50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

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Alan Bennet wrote:

Course markers gave my one- and two-mile times as 6:19 and 12:53, finish was 20:26 for 30th overall, 1st M50-59

Congratulations on your race!

In doing long runs using the HRM what should we target? 70% of max about right? If we know our LT is it better to use some % of that? Thanks

Once again I'm happy with my week. 61 miles with zero issues. Hit my prescribed paces on the two workouts and Saturdays long run went 'very well' in very humid conditions.

Monday: 9 miles with 8x20 sec @ 5k pace

Tuesday: 10 miles @ 6:49/mile with 5 mile tempo 30:55 (615,615,611,610,604) + 4x30 sec @ 5:08 pace

Thursday: 10 miles @ 6:50/mile with 4xmile with 800 jog rest (559.9,557.6,553.5,550.9) + 4x30 sec @ 5:08 pace

Saturday: Slightly progressive 13 @ 7:29/mile 7:50>7:04

This week I've got 2x1200 on Thursday then a Half Marathon Sunday morning. Weather is looking much better for racing...in the 60's, less humid and a chance of light rain sounds good to me!

Enjoying the Olympics...But I can't help but wonder...who is clean, and who isn't? How & why was the women's 10K so fast? The men's 400? Dibaba finishing the 1500 heat as fast as she did? How easily the marathon winner dropped 10 other world class ladies? Wish it wasn't that way but you know, what is real and what isn't?

Have a good week,

Dave

M: swimming 1000m.

T: 4 miles / 7 miles.

W: 9 miles (4th-8th miles @ 7:55-7:41-7:30-7:30-7:30)

R: 4 miles / 7 miles.

F: 8 miles.

SA: 7 miles.

SU: 16.7 miles.

Back-to-back solid weeks. I managed to run 16.7 on Sunday, thanks to lower (high 70s) temperature. It started raining around 12-13 miles, but I take that over 90+ degree and sunshine any day. (I lost satellite signals on Saturday and Sunday, and power this morning, thanks to storms. But that's another matter.)

Depends on experience, fitness, long run duration, etc. That said, some recommendations are:

Based on Heart Rate Reserve

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65-80% "Endurance" [4]

65-77% "Long slow run" [5]

65-70% "Long run" [2]

Based on Max Heart Rate

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75-85% "Endurance" [4]

70-80% "zone 2 trap" ( AVOID ) [3]

less than 70% "zone 1 respect" [3]

65-79% "E" [1]

65-75% "Long run" [6]

65-75% "Easy run" [6]

Sources

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[1] Daniels 2005, pg 35

[2] Steven T. Devor, OSU

[3] marathon-training-schedule.com

[4] Pfitzinger/Douglas 1st ed., pg 60

[5] runningforfitness.org

[6] Scott-Barrios 2001

Posting late due to taking #2 son back to college over the weekend. I'm getting frustrated by having to build up so slowly. I've been having some pain in my leg with the SFX so I'm trying to be cautious. I sure hope it's phantom pain; I won't be easy to live with if I've hurt myself again. Here's my meager week:

M: Rest

T: 6 on TM with 3@8:13

W: 75min biking 15x1H/1E

R: 4 E

F: 60min biking PRO

S: 5 E

S: Rest

I wish I could be out there doing the miles many of you are building - it will be a long time until I'm there again. At this point, I just need to focus on making sure I'm healed. Keep up the good work - I enjoy seeing everyone's progress!

In case you haven't seen it, this is a good read.

"Meb Keflezighi, Bernard Lagat, and the Secret to Running Forever"

http://www.newyorker.com/news/sporting-scene/meb-keflezighi-bernard-lagat-and-the-secret-to-running-forever

Hey Siri, print the post from Alan Bennett and post it on the wall.

>> I'm sorry I can't do that.

With all this technology, and I still have to do Pretty much everything myself.

Siri, run 10 miles!

>> Maybe TrackBot can do that for you.

Greetings all!

Well after an Achilles tendon debridement surgery and meniscus surgery I'm back to my goal of trying to qualify for Boston. This time a bit smarter about how I go about it. I'm having a curious thing happen though: I have been back running for four months. Working my way from 30 minute runs 5 days a week to now where I am doing 6 miles 4 days a week and am currently at 12 mile long run on Sunday, all runs being easy. A funny thing happened Tuesday. I decided to start doing a track type workout in the mix. I did 4X1 mile with 90 second rest walk in between. It was supposed to be at HM to 10K heart rate but ended up being much higher ( next time will be by pace not HR). The next day I went out for an easy run and my HR stayed at 150 while my normal 150 pace was 30 seconds a mile faster without any extra effort? It was as if the running Gods touched me and said "thou shalt run faster". I ran last night pushing the pace and HR to 160 and I was 1.5 min/mile faster without any undo stress. Is this how it works? Do you all of a sudden make a fairly large jump? I'm going to try a different HR monitor but even if it is off, the perceived exertion is way lower than normal. These runs were also done at 85 degrees. My max HR is 194 and LT is 166.

Paul061,

I have never used a HRM for training. I do know, that with so many years of running, I have difficulty moving the needle one way or the other.

Igy

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Paul061,

I have never used a HRM for training. I do know, that with so many years of running, I have difficulty moving the needle one way or the other.

Igy

Igy, I was just surprised at how much the exertion level dropped in 3 days. I only have around 5 years of running. One thing perhaps is that the doctor put me on blood pressure medicine 4 months ago, perhaps lower blood pressure has allowed something in my cardio system to click for the better. I really think, with more miles, I have a shot now at my BQ

Paul061,

A couple of weeks ago I raced, first time in 20 months. About a week ago, I started approaching my recent race times in practice. I guess we are getting fitter.

Igy

Weather has an immediate impact on HR. Medication, illness, stress, fatigue also have short-term effects. Fitness will not make a noticeable difference in three days.

I agree with Alan. So many factors can affect how we feel on any given day. Don't get too excited in the training highs, don't get too depressed by the training lows, trust the program. Real progress in running fitness is slow....if there is a break through, it's usually a mental barrier. Worst thing to do is to all of a sudden ramp up your training and expectations, that's how you crash and burn.....and I'll have to say that I've done that, as have many others.

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Week 272

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Greetings, 50+ers! Writing this while watching the first part of the Men's Olympic Marathon---a lot of quality in that field! US mid/distance runners did a fairly solid job throughout the events, I thought. Centrowitz's win in the 1500 is definitely a highlight for us Americans.

My week was a bit more mundane. Temperatures have moderated a bit, but the humidity has remained sky high. Managed about 28 miles on 5 days. The start of the semester always causes issues, and some untimely heavy rain lead to some adjustments. Capped the week with a 5k race. Log reads as such:

Sun: 7.4 w/Form Drills

Mon: off (start of semester busyness)

Tues: 6.2 w/5x(800, 400 jog rec.) 310,310,307,304,302

Wed: 4.1 easy (7:46 pace)

Thur: off

Fri: 5.1 fairly easy (7:40 pace)

Sat: 4.2 w/5k@20:22

Happy with the track workout, but had to quit after 5 (210-215 recovery laps), a 6th one would have done me in. Easy runs most other days, and the evening 5k was the same one I ran last year. It was a little cooler this year, but much more humid as the race was run right after a downpour. It has a couple of hairpin turns that became a little more treacherous on slick walking trail, and we needed to be mindful of black walnuts on the course. Truthfully, my mindset was to run it solid, but I wasn't going to kill myself. Garmin showed the course to be accurate; ran very even splits for me: 628,636,632,46. Race was small, so 5th out of 103 doesn't mean much. I was pretty spent, but didn't go to the well.

OK. Won't add anything else this week; back to watching the Marathon. Go Galen, Meb, and Jared!

All the Best!

nice job in that 5k!

absolutely thrilled for Maryland's own Matthew Centrowitz -- what an exciting race. Can't wait to brag to my students about our close relationship (i.e., the one time I met him). And followed up today by a terrific showing for USA men's marathon team. Hard to believe Meb is a master.

so-so week of training for me:

Mon. 12 miles (double)

Tues. 8

Weds. 20 with 2 from 13 to 15 at marathon pace (13:10)

thurs. 8

Fri. 5

Sat. 9

Sun. 7 with 3 at marathon pace (20:00) while watching Olympic marathon

condensed MP segment Weds. and cancelled out of planned 8k saturday because I tweaked right hamstring during long run. Very annoying injury I've had from time to time since 2009 and that requires lots of babying.

have a great week,

Dave

52 miles for the week. Looking back at the summer I've run 63 of 70 days and run 9 of 10 weeks over 35 miles. And 6 of last 7 over 40 miles.

I was averaging only 25 miles per week last summer, but comparing my runs on Strava I don't seem any faster on my fastest days, but, my slow days are much faster.

Haven't been racing so, we'll just have to wait and see what it all means.

Monday - 4 miles afternoon felt terrible and stopped well short of plan. Went back out at 8pm and ripped off an 8:10, 7:50, 7:35 5k for an 8 mile day.

Tuesday - 3 miles am, 8 miles pm easy

Wednesday - 6 miles easy; easy these days is about 9:15 pace.

Thursday - 10 miles slow. Twisted my knee stepping on a branch and jogged slowly home. Wife was very upset because I was gone for 2 hours. Thought I was lying on the road with a heart attack somewhere.

Friday - 14 x 200; 6:40 pace. 4 miles

Saturday - 7 miles; 2.75 @ 8:20 jog 1.5 and 2.75 @ 7:50 with a last mile in 7:30.

Sunday - 6 miles @ 8:40; moderate not easy not hard

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