50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

@ old guy 2 really like what you are doing. Who says you can't teach an old dog a new trick;)

Next race is the 1500 which KP is also racing next Saturday. Not (yet) ready to race KP but I may get to 1400 before he finishes;)

Training summary since my last/first race at the end of April 1 mile 5:51

T is for tempo 8 tempos runs

V is for Vo2Max 4 Vo2maxs efforts

P is for what I call pace work 4 pace work runs

I might get crazy and go out hard as my endurance is much better anyhow it will be FUN!

T1 Wednesday May 2nd 2 mile Mild tempo on Glendoveer no time Weight 150.4

V1 Sunday May 7th 4x1/2 mile 60 sec rest on Glendoveer woodchips Weight 148.2.

3:14 3:05 3:02 3:00

T2 Thursday May 11th 2.5 mile Mild tempo on Glendoveer 17:22. Zero marker west on Halsey to new 1 mile marker and back 13:52 (7:05/6:47) plus ½ in 3:30 Weight 148.6

T3 Sunday May 14th 2.5 mile Mild tempo on Glendoveer 17:14. Zero marker west on Halsey to new 1 mile marker and back 13:50 (7:03/6:47) plus ½ in 3:24 Weight 146.6

P1 Tuesday May 16th .75 Mile Pace Work treadmill 10mph 120 seconds, 11 mph 90 secs, 12 mph 75 secs(HR 162) with 120 rest.

T4 Wednesday May 17th 2.5 mile Mild tempo on Glendoveer 17:06. Zero marker west on Halsey to new 1 mile marker and back 13:46 (7:01/6:45) plus ½ in 3:20

V2 Saturday May 20 2,218 meters Pace Work on a treadmill 7:30 total run time (5:26 per mile): 12mph 90 seconds, 11 mph 2 minutes, 10 mph 4 minutes with 2 minutes rest. Warmed up with 1 hour walk, 20 minutes rowing, 2 minutes at 9 then 2 at 8 then 20 seconds at 10,11 and12. Felt GREAT! Weight 142.8!

T5 Tuesday May 23rd 2.5 mile Mild tempo on Glendoveer 17:07. Zero marker west on Halsey to new 1 mile marker and back 13:47 (6:57/6:50) plus ½ in 3:20 Weight 146.6

Half mile warmup tired awkward

P2 Saturday May 27th 2 x 100 21 19 then a 400 in 75.74 pretty even splits(18.69,18.99,18.97,19.19) with gradual slow down.

T6 Sunday May 28th 4.5 miles on treadmill with 3.5 at 7:30 followed by 1 at 6:40. Weight 146.6.Longest run by a mile for this comeback of 7 months.

V3 Wednesday May 31 treadmill with 2+ miles progressive run from tempo to vo2max 4 minutes rest then 900 meters mile pace work 11.1 mph/80.5 seconds per 400m

P3 Saturday June 3rd mile pace work 2 x 100 19 , 19 then 2 x 400 with 80 seconds rest: 77.42 , 80.10. Wanted a bit faster but main focus was relaxed effort and good form.

T7 Sunday June 4th 4 miles on treadmill 1 mile warmup then 3 miles easy tempo progression miles of 7:30,6:56 then 6:30. HR at end 150 which is 75 percent of MaxHr. Weight 143.8.

V4 Wednesday June 7th 1200 : 82 86 86. 4:14 projects to 5:17.50 for 1500 Weight 147.4

All out I probably could have run 4:08 maybe 5:10 for the full 1500.

T8 Saturday June 10 2 miles on treadmill 12:30 hard tempo but not VO2Max probably could run 11:50 all out. Weight 143.6.

P4 Monday June 12 tread mill to just do a few strides 30 secs at 10 30 secs at 11 walk a bit

Quarter at 12 mph felt great could have done a half mile.

V5 Thursday June 15 Vo2Max tread mill 2 miles in 12 minutes / 10mph Weight 142.4. Hard but not all out. Started the clock at 30 seconds so the treadmill was running at 10mph. So 5:10 for the 1500 is about right. We will see on Saturday the 24th.

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there. My own father died a couple of years ago (at age 92) and my husband isn't a father, so this isn't a participatory holiday for me.

The week started out OK and ended rather badly for my bad Achilles.

Mon: 4 miles at 9:00 pace; 60 minutes on bike trainer

Tues: 6.1 miles at 8:51 pace; 45 minutes on trainer

Weds: 32 miles on bike

Thurs: 10.8 miles at 8:37/mile in the morning. Then walked home from work wearing my new hiking boots, to make sure they don't hurt my feet. My gosh, walking is slow when you're used to running and cycling! I really tried to walk fast and completed the ~3.5 miles in 49 minutes. It was 92 degrees under brilliant sunshine and it was plenty hot. Fortunately the hiking boots feel fine.

Fri: 32 miles on bike.

Sat: 11.1 miles at 8:50 pace. Beginning of heat wave here; it was 74 degrees with brilliant sunshine at 7 am and I was melting by the end of my run. Go ahead and laugh--I'm not acclimated to the heat. Spent the rest of the day feeling wiped out. And my heel started to hurt quite a lot by the end of the day.

Sun: 40 mile bike ride in just under 2.5 hours. 81 degrees under a blazing sun when I finished at 7:50 am, but on a bike that's still OK. Felt strong, and fully recovered from yesterday's overheating.

Heel feels completely fine on the bike but is still pretty iffy walking. I'm supposed to do a big hike with husband up in the Sierras on Tuesday. Don't know whether I'll recover in time for it. If not, he'll go by himself and leave me hanging out at home in the 110 degree heat.

lucKY2b, I was intrigued by your description of running on a harness track. I'm a big horse racing fan and I'd always assumed that horse tracks are way too soft for humans to run efficiently. Interesting to learn that's not the case.

Have a good week,

Had a good week in Alaska with my family, visiting old friends and getting in some running and taking in the local scene, topped off with a canoe trip on a river on Friday and 10K on Saturday. This follows the week were my eldest graduated from college in the NW.

Not sure if I'll run today, as we head back today and we have a full schedule of things to do. But the week involved

M - easy 8

T - 9.5 with some pace reps (3X800) speed (400, 200, 200) as a tune up to adjust to lower elevation

W - Easy 8 on trails

Th - 7 with pick ups

F - Shakeout for 30 minutes

S - Race

Saturday's race was one of those rare occasions where expectations were exceeded and then some. My goal since turning 50 nearly a decade ago has been to run an age grade 90 percent at something, sometime.

I came really close (3 sec, 89.9%) early in spring, with a 36:09 10K. But I was still aiming for a bit more. I don't get many opportunities to race at sea level, and having run this race 10 times since 2004, knew it would be a good one if everything fell into place. Turned out to be perfect with temps at about 60, witha slight breeze, and a fairly deep field (mostly college age and a few high schoolers in the top 20 or 25).

Mile splits (rounded) were 5:52, 5:47, 5:40, 5:43, 5:45, 5:43, and 1:13 for the 0.21 to finish in 35:43. According to ye olde age grade calculator that was 90.99%. So, did it at last. It all clicked. I had no rough patches, just kept motoring.

My sons raced too, PRd, and we all went top 20. Also met a very good 60+ runner who happened to be in town for the race, and we had a few minutes to discuss the USATF masters circuit, of which I've done some XC champs but also hope to get into the road scene this year and next.

Happy fathers day to everyone! And have a good week.

Indeed, Happy Fathers Day to all the dads, stepdads and surrogate dads. I am anticipating a fine day, myself, as both my sons will be sharing the afternoon here. They both turn 30 this year ... how can that be?! Weren't we all 30 just the other day? And one of my sons is expecting a son of his own this October. Our first grandchild!

An increase in mileage this week. Just one workout (today's tempo run). A slow long run, and a quality secondary long run (what Pfitzinger calls the "medium long run" in his more recent schedules). I am continuing with his Advanced Marathoning moderate mileage plan, modified to a nine-day cycle. That allows two recovery days between the long run, the "medium long run" and the lactate threshold workout.

I included a couple short bicycle rides again this week to help manage my ongoing knee issues.

I took a couple 800mg doses of ibuprofen after some oral surgery this past week, and WOW! my legs and knees felt young and spry! I didn't run that day, but I felt so good I started looking a the summer race calendar, envisioning all sorts of exciting competition. Alas, however, back to the reality age 57 aches and pains the next day ...

My training week:

JUNE 12-18, 2017:

LR: 15.2 miles @ 8:32/mi

Easy: Bile 18.5 miles @ 19.1 mph

Easy: 10.0 miles @ 8:04/mi

LR2: 12.4 miles @ 7:13/mi

Easy: Bike 18.5 miles @ 19.0 mph

Easy: 8.4 miles @ 8:42/mi

LT: 2-mile warmup; 4.0 miles @ 6:40/mi; 1-mile cooldown

WEEK TOTAL: 53.0 MILES

2017 Race Goals

5K: 6:13/mi (19:20) -- Achieved April 2nd @ 6:06/mi (18:57)

Half Marathon: 6:50/mi (1:29:30) -- Achieved April 30th @ 6:46/mi (1:28:41)

Marathon: 7:26/mi (3:15:00) -- Target race October 1st

Enjoy the day, enjoy the week!

-Allen

Happy Father's Day to all -- keeps it all in perspective.

3 runs totaling 18 miles including race yesterday

3 swims totaling 3 miles

1 45 min spin

Ran Mount Washington yesterday. It was my third time, but first since 2000. I have not been that challenged mentally in a long time. Ran the whole way until the last turn with its 22 percent grade as my calf was cramping. I was 50 seconds slower than 17 years ago and snagged 3rd in 55 ag. Was hoping for a faster time but after my race in the heat 6 days earlier, I'll take it. Thankfully, I listened to the 1980s song Long Distance Runner before the race and the line about putting one foot in front of the other until your race is done got stuck in my brain!

Although tired today, I am thrilled that legs don't feel abused at all. No pounding running uphill.

@Coyote Montane

NICE ONE! Congratulations on breaking 90 that is hard to do also great splits you are strong right now

nice fathers' day run with my younger son, just home after his first year at cal poly slo. good and bad: the good is that i ran 4 miles, rounding out a week of relatively pain free running; the bad, that's my longest run in around 2 months, part of why i haven't had much to post about in a while.

since the past year has been horrendous health-wise for me, i'll focus on the future as summer begins: flint road mile in august, and the tulsa 15k in october will see my first major race as a 50 yo.

stay healthy my friends,

cush

Happy Fathers Day to all the dads out there. Went out for lunch with my son and wife. 26+ miles for me this week. Getting use to running at 5am during the week to beat the heat. Race on Saturday was nearly 40 sec faster than last year so that’s encouraging. I think increasing my long run to at least 10 miles will have the biggest payback. The last 2 miles in the race I struggled to maintain pace.

Mon: off

Tue: 4.4 miles in 44 min

Wed: 6 miles with 3x mile @8:00, 3 min rec

Thu: 4.5 miles trails in 48 mins

Fri: 2.1 miles in 21 mins with 5 stride outs

Sat: 4 mile race in 30:26. Pretty even splits. 1 mile wu, short cool down

Sun: 4.5 miles trail in 48 min

60 mile week

including 2 workouts

2 x 800 @ mile pace

2 x 400 at mile pace minus 2

2 x 200 at mile pace minus 4

3M @ 5:25 pace

1.5M @ 5:20 pace

3/4 mile at 4:55 pace

87 degree weather - SUCKED BIGTIME

lucKY2b:Troy Reeder was the 2013 Indiana HS 1600 champ in 4:07. He went to Hamilton Southeastern HS north of Indianapolis in Fishers.

Coyote Montane: Congrats on the 91%'er! Thats a good day!

I had a solid 66 mile week of just running. I want to log a few weeks of relaxed running before beginning my Fall 5K/mile training. Happy to report I'm still healthy with no injuries to speak of!

M: am: 5.6 Miles in 42:30 [7:35 per mile] pm: 4.67 Miles in 35:13 [7:32 per mile]

T: 7.58 Miles in 57:08 [7:32 per mile]

W: am: 4.49 Miles in 33:38 [7:29 per mile] pm: 6.5 Miles in 49:37 [7:38 per mile]

T: 10 Miles in 1:15:57 [7:35 per mile]

F: am: 4 easy pm: 4 easy

S: 10 Miles in 1:12:47 [7:16 per mile] 742,733,737,735,729,720,707,659,651,634

S: 7.75 Miles in 59:17 [7:38 per mile]

Next up for me is the road mile champs at the end of August. Any milers (cush, KP, MikeF...) want to suggest some mile workouts? Just a steady dose of 200's, 400's, 600's, 800's? I haven't trained for a mile since HS in 1978 but would like to make a serious effort this year. My goal is 4:51.4 which would age grade exactly to a 4:00 mile. Why not?

Yours in Running,

Dave

Week 315: 10 hours 32 minutes in 7 runs

Mon - 1 hr slow on grass

Tue - 1 hr 30 min moderate

Wed - 1 hr slow on grass

Thu - 1 hr 44 min moderate

Fri - 1 hr 1 min slow on grass

Sat - 2 hr 47 min easy

Sun - 1 hr 29 min easy

@lucKY2b - I think you repeated "week 311" or thereabouts. Good to see you turning it around. Consistency first, effort second.

@RF Reader - "I sometimes wonder if we should be doing the opposite -- running a little easier in the shade and a little harder in the sun." Makes sense if shade to sun is about 50/50. But in the general case, with your method, the less shade there is, the more time spent running.

racerdb wrote:

Next up for me is the road mile champs at the end of August. Any milers (cush, KP, MikeF...) want to suggest some mile workouts? Just a steady dose of 200's, 400's, 600's, 800's? I haven't trained for a mile since HS in 1978 but would like to make a serious effort this year. My goal is 4:51.4 which would age grade exactly to a 4:00 mile. Why not?

Yours in Running,

Dave

bread and butter is probably repeat 400s, but it depends what direction you're coming from. i can get away with 5k training, adding in only a few 400s at the end of track sessions just to get comfortable with the pace. some seem to benefit from faster 200s to make the mile pace 400s feel slow, but that's never been me.

maybe the best thing you can do for yourself is daily strides after easy and recovery runs--i still try to adhere to my santa monica track club routine of 10x100, 2 easy/1 good...

hope this helps, and hope to toe the line with you in flint,

cush

Mon. 10 km run 1.00, (120 m)

Tue. 10 km run 1.12. (320 m). 34 min mtn. bike ride.

Wed. 10 km run 1.04. (230 m). 36 min mtb. ride. 32 min kayak.

Thu. 36 min mtb. ride. 4.6 km run 31 min.

(150 m) stumbled and gave my troublesome butt and hammy a nasty overstretch. Had to walk back home.

Sat. 40 min lively mtb ride.

Sun. Fast 25 min mtb ride out to have lunch with the oldest daughter at her lakeside van.

1 hr fast ride back. 23 min kayak.

Bit of a setback with the hamstring/ butt issue after a near tumble out on an easy jog.

I managed an easy jog tonight so we will see how I go the next few days.

Hello! Greetings to all.

Poking my head back into the forum. Nice to see all the father's day wishes, as well as the ususal workout stories.

Ran 21 minutes on grass yesterday morning.

I'm three months past my 60th birthday and half marathon PR, and I've done maybe 4 - 5 runs in that time. I have Achilles tendinosis on my right side.

Headed back to accupunture which seems to help. I'm determined to work with nutrition, physical therapy, and other stuff. I won't do surgery. I'll wait it out if I have to.

Pretty frustrating! I'd been on a training and racing roll for 3 years prior. I'd never raced a half marathon before this period (I'm a life-long mid D geek).

Since college, I seem to go on a trajectory of 3 years of enthusiastic training/racing, followed by 2-3 years of easy and less frequent running. This is only the 2nd time since 1972 that I've had an injury that stops me from running.

Best to all, Steve

Big Red,

I have passed on my experience on Achilles issues before, but for you benefit. I had a bout that I was almost certain would lead to surgery. I avoided that.

1. PT therapy, working out some biomechanical issues. Gastron treatment. Heel lifts in walking and running shoes. Running on AlterG treadmill.

2. Once recovered: gentle Calf/Achilles wall stretch daily. Two times a week eccentric heels drops from a platform; worked up to doing with a 15 lb dumbbell. Run hard workout or hills with a hard rubber or cork heel lift. Started with one where you could peel off the layers over time the lessen the elevation.

Good luck.

Igy

@RacerDB and the mile...

I was thinking you should do this mile again.Two years ago your prep worked well so maybe something like.Also you might want to do a rust buster. I looked at your buildup from 2 years ago and seems like you have pretty good natural speed. Should be interesting. Good Luck!

Great to see some good training and discussion.

An ordinary horse track is absolutely too soft for us humans. This is a harness track, in which horses pull a "buggy" behind them. The surface is much firmer because of that buggy. A bit of a downside is the inward slope that means that you are running on a slight sideways incline...not unlike always running on the left of a crowned road....but it's only a mile.

Thanks! I suppose I should have done a quick Google search first. Oops! Could still be related, though. Oh, and InRe mile training, I might add some 300's in the mix.

More Oops! I guess that's what I get for using my tablet while in Arizona. Next week we'll be back on track. Thanks for keeping me straight....and yes, consistency is key. Working on that! Weight is next....not working quite as well.

That's all for now. Carry on and keep up the solid work!

Thanks Igy,

I'm on the beam with your advice. I appreciate you taking the time to deliver it! I booked my first PT appointment today, and my insurance is paying.

Big Red,

Hope it works for you. I attached the link to the vendor for the heel lifts that worked well. A lift that is soft and in cup form was not as affective for me.

https://pedifix.com/p-119-peel-away-adjustable-heel-lift-p6582.aspx

Igy