50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

[quote]lucKY2b wrote:

Does anyone not believe that the keys to running consistently for many years is about maintaining attitude and drive, training sensibly (i.e.-training within your abilities and paying attention to your form), and staying healthy (which isn't independent of the former points and certainly involves things like nutrition and listening closely to your body)?

A sub-key under attitude is that you have to LIKE running, for whatever reason. Yes some days consistency is about kicking your own ass to get out the door, however, no one sticks with it if they have to do that every day.

Last week pretty good to plan. 38 miles with a good dose of quality work and one 45 minute spirited bike ride in lieu of a 5 mile easy run. Best run 12 mile very hilly trail run, easy pace.

What hurts: Oh, by far it is rt achilles + calf, been managing it for 5 yrs now.

over 50 wrote:

A sub-key under attitude is that you have to LIKE running, for whatever reason. Yes some days consistency is about kicking your own ass to get out the door, however, no one sticks with it if they have to do that every day.

Agree with this 100%...Seems like I really enjoy running these days. It's never hard to get out the door anymore. Back in the day, I always used to say I didn't like running but I liked the results of all the running. Now I like it all...

And...Maybe we need to rename our thread "50+ Masters Illness & Injury Forum"...Time for us to all get well!

Dave

Coach Mihaly Igloi often said "Must have big goal!"

l2B- I like to take it easy on the time off, and it was only 2 weeks. Did plan to go on a several mile hike, but got too busy to get around to it. This time I did take time out on several days to do some stretching (my usual after run stretches), with the idea that it should help when starting back. Also did a couple days of light upper body dumbell weights, ( a set of 5-8 reps of 4 different exercises) which I plan to do more of this season.

At a geezer I'd probably try to do more active resting of some sort if taking off more than a month, as I seem get more out of shape, and or take longer to get back into shape.

Would have taken a month or more this time but have committed to be part of a team for the Syracuse 5k and want to take my time to get into shape for it.

Rich

I know it takes me a lot longer to get in shape than rlb. After taking 3 weeks off, and now running and building distance for 3 months, I finally ventured a tempo run today. It went surprisingly well. I did 2 reps of 15 min. on a loop on a wood-chip trail - I was a bit surprised to come around the whole loop (which I had done in about 17 minutes on my warmup) in about 13 and had to keep going.

Crested the 60 mile mark last week and am monitoring my legs. Nothing from the injured hamstring at all - still tight on the other side, as usual.

As a side note, I think my relative success has been the result of really liking to run, every day as that has given me a strong foundation. I am not so much talented as consistent.

rlb wrote:

I like to take it easy on the time off, and it was only 2 weeks.

rlb, I think it's been remarked before that you seem to be able to regain fitness unusually quickly. Maybe it helps that you're more a 1500 guy, than a 10k guy. It's been a week, and I'm already starting to feel anxious about losing aerobic conditioning....it's helpful to take the long view and recognize that I want to be running a year from now more so than I want to be running tomorrow. I clearly traumatized a muscle on the outside of the knee that provides lateral stability, so I'm going to need to do strength exercises to rehab that. I've been following the usual RICE prescription for dealing with it, and it is coming along; I just need to be patient. I may need to gain access to a pool if this takes too long before I feel comfortable putting running stress on it. Though I can jog really slowly without pain, I don't think it's a good idea. I can see that my left leg wobbles a bit with each landing; so my concern is that that will cause harm to other areas...so I resist.

muddy girl, you've really come a long way since March/April when you were feeling all that hip pain.

I think that we all agree that "liking" running is absolutely core to everything. Running with pain (as opposed to soreness/stiffness that loosens up once you get going) is not fun or healthy, so that needs to be taken care of first.

Just thinking out loud here, trying to remind myself it'll all work out.

Cheers.

MG- glad to see you working your miles up at a smart rate.

L2B- Smart to take care of your knee with a down the road view of things. Though frustrating, it's worth it to lose what ever conditioning you've gained to do so, if need be. You mentioned pool work, and that might even help strengthen the problem area, at some point...with caution of course.

M54 sprinter. do a lot of reps, mostly on astroturf (I'm fortunate to live across the street from a college), ranging from 100m to 700m. I do these five days a week and throw in some cross country, plus a time trial once a week at 200, 300 or 400. Have run Masters nationals a couple of times. I just started a blog, which will touch on my running from time to time:

www.goodreads.com/author/show/35384.Rich_Wallace/blog

Best of luck to you all!

In a blog post I once referred to the never-ending injury as the Moving Knot of Pain, or MKoP. It never really goes away, it just moves about your body from location to location. At times it seems to take up a permanent residence....this time it's my right achilles. This thing has been an on/off again battle for over a year. It reminds me of the little girl with the little curl in the middle of her forehead. When my achilles is good, it's very very good. But when it's bad, it's horrid. Lucky for me I seem to have hit upon the right combination of ice, stretching, massage, rest, and just enough practice to keep me sharp (and the achilles happy). It's letting me run and I'm starting to round into form. This outdoor season has been rather sub-par for me thus far but I have one more meet before the world masters championships to test drive my tendon. It's this upcoming weekend...wish me luck!

Good luck, speedy girl!!

Your MKoP reminds me of this. I have a friend who was describing having plantar fascitis and his theory was that there was no "treatment" that fixed it. It was like a poltergeist - it would plague you no matter what you did, until it got bored with you and moved on to someone else.

Also, if you normally run lots of miles, I find you need lots of miles to get back into shape. If you run low mileage (successfully), you won't get as out of shape as fast during a layoff and come back quickly without as many miles, IMO. I'm in the high mileage camp, however.

I think this is absolutely right, and it makes sense to me. We are a complicated collection of bones, tendons, and muscles that are engaged in a coordinated dance that allows us to do the things that we do. When this collection is out of balance, those components that get over-stressed complain. We then address those complainers, which probably means something else is getting less attention, in which case, it begins to complain, and so on and so forth. The notion that we can remain perfectly balanced with all parts getting just the right amount of stressing seems unlikely, especially if we are trying to push ourselves to the limits of our capabilities.

I like the idea of doing drills that exaggerate our normal motion, and stress those minor muscles that are vital to our core stability beyond what is achieved through our ordinary running routines. I just wish I had the discipline to engage in the appropriate amount of these activities. Working with a group/team or coach would help, especially to ensure that the drills are done correctly.

Best of luck Spikez!! Although, in your case, I can safely say that luck plays but a minor roll in your remarkable success.

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Week 4

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Greetings on this Father's Day. My daughter is taking me out for lunch....can't decide between Mexican, Americana, or Cajun. Oh, the decisions.

No running miles this week, while I'm still dealing with the knee issue. Although, I did get somewhere between 20-25 miles of walking in. Still weird to me that there's no swelling or tender spots. Thankfully, it has been responding to my self-prescribed PT, which includes a lot of surgical tube resistance work and calisthenics. In truth, I did do a little but of jog-walk during the week, and so long as I don't go too fast or too far, it doesn't hurt one iota, so this week will see a return to some running, albeit cautiously.

(NL)NLS, I have to say that I'm really starting to understand the value of a good ART person. I've used this week to work harder on massaging my legs to loosen up some long-standing tight spots. In the past, I'd been reticent to cause too much pain for fear of injuring myself, but now that I've taken some time off, I've gone ahead and made it hurt. It's been working! But I must say, I can see how it's a lot easier to let someone else hurt you than to self-inflict the pain.

OK. Looking forward to a brighter week (although it's storming out right now, and the forecast is for storms all week.)

Topic: Range of motion. Have you seen a decline in your range of motion over the years, and are you doing anything to combat that? I definitely feel I have less range of motion than I used to, and this week has seen me working more on that. I could probably use some guidance. I'll bet it's pretty important to you, Spikez, so may you have some suggestions.

Hope everyone's had a great week. Post 'em up!

PS-I had forgotten to look at the results from the 10k championships and, of course, Mbarak Hussein, continues to astound. But I feel like I must have been living under a rock in that I didn't know of Paul Zimmerman (fastest 50+ at 32:48!!). By my estimates, if he were put on the track tomorrow, he could easily smash the American 5k 50-54 record. Anyone know him? Does he read our board? I'd love to know more about him and his training.

Cheers.

Anyone ever got in shape after radiation treatment? I'm undergoing treatment right now and will miss the Worlds, even though I live in Sacramento. Wondering if anyones been through this and how long it took to get back in shape.

Sacto, really sorry to hear about your situation. I hope that the treatments are going well, and I gather from the fact that you are already looking towards getting back to training that this is the case. I'm no help on your question, but at least I can wish you godspeed on your recovery. All the Best.

Past 2 weeks were 48 and 38 miles, with some cycling and a transcontinental trip--AK to DC--trip for National History Week for my son and a couple of his friends. Great seeing all the sights and running around the capitol city (and College Park) for the week. But it's good to return to the sub-Arctic outback.

Did a 6.5 mile trail race on the 9th (5th overall), and Midnight Sun Run 10K (36:47 for 1st in AG 7th time) last night.

Sacto, likewise I don't know about getting back into training after radiation but the important thing is getting back to health. Just run how you feel when you feel like it. When tired, take a rest.

31 miles this week. That just felt like the right amount coming back from my Summer cold. My sons ran me mercilessly hard for about 6 miles on trails Saturday morning, and then cooked a great steak BBQ for me Saturday evening. This was also my 39th anniversary, so it was really a fun day for us. Today's run indicated that there may have been a bit too much hard running and too much champagne drinking yesterday but that is part of the fun of being a masters runner. If I can behave myself, I should get in my first track meet of the season this coming week.

Sacto I know an ultra runner who has come back remarkably well after chemo and radiation. Email me here for more info: woozieone@yahoo.com

SactoMaster, best wishes for a full and speedy recovery. Your absence has diminished the Nor Cal running scene.

Range of motion definitely decreases as we age. I wrote a National Masters News column on the benefits of static and dynamic stretching and used myself as an illustration (complete with pictures from 2006 and 2010). I use dynamic stretching drills as part of my warmup and static stretching at the end of the workout. It's not just a quick hammy stretch... I take almost 10 minutes for my static stretching; it's a crucial part of my workout. I have seen far too many runners turn into "shufflers" as their range of motion and stride length shrink. Pete Magill had some excellent dynamic drills to help with range of motion, and if anyone has ever seen Pete run, you know his stride is long and fluid.

A tricky week or so for me.

We had our biggest race of the season on sunday. A 6.4km hilly road race. Ran ok, about = to last year with a 25.42. Felt flat early on and struggled to hang with some guys I'd normally shake off. A steep km climb with 3k left seemed to kick start my diesel engine. From there I was able to run away from those same guys and closed quite strongly.

My last few weeks have been very disruptive with long night shifts and very irregular sleep patterns. I have tried to maintain reasonable training but many runs are done very tired. Also my usual pattern of 2-3 races per weekend has been interupted.

The extra hours of night shift meant I had extra time off last week. My wife and I went off travelling interstate. I missed the weekend races but did manage a pair of decent runs, 18-20kms along the Edward River in NSW on sat/sun.

We spent most of monday driving to the Pacifc Coast. I did get a 75min run (mostly in the dark).

Tues. was a 1h45m run, lots of soft sand, steps, steep roads and rugged sandy bush bashing. A truly delightful run. Also did a solid bit of hiking with my wife.

Wed. lots of beach walking with my wife plus a steady hour run on clifftop trails and soft sandy beaches.

Thu. 800km drive home, arrived 7.30pm. showered and then off to work, back home 9am the next morning 26hrs since I last was in bed. Mmm, wonder why I felt flat on sunday??

A kyak session after a toss/turn 4hrs of sleep, off to work fri night.

Went to the pm. club run on saturday after about 3hr sleep. Very stiff in the back and hips. Skipped the rugged 10k trail race and instead jogged 5-6kms and joined in the 1500m "fun run" handicap and blew a few cobwebs out. Also did 40mins on the mtn bike.

I pulled a "sickie" on saturday night and had a nice 8hr sleep instead. Then the big race on sunday mid-day.

Worked last night, final night shift in this block. Went out this afternoon for a solid 90mins up on the rugged terrain of the N.Park behind my home. Felt pretty good.