50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Early check-in for me...Should be close to 55 miles this week. Shin pain is down to about nothing. Still hurts at times during the day; still icing 3x daily...very little to no pain while running. Finished up Mondays run with 6:11,6:11,6:03, without really getting after it. Pretty happy with that!

Off for a weekend in Chicago with the wife tomorrow morning. Peter Frampton show tomorrow night!

All the Best,

Dave

Platar F-itis set back this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Going to try a few Acupuncture sessions starting today.

Wish me luck.

KP

KP - you gotta do those heel lifts on steps almost daily. I have been doing those since last year and can really feel the pop coming back.

Get healthy

KP wrote:

Platar F-itis set back this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Going to try a few Acupuncture sessions starting today.

Wish me luck.

KP

PF is evil. Wishing you well and I'd be interested to know how the Acupuncture works. The only thing that worked for me was Superfeet inserts. Not trying to plug them as I hate extra stuff in my shoes and now I can't go without them. I don't like being dependent on anything, but they work.

Rtype wrote:

PF is evil. Wishing you well and I'd be interested to know how the Acupuncture works. The only thing that worked for me was Superfeet inserts. Not trying to plug them as I hate extra stuff in my shoes and now I can't go without them. I don't like being dependent on anything, but they work.

+1 for SuperFeet inserts. The GREEN ones. I don't work for the company either, but gotta say, after battling PF for over 8 months one time, those inserts really helped me get beyond the problem.

Good luck. I know what an insidious injury this can be!

Going to shamelessly plug Team Nebraska's David Adams running the 3000 meters tonight in Albuquerque. Thanks to everyone for cheering on our Good Mate in the Red & White!

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Week 40

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Well, we're 40 weeks into this incarnation of the 50+ thread. I'm grateful to have this venue to share with you our the trials and tribulations of training into the second half century of our lives. With that, I'm also grateful to be celebrating our daughter's 20th birthday today. She has become a wonderful young lady, who strives for independence, yet knows where to come when life gets too stressful. We'll have a nice celebration this evening with a few of her best friends. We feel very blessed.

I had another fairly solid week, hitting 51+ miles on 7 days of running, with three harder efforts. My weekly log reads as such:

S: 7 easy

M: 7 w/5k hard tempo in 18:43

T: 5.3 easy

W: 6.2 easy

R: 10 w/ 5 miles at a harder pace (6:48 avg on the 5)

F: 5 easy

S: 10.8 Fartlek (avg pace 7:12)

Total: 51.3 miles

Comments:

a) Monday's hard tempo was as hard as I've run this 5k segment; it was a very even effort. It's not a great loop, as it's got 17 right-angle turns in it, but it's fairly flat (2 short uphills), and allows me to run hard without crossing any major streets.

b) During Thursday's harder section, I was joined by a training buddy. We cruised through the first three at about a 7:15-7:20 pace, then picked up the pace for the last 2, finishing the last two in 6:20 and 5:45.

c) The Fartlek run Saturday doubled as a hill workout; I used the fact that we've got a lot of rolling hills (as those that were here in '09 for club cross know), to simply push all the uphills. That amounted to 14 hard efforts ranging from 40s-150s. I'm very sore this morning.

That's three weeks in a row right around the 50 mpw range with three workouts each week. It's time for a down week. I'll probably get low 30's in this week, with maybe one workout. Given that I direct this Science Olympiad event next Saturday, I'll be plenty busy that will make it difficult to get the miles in this week anyways, so a down week works out well.

Glad some of you, at least, will venture down to Lexington at the end of the year. The course will be slightly modified, as they've extended the dog park into where the nice long chute start was. So the start had to be moved. Still a nice course though.

Sorry about the Plantar Fasciitis KP, I don't have any advice as it is one of the few ailments that I'm fortunate not to have suffered through (knock on wood.) Hope you can find relief soon.

It's been a fairly busy week at work, so I've not had a lot of time to peruse the boards for master's related topics. I do want to send a shout-out to a local guy (not a master's runner), who has set out to cross the US solo touching all of the contiguous lower 48 states. He started last week at Venice Beach in LA, and is most the way towards Las Vegas as of today. He is pushing a running baby stroller with his gear (food, tent, etc). He's raising money for the American Heart Association (he's a medical researcher in that area by trade, although he quit his job at the University to take on this challenge) Here's his website:

http://willpoweredrun.org/

. May his youthful spirit guide him safely on this journey. Godspeed!

Hope all is well in your corner of the world. Training or recovering, it's all important, so let us know how it's going, regardless.

Cheers!

A light week from me.

Mon - An easy hour of runing trails.

Tue - 14k run on hilly trails.

Wed - 40mins kyak on the river with 25m hard "uphill". also 50min mtn bike.

Thu - 3hours mtn biking, including a 16km climb and an 8km climb. The highlight was a 5.5km descent in 6mins.

Fri - rest day.

Sat - 40min kyak on the lake, 3x4min hard. 5k tempo run on flattish trails 22m. Weights.

Sun - 3.2km tempo session on flattish trails in 13.30.

I had a sore ankle/foot (bike fall on wed) on thursday so swapped the planned 25k run for a long gut busting bike.

Happy to just blow the cobwebs out with 2 short 3/4 pace hitouts on the weekend to give the foot a bit of a lighter time but still hit the fitness a bit.

Sat = 5, mile reps of 6:28, 6:27, 6:26

Sun = 3.7, Mountain

Mon = 5K @ 6:53 pace

Tue = 5K @ 7:15 pace

Wed = 5K @ 7:10 pace

Average pace for 12.3 Timed Miles = 6:57

Total Miles = 18

It was nice to finally be free of the bug I had for 2 weeks. This week makes 17 pain-free weeks in a row! And what a crazy weather week too. Sat was warm and sunny, and Sunday at 4K feet (1220 meters) on my mountain run I had white-out conditions with 30 mph snow-fog. Never seen snow-fog before. It's nice to see my average pace continue to drop without re-injuring myself. I respond so well to intervals yet they increase my injury risk. At least for a while I'll have to use races as my speed session. It's still early so I have no idea what to expect in a 5K. Its obvious by my limited miles, that I don't invest much time in running. I'm trying to find that balance between fitness/family/long-term health. And speaking of balance, I think mo'pak could lead a clinic on it. What a great well-rounded fitness approach. I feel like a one-trick pony compared to that.

Geez lucKY, that 5K tempo is a few seconds under my old-man PR. Nice one! I'm envious.

Wishing all injury-free running.

Mon AM = 6.1 w/ Jamie and dogs

Tue AM = 6.3 w/ Jamie and dogs

Tue PM = 7.0 w/ 6 x 2:00 hill

Wed AM = 10.3 w/ Jamie and his dog

Thu AM = 5.0 w/ my dog

Thu PM = 7.5 on golf course w/ 22:00 tempo

Fri AM = 6.4 w/ Jamie and dogs

Sat AM = 14.0

Sun AM = 14.0 w/ BG

Total = 76.6

Thanks Tony. You talkin' simply barefooted heel drops then raises on steps? both feet at a time? how many? I can feel those tight calves after just 10x.

56 miles running every day this week. I am pleased to be staying at this mileage level, but my legs feel pretty dead most of the time. I hope that my legs will adjust to this volume sooner rather than later.

KP - still six weeks from officially being able to write on this thread (50), but here goes.

I usually end each run with a set of leg swings (forward, backward, side-to-side) and 3x 15 heel lifts. Yes - at first this tightened my calves a bit, but now I don't feel it and slowly the ability to "push-off" when striding out seems to be returning (knock on wood). Works for me.

Cheers

racerdb it's great your shin turned out to be a short term thing.

KP: keep us posted on the acupuncture. I have a touch of PF now and again so I'm interested in your experience. I've started a regime of stretches and massage to make sure I don't get a serious case, but just in case... I'm also going to try the heel lift exercises northwest master mentioned.

M: 5 easy

T: 5 easy

W: Bike intervals 20 min. warm up 5x2min with 2min rest 8 min cool down

T: 5 easy

F: 5 easy

S: 8 mile moderate tempo: 4.16 out (7:45 pace)& back (6:53 pace)

S: 8 miles with 5 hard hills then hill fartlek like lucKY2b

Definitely not as frisky on Saturday's tempo as last weekend. The outbound leg as also into a stiff wind. The hill workout on Sunday left me pretty drained, so it must have been a good one! I used the bike intervals to make sure I don't neglect my anaerobic fitness with all this strength work on the weekends. Probably do them again this week.

Rtype wrote:

Geez lucKY, that 5K tempo is a few seconds under my old-man PR. Nice one! I'm envious.

+1

I'm hoping that maybe "tempo" was not the correct word.

Week 40: 5 singles, 2 doubles, so 9 runs (3 on the treadmill), 65 miles.

The long run yesterday was a blast, super slow for an hour and a half, then 7 km at marathon pace, then easy until time was up, 2 hours 45 total. Worked out to just under 18 miles. Pleasantly trashed.

The plan is to keep the long run at 2:45 (2:00 on fallback weeks), and gradually lengthen the MP segment, adjusting by recovery (or lack thereof). With 5 more of these long runs (plus 2 fallbacks) to go before the taper, anybody want to offer an opinion about what's a good way to build the MP segment? Should I even be doing this? Aerobically I *might* already be fit enough to reach my A goal, but I'm hoping these faster long runs will help me not fall apart in the last 6 miles of the race. Then again, I don't want to overdo it. Long runs with MP are new for me, my first two marathons I just ran slow on the long runs. Thoughts?

As has been my practice since youth ,I revert to X-C skiing as my winter exercise of choice.

Completed the American Birkebeiner yesterday. The 54K classic style race took me 4:05, placing me somewhere in the upper 1/3 of the pack.

My skis ran fast enough to cover for my lapse in timely refueling, and the resultant teasing hamstring cramps of the last 10-12K.

The last marathons I'd run in 2009 were fully an hour and a half slower than my PR's. The 4:05 of yesterday was within a half hour of my PR for this course "back in the day". I like that.

Workouts leading up to this event were 2 solid two hour plus ski outings/week and a weekly 3 mile run. Normal days in the Bush involve a lot of walking, packing gear through snow, no doubt contributing to base condition.

The weather man looks to be cooperating with those of us who appreciate snow for the great ride it can deliver. Major winter storm headed this way Tuesday and Wednsday.....I hope they are right.

Long may you run fellow vets, DR

Goal race: Three Sisters Marathon, June 9th

Week of 02/19 - 02/25

Sun, 02/19: 16.58 mi. in 2:03:14 (7:26/mile pace) on a hilly route. Splits: 8:04, 7:25, 7:41, 7:45, 7:31, 7:37, 7:49, 7:59, 7:41, 7:55, 7:02, 7:05, 7:06, 6:46, 6:50, 6:45, 4:05 (.58)

Mon, 02/20: usual day off running.

Tue, 02/21: 4 miles easy, 4 mile tempo @ 6:27/mile pace on Springwater bike path.

Day's total = 8 miles.

Wed, 02/22: Fulton run. 6 mile recovery run in 47:53 (7:45/mile pace).

Thu, 02/23: SBUX run. 8 mile recovery run (time N/A due to Garmin malfunction).

Fri, 02/24: 2 mile warmup, 4 x 100m strides, 8 x 400m in :81-:83 w/200m jogs, 2 mile cooldown. SIGH, I have NO leg speed. :(

Day's total = 7 miles.

Sat, 02/25: Lacamas Trail run. 6.5 mile recovery run (untimed).

Weekly total = 52 miles.

Weights/core on Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu.

Sounds like mostly all are in heavy base phase (although Rtype is taking a different path...glad that seems to be working for you). Double, Welcome. That's a pretty stout week. What are you aiming for?Bushman, congrats on your Birkie. Sounds like a good outing. I know there were some that were concerned about the snow quality. Apparently, it got better.Responding to Rtype and Alan B,

Thanks for the kudos. For reference, based on comparisons of training with last February, I feel like I'm in better shape than I was at that time, when I was 17:55 5K shape. So plugging 17:50 into McMillan calculator yields a Tempo pace range of 6:02-6:18, so I think that Hard Tempo is the right characterization (this was 6:02 pace). On the other hand, McMillan would suggest that I do my steady-state runs (of about 40 minutes) around 6:20-6:25 pace...no way I can do that!

To me, these pieces of information that we provide each other allow us to gauge whether what we are doing makes sense for where we're at. Are we training hard enough? Too hard? So I truly appreciate it when you guys check if what I'm doing makes sense. I feel like I'm training about right now. I wasn't 1-1/2 year's ago when I overdid it and left myself with a long-nagging, mild injury. I was training where I wanted to be, not where I was at. It's easy for me to slip up and train to hard, so putting what I do out there is for me a bit of checks and balances. It's truly all relative, isn't it. On an broader scale, of course, other 50+'ers like racerdb and msr (and many others), can easily clean my clock, and now that Magill is 50 we're all a knotch lower than we were last spring. These days my mantra is that the most important part of training is not to getting injured.

As to Alan B's other discussion:

I wish I had an answer to this. I'm not much of a marathon type. Even so, I definitely feel that putting some MP stuff into your long runs is a good thing. Here's my reasoning. One of my training buddies (I usually run alone, though) can run marathons with less than a month between; he's 47 and runs in the 2:55-2:58 range. He will typically crank it up for a good 6-8 miles during his long (>15 miles) runs. He kills me whenever I do long runs with him; I can keep pace, but I'm absolutely wiped at the end, and he's ready to keep going. In comparing the two of us, it's interesting that I've got substantially better PR's than him in everything (even up to 1/2-marathon) but the marathon, yet I have a hard time keeping pace with him on long runs. Bottom line is I do more speed, he does more miles (70-80 mpw, usually), but interestingly his long runs are faster than mine. So the long, faster runs must be helping him in regards to the marathon, yes? I also know that the pro's will often do 30K runs at MP, but that just sounds daunting to me. Those guys are such aerobic monsters, that I'm not sure modeling our training after them will be most beneficial to us. So that's the anectdotal knowledge I have; I'd be curious to hear some perspectives of some more seasoned master's marathoners.

Cheers!

This reminds me that I should give a shout-out to my brother-in-law, Mark Nienstaedt, who finished 3rd in the 55-59 AG at yesterday's Birkie. He covered the classic race in 3:15:12 and lost 2nd in his age group by .4 seconds!!! I believe this was his 18th Birkebeiner.