50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

lucKY2b wrote:

I thought it would be a 4-hour project (maybe for Dave it would be), but it ended up taking me until dusk to get it built and hung;

One thing I have learned after 20 years in the business is everything takes twice as long and costs twice as much as planned! That's why quoting is so hard. You have to cover your butt, then do it again, and maybe again, then mark it up!

Catching up after missing a post last week. Basically two solid weeks; 71 miles last week; 73 this week. Avg'd 7:43/mi last week; 7:27 this week. Mostly relaxed comfortable runs. A couple workouts were: 15 mi @ 7:32 on 10/6 and 4 mile tempo 24:07 (6:17, 6:08, 5:59, 5:43) on 10/11.

Yesterday I got into something totally different, but very rewarding. I was a guide runner for a visually impaired runner. Ran with Amy (McDonaugh) Kelley. She won not just the VI division but was the overall womens winner in 21:50!

From my FB page...

Here's what I did:

On Oct 15th, I’ll be adding a new and exciting chapter to my running resume. At the VIPS (Visually Impaired Preschool Services) 5K Run in Louisville, KY, I will be a guide runner for Amy McDonaugh. Amy is the VI Women’s World Record holder for the Half Marathon in 1:22:23, has a Marathon PR of 2:47 and was the overall women’s winner in the 2011 Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon. So it will be quite an honor!

And here's why I did it:

My motive? Our 6 month old granddaughter Daphne was born with Microphthalmia in her left eye; coloboma in both. That’s why being involved with VIPS and using my gift of running to help is important to me. VIPS has been very helpful to Daphne, Megan and Aaron the past two months. In August, 4 month old Daphne was accepted as a VIPS student. VIPS will play a huge part in their lives and be crucial to helping with her development in the coming years.

I'm looking for one more bigger mileage week this week. Our last long run before the Indianapolis Monumental HM will be Thursday.

Have a good week,

Dave

Wow L2b...This is in your neck of the woods. Sad story.

Dave

racerdb wrote:

http://www.wkyt.com/content/news/Girl-shot-in-the-neck-in-Lexington-397225761.html?twitter

Wow L2b...This is in your neck of the woods. Sad story.

Yep. We're all in shock here. Truly tragic! Just so sad.

OK, folks, now that I've managed to run my first race in five months, perhaps I'll start posting here with something other than suggestions for dealing with injuries.

The quick summary: female, age 58, a runner off and on since about age 19. My Achilles tendon blew up on July 5, 2015 and I spent the rest of 2015 rehabbing it carefully. Thought I had it under control by spring, ran several pretty good races including a 1:40:xx half-marathon in May, and then in the middle of May it blew up again for no obvious reason. So since May I've been in rehab again, jogging a little and doing a lot of mileage on the bike. I can only run three days per week--a run of any distance leaves me sufficiently sore that I need the next day off--but it doesn't seem to matter whether I run 2 miles or 12, so I've gotten up to around 30 mpw on 3 days per week, but no intensity whatsoever.

Today was my local home-town half-marathon. It starts and finishes 3 miles from my home and run on the roads and paths I run every day. I decided to enter it, despite having done no "training" since May. Figured I'd try going out with the 1:50 pacer and see how that felt. Well, as usual, I can't get my mind to forget the pace I used to be able to run, and I went out way too fast and struggled over the last 5 miles. However, I was delighted to see the clock still reading 1:46:xx (1:46:49 to be precise) as I came across the line in fourth place among all women (it was a tiny race with only about 60 female finishers). Since I've been struggling to run 9-minute pace in training, racing a half-marathon at 8:09 pace seemed very good.

I've obviously lost a lot of conditioning in the past 5 months but this was a good start. It remains to be seen how badly my Achilles will blow up after this effort and how long it will take me to get back to doing some running. I have another half-marathon scheduled in three weeks, and will hope to do a bit better.

Reboot: Congratulations on hanging tough through your 5k and on your medal winning performance!

racerdb: Thanks for filling us in on your volunteer opportunity and why it means so much to you. Is there a national organization for guides or do we

need to look for local races that need guides to volunteer?

amkelley: Good to hear that you're making such progress. Congratulations on

your post-injury debut!

I got in 42 miles this week. I cut back a little on intensity because my legs felt dead. A day off really helped and gave me the chance to drive 3 hours to watch my son race and have a short visit before he left on the team bus. It was a good "Mom Fix".

Mon: 7 with 4.5 XC

Tue: 6 Easy

Wed: 6 Easy

Thu: 4.4 Tempo - legs dead

Fri: Off

Sat: 7 @ 8:31

Sun 12 @ 9:18

Hope y'all have a great week!

Kind of an odd week for me

Monday-off, travel home day from vacation

Tuesday 6 easy 9:00 148 HR

Wed 6 moderate 8:30 160 HR

Thursday off feeling real tired and out of sorts

Friday off still feeling tired and sore

Saturday 6 pace 8:10 pretty hard to do HR 165-170

Sunday 12 felt great 8:30 at 152 HR

total 30

Next week begins another long round, hopefully I've recovered.

61 years old

cancer

5 or 7 epidurals (really can't remember)

colectomy from diverticulitis.

Runner since 1977

Mon: 2 miles

Tue: 7.7 miles in 1:00.00

Wed: 2 Miles

3.1 Miles

Thur: 6.3 miles 55:01-Went to Arizona Coyotes charity luncheon. Incredible time and got to talk to each player, coach, front office guy and CEO and President. LETS GO YOTES!

Fri: 6.2 miles

Sat: 7 Miles 1:00.23- Ran around Gila River Arena and Westgate morning before season opener against the Philadelphia Flyers.

Sun: Could not run. Excitement from opening night overtime victory just wore me out. Now, I have two weeks of mandatory boring week.

That is so I can save up for season tickets in two sports sitting in premium seats.

I have two car payments as it were.

So next two weeks should look better.

Alan Bennet wrote:

Allen1959 wrote:

Marksch: Lots of quality running this past week! Looking for sub-3 in the spring?

I was wondering the same thing. But the speed workout was unnecessarily fast for that.

I would like to go under 3 hours at Boston. I would also like to go under 18 for the 5k.....though I have only done about 3 races in the past 2 years....the kids have all the weekends booked up with soccer games etc.

My past week.

Monday: 13.1 in 1:33

Tuesday: 4.3 in 32:15

Wednesday: 4.3 in 31:45

Thursday: 2 w/u then 10 x 400 in 1:21 to 1:22 with a 200 jog in between, and 1.5 to cool down.

Friday: 4.5 in 32:30

Saturday: total of 6.5, with 4.3 of that in 26:55.

Hope to squeeze in a couple 5ks before Thanksgiving, and might like to see what I could do for a half, if I can find one that fits the schedule.

Love seeing all the training.

SCgal wrote:

Allen'59: Congratulations on your race. Maybe we should all use your training method!

Alan B: Sorry to hear about your calf re-injury. I'm sending you sympathy and good thoughts for a speedy recovery.

What he said!!!

Very solid race strategy, and the restraint to stick to it.

Hope the calf recovers well

Hello All:

Well I had a humbling half marathon experience yesterday in Columbus, OH. I thought there was an outside chance I could get just under 1:40 but with not a lot of preparation and only four long runs over the past six weeks (my first ten-milers of the past three decades as well!) I decided to lay off that pace and run behind the 3:25 marathon pace group. Thought if I could hang with them through maybe 8 miles I might pick it up a little for a low 1:40s finish. Even running 10-20 metres behind that group I went through 10k averaging 7:36/mile, still on 1:40 pace, and then started to suffer badly. I tried to reset at about 8:00/mile to run it in and I took a gel at 8 miles and my stomach tied up, forcing me to stop in toilets at 10 and 12 miles. As drained as I was, the main thing holding me back from trying to finish strong was the feeling every time I picked it up a little that I was going to crap myself. I struggled home with an official 1:53. About 1:49 on the Garmin, paused during toilet stops.

In addition to not enough long runs I don't think I managed anywhere near enough tempo/threshold pace running. This isn't surprising given that I entered this only 7 weeks ahead of race day and had two injuries in the build up. I'm actually encouraged by the 10k split. I think under better pacing I could have managed 1:45 yesterday and if I can get a proper buildup with weekly 10-12 milers for months and nail down the race day fuel problems I should be able to get that sub-1:40 in the spring.

This was my first really large race and I was unprepared for a couple of things. The first was how crowded it was. I know 7:35-7:40s isn't blazing fast but I was shocked how wide the group was in those first 5-6 miles and it was a challenge getting to water stations. I didn't drink enough early. The biggest shock to me, though, was the corral system. I said goodbye to the wife and kids and walked into the athletes only entrance then stood packed into a tight crowd for 17 minutes watching the clock tick down. I've never before run a race without at least a quarter mile jog and while a half marathon gives you plenty of time to warm up, at my age throwing down a 7:46 opening mile with absolutely no warm up and little stretching, at 7:30 in the morning, is a shock to the system! I normally start my Sunday runs at 6:30am but my first mile is usually over 9:00.

Anyway, I'm disappointed but not discouraged. I don't see a marathon in my near future, if at all, but a spring half is likely.

Happy running!

AndyB

SCgal wrote:

racerdb: Thanks for filling us in on your volunteer opportunity and why it means so much to you. Is there a national organization for guides or do we

need to look for local races that need guides to volunteer?

I have been researching this a bit. Here is one place that matches guides with VI runners. I think this is what I want to do in my next running life!

Dave

Hoser, Seriously congratulations on a good result.

With your proto-injuries piling up and the mileage being down nursing them, I think you did FANTASTIC.

I got proto-injuries from Dave; I hope I used it correctly. Too lazy to look it up.

Ken

Thanks, Reboot. Appreciate the support.

Impressive result for you this week. Not only did you recover from the sluggishness you'd been experiencing but you came back fast after a slower second mile. That's a huge challenge for me--generally once my pace slows I'm usually going backwards the rest of the race. Nice work!

amkelley, I would love to get a discussion going about soreness, as my research is biased with only a single input; mine.

For the last couple years I've run basically every other day and walk around sore every single day. That trip (trips) to the bathroom every night is a slow hobble.

This summer over a 70 day span I ran 6 of 7 days and had a couple 10/12 days spans without a break, and at the time I was surprised I was actually less sore than running every other day.

I'm on a 'fall taper', or I just got lazy, but the last several weeks have been about every other day or 2 of every 3, and I am back to being very sore again; even before my race this weekend.

So, the question for the 50+ crowd is:

Do you find yourself to be:

A> more sore running every other or once every 3 days versus running 6+ of 7 days.

B> more sore running every or nearly every day versus every other day.

Ken

Reboot runner wrote:

Do you find yourself to be:

A> more sore running every other or once every 3 days versus running 6+ of 7 days.

B> more sore running every or nearly every day versus every other day.

Ken

Until a few months ago, I almost always ran every day. When I got a significant injury I would stop running completely and/or cut my mileage way down, but I would generally either run at least a little every day or not run at all (and get on the bike instead). But this summer, after suffering a big flare-up of the Achilles tendon issue I thought I had solved during the spring, I found that my Achilles would get sore starting 6-10 hours after a run and would still be somewhat sore the following morning, but OK by the second day. So I began running every other day, and cycling on the off days. With this particular injury, 30 miles done in three days per week works much better than 30 miles divided over six or seven days. Of course I really want to get back to the 7 days, 70-80 miles per week I was doing before, but perhaps that is not to be...

Anne

I ended up getting surgery to fix my Achilles Tendonosis. It turned out great, no more issue, about 5 months before I could run though. There is another non surgical procedure getting good reviews, it's called Tenex.

Hi All -- not a lot to report here, other than successfully going two weeks straight with now running after my marathon. Not much in the way of aerobic cross training either. I did do a bunch of indoor rock climbing and a few weight room sessions.

Back on the streets today! I ran 5.5 miles at 7:45 pace, which felt good for the most part. I'm tempted to crank up the paces on my easier days a bit in the next buildup, but that might change quickly after I get back to 5 (next two weeks) and then 6 runs per week.

Will run another 26.2 in the spring -- already looking forward to it! I definitely learned a few things about where I am fitness-wise, which I hope will lead to better training and pacing decisions. We will see though, as after every training cycle I seem to convince myself that I'm more fit than is actually the case!

I should have included this link to my last week's post. This site shows you which marathons have the fastest courses.

http://findmymarathon.com/fastestmarathoncourses.php

My week.

M: swimming 1000m.

T: 4 miles / 7 miles.

W: 12 miles (5th-8th miles @ 7:53-7:47-7:41-7:35, 9th-11th miles @ 7:30)

R: 4 miles / 7 miles.

F: 9 miles.

SA: 7 miles.

SU: 20 miles.

I had a flu shot on Wednesday morning, and doing the 12 mile progression later on the day probably wasn't the best idea. Sunday was very warm, so finishing the 20 miler was a bit of struggle.

And finally, since no one else has mentioned, congratulations to Ed Whitlock on breaking another WR this weekend! Sub-4 at 85 is quite impressive.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/programs/metromorning/ed-whitlock-toronto-marathon-record-1.3808191

@Hoser, eh - I would not dispute any of the reasons you gave, but will add this one: it was too dang hot! Usually in the team tent there are dozens and dozens of PRs, and smiles all around. This year I heard of only five PRs, and the group as a whole was pretty morose. It was the usual litany of issues: cramps, GI, heat exhaustion, and the mysterious "I felt fine, but when I tried to run fast at the end I just couldn't." At least you were not running the full. For them it was carnage.

@Reboot Runner - I didn't notice any extra soreness, but running every other day I did notice overtraining. I was pushing the pace on every run. It's not just that the legs are fresher, the mind is fresher as well, but in a lopsided way. It's the immature ego that is boosted more, and can't be restrained. I would start an essy run with the resolve to be disciplined and run slowly, and finish near tempo pace. Running every day, the problem doesn't go completely away, but somehow my resolve is carried out more often.