50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

hope everyone is having a great holiday. Assuming I stop at some point drinking the gingerbread-flavored coffee Santa left in my stocking and head out the door, I'll end up with 11 hours for the week (6 running, 5 x-training).

highlight was hill repeats on treadmill Thursday afternoon. Matt Centrowitz the elder was two treadmills away, so I felt as though I had to the finish the workout as planned. He has a great coach aura and can serve as a motivator even if, technically speaking, our working at the same school doesn't actually make him my personal coach.

have a great final week of 2016,

Dave

Mon. 1 hr kayak. 20 min spin on the mt.bike and a hilly 2 km jog.

Tue. 1 hr 35 min mtn bike ride and a 3.8 km 20 min run. 2 x 3.3 km walks with 25 kg.

Wed. 10 km run 50 min with 8 x 1 min efforts.

Thu. 1 hr 10 min off trail hike with 25 kgs.

25 km mtn bike ride 1 hr 20 min inc fast climb up Mt Ida.

Fri. 37 min kayak on the river.

Sat. 2.2 km jog to get groceries.

8 km run 3 x Roo Hill and 2 x 1/2 Roo Hill.

330 m elevation gain. Last 3 km in 13.30.

Sun. 10 km. 53 min. 230 m elevation gain.

A few bits were getting a bit sore so a quieter week.

I hope everyone has had or is having a happy time over this holiday period.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannakah, Merry Kwanzaa to all. I must accuse several of you now since you all have posted 2017 goals/resolutions, so now I find myself thinking of those. So here's mine, in some sense of order;

1) stay fit

2) stay healthy

3) keep running most days of the week

4) break 24 for 5 km, break 7:20 for the track mile (or even under 7:10, or 7:00?)

5) decide whether to run a 50 km on April 29 in SW Missouri (Frisco)

6) improve my 1/2 marathon time of 1:58 from last year (seems like only a couple years ago I ran 1:46!, need to check my logs)

7), oh, and get my annual physical exam (put that up near the top).

Thanks for the posts and think I'll stop with a lucky 7 count

We have a Christmas card perfect morning today. We have had frequent snow storms the past week. Southern Idaho is a high desert for those of you not familiar, so most snow is usually gone by the afternoon. Today there is a good four inches off road, so "post hole" running if you veer off the streets. I ran all the week's running on a treadmill. The approximate 30 miles of volume is my most in seven years. I may go out for a couple more miles so I can say I ran seven days in a row.

Monday: 4 miles easy

Tuesday: 4 miles 1/10th walk, 3/10th easy

Wednesday: Leg swings; 2 miles easy; 2 x ( 1/2 mile @ tempo / 2:00 rest; mile @ tempo / 2:00 rest) 7:30 mile pace on all; mile easy

Thursday: 4 miles 1/10th walk, 3/10th easy

Friday: 4 miles easy

Saturday: 2 miles easy; 5 x 6/10th interval pace @ 7:19 / 4/10th easy; mile easy

Igy

Hoping everyone is having a wonderful holiday season.

We're visiting relatives in Ohio this week, and were at the Browns game yesterday for the Christmas Eve Miracle. A great gift for a family of lifelong Browns fans.

35 miles for the week with a 5 mile race yesterday morning before the game. It was 39 with drizzly rain. 6:09 pace for 2nd in M50-54 age group; 1st was the guy one second ahead of me but I didn't know it or would have tried to pass him. I was just concentrating on staying ahead of the guy who finished one place behind me, since he looked to be in my age group, and ended up 5 seconds ahead of him so didn't try to pass the guy who had been 25+ yards ahead of me the entire race. I was hoping to run faster, but with the weather and a fairly tough course with about 3 miles uphill, that was all I really had. Plus the sore back from a too soft bed...

An early Happy New Year wish to everyone.

Warm holiday greetings one and all.

Good to see you coming back Reno...solid racing effort!

Had a very strong 40 mile week and am just a couple days shy of surpassing 1500 miles for 2016.

Heading into the nearby vineyards for a 6 mile Christmas jog with the wife and dog.

Highlights this week was a little track session of 7 x 100 meter cut downs and then 6 x 200 @ 43, 45, 43, 43, 43, 40.57 Also had a good 4 mile anaerobic threshold session on the back side of an 8 miler that included a hard ladder of 2:00, 3:00, 4:00, 4:00, 3:00, 2:00 all with 2 minutes of runing (not jogging) in between.

Lowlight of the week was the passing of one of my all time faves, Miruts Yifter at age 72...we lost a legend :(

Have a fine fine holiday...see you in 2017...we'll leave the lights on.

Merry Christmas everyone!

KP, looks like the weather followed you 3000 miles cross country. Love that Shawsville course. My best there as a 50+’er was 18:57 but I recall in 2007 you going 16:40 and I a distant 3rd in our AG at 19:58.

My week:

Mon = 3 miles road and trail, easy

Tue = 5 miles elliptical, hard

Wed = 3 miles road and trail, medium hard; tweaked heel

Thu = 5 miles ellip, medium

Fri = 3 miles trail, super easy

Sat = 5 miles ellip, medium

Sun = 3 miles trail, easy

I stopped noting paces on the elliptical as it really does not correlate to running very accurately. When I tighten the tension its goes from super easy to super hard. Wed I felt so good I pushed mile 2 of the run really hard and paid for it by tweaking my heel. Thankfully by easing off it got better. If I can learn how to gradually increase my pace rather than letting it rip I believe I could help myself a great deal!

Have a good week everyone.

Week 290: 6 hours 44 minutes in 7 runs

Mon - 48 min hilly

Tue - 1 hr 18 min with 26 min tempo

Wed - 30 min slow

Thu - 1 hr 3 min easy

Fri - 47 min easy

Sat - 1 hr 33 min hilly most all at MP

Sun - 45 min some hills, with 33 min pushing it

I ran yesterday and today with a national class age group ultra runner, and we worked out a compromise. I ran faster than I wanted, and she ran slower than she wanted. I asked her today why she kept speeding up, she said she was only trying to make her bells jingle louder. :)

5K next weekend. I am going to run it without a watch.

Week: 38.6 miles

If I run 5 miles a day to the rest of the year I'll hit 1500 miles even though I took nearly all of January off last year due to illness and injury.

Being a season ticket holder to two professional teams, the Arizona Coyotes NHL hockey team and Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team really hurts my training.

Im exhausted the day after a game, especially a hockey game which I am emotionally involved in..I mean, I get stressed out even during warm ups. ha

I have a seat right on the ice against the glass which makes it that much more tense and always having to look up at the jumbotron gets my back and neck so sore that its hard to ev n get up the next morning.

I never get in from a game until around midnight and there are 42 home games and 2 pre-season games so that sets my training back.

2 this week.

Baseball games are all relaxation.

Being a volunteer for a club here hurts my racing too.

Setting up all the finish line and registration areas for 10 races a year gets me tired before a race...but Im 62.

The one race I did not volunteer for was the big Turkey Day Race where I won my age group and a pie.

Oh well..just average 5 miles for the rest of the year and I can get 1500....

Hi All,

Well I had a solid week. With the team gone and the school mostly closed it was a light work week for a coach. Mostly checking grades and hanging with the baseball coach. I ran 39 miles with a 10 miler on Saturday all around 7:55 pace Also got two bike rides in and two swims. I did one 3000yd swim in 53:30 almost 5 minutes faster then my best. I got a little technique work and it helped a lot.

So here are my goals:

Running:

Mile 5:30 5k 18:30 10k 39:00 half marathon 1:25 and Marathon 3;15 (just want to qualify.

I'll be at a lot of track meets this spring with the team so I might have to rely on time trials but I am already signed up for Shamrock in Virginia Beach.

Triathlon - still don't know if I made that team to Worlds or not but if I do that will be my main focus after a winter of running. This would include 25:00 for 1500 swim and sub 1:05 40k bike and 42 10k - if I do that I am top 15 in the country - long course 31 for 1.2m 2:26 56 bike and 1:35 marathon - could put me in the top 5 for that distance.

Racewalking - some are going to be surprised by this but not much. I like to do it to cross train but I really don't want to race. It just isn't as much fun as other stuff and lets face it - I already did that a long time ago.

Also, if anyone would like to talk to me about training ideas feel free to email me. The whole coaching thing is kind of in my wheel house. Not that I want to coach anyone but I'll be a resource. Also I am muddling my way through this as much as anyone - the body doesn't act the same anymore :)

M: off.

T: 7 miles.

W: 7 miles.

R: swimming 1000m.

F: 7 miles.

SA: 6.7 miles.

SU: 10 miles.

We still have one more week to go. So I will save the 2017 goal for the next week. Happy holidays to everyone.

Merry Christmas and Happy Winter Solstice to all.

A lost week for me. Woke up Monday morning with a blazing sore throat and stuffed sinuses, took three days completely off, then did a little work on the indoor bike on Thurs and Fri as I was starting to feel better. Friday night, the second wave hit me like a ton of bricks, one of the worst upper-respiratory bugs I can ever recall having. Nothing frightening but quite debilitating. I slept at least 10 hours Friday and Saturday nights and still had to take several naps on Saturday. Today was better--still dripping and hacking, but less exhausted.

This was not the worst weekend one could be out of commission, with lots of football on TV and lots of books received as gifts. I hope to start running again sometime next week, but will have to build it back up very carefully. It looks like a New Year's Eve race is now out of the question.

An early Happy New Year to all.

With icy roads and snowy trails this past week, I continued base building with no workouts. All easy pace, except Thursday's "long run" where I maintained 7:33 per mile on the road portion and "same effort" (but a lot slower) on the snow-covered trail section.

After averaging less than 20 miles per week for most of 2016, I am slowly building mileage.

Mon: 7.0 miles @ 8:18/mi

Tues: 7.0 miles @ 8:07/mi including 4 x 100y strides

Wed: 4.6 miles @ 8:11/mi

Thurs: 12.0 miles @ 7:45/mi

Fri: Off

Sat: 9.0 miles @ 8:07/mi

Sun: 4.6 miles @ 8:30/mi

Reflecting on the goals I posted last week, I realized my target marathon time is exactly the same as my very first one 35 years ago: 3:15. Of course, as a youngster I was able to bounce back a month later and run 2:52 in my second attempt. I won't be repeating THAT sequence in 2017!

Happy Holidays and happy trails!

I had to skip two days (Monday-Tuesday) because my ITB was bothering me. I ran 29 miles for the rest of the week and it seemed to get progressively better. I also did 3 snowshoe hikes, totaling about 12 or 13 miles. On Christmas eve I did about 10K at 9200-9800 ft, west of Boulder.

Running highlight was 8 miles with a 3.5 mile tempo at 6:30 pace (7500'), so that's encouraging.

Knee/hip a bit tight but progressing. Should be back in the mid-40s this week, but taking today off.

1 workout ran 2 miles

6:58 mile with HR 157 which is 75% of MHR

4 x .25 with 20 seconds rest

90 99 103 103 6:35 this was not that hard with HR hitting 75 percent at the end of each quarter

The rest of the week was lots of hiking about 90 minutes per day with one 3 hour day.

Today I wanted to run the Glendoveer loop but the chips were frosty. So I did 80 minute warmup. Hiking up a 2 minute hill on frosty slippery Glendoveer wood chips . Then as I was about to leave Thought what if today was the last day of your life so I decided to strip down and run like hell. First mile is uphill and I ran it really hard in 7:20 which was 23 seconds faster than 5 weeks ago. Also hit the first quarter which is flat in 85.Took a 10 seconds rest then did the second mile at a comfortable but hard effort in 7:12 downhill. so 14:42 I will take it. WAG sub 14 by the end of January.

Weight sucks gotta get some WILL POWER soon or I can try and run under six 30 lbs overweight. My diet is good(quantity and quality of calories) except for 500 calories a day of chocolate.

This week I am going to try and run a 3 minute 800 after a 6:45 1600 with complete rest.

Onward!

My diet is good(quantity and quality of calories) except for 500 calories a day of chocolate.

This week I am going to try and run a 3 minute 800 after a 6:45 1600 with complete rest.

Onward![/quote]

GOOD goals towards a sub 6:00 mile...the 800/1600 combo...not the chocolate ;)

Your pal,

MF

Hey Mike thanks for the feedback and it worked pretty good but I did reverse the order did the half first then the mile.

Dec 31st 30 minutes easy warmup walking various inclines and speeds

10 minutes of hip leg exercises

200 at 9mph 1.5 percent incline felt sluggish

few more minutes of walking

3:05 at 10mph this felt pretty easy

at 1 minute I was thinking only 2 more minutes no sweat

at 2:15 I visualized the final 200 in 45 seconds

done and could have kept going a lot longer

hit stop HR only 157

restarted asap at 8.6mph instead of 9mph because I am a woose

did a mile felt pretty comfortable.

Doing a fast/goal pace effort followed by a long semi fast pace recovery

I think produces a better OBLA bang for the buck with less chance of injury

Your muscle fiber recruitment is still high while you clear / recover

Analysis my lactate shuttle is getting tuned up.

Could probably run close to 6 flat on the tread mill right now

but outdoors no way not yet.Weight not sure but feel lighter my old mechanical spring scale sucks

it registers anywhere between 160 and 153.

Chocolate 7 Charlie 0 but at least I am keeping score;)

rest of the week was 4 days of 2 hour treadmill walks

and two days of 2 hour hills.

Polarized training Rocks!

Question for masters runners: I am training for a half marathon using Pfzingers' 12/47 plan with a modification of 2 extra easy +/- rest days to make 9 day training cycle. I'm about 40 % into the plan and am doing ok with it but one thing I notice compared to previous half plans is the emphasis on getting the mileage in over 4-5 days as opposed to 6-7 days. My question is " do you get more of a physiologic benefit doing a semi long run of 9 and taking a rest day than breaking it up into an easy 4 and an easy 5 over 2 days?"

So far I am handling the mileage but it looks like soon it ramps up with some 9-11 mile endurance runs during the week in addition to the usual long run/ progression long run of 12-14. I'm hoping with my two extra rest/ easy days during the week that I will be able these longer easy runs.

I did have an extended base building phase prior to the plan of consistent 28/32 mpw for 4 months

Mon. Off.

Tue. 40 min kayak. 3.2 km hilly run 20 mins. 30 min spin on the mtn bike.

Wed. 2.6 km hill hike with weighted backpack 39 min. 156 metres of elevation. 7 km hilly run 47 min 180 metres elevation gain.

Thu. 21 km muddy mtn bike ride 1 hr 20 min.

Fri. 35 min kayak.

Sat. 7 km weighted backpack hike 1 hr.

10 km hilly golf course run 55 min.

Sun. 8 km mixed bag on Roo Hill. 460 metres of elevation gain. 1 hr 26 min.

A mix of weighted backpack hiking and hill running. A quick 5.38 Roo climb in the middle.