50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Serious XC season has ended and I am raced out for at least a little while after 8 races in 12 weeks. We had our local XC series championship race this morning. I am very pleased with my race effort and even more pleased that I have finished this season injury-free (for the first time in over 2-1/2 years) and with a little fitness. I averaged 7:06/mi pace for 5.1mi. This was 0:22/mi faster than I ran this course last year. The earlier races this season I have consistently been around 0:10/mi. faster that last year. The course is four 2K loops plus a 110M finish straight. My plan was to try to work the 2nd and 3rd loops as hard as I could. By the end of the 2nd loop I was really suffering but I was well in front of several guys who have usually been with me or ahead of me in the earlier races. The 3rd lap felt a little better and I just worked the 4th lap as well as I could. My splits were

M1 - 6:40

M2 - 7:00

M3 - 7:15

M4 - 7:17

M5 - 7:22

This put me 4th in the 60+ division for the race and for the XC series. I turn 68 in a couple of weeks and the 3 guys in front of me in the age group are 60, 61, and 60. I am most pleased with the effort I put in on this one. I really tried to go to the well on the second half of this race and hung on pretty well. I have felt well and truly cooked since the race ended and beer and potato chips don't seem to be improving my mental condition all that much :>) Now it's time for a couple of days of inappropriate food and beverage choices and then back to working on mileage build up.

Good running to all and congratulations to those of you who checked in with your race reports already.

Good racing old guy II, enjoy the re-charge. I have a Turkey Trot Relay (4 x 2 mile legs) and a Thanksgiving 5k in the next eleven days ( all road). Both races I have raced multiple times over the years so should give me good measure of fitness.

Igy

Dang. Just missed ya Igy. Next year then.

We stayed close to I-84 in Meridian. Split two hotels. We had a party of 38. No that i know i would sat closer to Eagle State Park and go for an ABnB. Traffic was rough with all the red lights, rain, and what looks like massive growth in your metro area.

KP

KP,

Yes a lot of growth unfortunately, one of the fastest in the country. There is a Springhill Suites Hotel more convenient to the course, but with 38 get your reservation in early:

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/boish-springhill-suites-boise/?scid=bb1a189a-fec3-4d19-a255-54ba596febe2

Springhill Suites are an easy five miles to the course on roads that are less congested. There is also a Hilton Garden Inn, more expensive, about four miles from the course.

Easiest way to travel to the course and to find restaurants is to use Eagle Road. Using the Meridian roads will be congested, especially if you hit them around 5:00 PM on a Friday. Feeding 38 on a Friday is a chore, there is a Panera Bread on Eagle Road. The Ram Restaurant on Eagle Road has a banquet room and could set-up something in advance. The Ram (Northwest Franchise) has good food reasonable prices.

Let me know next year and I can help make the trip a better experience.

Igy

KP,

Here is a better choice if it works for your budget:

http://hiltongardeninn3.hilton.com/en/hotels/idaho/hilton-garden-inn-boise-eagle-BOIEHGI/index.html

Hotel is on the Eagle Greenbelt (Boise River). Your team could easily do a shakedown run here right out the door. A couple of pizza an Italian restaurants in Eagle that could accommodate 38. You certainly would avoid a lot of the hassle staying here. This hotel is about a mile from my house and about three miles to the course.

Igy

OGII , really outstanding XC season . Getting older and faster is what I want to do too.

Igy , wish I had made it to the Idaho Senior Games the 5:10 60 year old would have been a great rabbit for me probably one that got away but now I will never know.

CM The long run is a distant memory but the daily long hikes just might be a good substitute. Fatigue the fitter you are the harder it is to trigger the epigenetics that makes the magic.

Charlie,

Four indoor meet are scheduled for January-February. Alternating 800 meters and mile. Same characters should show including Werner Hoeger (2:26/5:09 60-64). Werner had hernia surgery a month before the Idaho Senior Games. I will be running a relay with him Saturday.

Igy

Allen1959 wrote:

Nearly six weeks off, and no improvement. Every step still hurts when I try to run. I need to either commit to doing the prescribed exercise routine twice a day( instead of twice a week) -- or move onto other things in life. I enjoy running and racing, but just have no patience for devoting an hour or more a day to this stretching/strengthening stuff.

-Allen

I can certainly sympathize as I’ve re-irritated my heel and am back on the elliptical and working on weights. I’m giving advice that I, myself, am wan to take: be patient. We are our own worst enemies. I remind myself that Ed Whitlock took up to a year off a few times with injuries. I’m also concentrating on something just as, if not more important than running: my diet. Now’s a good time for that.

Well, this old body just ran a road 5 km yesterday in 25:29, good for 3rd in the 65-69, and an improvement again over the last couple races. So my foot is slowly getting better, and my pace is improving on only base and pace running (pace is running with my faster wife). Best part is that I think I now have enough points in our KCTC Race Series that I will at least tie for the win in my age group, and if I place in the top 5 in the final race on T'day, I think I'll win it. Not bad, just scored in enough races, as I can count 4 or 5 guys in my age group that are faster than I am.

My wife ran 24:01, but got chilled afterwards and so now is laid low for the day, bummer. Hoping for a quick recovery, but zero running for her today, and probably will not be working, either.

amkelley wrote:

I’ve run dozens of HMs over the past 15 years or so, and I’ve never had much generalized muscle soreness after the race. I would always go out for an easy run the day after, and within 2-3 days I would feel close to normal. A couple of years ago I ran HMs 7 days apart and ran a little better in the second one than in the first. But all of this was off 70-75 miles per week of training. Since May my Achilles heel has forced me to cut way back on training, and I went into last Sunday’s HM with a biggest week of about 45 miles, and an average of 20-30 per week.

I have run 62-63 miles in the week after a half marathon, followed by a 70miles week. That was 3-4 years ago. I cannot do that now, although my peak mileage is still the same. As I got older, I decided to cut back mileage both before and after races. If it takes longer to recover from one race and build up for another, that's okay with me. I don't plan to race as frequently as I used to. I just want my efforts to count, when they matter the most.

M: off.

T; 4 miles / 7 miles.

W: 12 miles. (6th-11th miles @7:53-7:47-7:41-7:35-7:30-7:30)

R; 4 miles / 7 miles.

F: 9 miles.

SA: 7 miles.

SU: 20 miles.

My weight hit the lowest in years and not in the way I wanted. On Monday night, I felt some chill on my back. I didn't think too much about that. On Tuesday, my eyes were irritated. I just put some lotion on my eyes. And then on Wednesday night, I

had a serious stomach issue, and could not eat solid food. The scale showed 127 on Thursday morning. I was coughing and sneezing on Thursday and Friday. My throat got really sore by Friday that persisted until Saturday. I used all the home remedy that I have tried, and by Sunday morning my body felt somewhat close to normal. I was also relieved that my weight was back to 130.

So I decided to run the 20 miler the way I had planned, instead of taking it easy. After running the first 10 miles in 87 minutes, I decided to pick up the pace for the next five miles and went 8:04-8:02-7:59-7:58-7:57. Those 5 miles didn't feel quite easy, and I wondered if I should push the pace further in the last 5 miles. But then the next mile went 7:49, followed by 7:47-7:45-7:45 and 7:37. A funny thing was that those last 5 miles didn't feel any harder than the previous 5 miles. I have done this workout at a much faster pace before. But given how I was battling a cold for all week, I am satisfied with how it went.

I managed to drag this old carcass through my much loved 4 Peaks race for the 32d time.

4 Nov. Mystic Mountain. 10.8 km with 800 m. elevation gain. 1 h 22 m. 12th O50.

This is a very steep loop course. The toughest section climbs 1000 feet in half a mile.

5 Nov. Mt Feathertop. 11.5 km with 1550 m. elevation gain.

2 h 13 m. 13 th O50. I was on target for sub 2hours but my ankle sezed up at 8 km and I hobbled in like a lame duck.

6 Nov. Mt Hotham. 14.7 km with 1640 m. elevation gain.

2 hr 35. Equal 8th O50 dead heating with my close friend Gary. The ankle was sore but worked fine. I ran aggressively early in the hope of a 2.30ish time. I held it together well up the last climb.

7 Nov. Mt Buffalo. 9.95 km with 1180 m. elevation gain.

1 hr 41. Equal 8th O50 again dead heating with Gary. He pushed a minute ahead early I reeled him in at half way and led him through the rest of the race. But he hung tough and we were side by side again at the finish.

Overall I finished 9th O50, 8th male with occasional training buddy Michelle taking the WO50 by over an hour and beating me by a huge margin.

Apart from the ankle issue on Feather it all went ok.

I had hoped my 3 months of crash training might have me a bit faster.

I took the rest of the week off.

On Sunday I joined in a 10.6 km race that starts and finishes near my childhood home.

The legs were still very tired so the plan was just to jog at 5 min km pace. My legs loosened up over the last few kms and I finished with some 4.10 / 15 kms for a 51 min finish and 3d 55plus.

Sounds like a great set of races and congratulations on the performance. As to the "3 months of crash training" I have been down that road too many times and always found that it would buy me a brief peak of fitness that was great when I hit it right, but would always unravel into fatigue and/or overuse injury very quickly past the peak.

Yep OG. I think I overshot the runway this time. I think I would have run quicker a month ago.

The plan is to settle into a much steadier training model now.

Ran the Monterey Bay half on Sunday. Amazingly picturesque course.. Had not run more than 9 miles since last half in August but Achilles felt the best it had in a month so was hopeful. Wanted to finish with no huge issue and secretly hoped for sub 1:30. Felt like the heathy me for a few miles early, but started feeling it around 7. Last 5k was a bit of a labor but ended up sub 1:26, 2nd in 55-59 Ag. Back to rehab now to get all the way better.

Just in case anyone is interested, I took 3rd in the NYC Marathon prediction contest (got the top 3 guys correct and in correct order, plus 2 of 3 women though out of order), so there's a picture of me with the men's UMKC team prior to XC Regionals on LetsRun now. I am the old fart in the middle of the pic, though standing with the young studs did make me feel younger. Oh, and I work at Garry Gribble's Running Sports (not Shorts). Anyhow, it was a fun time at Regionals, though cold enough to freeze your you know what's!

He Mike read the article just before you posted, nice job!

Question regarding shoes. I like the Kinavara 8 but since I started doing most of my hiking barefoot my feet have gotten wider and none of my shoes fit anymore. So any recommendations for a replacement shoe like the Kina 8 with a much wider toebox/area?

Yes, Mike, congrats on the NYC Marathon prediction contest!

I've entered a couple of those contests but have never gotten anywhere close. I'm not a serious enough "student" of professional running to get the right answers by being good, and I've never been lucky.

Mike,

Good job and shoes to boot. One of my former athletes is the Chief of Police at UMKC, Michael Bongartz. Do you work with the UMKC track/cross country program.

Igy

Late posting this week...Can't believe it's Wednesday already! Only logged about 40 miles. Wanted to run Sunday but my achilles hurt so damn bad I decided to not struggle with it. I think my racing flats irritated it Saturday but I don't remember it bothering me during the race.

M: 6 Miles in 46:31 [7:45 per mile]

T: am: 6.99 Miles in 54:58 [7:51 per mile] pm: 3.45 Miles in 28:54 [8:22 per mile] inc 10x30 sec hill strides

W: 7.7 Miles in 1:02:18 [8:05 per mile]

T: 6.34 Miles in 49:18 [7:46 per mile]

F: 3 Miles in 22:49 [7:36 per mile] Including 4x30 sec @ 6:00

S: 6.6 Miles including 5K race in 18:17 545,545,557,50(.14) 1st overall

S: Off

Mostly happy with my race on Saturday. First of all I can't believe I ran two 5:45's. Looked back thru my log the past 2-1/2 months, only one run averaged under 7:00 pace. Only a few strides came close to 5:45 pace. My tempos felt hard at 6:15 pace. So what does this mean? Guess we don't need to train fast to race fast. It was nice to win. Two HS XC guys took it fast. They were both low 17's this past season. Didn't take the lead until about 1.6 miles. Went by them and they didn't put up much of a fight. Finished ok and never felt too bad. It was 20 deg with a wind chill of 14 deg. Wore shorts. AG 85.6/15:10.

Signed up for the 10K at our Turkey Trot next Thursday. First 10K of the year but checking my records this will be my 124th 10K road race.

Thats it from here, have a good week.

Dave