50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

lucKY: Nice week with some good pace in there. Why not jump in some 5K’s and use them as speed work? Lots more fun than grinding by your self. Fun to catch up with friends too.

KP: I know 5:07 is not what you wanted but it’s a good rust-buster. Plus weren't most of those folks ahead of you just kids in their 40’s?

Spikez: Hopefully just allergies. Happy moving!

My week:

Mon = 3, easy trail and road

Tue = 5, hard, Track 1600's of 6:30, 6:35, then 2x 800 in ~ 3:15

Wed = 3, easy trail/road

Thr = 3, easy trail and road

Fri = 2, easy, road

Sat = 5, hard, on windy Greenway as tracks all busy: 6:34, 6:45, 6:52

Sun = 2, easy, rocky trail

Total = 23

My allergies continued to bug me this week. On Tue I got super-duper cotton-mouth on that first 1600 and almost tossed my cookies. I got 2 and a half 1600's done when a bunch of kids took over the track. It was some kind of kid group so I finished up on the road. I never seemed to recover from Tue as my quads, right knee, right foot, and right Achilles were sore all week. Basically the whole week felt like I was running uphill in sand. Sure hope I recover for next week's 5K race on Sat.

A very good steady week for me as I moved the mileage up to 51 for the week.

Mon. 8mi. hill loop

Tue. 8mi. hill loop

Wed. 4 easy

Thu.8mi. hill loop

Fri.8mi. hill loop

Sat. 11mi. w/ a local group coached by Kevin McCarey, which had a 3x2:00 hard, w/2:00 recovery, 10:00 hard, 2:00 recovery, 3x2:00 hard, 2:00 recovery.

Sun. 4 easy

Everything feels good after the increase in mileage, so I plan to stay at this level for a couple of weeks.

Alan Bennet, I appreciate the checking on my progress towards my planned goals for the year. It reminds me where I am in the process.

Eryn Forbes...

Okay, I don't feel so bad now that I know it was her that passed me. After we finished, she told me she was using me to shield the wind so I'm glad I could be of assistance.

I went to the track yesterday because of the upcoming 3k, which I promised I'd run if not injured. Not injured, but way out of shape -wondering if I should alert the waiting list! Tried 400s and they were ugly and slow. eek. I am trying to remind myself that I have to work to get my speed to appear, that it is not naturally present and I wasn't as slow as I might have been. Still, I was glad I wasn't racing! Thankfully, today's long run (~12 miles) didn't feel as bad as I feared it might.

Last week before tapering. after spending last week in sunny dry Yuma AZ, I went to Salt Lake City this week for my first forray in altitude running.

Mon 5 treadmill amazing how high my heart rate was for slow runing

Tues 5 treadmill, had to hurry to make the group dinner so i did a hard threshold run

Wed 8 easy on the treadmill

Thursday 8 at home in the PNW. Really weird, heart rate was still way high.

Friday off

Saturday 6 at moderate pace

Sunday 20

Total 52

Not sure if this will work but here is my 20 from today

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/744805748

15-19 was just to see how it feels to run fast at the end. I'm pretty sure I could carry that pace until 26. I eased into 20. So now 2 weeks of taper then the race. I'm feeling pretty confident I can do 3:45:00

Mon. I included it in last week's post. 20 km trails 560 m elevation gain 2.12.

Then 23 km mountain bike ride.

Tues. Bitterly cold and windy 37 min paddle on the lake.

Wed. 21 km mountain bike ride.

Thu. 10 km run down, up, down and up on Mt Ida. 270 m of elevation gain. 56.45. Pretty solid effort. Had an emu pacing me on the 2d downhill section, it won!

Fri. 50 min paddle on the lake in perfect conditions. Then a steady 18 km ride.

Sat. Went to our club's first race of the season. No plan to race as I am still battling some glute/hip/hammy issues (piriformis syndrome ). I jogged a slow 3 km lap then jogged through the 6.5 km race in 31 mins.

Sun. Hiked about 4 km through the hills.

Week 201: 3 hours 4 minutes in 6 runs -- 5 (planned 6) @27 mins and Saturday @49 mins (planned 54). I missed Thursday because of a non-running issue, and on Saturday I finished up walking back with one of the other runners after he tweaked his calf.

@old guy II - You know I like to follow your training. But actually I was answering MichiganRunningGeezer's question. (See the top of page 217 aka p=216.)

Either my post yesterday didn't make it or maybe...

~44 for the week, 5, 6.5, 7 with fartlek,6, rest, 4+, 15 with half marathon on Sunday.

1:22:37, top 20, and 1st in age group. All in all a good day and the race was a lot of fun (nice post race block party), I went out faster than planned but held steady through 10 (a minute faster than my 10 mile race in Feb). Then just held on, that last 3. 86.2% age grade, an "altitude PR." Got thrashed by a 50 yr old woman who ran 1:20, Colleen De Reuck.

Well, winding down on vacation here in Tucson, and ran Sabino canyon 7.4 mile run (why not 12 km?) and was it hard, up and down, mostly up first half to end of road turn. ran 9:03, 9:45, 10:20, 11:02, 7:36, 7:47, 8:32, 2:30, the final mile with a nasty hill. With regular runs, I still got beat by my wife, who even walked a bit on the hills to avoid wheezing! Loved it! She. Took 2nd in her a.g., too. We did not run yesterday due to soreness so hope to gently resume today.

I don't feel as sharp as when I did my 11 miler at 9:00 pace last month, hope that was not too much too soon, several races to come in next 6 weeks.

lucKY2b wrote:

I've seen it mentioned frequently that the 7-day cycle is not really appropriate and so I usually look at a two-week window, myself, in which I try to lay out some general rules like "in this window I need 2xintervals, 2xtempo, and one long run."

I have read some pros are training on 9-day cycles to give two days between each hard workout. Well, that exactly wouldn't work for those of us who still have "day jobs." But I also think I am getting too old for two workouts plus a long run in a week. So I am thinking about a two-week cycle. (Or a 7-day cycle with just one workout plus a long run.)

Here was my week.

M: rest.

T: 6 miles.

W: 7 miles.

R: 6 miles.

F: 7 miles.

SA: 6: miles.

SU: 10 miles. (1:27)

Sunday would have been my 8th marathon. Instead, it was my second straight DNS. Given the way I ran the 10 miler, I think that was the right decision. 3:26 would have got me a fifth place in my AG (this marathon gives awards to top five), so I might have a decent chance at an award if I could stay healthy next year.

A big surprise is that someone ran with my bib, so there is my name on the result page. I emailed the race organizer about this, but I have no idea what they will do. (They should have checked the ID at the packet pick-up, but apparently, they didn't.)

Good aerobic HR control and great steps tempo for your 20 miler.

Thanks Fogrunr. I just need to figure out how to get faster :-). I'm trying to figure out a race strategy. I'm getting a bit nervous about this as it's my first one :-)

Greetings all. Enjoyed all the info in the posts this week. So good to see so many of you posting some great training / racing weeks. Great to see the hard work over the cold winter months paying off for so many. Spring must be in the air!

Here is my week:

Mon - 3 mi easy run with 2 mi of easy walking

Tues - swim workout

Wed - 5 mi easy run

Thurs - 6 mi easy run and swim workout

Fri - OFF

Sat - 5 mi easy run with 3 mi of easy walking

Sun - OFF

Running on soft surfaces - no concrete - and taking time to do some light dynamic stretching before/after. So far the foot is not bothering me much, but the hammy/hip issues still flare up. No minimal shoes right now - sticking to the Saucony Kinvara 5 which is my marathon shoe. Helps to have the extra padding.

Doing some light hip / glute strengthening every other day, including walking backwards up the big hill in front of my house. Swimming seems to help loosen things up.

I am going to schedule an appointment with the doctor if I am still having pain next week. Then hopefully can identify exactly what is going on and post a rehab strategy that works!

Happy racing/training to all.

Alan Bennet wrote:

[quote]GreteHund wrote:

Foot felt a little achy on run.

That's one of the hardest things, trying to figure out if it's normal aches and pains, which we should push through, or a blossoming injury for which we need to immediately back off.

Weren't you doing Pfitzinger for your marathon? I would never dare try that. Nor Hansons neither. What worked well for me was alternate weeks of: (week-1) Tuesday workout (hills or long repeats), Friday tempo (classic 20-25 mins LT), Saturday long run 2 hours slow; (week-2) Tuesday workout, Saturday long run 2 hr 45 mins with the last hour at MP. Everything else easy.

Not sure what would work well for the 5K, I hope to be able to find out some day. I'm the king of less is more, but we also need to step over the line sometime in order to find out where it is.

AlanB - I have used Pfitzinger since Fall 2010. Took me from a 4 hour marathon time down to a 3:26 best, so it seems to translate into results for me.

As I look back at the schedules, Pfitz has 2 hard workouts and 2 long runs every 2 weeks during the base period. Then goes to 3 hard/ 2 long every 2 weeks during the final pre-race stages. When I look at your above, seems somewhat similar - 3 "hard" and 2 long. Except that you have a harder effort at the end of your second long.

The last 2 years I have gotten injured when I try to participate with my training group in Spring training and they are having us do 2/3 workouts a week and much shorter mileage. I may need to rethink how to train and stay healthy in the Spring.

muddy girl wrote:

I went to the track yesterday because of the upcoming 3k, which I promised I'd run if not injured. Not injured, but way out of shape -wondering if I should alert the waiting list! Tried 400s and they were ugly and slow. eek. I am trying to remind myself that I have to work to get my speed to appear, that it is not naturally present and I wasn't as slow as I might have been. Still, I was glad I wasn't racing! Thankfully, today's long run (~12 miles) didn't feel as bad as I feared it might.

You (we) have 3.5 weeks...;-). I think you'll be fine.

Had a real nice week here... Feeling like I'm starting to come around. 69.5 miles...most runs were good.M: am; 4 easy pm; 6.6 easy w/10x100 post run strides @ mile pace T: 10.1 miles w/5xmile @ 554.1,552.9,551.1,548.3,544.1 + 5x100 @ 5:00 pace W: am: 4 easy pm: 4 easyTh: 9.5 miles @ 7:19/mi + 10x100 @ 5:00 pace F: 7.5 miles @ 7:34/miS: 15.0 miles @ 7:18/miS: 8.0 miles @ 8:20/mi with my daughterWe had some fun with Sundays 8 miler. I asked my daughter a few weeks ago if she wanted to run it with me. If I followed my workouts I would hit 70000 lifetime miles at the end of the run on April 12th (and yes, I have logged since June of 1975...) In the meantime she arranged a surprise post-run get together with about 20 friends & family at our favorite brewpub to celebrate 70k. It was a very enjoyable run and a fun afternoon at the pub...

Rtype wrote:

Congrats! With no wind 16:45 easy. Might be interesting in 4 or 5 weeks to get into some kind of track 5K (DIII, DII college meet?) where the middle pack is high 15's low 16's to see if they can drag you along and get near that 16 mark.

Been debating if I should respond to you or not...don't want to say anything too stupid to the world on a message board. But here it goes: Yes, 16:06 is the goal I set back in September. I turn 55 in May. The AR for the 55-59 AG is 16:07. I think I can get close...I've run that time in the past few years without any sort of plan. Only now I'm following a structured plan with a coach that has been very successful with Masters runners (Tinman). I'll give it my best shot in June. If I get it, great! If I don't, I'll know I tried...

Running another 5k over at Notre Dame's campus Saturday. Should be no complaints about the weather this week!

All the Best,

Dave

Wondering whether we have the same hip/hammy issues Grete. Mine came on while doing a block of night shifts. My job normally has me up and at it for the entire shift but nights mean 12 hours mostly seated. I think this was the catalyst as the issue is at it's worst after sitting for a long time. I have been told it is probably the piriformis a smaller muscle in the butt. It feels a bit like a corked muscle when I try to run fast and the top of the hammy tightens up.

I find I have no real problems scampering up and down the steep scree like trails but when stretching out at a bit of pace I tighten right up.

I have been doing neural flossing, deep tissue massage, stretching, dead lifts, squats, split squats, lunges, hip bridges, hip bridge/hammy curl, lateral leg raises and hip flexor stretches. Might throw in some backward uphill work now.

racerdb wrote:

M: am; 4 easy pm; 6.6 easy w/10x100 post run strides @ mile pace

T: 10.1 miles w/5xmile @ 554.1,552.9,551.1,548.3,544.1 + 5x100 @ 5:00 pace

W: am: 4 easy pm: 4 easy

Th: 9.5 miles @ 7:19/mi + 10x100 @ 5:00 pace

F: 7.5 miles @ 7:34/mi

S: 15.0 miles @ 7:18/mi

S: 8.0 miles @ 8:20/mi with my daughter

Dave

I'm just playing armchair quarterback here but based on you going 16:05 on progression runs a few years ago I'd have to guess you have a string of sub 16's in you if you stay healthy. We're all rooting for you, probably even Pilcher :-)