50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

old guy II wrote:

Age 67 weight still is at 130 lbs (height 5'8")and hasn't varied more than +/- 5lbs since I was in college, mainly due to good genes. I have two sons in their mid-30s, one of whom was a decent college runner and the other a pretty good college runner. The older one still races and runs about 35-45 mpw and is 5'11" 135lbs, and the younger runs about 15-25 mpw and is 6'0" and about 145lbs. Definite skinny genes in the family.

I love all the data! Data illustrates what's possible. Although 5'11", 135 strikes me as tough to achieve.

Allen59, I am sure you will do great in your race. I don't think taper is an ideal time to go on a diet. Maybe after the race, if you think you may want to be a little lighter.

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

During speed phase 2 x 20 meter sprint drills two days a week: skip bound, high knees, heel flips, fore-leg reach, side step with arm swing, carrioca, finish with good form sprint.

Igy

Ha, if I tried to run sprint drills, parts would break and fall off my chassis! I only run fast if a predator is trying to make a meal out of me! Or sometimes at the very end of a race...

May 19th bench press- 225 Body weight 147

Sept. 3 Bench press - 220* Body weight 145 Interesting; no bench press workouts in almost 4 months just push ups, dips, body weight exercises- I am very Surprised at strength retention.

Sept. 4 Track workout - very little sleep due to heat and too much wine- called for a redbull zero this morning.

3 x 100- 14.8, 14.1, 13.5

300 42.62 4 min walk/jog 200 27.68

4 x 75m starts on curve. Watch in hand on three point stance - start watch when arm drives forward: 10.39, 10.29, 10.09 9.85 Last one averaged 3.85 strides per second.

4 sets of power bounds covering 55 yards in approx 22 bounds total.

Legs heavy and fatigued after. 3 x 100 on track to simulate fatigue in legs last 100 of a 400.

14.99, 14.29, 14.60

cooldown

*Free weight bench workout

10 x 135

7 x 35# DB curls

185 x 3

6 x 40# DB curls

205 x 1

220 x 1 max

185 x 5

7 x 45# DB curls

155 x 10

Brittle Master 1958 wrote:

I know most here don't post their stretching and strengthening, but I think there is a case to be made for being up-front about it.

Okay, here we go.

Basic Exercises I. (7x a week.)

Cram shell with resistance band.

Reverse cram shell with resistance band.

Monster walk with resistance band.

Side step with resistance band.

Hip flextion with resistance band.

Fire hydrants with resistance band.

Single leg glute bridge with ankle weight.

Side-lying hip abduction with ankle weight.

Side-lying hip adduction with ankle weight.

Hip extension with ankle weight.

Leg curl with ankle weight.

Leg swing (lateral and forward/backward) with ankle weight.

Basic exercises II (6x a week.)

Single leg knee tuck with a Swiss ball.

Single leg bridge with a Swiss ball and a weight plate.

Single leg leg curl with a Swiss ball.

"Rotisserie Chicken" with a Swiss ball.

"Wiper blades" with a Swiss ball.

"Rock'n roll" with a Swiss ball.

Hip extension with a Swiss ball.

Torso rotation with a Swiss ball and dumbbells.

Eccentric hamstring curls.

"Towel curl" with a gliding disk.

Single leg reverse plank.

Zelcher squat with a weight plate.

Side lunges with a dumbbell.

Pistol squat on a stepper.

Single leg curl on a machine.

Eccentric forward pull with a cable machine.

Medicine ball exercises. (2x a week.)

pass through.

full extension crunches.

Russian twists.

:"hot salsa."

Mountain climber.

Pushups.

Boss ball exercises. (2x a week.)

Dead bug with dumbbels.

single leg deadlift (on both sides.)

Torso rotation with a med ball.

Weight machines. (2x a week.)

Compound row.

Lat pull down.

Bicep curl.

Tricep extension.

Seated dips.

Torso rotation.

Lower back.

Abdominal.

Hip abduction / adduction.

Hip extension.

Calf raise.

Runner pull.

Pull through

Glute press (with a leg curl machine).

Free weight. (2x a week.)

Bench press with a barbell.

Back squat with a barbell.

Deadlift with a trap bar.

Hip thrust with a barbell.

Overhead press with dumbbells.

High bench step up with dumbbells.

Backward lunges with dumbbells and a gliding disk

Single leg deadlift with dumbbells.

Pull ups and dips circuit.

Additional exercises. (2x a week.)

Rotating plank with a dumbbell.

Back extension and side bend on a machine with a weight plate.

Crunch on a table with a med ball or a weight plate.

Hanging leg raise with a dumbbell.

Eccentric heel drop with a dumbbell.

Single leg deadlift with a dowel bar.

Toe walk with ankle dorsiflextion.

Eccentric toe reach.

I hope I listed everything.

Oh, I realized I didn't write anything about running...

M: swimming 1000m.

T: 4 miles / 7 miles.

W: 10 miles (5th-9th miles @ 7:53-7:47-7:41-7:35-7:30)

R: 4 miles / 7 miles.

F: 8 miles.

SA: 7 miles.

SU: 16.7 miles.

Basically the same was the previous week, except I ran a bit faster on Wednesday and Sunday. Now I start tapering for a half marathon in two weeks.

The gym closed at noon today, so I already had my swimming session in the morning. About 700m into my session, this fat guy asked me if he could share the lane. (All the lanes were used.) I said, that's okay, and then realized he was using up way more than half of the lane. I should have asked him to wait for another 10 minutes.

Hugging lane line good practice for pulling straight.

Super late to L'Day Weekend thread... was on the road wrapping up my sabbatical in Athens Ga for my APPs v Dawg's. Tailgate started at 9:30am; ended at 10:30pm - I think. Great catching up with a few old friends whilst meeting new ones.

Hey SCGal... Stopped by to surpise another old friend of mine and ATC clubmate of yours, Mike Spencer, who doesnt know who you are due to your thread-name. Anyway, thanks to you and your teammates for saving his life at the end of that road race I got to see him again. The quintuple bypass surgery went well. He promised his family he would back off of 20-hr day work. He also said he'd be back to running someday. Gotta love that.

Time for me to detox and get to work on that beer-gut. Reckon some good 'ol honest XC outta do it.

p.s. Yes Jane... you better stock up on Lunaracers.

KP

RF Reader wrote:

Okay, here we go. ...

... ... ... ... ... ... ...

I hope I listed everything.

Wow! I am definitely feeling like an underachiever. What is the time investment to maintain that regimen?

I try to do some crunches and bridges once in a while, but oftentimes a week or two will pass ... I am forever running late for my next task, so decide to "wait 'til tomorrow."

If I can get healthy, I'd like to emulate you, get stronger, and maybe concentrate on 5Ks next year. Best wishes for your upcoming race.

KP - Glad you were able so see Mike. I saw the pix on his FB. He was feeling down about his son being away at school and missing the Auburn game so your visit came at just the right time. You're right, he wouldn't know me by my screen name!

Actually, it does not take that much time. 60-90 minutes per day, and probably something like 7-8 hours a week.

I do only a single set of 5-15 reps for most of the exercises. My idea on strength exercises is that if you can do more than 30 reps, it is not hard enough. Better to make it harder than increasing the reps.

I also try to avoid multiple sets for the sake of saving time. For example, both bench and overhead press are a single set of five reps. Squat and deadlift are two sets of five reps with the first one as warm-up. I know this is NOT how lifting should be done. But I don't wait for two minutes between sets.

When I am short on time, I prioritize the exercises that are important for injury prevention, and skip the ones I am doing for running economy. I also make it a general rule that as long as I don't miss the same exercise twice in a row, I should be okay.

Well, guys, I've been living in this body for 59.5 years now, and I have finally come to the conclusion that stretching frequently causes injuries and almost never helps anything. I do some strength work in the gym, usually 4-5 days per week for about 30 minutes each, although the duty cycle is mighty low. Upper body, core, and a few leg exercises. Some of these involve a fairly wide range of motion. But I don't do anything that you'd really call stretching. Physical therapists, on the rare occasion that I see one, are always aghast at my lack of flexibility and they assign all sorts of stretching exercises for me to do, and usually those exercises only make my existing injury worse and/or cause new injuries.

Unlike a lot of LetsRun this thread is normally a friendly and helpful forum, so I'm looking forward to hearing all of you tell me why you believe I'm mistaken. I'll listen to you, too, since a lot of you are really impressive athletes.

Weight: I'm just under 5'5" with an extremely narrow frame. I have narrower hips than almost any Caucasian woman you've ever seen. I did my best racing 25-30 years ago at 103-107 pounds,which looked pretty skinny even on my small frame. For the past 10 years or so I've weighed between 112 and 118, which seems like a good compromise between looks and performance. The problem with being really skinny as an old person is that it brings out all the wrinkles. If I lost 10 pounds I might race better, but I'd look 10 years older.

Also 59.5 been around the block a few times and I don't stretch a lot, but some. I may have had a few injuries due to lack of stretching, but most have been due to acute trauma (falling or something) or trying something when I wasn't in shape to do it (e.g., hill bounding or sprints, or running the steeple at 32 after not running it for 10 years). I do dynamic stretching for about 5 minutes once or twice a week. Stretch out my calves and quads before most races or workouts.

I do core strength 1X or 2X a week. I was in a great routine when I was focusing on XC skiing twice a year, but have fallen off some. I haven't done as much upper body as a I should this year, just maintenance for my bad shoulder an a couple sets of push ups every week. Again as a skier I was doing more.

As for body weight, yes it makes a difference. Up to 34 I was racing at 140-142 and ran 32:30 10K at 34. I gained 10lb over that next year after cutting back on running. And for the next 24 years 150 or so was my race weight. I slowed to 33:30 in at 35 and never broke 34 again after that. Maintained pretty well to 58, still running high 36s. Last year changed my diet and dropped about 8 lb and this year my 10K time improved by a minute at age 59. Diet has been key to turning the clock back 8 or 9 years.

I am enjoying reading all the training details.

No running for me today, but that doesn't mean I did nothing.

- Hip stretches (3 stretches)

- Basic stretching routine (11 stretches)

- Back stretching routine (9 stretches)

- 100 pushups, 50 situps, 30 dumbell curls each arm (20 lbs), 30 lat pulldowns (85 lbs), 30 wrist curls (30 lbs barbell)

- 2 miles elliptical (easy)

I would like to do more strength work, but due to various physical issues (mostly back, knee, and shoulder) I can't do a lot of standard strength exercises. No squats, for example.

I have noticed from looking at various magazines in recent years that "explosive" movements are all the rage in fitness training, but I wouldn't dare trying stuff like that. Slow and steady is what I'm all about these days.

Even running just 15-16 mpw these days, I've had a recurrence of plantar fasciitis in my left foot, so that's a challenge that I am puzzled to overcome. For many years I have worn a night boot on that foot, but now I've gone to a Strassburg sock in hopes it will work better. I already do a few stretches that target the plantar fasciitis but apparently I need to do more. Icing after a workout seems to help, according to early results.

amkelley, if stretching doesn't seem to help you, who am I to argue with your reality? I stretch because it seems to help me address various nagging issues. Frankly, my dear, I'd rather just run!

P.S. amkelley, Roger Bannister is an example of a runner who never stretched at all, and I hear he did all right. But he was always a light trainer, who retired from racing in his 20s, and we all know youngsters can often get away with minimal stretching.

Honestly I'm surprised you don't find stretching useful. If I didn't stretch, I would seize up like the Tin Man after a rainstorm.

Training principles can be boiled down to a car analogy. You need to take care of the suspension. Tires, shocks, u-joints and engine mounts should be greased and replaced at specified intervals. Engine power and fuel efficiency should be encouraged. It is better to have a In-line 6 in a 2016 Porsche Cayman body, than a V-8 in a 1959 Chevy Impala 4-door body.

Igy

stretching for me has been a process. in my college/open days, if i didn't stretch my quads and calf muscles, debilitating tendinitis (knees, achilles, plantar) would set in.

in college i stretched before workouts (or as part of a warmup) on interval/quality days, and that seemed to be ok.

when the volume and quality picked up as an open runner, i started stretching everyday (just quad/calf/hamstring stretches), before and after runs, and remained relatively injury free.

strangely, as a masters runner, i've been able to completely do away with stretching before runs, and only stretch after runs now. seems to have worked for me from 40-48, but at 49 i've had some injury issues. part of me wants to continue what's worked for me for a while now, but i'm also realizing that i'm having new aches that i never had before because i've never been 49 before. so this old dog is starting to try new tricks, but the jury is out on whether they'll work...

Keeping with the topic of stretching and weight...

Stretching: Very little. Never really have. Nothing more than a few things for a few minutes after most runs. Just can't seem to stay with it. I will be more diligent when something is wrong. I do like the wobble board though. I used to have a bedtime routine of doing 50'ish crunches before bed. Kind of got away from that too.

Weight: 6'-2" usually around 162-164. Usually more after the weekend but I can get back to where I like to be very easily.

Ran kind of ragged last week. I have discovered that a lot of speedwork really kills me. Legs have felt horrible for a long time. (maybe I should stretch, eh?). So I just want to get back to 'just running' and a tempo when I feel like it and hopefully feel good again someday.

Heres my week. Got in 42 miles of just running.

M: 5.12 Miles in 41:27 [8:05 per mile]

T: 5.9 Miles in 46:50 [7:56 per mile]

W: 4 Miles easy (slow)

T: 4.23 Miles in 33:15 [7:51 per mile]

F: 8.02 Miles in 1:00:39 [7:33 per mile]

S: 7.97 Miles in 1:02:42 [7:52 per mile]

S: 6 Miles in 45:36 [7:36 per mile] followed by a 24 mile bike ride. Avgd about 15 mph and that seemed fast!

No plans for the week. Just run. I did volunteer to be a guide runner for a 20 minute 5k VI runner in a few weeks. That sounds fast right now!

Have a good week,

Dave

AmKelley and racerdb, nice to know there are others that don't do much, if any, stretching. I have never enjoyed it, or felt like I gained/maintained from it. My wife did talk me into doing strength work at the gym several years ago, and I am glad for that. I spend 20-30 minutes per day, two days per week, doing upper body and core work on various machines. No lower body or leg work, unless you consider lower back/butt work to be lower. At age 66, I cannot lift what I did at age 60, but am lifting faithfully.

My weight when I started running at age 25 was about 175 and I dropped to about 155 quickly. When I was running highest mileage of 70 mpw, I was 146 to 148. A couple years ago, I'd crept up to 153 to 155 while injured, but never more. I am now back to 150ish, though injured (I don't want to have to try to get those pounds off again, too hard to diet easily). Plus my BP is around 124/70, and ldl is 90's on a statin, and my coronary calcium score is 75, quite low. Though I was worried about my calcium score pre-screening, I am glad I did it, since it was important for me to know and compare to knowing I want to keep running at low risk for a coronary event (too often we runners survive one, with our fitness, only to then face the surgeon's scalpel and a long recovery). Plus, given my family history of CAD, it's worth my knowing.

My heel is still sore, back to the podiatrist today, followed by a chiro visit, hope to return to running soon, that mid-October 1/2 marathon is around the corner, as is the 8 km the end of Oct. Stay healthy all, congrats on the anniversaries, and thanks, KP.