50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Great video, Cush. It reminds me of my own racing history, now long passed. I, too, was a believer in the "better to pass than be passed" philosophy. You seemingly ran an intelligent race and didn’t let the excitement of the moment ruin your race plan. Well done!

So in answer to questions: I don't work with the UMKC team, but several members and former members work at one of our GGRS stores parttime, and others come in to visit. Actually, Courtney Frerichs worked with my wife for over 2 years at GGRS. Also the distance coach works at GGRS, too. My wife knows the team better, but we love the local guys and gals, they are a great bunch and well worth the support. Also, one former member, Luke Abouhalkah, is a policeman with KC MO, too.

As to shoes, I would say maybe try an Altra Escalante (zero drop), or a Saucony Ride in the wide version (8 mm drop), or Brooks Revel (? drop), MAYBE thinner socks or 1/2 size larger Kinvara's. There's probably other options, too, but best to visit a specialty store and see what is offered. I love our stores, we are not on commission, so are dedicated to finding the best shoe FOR YOU.

SoCal Cush,

I posted earlier this morning but it was strangely deleted. Anyway, your record is quite an accomplishment. I noticed how tough you ran the third quarter, showed the youngsters some guts.

Igy

thanks igy,

had a great meal sunday afternoon with old smtc teammates from the 80s/90s and joe douglas for his birthday. he was in a car accident several years ago, and his memory hasn't been the same since, but otherwise he's doing well. claudette groenendaal (university of oregon, sub-2 800m) makes great efforts to organize annually, and we were lucky to have chef danny everett (ucla, bronze medal 400m in '88 olympics) cook an extraordinary meal. if you're ever in l.a./southern california and want to visit joe, let me know...

cush

Cush,

Sorry to hear about Joe. I need to go visit my brother and see Joe. I told my wife about the accident and she said Joe was one of those people that never aged. I was thinking about another run at Carlsbad or perhaps Masters Track Regional. I will take you up on that offer should I act on either.

Back to your race, that third quarter is so critical. If you feel you are slowing down , you are cooked. If you feel you are keeping pace, you are slowing down. And if you feel you are picking it up, you are holding your own....and your competition is losing focus or slowing down. One can really see your drive and the concentration on that move from 800 to 1200 meters. Experience and execution.

Last thought. Nice that you are taking care of the old coach. There is no greater compliment to a coach. Please give Joe my and my wife’s (Portia) regards. Hope we are still in the memory.

Igy

there's no doubt that as joe's gotten older, we've been more proactive about getting together regularly. so many of us view him as a second father. besides my running successes with him, looking back i appreciate that he made me open an IRA (i was only 23). he really did a lot to support the complete person, especially when he saw you were "all-in" with pursuing your goals. to me, it was amazing how the team functioned, and how joe was able to inspire loyalty from athletes like carl lewis to little pissants like me--many times joe, with the full support of carl, threatened to pull out of meets if they put runners like me in a "b" heat, and he wasn't bluffing. it really was a family atmosphere, and i was extremely lucky to ride on the coattails and be surrounded by the greatness that was the santa monica track club. joe was the heart of that.

as for that 3rd quarter, i'm happy that you can't read my mind as i was running it. i remember it hurting so bad, a pain so deep and foreign compared to the 5ks i'd been running up to that point, that i was considering playing the "glass achilles" card and bailing out. funny the self-negotiations we all go through, especially on the 3rd lap of a 1500/mile. i then remember thinking it was the only 1500 i was going to run that season, so i might as well just suck it up and make the best of it since i wasn't going to do another. another cool thing, coincidentally, was that joe douglas was at the meet with some of the open athletes he still coaches.

definitely let me know if come down this way,

cush

*Week 336*

Salutations, 50+ers! Quite an managerie of topics from last week.

Congrats, Cush, on getting your 45-49 1500 AR ratified! I appreciate what a top-heavy bureaucratic process that is.

Nice race, Racerdb! Getting a "W" at our age is always a treat. Nice time, too!

Props again, SpikePlate, on your indoor Mile; BTW, that's a healthy cup of mileage YTD!

Kudos, OGII, on a solid XC season; always impressed by your resilience and persistence. And to Mike L, both on your race and NYCM race predictions...very cool!

As always, wish I could take a week and join Mo'pak on one of his typically adventerous outback escapades.

I'm going to take Coyote's post of last week as a subtle suggestion that maybe I should see a masseuse.

I'll be curious to see how Charlie's intermittent fasting works out when compounded over several months.

With all my fits and starts, I fully understand how one can get frustrated with running; I hope Allen1959 & Rtype can find a long-term trajectory that works for them.

Speaking of fits and starts, this week started out well with 16+ miles by Wednesday, but sadly came to a screeching halt after midweek due to a combination of meetings and family issues to deal with:

Sun: 5.1 mostly easy (~8:05/mi) except 4th mile @7:18

Mon: 2.6.3 Running to and from work with ~18lb pack

Tue: 6.5 XC workout with more hill repeats

Wed: 2.6 2x1.3 same as Monday

Thu: Off Meetings dawn to dark

Fri: Off Meetings dawn to dark (somehow tweaked my knee, too.)

Sat: Off Dealing with shtuff...then it got damn windy (70 mph gusts) and rainy.

Thankfully, Thur and Fri were the last of the Leadership Academy (painful at times, but glad I got to participate.) Not much to talk about the rest of the week. I may or may not be able to get a run in today and will try to get back towards honest mileage as quickly as possible. The reality is that there is no way I'll be ready for Club XC in three weeks, so I'll be the slow, fat master in the back of the pack, that's pretty much a given. I did run a lot of the course on Tuesday, and I'll add some comments later this week; the course maps are posted (takes a little time understand them):

http://www.usatf.org/Events---Calendar/2017/USATF-National-Club-Cross-Country/Athlete-Info/Course-Map.aspx

OK. That's all I got. Thanksgiving on the horizon, so we'll look forward to spending time with our surrogate family here in Lexington. I may even run our Running Club's Turkey Day race, but I'm not really enthused about it. Hope that you'll have a nice respite from the daily grind this coming week, and look forward to your reports.

All the Best!

My weeks are the same - some small all comers meets are on the horizon in the spring and I will use those as a target.

I have been weight lifting more seriously and fell in with a couple of people who know what they are doing. I joined their gym instead of just using the gym in my apartment complex. The first time I lifted with them was eye-opening and as you can imagine I was sore the next day in places I never knew existed. This has been going on for about 3 weeks and the other day when I was out of the shower and in front of the full length mirror I noticed something new. It was something my high school friends and I called the "butt dent" on the side of your glute on the upper thigh. That's the best way I can describe it, but when it developed it meant you were rounding into decent shape. Color me happy!

So aside from that development not much new with me. I'm keeping the same workouts while trying to increase the intensity and of course avoiding injury. Thanksgiving approaches and with it the spectre of copious amounts of food. I will do my best to exercise my willpower muscle.

Thanks for the Club Nats 10k Map LucKY2b. I'll be looking forward to 1-red lap to go 20 days from now. I shall hope I'm fit enough, and smart enough, to race like Cinncy 2007 when we had 35F wet snow and KP-patience for 4.5 miles. 16th in M45 was the best I've done at Club Nats. Now we go again in M55 with the same tough generation only 10 years wiser. Scoring looking and expecting to be just as difficult to place in the Top 5 Teams M50+. Making this masters event arguably the most competitive above and beyond masters road racing, indoor and outdoor track.

Proud Dad today - son's team finished 4th yesterday at NAIA Nats. Aidan was 7th man, finally making the hardest top 7 team to make his senior year. Reckon many of the 328 athletes toeing the line are from your part of the USA. Southern Oregon can claim a nice bragging right of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th for 9 of the past 10 years. Should be 10 if not for hopitalized food poisening or nora virus 3 years ago the night before and day of the race. Go Raiders!

p.s. Mike F... your SOU nephew, Gary Jr, looked ready to say "bring on the track season!"

KP

Good morning from frosty Eagle, Idaho. Yesterday I raced the Y-Striders Turkey Trot Relay a 27 year tradition for a few runners here. Teams are two or four members alternating a two mile road loop. The goal is to predict your team time and you cannot wear watches. Our club ended up having the top two predicted times in the masters division, my team being the loser by eleven seconds. Winners get a turkey each. Pressure of racing for the team brought out my best and I ran a good 14:19, feeling comfortable. My lighter race week still included three doubles but no long run.

Monday: AM- 2 miles easy; 2 x ( 4 x 250m @ good speed / 150m easy; 400m easy; 4 x 350m @ good swing / 150m easy ) 400m between sets; mile easy; PM- 3 miles easy/walk

Tuesday: Off

Wednesday: AM- 2 miles easy; 4 x 800m @ tempo / 2:00 rest (last in 3:30 others not timed); mile easy; PM- 2 miles walk/ easy

Thursday: Off

Friday: 2 miles easy/walk

Saturday: AM- 2 miles easy; 4 x strides; 2 miles @ 14:19; 2 miles easy; PM- 3 miles walk/ easy

Sunday: Off

Have a good Thanksgiving everyone.

Igy

My week:

NOV 13-19, 2017:

Off

Off

Off

Off

Easy: 4.6 miles @ 8:28/mi

Off

Off

WEEK TOTAL: 4.6 MILES

Some good training happening all around - well done all.

A solid mileage week for me.

Life conspired that I was unable to make it over for the 3k, wasn't overly disappointed at that.

Mon: AM recovery 3.71 @ 7:56; PM easy 6.34 @ 7:44

Tue: AM recovery 3.53 @7:59; PM gentle progression from easy to MP 7.17 @ 7:19

Wed: PM easy 75 min 10.01 @ 7:30

Thu: AM recovery 3.54 @ 8:11; PM 20 x 200m, just focusing on form and not timed 9.03 @ 7:08

Fri: AM recovery 3.61 @ 8:14; PM recovery 3.76 @ 8:22

Sat: AM 1hr with 6 steady and 6 strides 8.78 @ 6:55

Sun: AM easy early hilly trails 11.53 @ 8:06 and then marshaled at the club fit4life league race.

WTD: 71.0

MTD: 183.7

YTD: 2,756

A bit of work travel next week, so hopefully the mileage doesn't drop too much.

1st of the seasonal turkey trots on the horizon in 2 weeks time.

40 is the new 100...miles that is. Just tallied up the training log and realized that in the past 20 weeks I stumbled through precisely 799 miles for a nearly exact 40 miles per week average...but took the discipline, sweat and almost as much time as those 100 mile weeks of yesteryear did ;(

Thoroughly enjoyed following all the championship cross country racing this weekend (at both the high school and collegiate levels)...now ready to take in a little football. Well, that is after knocking out a 7 mile slog in the nearby vineyards with the wife and dog...a fine weekly family tradition.

Wishing everybody a fine week of giving thanks.

Your pal,

MF

45 mile week

2 workouts

9M tempo at 5:27 pace

9m Progressive run - 7:00-5:02

6 mile recovery days.

Still nursing upper hamstring glute tendonitis

cheers

Local 5 miler today. It was my 22nd in a row, my longest streak. I had 17 sub 30s in last 18 years (tweaked a hammy one year) but knew it wouldn’t happen today going in given Achilles issue. Legs felt pretty good after the half marathon last Sunday but Achilles was set back a week or two.

Went 31:03, still good enough to win 50-59. I have PT scheduled for Monday and Wednesday. Thanksgiving is a brutally hilly 10k so I am going with a game day decision after my treatments.

Happy Thanksgiving all — you got your health, you got your wealth!

I started off my post-XC season with an excellent week. My immediate goal is to get back to good base building as promptly as possible. I fully accomplished that with a 55 mile week all at low intensity. For the next several months I want to stay in the 55-60 mpw range and start easy and build the intensity whenever I feel like I am comfortable with harder workouts. So, this week went as follows:

M- 5 walk barefoot on the beach

T- 9 hills 11:10/mi ave

W- 8 with 2m w.u., 3 x easy mile/slow mile 10:23/mi ave

Th- 7 walk

F- 9 hills 10:43 ave

S- 10 with 2m w.u., 4 x easy mile/slow mile 10:11/mi ave

Su- 7 walk barefoot on the beach

Next week's principal goal is to not do too much weight damage with Thanksgiving goodies.

Happy running and holidays to all!

Congratulations on the (belated) record, Cush! I enjoyed watching the video.

Allen1959, I hope you can find the trick that lets you get back into running regularly. I’ve been in that boat before and it’s awfully frustrating.

Nice race, not half fast! Sounds mighty fast to me. I can still vaguely remember going sub-30 for 5 miles but I could do that only for a very brief portion of my running life.

I had a bit of travel this week, but still managed to log a respectable (by current standards) 42 miles of running plus a little bike work.

Monday: Visiting USC. Ran three laps around the perimeter of the campus, then turned off the fourth loop into the campus, ran a mile around the track, and back to the hotel. About 8.6 miles at about 9-min mile pace.

Tues: Got up at 5 am, got on a very large and unfamiliar freeway in complete darkness and headed out of L.A. Bumper-to bumper traffic at 70 mph is rather stressful, but at least at that hour it was moving well and I got out quickly. Drove 4.5 hours home, ate half a breakfast and got on the bike. Managed 23 miles halfway bonking and called it a day.

Weds: 10.3 miles at 9:13 pace.

Thurs: 10.6 miles at 9:25 pace.

Fri: 90 minutes on bike trainer.

Sat: 13.0 miles at 9:09 pace. Not fast, but it felt very good and I felt I could have run all morning at that pace.

Sun: Wanted to ride the bike outdoors but it was 39 degrees with dense fog first thing in the morning. I hung around the house doing a few chores, watching political shows on TV, and wishing the fog would lift. It finally did, and I headed out at 9 am dressed for the arctic at 44 degrees. (I’m perfectly happy to run in sub-freezing weather if there’s no ice on the roads, but I’m a total wimp about riding a bike in the cold.) It got sunny and warmed up during the ride, and I was seriously overdressed, but managed to pound out 34 miles of decent effort.

My local running club’s turkey trot was yesterday (the weekend before Thanksgiving) and I passed, deciding I didn’t want to mess up my heel for a silly turkey trot. However, the club also has a noncompetitive fun run on Thanksgiving which I’ll likely do as my social event.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Week 1 42 minutes 32/10 (Lt/Vo2)

Week 2 56 minutes 36/20

Week 3 52 minutes 36/16

Week 4 8 minutes 4/4

Week 5 60 minutes 12/60/16

Nov 14 10 minutes 10/0 sand dune ridge barefoot

Nov 15 12 minutes easy up 11 percent grade 1 mile hill just shuffleing along

Nov 16 20 minutes 12/8 sand dunes on the ridge barefoot felt GREAT

Nov 19 30 minutes 22/8 1 mile steep walk back then 2 miles steep hill plus 5 minutes on a steep trail as I wanted 30 total felt Great but I was gassed nice walk back down the hill. No calf issues unlike last time better warmup started slower . Feeling pretty good about training. Intermittant fasting is going well except no weight loss. Anidotal progress I feel stronger and for instance I quit doing pullups 4 months ago because I lack discipline which is good but that is another subject anyhow just before I started the intermitant fasting I tried doing some and got to 3 which felt hard maybe I could have done 6. Yesterday I did 10 and could have done more that is with zero training. Sleep really good have more energy even if this is all placebo I am gonna keep doing it forever cause I prefer how I feel when my stomach is empty and when I eat I like to eat alot.

devastating Washington loss to Saints just now. If I were cynical I'd almost say it looked fixed with weird/blatant intentional grounding while not under heavy pressure just when we were in range for game-winning FG....

oh well, until then I had a good week. In San Diego thursday to saturday for a convention. It was really nice running along the bay at sunrise in mid-60s temps in mid-November.

M 1:00 run with hill repeats, 1:05 x-training

Tu 1:50 double

W 1:00 run, 1:00 x-training

Th 45:00 run with 2 X 10:00 at half-marathon pace, 1:00 x-t

F 1:00 run, 1:00 x-t

Sa 35:00 run, 40:00 x-t

Su 1:50 run, 1:15 x-t

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dave