was sick as a horse ha

Ive run over 100,000 miles over 49 years and am just dragging my body around. Walked 3 miles this morning which put me over 1600 miles of limping miles for the year. ( I’ve only counted walking in mileage for last two years. It makes keeping a log still worth it.) still mostly running (13:00 pace ha)

71 years old

My half-marathon two weeks ago felt hard but I bounced back quickly, and logged 53 and 57 miles for the next two weeks, the latter being my highest-mileage week in nearly six years. It included a run of 16.1 miles, the longest single run I've done in nearly six years. I was definitely getting weary by the end but everything worked fine.

I wish there were more road races at distances between the half-marathon or marathon, such as 30K. The HM I ran two weeks ago also had a 30K but I didn't have the guts to tackle that much distance yet. 30K seems to be a fairly common distance for trail races--perhaps 30K on a trail is sort of equivalent to a marathon on the road--but there are very few 30K road races. A marathon now seems like too much and I'm not sure that's going to change, but I'd like to have a 30K or 20 mile race on the horizon to train for.

Happy and healthy running to all!