50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

congratulations on the AG win! sounds like you paced it just right. Hope the recovery goes smoothly.

I ran Boston marathon last monday in 3:14:17 (68th M 60-64, just made top 10K overall [9, 986]). I'd hoped for 3:15 at start of training for it, so I'll count that a wind-aided win.

Pretty evenly paced (1:36:29/1:37:48), with all 5k segments 22:44 to 23:14. Hip flexor strain that had been bothering me past few weeks was sore throughout but never got a lot worse, and in any event I had to keep going in order to see my great-nieces, niece, brother-in-law, and sister at mile 20.

My four prior Bostons were all 20+ mins. faster (2:49-2:53 range; 1983, 2003, 2012, 2014), so I conclude that aging is a more powerful influence than favorable weather.

since then all cross-training, and tomorrow I course-marshal for a 10k. Have a great week,

Dave

My team mate ran London today as a newly minted 75yr old. He just ran 3:41:17 for 2nd in the 75-79s. Exciting stuff! Now I'm going to have to get even more serious to stay competitive in this age group.

Wow, amkelley! Congrats. What a tremendous comeback you're enjoying. A few years ago it seemed you might never compete again.

I'm a bit jealous, as the best I can manage these days is three miles a couple times a week, at 13 minutes per mile. Looking to do better when I drop some weight.
You may recall that recent years have been challenging: Serious concussion, fractured spine and facial bones from passing out at the marathon finish line; cancer surgery; fractured femur from a car-bicycle collision 18 months ago.
This was after being largely sidelined by patellar bone spurs and tendonitis since age 60. Marathon training was then limited to just three days a week.
So, no serious running is in my future, but last year I replaced my wrecked mid-90s Stowe road bike with classic 2006 Cannondale and rejoined the Rochester bicycle club. I also found a 2012 Cannondale frame and used the Campagnolo components from my old Stowe to build a nice ride for my son. And fulfilled a lifetime dream of doing some serious bicycling with him!

Good to see some old internet pals still posting here!

While still working I ran 1 or 2 marathons most years and some shorter races. I had a Boston qualifying time in 3 states, but told some people I wanted to get a BQ in new states, but I don't expect to do all 50. The states I have not run in yet are getting farther away, the cost of travel is going up, I'm in my 70s now and I'm not getting any younger. And if I do 50 states or less what does it really matter. But I've had some health issues and I'm still running so I have been told I'm being a good example for others. Besides getting a BQ I've been under 4 hours for all but my first marathon I ran. My last one was a little harder and slower than I expected, but still under 4 hours for state 38.

Good running all of you.

37 miles 720.2 for the year 13,030 miles since 2018… I’m sure over 100k miles since 1977 but I can’t prove it, raced everywhere…..71 y/o

body totally destroyed …. Was going to swallow my pride and at least go to races again to get out amongst runners again but sure enough yet another medical thing popped up.

severe pain under my breastbone… burning, nauseating pain, couldn’t sleep…. Somehow avoided the ER and made it to my appointment and they have me taking test for gallbladder, hiatal hernia and ulcers on Wednesday and Friday

So, I’ll try again to “ show up” volunteer, do what I can in the race and say hello to all my old friends at Summer Series #2, two weeks from the first summer series race this Saturday!!!!!!

53 miles for me last week. After being limited to walking for most of April with my cataract surgeries, it's back to rolling out steady mileage until a July 4th 10k. After that there are local all-comers meets on 4/8 and 4/29 with a mile and 5k that I hope to be ready for.

Allen1959, good to see you coming back from some pretty serious health issues over the past several years. These days I mostly cycle only when I have to take time off from running because of an injury, and I haven't been injured for the past 8 months or so. Regarding rebuilding older bikes, are you having a lot of trouble finding parts for them? My husband, a serious cyclist, says it's practically impossible to get any new componentry for his 2005-2018 era bikes because everything is disc brakes and electronic shifting now. (Is this just an excuse to buy a new bike?)

I bounced back well from my half-marathon 16 days ago and logged 58 and 61 miles in the past two weeks. In a couple of days I'll taper down for a 10-miler this coming Sunday, and then a 5K Memorial Day race six days later. It's getting hot here (forecast high near 100 for today) and Sunday's 10-miler starts at 6:30 am, meaning about a 4 am wakeup alarm. I'm planning my first hike in the Sierras the day after that race, and I hope to do a lot of hiking and backpacking over the summer, and somewhat less running.

Happy and healthy running to all!

Just a quick note and glad to see the regular people posting. I turned 75 on Cinco de Mayo and so running a certified 5k this Sunday in Tucson. Running 5-12 interval miles/week and walking over 40 mpw, also doing weights 2-3 times weekly. Feeling pretty healthy but do have mild macro-cytic anemia so probably can’t deliver oxygen quite as well as younger self.

Did run a 12k in February at 10:15/mile and a 4 mile late April in 37:20 net mild downhill. I feel just as good that I can do 7 chin-ups with no assistance:). Still weighing what I did in high school or slightly below.

belated happy birthday! Sounds like you have an excellent balanced training program going.

Since boston marathon I've done 2 weeks of rest/regroup and now first 2 weeks of a 6-week crash course toward a mid-June hilly 5k. Tune up race this morning was a cross-country 5k in 22:55 (25th OA, 1st AG). Felt good and ran I think fairly evenly.

My watch (and the finish line clock) actually showed 23:50. The posted results have me correctly placed among other runners I know, so I'm not certain what's up with that. They did change the course from last year in a way that made it longer, so perhaps some sort of adjustment was applied. Or maybe they're just baiting me so I'll mention it, and then someone can say "It's cross-country! Time doesn't matter!". Which is true. have a great week,

Dave

Nice job on the tuneup race, dhaaga. I guess you should go with the common wisdom that time really doesn't matter in cross-country.

My "10-mile" race this morning was pretty messed up but ended up being a good experience. It started at 6:30 am (you'd better start a longish race early in Fresno in mid-May) and I had to drive 70 minutes to the start so I woke up at 4 am. Not great even for a good morning person. I felt fine driving to the race, but got there to discover the restrooms in Woodward Park were locked and no porta-potties in sight. The volunteers kept promising someone would show up to unlock the restrooms but no one did, and I REALLY needed one, and not just to pee (which I would've just done in some out-of-the-way place. Finally a truck drove up towing a trailer containing three porta-potties, which the driver unloaded promptly. Whew. It was now 6:12 and I could do a short warmup and run.

There were only 30 people total in the "10-miler". I spent most of the first half tracking a woman who looked like she could be in my age group. She looked like a trail runner (hat, vest full of pockets, efficient looking short stride) and she seemed to know what she was doing, running the tangents on the roads where no one else was. The course was one big counterclockwise loop around the park, an out-and-back to the north, and a finishing shorter clockwise loop around the park. At the turn-around she called me by name and I recognized her as someone I'd often raced against 10-20 years ago but hadn't seen in ages. Five years younger, and in my 10-year age group. So I went after her, caught her about two miles from the finish, tried to pass with authority, and kept pouring it on. I beat her by about 30 seconds and did win my age group (4th out of 19 women overall). That was fun.

My official time was 83:20. I cannot run anywhere close to that for 10 miles anymore. I don't race with a watch but several people with GPS watches told me they got 9 miles. After a while the race director announced that the turn-around had been in the wrong place and the distance was 9 miles. That was consistent with the time I ran. He also announced that because of the mistake, all finishers would get a coupon for 50% off a subsequent race. They had a pancake breakfast afterward, and my age-group award was a bonsai tree kit! That was a lot of swag for a race that had a special reduced price for children and seniors--only $38.

I'm planning the season's first hike in the Sierras tomorrow, a few days of easy running, and then my local Memorial Day 5K on Saturday.

Happy running to all!

AMK, congratulations on the age group win and good race. I did just a bit over 50 miles this week. I had decided is was time to check my fitness yesterday and ran what I would call a hard threshold effort 10miles at 7:58/mi. I was hoping I could run sub 8:00/mi pace before I started, but had my doubts about whether that was realistic. That is a very good sign for how my fitness is progressing.

I talked to my son yesterday, and he said that my 15yr old grandson had beaten him by a few seconds in a 5k XC race this weekend. I told my son that was the start of a trend that was not going to go in his favor. Earlier in the week my grandson won the Tasman secondary schools junior boys XC championships. In a few more weeks he'll run the NZ schools XC nationals. Also, my 17yr old granddaughter, who is not interested in competitive sports, got notified this week that she had gotten early admission to the University of Auckland School of Chemistry. It's nice to see another budding scientist in the family, and everyone doing so well.

OGII, 10 miles in under 80 min is a really good workout. You're still amazingly fast at 75+! And congrats on the budding scientist granddaughter. I officially retired last summer from my position as a chemistry professor and am now finishing up my last graduate students and my last research grant. I still don't believe that AI will replace all scientists, but I'm just as happy to be getting out when I am.

I ran my local Memorial Day 5K yesterday. 5K has never been a good distance for me, and with age my performances have declined even faster at short distances than at longer distances. I clocked 28:13, 44 seconds faster than in the same race last year, for first out of 12 in my age group and 21/209 among all women (including quite a few walkers). The race time prediction tables say that based on my 10-mile and half-marathon times I should be under 27 minutes for 5K, but I still haven't managed to break 28 since the wheels came off in early 2020. All of my races so far this year have been long--two half-marathons, a 10-mile, and a 9-mile--so I figured I'd better go out hard yesterday, and I think I overdid it. I was in aerobic distress within a kilometer and spent the rest of the race just hanging on. The legs felt fine, but I just didn't have the aerobic engine.

I woke up today feeling absolutely fine and ran an easy 11 miles, which felt great. I think the conclusion is that I'm just not well suited to the 5K, but it's good to try to run one once in a while, and I expect to take one more crack at sub-28 this summer.

Happy and healthy running to all!

32 Miles… near 800 miles for the year. 71 y/o

Flying back home to help take care of a 98 year old mom soon

Signed up for 3 races so far.

It will be my “ farewell tour” of the greatest experiences of my life since 1977.

I will chronicle it as my volume 2 of my running biography….

IM calling volume 2: “Bell Lap, A Farewell “

Im not sure my body can hold up but it’ll be fun trying. My first volume was only 168 pages….
One race is a 10k is in my ole college town…all my coaches and professors are dead… but I’ll try and make it interesting and I’m not sure my body can withstand the steep downhill

A pretty good month of training, over 200 miles of running with a good amount of speed, some biking and other training. I will be backing off some this week for some races soon. I feel fairly good about where I'm at right now. Instead of just trying to get to the end of a long run, I have been able to do some miles at marathon pace or faster late in the long runs. That's always a good sign.

Have a good week.