50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Posting early this week since my year is done and there won't be anything more to add. I started having a weird pain on the top of my foot early in the week. Seemed to get progressively worse as the week went on. So much so that I bagged my run Thursday morning after only a mile. Tested it again that evening and called it after just a few minutes. So I decided I better just take the rest of the year off and maybe get healed up. I need a rest anyhow. So I'll end up my year with 2339 miles. I'll ease back into running after New Years.

We'll be traveling to Greenville SC the day after Christmas. Coming home New Years eve. First time I've ever been there that I won't need to worry about getting my runs in. Probably just get in some morning walks with my wife and a mug of coffee, like normal people do.

About the marathon...I've always felt my Marathon PR of 2:50:30 was very soft based on my 15:02 5K PR. I think I could challenge that these days if I had the desire. I just really don't feel like running that far! Maybe someday I'll get the urge...

That's it from here. Have a Merry Christmas everyone!

Dave

Great story. And you seem to have some skills! That's an excellent CC time. Glad you are finding running is more fun this time around.

Racerdb wrote:

About the marathon...I've always felt my Marathon PR of 2:50:30 was very soft based on my 15:02 5K PR. I think I could challenge that these days if I had the desire. I just really don't feel like running that far! Maybe someday I'll get the urge...

Yeah, leave the long stuff to us slow guys. If I was fast, I could run the 100 and call it a day :-)

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Mike F got this going so better man-up. I am only considering the 1500/mile and 5,000m for goals. The standard that I would work for would be the Masters All-American Standards for age 65-69 of 5:45/6:15 and 21:00.

Last year I pretty much started from scratch as a 200 pounder (180 now) and hit 6:25 1500m track and 25:07 5k road by August. So gosh, it looks like a tall order, but what the heck.

The tortilla belly must go....

Igy

This was part of my post from 12/22/2016. I fell short, perhaps long on all my time goals for 2017. I did lose the tortilla belly and 15 lbs. Last year I ran the Christmas Run around a minutes slower in better conditions than today’s race (morning snow storm). Track times did not change much, but seemed to make good gains in training and road racing this fall.

I will keep the goals expressed last year for 2018.

Igy

SO fired up about the sub 3:00 stuff at age 60.

Throwing my own hat in the ring for breaking 3:00 in 2018...for 800 meters, that is ;}

HA!

- MF

That’s a lot of weight to carry for someone of your stature. The best strategy for you to get faster may be as simple as dropping a few pounds. Take it from someone who’s been there.

At our advanced age, I think diet plays a huge role in making getting faster easier as far as losing weight and reducing cholesterol. I watched "Forks over Knives" on Netflix and found it to be very interesting. I am going to adjust my diet to try and eat a plant-based diet as much as possible, even if it means reducing portions of all meats consumed. Hopefully, by doing this it will translate to improved racing times and reduced injuries.

Injury-Prone Old Stiff wrote:

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

This was part of my post from 12/22/2016. I fell short, perhaps long on all my time goals for 2017. I did lose the tortilla belly and 15 lbs. Last year I ran the Christmas Run around a minutes slower in better conditions than today’s race (morning snow storm). Track times did not change much, but seemed to make good gains in training and road racing this fall.

I will keep the goals expressed last year for 2018.

Igy

That’s a lot of weight to carry for someone of your stature. The best strategy for you to get faster may be as simple as dropping a few pounds. Take it from someone who’s been there.

Agreed, at 6’-3/4” tall and 166 lbs is still about 10-15 lbs too heavy to be nationally competitive at my age group. Also, I need to continue to avoid training errors. Continue to work the plan. Continue to have fun.

Igy

returntoglory wrote:

At our advanced age, I think diet plays a huge role in making getting faster easier as far as losing weight and reducing cholesterol. I watched "Forks over Knives" on Netflix and found it to be very interesting. I am going to adjust my diet to try and eat a plant-based diet as much as possible, even if it means reducing portions of all meats consumed. Hopefully, by doing this it will translate to improved racing times and reduced injuries.

It might improve racing times with weight loss and all, but it won't eliminate the risk of injuries & certainly won't aid much in tissue repair. You need some high quality animal proteins for that.

Just an anectodal, but I experienced this when I transitioned to a plant-based diet for chronic acid-reflux. While on it for a about year, I lost some weight but noticed more soft tissues injuries and certainly impaired healing when I went into rehab protocol. Consequently, I added back some organic animal products (e.g. eggs, chicken, dairy) and noticed improvement with rehabbing the injuries, and a downtick in the amount of injuries occuring overall.

FWIW, it's not so much the animal products, but the non-organic ones loaded with growth hormones, antibiotics, vaccines & pesticide-laden non-organic feed. ? Remember, you are what "they eat."

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Injury-Prone Old Stiff wrote:

That’s a lot of weight to carry for someone of your stature. The best strategy for you to get faster may be as simple as dropping a few pounds. Take it from someone who’s been there.

Agreed, at 6’-3/4” tall and 166 lbs is still about 10-15 lbs too heavy to be nationally competitive at my age group. Also, I need to continue to avoid training errors. Continue to work the plan. Continue to have fun.

Igy

LOL. Seems you’ve been spending some time the on the rack since last we met.

Best of luck with getting to the optimal weight for that that 6'-3/4” (?) frame.

It’s good that we can be self-deprecating. Yes, have fun. LOL

Regarding weight: I did my best running (age 33) at 103-105 pounds. I'm 5-5 with a narrow frame. At that time I never set foot in a gym, had zero upper-body strength, and looked like a concentration camp survivor. When I crashed on ice once and fractured my humerus, I could feel the ends of the broken bones grinding against each other. I had no musculature in my arms at all.

Now, at age 59, I weigh 115-117. I'm sure the extra weight detracts from my running performance, but I now look like a normal fit person and I have some (small) muscles in my upper body. If I were to lose 12 pounds now, I would look 20 years older because of the loss of the subcutaneous fat in my face that fills in under the wrinkles. And I have to believe that my overall health would not be as good.

Your optimum weight is always a function of what you are trying to optimize. If you can be a national class runner, optimizing for running performance makes sense. As for me, I'd rather now optimize for some combination of overall health, reasonable appearance, and running ability.

Rack might help your injury bug. You know vertebrae’s compression, osteoporosis. Happens when you fall in love with the easy chair. LOL?

amkelley,

Agree with your attitude. I was 140 lbs when competiting as a young man. Pretty sure my wife would not be too happy if I dropped that much weight. The loss of 15 lbs over the past year has sure helped my labs. No cholesterol meds or blood pressure meds for now.

Igy

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Rack might help your injury bug. You know vertebrae’s compression, osteoporosis. Happens when you fall in love with the easy chair. LOL?

Truth. Who doesn’t love their easy chair? ❤️

Anyway I was just busting you regarding your joke about being 6'. I know you are not really self-conscience about your height, nor should you be. Being short is not a detriment to being a good runner. In fact, I once spoke with an orthopedic surgeon who thought it was an advantage. Embrace your littleness!

Happy holidays to you and yours. And best wishes to you reaching your 2018 goals. This old friend will be rooting for you.

Sure Mr. Stiff. You might be surprised.

Welcome returntoglory. It's great to see how excited you are to be running again. Sometimes I forget to have fun racing. Easy week for me with 23 miles over 5 days. Felt like I was fighting off a virus. Felt better by Saturday and ran 6+ miles in 8:40 pace with a couple friends. Fastest run since August. It felt like a race! Merry Christmas to all of you.

*Week 341*

Season's Greetings, 50+ers! Wow! Much "weighty" discussion this past week. I was hoping to cross the 3-hour marathon off my list when I turned 50, but fell two minutes short, despite having run a 1:20:11 HM the prior month and feeling really good about how my running was going. My weight was down to 156 lbs (@5'11-1/2"), I'd done the requisite number of 22+ mile long runs, but I was still only topping out at around 55 miles for the week. That proved to be the death knell for my 3-hour aspirations. For both my marathon efforts, I ran out of fuel right at 20 miles, and struggled mightily for the last 10K. 3-hours at 60 would be a pipe-dream given how my toes have stiffened up over the past decade. Also, every year it seems the weight is harder and harder to keep off, so I'm resigned to accepting that unless I do something drastic in the kitchen, getting below 160 will be difficult (still hovering around 178-180...not surprising given the low miles.) From what I read, I think it's starches, processed grains and sugars that one really needs to cut down on if one wants to lose weight.....the beer and nachos have got to go. :-(

At any rate, this week was bad, I knew it wouldn't be good, but really struggled with the return from the west coast. The red-eye flight on Monday night into Tuesday morning, meant we completely lost a night's sleep. Finally got home to Lexington about 2:30pm Tuesday afternoon and we were beat. In the process, I somehow wrenched my knee again, and only felt up to running on Friday with a short 3.1 mile run (6:50 for the middle mile) and again Saturday for an easy 5-miler (8:23/mi pace.) So 8.1 miles is all I got, but (knock-on-wood) this week will finally be much better. Hope springs eternal, right?

I guess next week, I'll summarize the year that wasn't, and set some goals for my last full year in the 50's. Hope everyone is doing well and able to celebrate the holidays with friends and family and get some runs in. Safe travels for all those that have hit the road for this last week of 2017.

All the Best to You and Yours!

happy holidays to all! looking forward to a week off work.

M 1:10 run + 1:10 x-training

Tu 1:30 incl. 45 mins. worth of pickups (5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and 1/2/3/4/5 twice, 1:00 recoveries) + 40:00 x-t

W 1:00 + 1:00 x-t

Th 30:00 + 1:00 x-t

F 1:20 incl. 5 X 3:00 (2:00 recovery) at 5k effort -- a stride or two either way from 800 meters each

Sa 1:20 + 1:00 x-t

Su 1:40

new stairmasters in American U gym added variety to my bike/elliptical rotation for cross-trainng

Thursday was official start of my new training cycle, with goal race of cherry blossom 10-mile 4/8/18 in 61:30. I ran it last year in 61:35, so that might not seem super-ambitious, but in recent years the rare instance of not-slowing-down counts as a win.

have a great last week of 2017,

Dave

Some interesting discussion here this week. I went for the tall an thin thing once and stretched out on rack a lot one year to 6'8" 1/4 and 107 lb, it worked pretty well. But I got blown out of the county a few times due to the Chinook winds that hit in the late winter. Meanwhile, training for that sub 2:06 marathon at 60 next year but having some trouble getting some sponsorship due to my uncool and quirky behavior.

My recovery is good--a bit of a break followed by an easy 10 days. Now I'll pick it up. A couple late nights driving back & forth to airport, and last night under some snow.

I'm doing 12 or so today, snow on the streets (park back roads actually) but figure someone here will issue a world class cut down because I put hex screws in my shoes and will only run 8:00 pace instead of race flats and doing it a 5:03 pace, setting world age records along the way, and while downing a cold beer every mile.

Have a happy Christmas all!