50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

2nd attempt at a post after the first one timed out.

Week 216: 5 hours 28 minutes in 7 runs, 6 @41 mins and Saturday @1 hr 22 mins. No workouts for the same reason as last week.

I want to amend what I said before about ignoring HR zone and running by effort in the heat and humidity. It's important to be truly warmed up to running (say 20 minutes) before going by effort. Otherwise you risk blowing up in the heat. Which is what happened to me Thursday, on my first run back from vacation. So do the creepy-crawly warmup jog thing first.

@Rtype - Standing up for 3 hours should not be a problem. What shoes are you wearing at work?

There is a lifelong runner here at work whose left knee swelled up like a basketball. His doctor told him he had degenerative arthritis and had to give up running. I said that doesn't make sense, what about the other knee? Knowing this guy struggles with money, and stands on concrete 8 hours per day, I asked how old his shoes were. He admitted they were worn out. Long story short, he bought new shoes, knee all better, he is currently training for a half in the fall.

Since I started running higher mileage, I cannot find a dress shoe that does not give me issues. All the running shoe manufacturers make a black pleather walker. I got permission from my boss to wear these instead. When a pair became too dingy for work, I gave them to my uncle. He wears them everywhere, says they are the most comfortable shoes in his life (a long time).

Even if a change of work shoes does not fix your knee, it probably won't hurt anything.

I was traveling last weekend and busy at the beginning of the week so I didn't post. Last week was 48 miles. This week was 49 miles with 10 on Fri., Sat., and today. Nothing special, just moving the mileage up a bit and keeping the intensity down while I do it. I feel really beat up at 10mi/day, but need to stay at that level for my 10K training plan, I expect another week or two and I will be able to start putting some quality into the mileage.

Alan Bennet wrote:

@Rtype - Standing up for 3 hours should not be a problem. What shoes are you wearing at work?

I actually spent 24 hours on my feet, (and will be doing it again) lifting and moving pushing and pulling 2 and 300 pound filing cabinets. I banged both knees multiple times, crawled around on my knees hunting for things. Carried heavy things up and down steps. It's an ongoing disaster since we still have no permanent office and will be moving next week for 2 months and then, hopefully, to some final place. I wear the Asics Gel Foundation Walking shoe. I wore them all last year before my office burned up and they work great in a normal office environment. I probably should be wearing steel-toed fireman's boots actually, but those are really too firm!

Have not seen any postings from Ken Martin of late. Wonder how he's doing.

MikeF, does that mean you are "casting about" for a new age group? (that was really bad).

-Reboot runner - Welcome!

-Spikez and lucKY - Congratulations on the races!

Got back from JAX last night:

The Good: Scored 26 points for my team (1st in steeple,2nd in 800, 3rd in 5000,1500, and my debut event - triple jump), my weak AG, celebrated my birthday with my team.

The Bad: My times, my hamstring rebelled, the heat and rain, the rash that began on day one and never let up, and losing the team title to SoCal with a score of 683 to 695!

I'm embarrassed to reveal my times. My hamstring locked up in mile 3 of the 5000, my second event, and never let up so my hopes of not limping around the track weren't realized despite multiple trips to the medical tent.

I began to get strange red bumps and lumps all over my body on day one and they proliferated throughout the meet so I was a gray-haired spotted grandma limping around the track. Not good for the self image.

It turns out my dog had gotten into a patch of poison ivy before I left and shared it with me. I was having a severe allergic reaction to poison ivy (according to my doctor this morning). Now I'm on prednisone for two weeks and taking the week off running.

The weird part is that I had a great time with my teammates and would do it all again for the opportunity to experience a Nationals with them again!

Have a great week running. I hate rest weeks!

M: swimming (1000m)

T: 8 miles.

W: 7 miles.

R: 7 miles.

F: 4 miles.

SA: 5k race. (23:46)

SU: 11 miles.

So my second 5k race of the year was slower than the first one, as I expected. This was a much tougher course, and the weather was hotter. Still good enough for 2nd in my AG and 20th OA out of 300+ runners. The split was 4:47-4:36-4:44-5:04-4:34. This may look quite erratic, but I consider this a pretty "even" pace. The elevation change was +26m/-13m, +12/-35, +10/-7, +24/-5, +5/-1. The 2nd km is net downhill, and the last km is the flattest. I have run 10-15"/km faster on this course, so I still have a long way to go. But the good thing is that I didn't feel any pain in my ham/glute going up the monster hill on the 4th km.

This has been held for 6 years now, and after being shut out for the first 4 years, I have now finished 2nd in the last two years. I know it is a matter of show shows up and who doesn't. But it's good to be 50+ when 23 min 5k can get you a medal.

Mon. 21 km mtn bike ride inc some technical non trail sections 1 h 30 m.

Tue. 9 km walk and jog in 1 hr 2 m inc 194 m of elevation gain. Alternating walking and jogging for a min each plus did a 3 km steep section of all running.

Wed. 8 km walk and jog in 1 hour 134 m elevation gain, as for yesterday but did 2 x 2 km hilly sections running.

Walked 5.4 km into work at lunch time.

Walk and jog 3.6 km with 50 m elevation gain back to the car at 11pm in 27 mins.

Thu. Relaxed 35 min paddle on the lake.

Walked 3.2 km into work at lunch time.

Walked 3.3 km back to the car at 11pm.

Fri. Rested.

Sat. A technical and hilly 90 min mtn bike ride.

Sun. Club run, jogged slow kms thn cruised the club 6.5 km trail race in 31 mins then jogged another 3 kms with a couple of the guys.

Just shaking off a cold so happy to just tick over with some lower intensity stuff.

Had a decent 60 mile week here. Two workouts, both went well. No injuries to report. Front loaded the week as the wife & I took a long weekend upNorth boating, eating and enjoying a few too many craft brews...

M: 8.6 miles @ 7:34/mi

T: 9.7 mile @ 7:18/mi

W: 8.7 miles inc 8x300; 56.2,55.2,54.7,54.0,53.7,52.4,52.1,52.6

Th: am: 4 miles easy pm: 7.1 miles easy

F: 10 miles @ 7:02/mi first 9 prog 7:30-6:49; last mile 5:52

S: 4 miles easy

S: 8 miles @ 7:32 with hills

Trackwork tomorrow then try to shed a few of my weekend pounds I brought home. I've got a 5k this weekend.

Have a good week,

Dave

Well my quest for Boston has come to a screeching halt. My Achilles tendon just can't take it. It's super tender to the touch and has a knot about 2 inches up. Doing a google search it says tendonosis. I have an appt with the ortho doc in 2 weeks. Hopefully it's just some time in a boot. Anyone ever go through this? I've done the stretches, icing, heat, PT. I know it's my fault for letting it go so long, I was hoping to get through this next marathon then let it heal. I guess that's the way it always is, just one more.

I trained through Achilles tendinosis in the spring of 2013 and even BQd that May. In fact it was the 800m repeats in March that almost did me in, I stopped doing those.

It's possible to run a half-assed marathon off just tempo work. I recommend you pull way back, just easy runs during the week and see what you can handle for a long run. Do all the PT under the sun, and see how you feel. No matter what you do, you are looking at months of rehab. But if it starts feeling better every week instead of worse, you still might be able to race.

Then again, there's always next year. One of the disadvantages of being young is that there are not so many next years before the career is "over". Masters don't have to worry about that.

paul061 wrote:

Well my quest for Boston has come to a screeching halt. My Achilles tendon just can't take it. It's super tender to the touch and has a knot about 2 inches up. Doing a google search it says tendonosis.

Now here's a subject I'm familiar with! I've dealt with Achilles Tendonosis for a most of this year now. Not being familiar with it, my Chiro/Son-in-law explained it is a long time overuse injury made up of scar tissue. Apparently it was achilles tendonitis a long time ago.

There were times a few months ago I couldn't run a few minutes before the pain would stop me. I would walk for a bit then start again slowly. The pain would almost always subside after about a mile. Some days the pain was a 10; others it was a 3. Despite the pain I didn't miss any training time. Now days the pain is minimal...maybe a 2 on the pain scale. First thing out of bed in the mornings seem to be the worst. Working in construction, I'm on ladders a lot. Ladders seem to kill my achilles!!!

I've been getting it lasered almost weekly for the past 6 weeks. He says this is to aid in healing and breaking up the scar tissue. It appears to working. I occasionally ice it. And stretch it before getting out of bed... I do take Aleve before a race; this seems to really help but I don't want to get in the habit of taking it more than once or so a week..

I feel your pain. Hope you get through it!

Dave

All month I've been protecting a hinky right calf running only every other day. Disappointing after getting up to running every day in May and June, but trying to avoid the rupture (other leg) from pushing it too hard last year.

3x5 mile runs this week. Easy for 3 miles, about 9:15 pace, but picking up the last 1 to 1.5 to 8:00 pace, which is just 40 seconds slower than 5k pace.

Finishing energized, like I could run several more miles, but waking up the next day with sore calf tells me 5 miles was enough.

Probably shouldn't be doing the pickup in the last mile. So tough to be patient.

Something dramaticaly changed with it last weekend. Up until then it was just nuisance pain. Last weekend however, it was a seering pain. I tore my other one about 8 years ago and would rather not go through that again. Hopefully the orthopedic quack has some remedy or tells me it isn't going to get any worse.

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Week 217

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Greetings, 50+ers! Well, simultaneously teaching and running an experiment have taken their toll on my July. So it's been another week of don't-train-like-this-guy. Manage 24+ miles, but only on 3 runs, one of which was a long run. The not-to-be-emulated log reads as such:

Sun: 5.0 mostly easyish 7:30-7:40 pace (but ran fairly hard for the last mile: 6:33)

Mon: off

Tue: off

Wed: 5.2 fartlek run (6:55 average pace, but took a few minutes break after the third mile)

Thur: off

Fri: off

Sat: 14.2 w/first 10.5 @7:10-7:15 pace, eased off last 3.7.

Once again, not happy with the week, just glad to log some miles. Missed Tuesday's track workout because of another meeting, then Thursday and Friday I was waiting for a guy to come by in the evening to help work on some stuff around the yard. He stopped by finally way too late to get anything done on Thursday, promising he'd show up Friday. Ultimately, he didn't show Friday, and it shot my chances to get a run in....frustrating. So much for trying to help a guy out; obviously, he didn't want the work THAT badly. Life's too short; not doing that again!

All the wrong things I did this week: 1) ran a hard mile the day after a race; 2) didn't run any purely easy runs; 4) ran my fartlek too hard, and had to stop running @mile 3 to catch my breath before hobbling home on dead legs the remaining 2.2, 4) more than half my weekly mileage came on Saturday; 5) didn't use my foam roller once; the list goes on. Will try not to repeat this week, but the classes and experiment roll on, so who knows.

Quick notes:

-Welcome Reboot Runner! Sorry, I should have acknowledged that last week. It's been like that, lately.

-Seems like several people have been struggling of late for various reasons (many not running related, so I get that.)

-Glad some people can help out on the Achilles' issue. Not one of my maladies, so I'm not much use there.

OK, that's all I've got. Heading off to the experiment shortly. What's the good news in your neck of the woods?

All the Best!

Oh, and in case you're wondering, yes, I am a little sore this morning from that 14-miler yesterday. I deserve it.

Mon. 10.6 km steady trot along the railtrail in 1 hr.

Tue. 10.6 km run on the hilly Pyalong golf course on the long grass in 1 hr.with 8 hills and 190 m. of elevation gain.

Wed. 14.2 km run in the Knowsley Forest, fairly flat dirt trails in 1 h 19 m.

Thu. 40 mins paddling kayak on the lake. 45 min spin on the mountain bike into work. A short spin back to the carat 11 pm.

Fri. 3 km run, up and down Pianta's Hill 140 metres of elevation gain on rugged trails in 22.50. 7.5 km mtn bike with 100 metres of elevation gain in 26 mins then a quick 17 min paddle on the lake and 10 mins of waist deep chilling.

Sat. Had been baby sitting my son's dogs overnight. Headed out on the mtb in the rain to explore the forests of Kangaroo Flat. A muddy 16 km in 1 h 12 m.

Sun. Club run, 8 km handicap race on pretty good trails. I won this one last year in 34 mins. Started a bit quick but settled into a rhythm and managed to run strongly but very slowly finishing in 37.30. I gave the engine a good rev but the legs are a long way off being able to run fast. Got in 2 k pre and post.

Hopefully I can get back to a bit more frequent running and get the volume up toward 50 or 60 kms now.

Wish me luck, confidence, and remind me to have fun fellow master friends. I'm off to Lyon France for Worlds tomorrow.

M55 800 Prelims start Thursday. Sem-Final Friday. Final Sunday. 1500 rounds the following week.

Good final time-trial 600m last Monday 1:33ish. Really good floater for fresh legs yesterday. 4 x 200 with 30secs rest at 30-33-31-31 followed by 1 x 400 at a strainless 63.

I'm ready to represent.

KP

Best of Luck, KP! Your training has been solid (nice time-trial, BTW), so I'm certain you're ready to crush it!

Bon voyage!

Good luck KP! Really warm up well after your long travel day. I had another good week of slightly increasing mileage, 55 total.

Mon - tired - rest day

Tue - 10 hills 10:09 ave

Wed - 10 hills 9:32 ave

Thu - 8 hills 9:32 ave

Fri - 10 hills 9:27 ave

Sat - 10 hilly trails 8:41 ave

Sun - 10 hills 10:17 ave