50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Slow,

I have a good GP. He noticed the bulge on an annual physical. Surgeon confirmed prior to procedure. I did not take the ophiods prescribed, just iced and Advil. About 36 hours after surgery there was a rough 12 hours. Tight and sore at the wound spot. Then fine. The prescription drugs can be a bigger issue with severe constipation.

Igy

I've got one of those too. I've been living with it for about 5 years. I don't really notice it and it doesn't cause me any discomfort. It isn't noticeable and the doctor said no big deal if it doesn't hurt or get bigger so I haven't done anything with it.

Iggy, What was the reason you decided to have the surgery?

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Slow,

I have a good GP. He noticed the bulge on an annual physical. Surgeon confirmed prior to procedure. I did not take the ophiods prescribed, just iced and Advil. About 36 hours after surgery there was a rough 12 hours. Tight and sore at the wound spot. Then fine. The prescription drugs can be a bigger issue with severe constipation.

Igy

I had some pain around 2003 on the left side, was training for a marathon with my highest mileage and otherwise was feeling invincible. Doc said to take therapeutic dose of ibuprofen which worked wonders. Fast forward to GP noting bulging a couple of years ago. I met with surgeon but was reticent to put mesh in my body and I wasn't having more than minor discomfort...but I know this can be dangerous to ignore. Also I know it will be better to have it done when I am relatively younger and therefore likely a faster recovery.

I've had surgeries before and took the drugs but wean myself off of them pretty fast...only took a couple of pills after the meniscus surgery. I think I took Senokot to relieve the constipation and that was effective. Jeese is there nothing we old guys won't discuss? lol

Any pain after resuming normal diet and digestion?

return,

In retrospect I was ignoring an obvious issue. I would really need to tuck in my glute on the injured side when lifting. Some of the hip imbalance issues I had prior to surgery also improved. It was a good move and a simple procedure for me.

Igy

Slow,

Funnily enough the following year my wife had an inguinal hernia and surgery but on the opposite side. It all makes sense though, we settled my father-in-laws estate in 2010. Bought a different house in 2013. Both events involved a lot of lifting and moving household items for donation, storage and personal use.

I had no dietary issues except that brief 12 hour period of post surgery pain. My wife’s experience was the same.

Igy

Thanks, I was trying to do some core strengthening so similar to the lifting you were doing. Seems like whenever I tried doing crunches it would squeal.

We will be moving later this summer and I want to get the procedure done so I don't have to make excuses for not lifting heavy objects.

Then again...

Hi fellow 50+ year old's. I've been having some issues with weak and frequent urination. My doc just prescribed Flomax. Does anyone have experience with Flomax and decreased running performance? I found a post on masterstrack.com where a thrower experienced a decrease in throwing distance while on Flomax. Thanks.

Newly 50 wrote:

Hi fellow 50+ year old's. I've been having some issues with weak and frequent urination. My doc just prescribed Flomax. Does anyone have experience with Flomax and decreased running performance? I found a post on masterstrack.com where a thrower experienced a decrease in throwing distance while on Flomax. Thanks.

I just deal with it for now. I find as long as I am active and minimize alcohol that I have less problems. It helps to stay active and busy and not have it on your mind.

All drugs have side effects. Are the gains worth the negatives? That is for you to decide. I found allergy drugs (Allegra, Claritin) adversely affected my running (higher heart rate) and saline rinses were far more effective with zero side effects.

How bad was your problem?

Late to the boards again...

Belated congrats to Fisky. Especially like how you casually added "This past weekend, our 4x400m relay team broke the M70 world record..." Nice!

Things appear to be headed in the right direction with my running these days. Though I never intend to compile a huge running day streak, I did hit 53 days and 430 miles for the year today. Guess those are the best indicators...consistency and mileage.

Logged just over 55 miles last week with three workout days.

T: 15 random 20-40 sec strides between stop signs, 5:40'ish pace

TH: 4 x 1 mile at Threshold Pace (621,619,617,614) w/1/4 jog rest

S: 11 hilly miles at 7:42/mi

I'm kind of front loading my week this week. Running a 10K Saturday but want to keep the miles up. I'll back off a bit Thursday & Friday. Not sure how the race will play out but I'd like to think I could be in the 37:30/6:00 pace range. That might be a tad aggressive. Its supposed to be cold in the mid 20's but should have calm winds and clear roads.

Have a good week,

Dave

Rtype wrote:

I wonder, we have at least 4 professors here; if you are lecturing all day does that bug you?

The majority of my teaching has been online since I took my current job 15 years ago, and now it is up to 3/4. So I get to go to a "classroom" only a few times per week. That meant sitting behind my office desk top for hours every day. I think it eventually contributed to my hip problem. So after having yet another hip issue last March, I decided to purchase a standing desk. Now I sit down on my office chair only when I do "off line" reading. This has eased my hip issue significantly. However, standing in the same position for hours is as bad as sitting for hours. So I try to move my legs as much as I can. While in the classroom, I try to move around. One thing I have noticed recently is that the bottom of my feet often feels sore when I wake up in the morning. The soreness usually disappears after an hour or so. But I wonder if this is a result of standing all day. I am thinking about buying recovery sandals. (I am not going to wear them in my office. Just to get around in my house instead of wearing slippers.)

Anyway, as others noted, health issues could come from nowhere. But that does not mean we cannot do anything to reduce the risk. My approach for this is to leave no stone unturned and hope for the best.

M: off.

T: 7 miles.

W; 7 miles.

R: 5 miles.

F: 3 miles.

SA: off.

SU: half marathon. 1:40:30. (6th AG)

There is not much to write about the half marathon. The good news is that nothing is broken. The bad news is that I am really slow. I was surprised this was good enough for 6th in AG. However, I was outside of top 100 OA for the second year in a row. So it probably means that my AG was really slow. Now I seriously plan to work on my speed after my marathon next month. I haven't done any serious speed work for years, and the brief attempt I made last year was cut short by yet another injury.

I came back from my race on Sunday evening, and found hours of World Indoor recording on my DVR. I stayed away from this site to avoid any spoiler. But now I have finished watching all of it, and my life should be back to normal.

Rtype wrote:

I wonder, we have at least 4 professors here; if you are lecturing all day does that bug you?

I'm at a research university and I normally have no more than one lecture per day (50 or 75 minutes). Even on rare occasions when I have to spend more time on my feet lecturing, it doesn't bother me much because I can stand in optimally comfortable ways, change positions, walk around a bit, etc. I'm bothered much more by having to work in the lab, where I'm often having to stand in very awkward and uncomfortable positions for long periods of time and I'm too focused on what I'm trying to accomplish to pay attention to what my body is doing. At least I think that's why my Achilles heel blew up so badly last week--I wasn't running any more or faster than usual, but I was spending many hours in the lab trying to get a recalcitrant laser to behave.

I got out of the lab last Thursday, and I have run a grand total of 5 miles in the past 6 days. My heel is finally starting to feel better and I may try another run tomorrow. I'm entered in a half-marathon on Sunday. If I run at all, at least I won't be overtrained.

RF reader,

In regards to the standing desk, you may want to try a bar stool. The hip angle changes when sitting, and you can also just lean against it.

Igy

RF reader wrote:

Now I seriously plan to work on my speed after my marathon next month. I haven't done any serious speed work for years, and the brief attempt I made last year was cut short by yet another injury.

I would think a steady dose of weekly tempos would be really helpful. Speedwork (or trackwork) unless done at threshold or tempo pace... could lead to trouble!

Just my thoughts,

Dave

Slow Boat to Nowhere wrote:

Newly 50 wrote:

Hi fellow 50+ year old's. I've been having some issues with weak and frequent urination. My doc just prescribed Flomax. Does anyone have experience with Flomax and decreased running performance? I found a post on masterstrack.com where a thrower experienced a decrease in throwing distance while on Flomax. Thanks.

I just deal with it for now. I find as long as I am active and minimize alcohol that I have less problems. It helps to stay active and busy and not have it on your mind.

All drugs have side effects. Are the gains worth the negatives? That is for you to decide. I found allergy drugs (Allegra, Claritin) adversely affected my running (higher heart rate) and saline rinses were far more effective with zero side effects.

How bad was your problem?

Thanks. I chose not to pick up the Flomax prescription and just deal with it. Too young for that crap.

I choose the route of the "natural" over-the-counter way to overnight, frequent urination, and that is with Saw Palmetto. There are many companies making it as an "organic" so cannot comment as to which is better or safer, but I did not want the side effects of Flomax, I am 66 and so my prostate has grown some, apparently. Darn.

I think one of our posters was thinking of Flonase when replying to you and not Flomax, a fairly common error.

St. Pat's 4 miler, hilly, this Saturday, ran 34:00 last year feeling sluggish, sure hope I can at least do that or better. It was worth a 2nd place in a.g. but it could merit me 10th this time, the way the guys around here show up so randomly! Arrghh, just hope I can sleep beforehand and not stress too much :)

*Week 352*

Greetings, 50+ers! A small step forward this week, as I managed to make it about 20 miles on four runs. I'm still hacking a bit. I never mentioned the ears during this bout of the crud, but they've generated an inordinate amount of wax and I've been dealing with elevated tinnitus, too. At least the weather is improving. log reads as such:

Sun: 5.3 (8:07/mi)

Mon: off

Tue: 4.0 w/5xhill repeats

Wed: off

Thu: off

Fri: 3.5 (7:55/mi)

Sat: 7.0 (8:18/mi)

Spring Break has started! Hopefully, I can use this time to kick start my training. Though fairly easy, Saturday's 7 miler was a good start.

As far as standing for long periods, I'm on my feet lecturing or roaming the associated labs about 26 hours/week (yes, I'm that overloaded this semester.) Standing in one place for long periods of time has always been difficult for me. Thankfully, I don't use powerpoint slides; I'm always either doing board work or roaming the class as the students do group work.

That's it from the Bluegrass. Good luck this coming weekend to KP and any others heading to Masters Indoor Championships (side note: Masters 8km Championships is during the same weekend and just up the road from Indoors, which I find a bit odd.) Also wondering whether amkelly managed to complete her HM today.

Looking forward to a productive week....and to enjoying your all's reports.

All the Best!

Oh, an as we head in to March Madness and since the Badgers are out, "Go Wildcats!"

I've been missing in action for a few weeks due to family travel and competing. Two weeks ago I visited one son in Miami Beach and did runs on the Boardwalk. Last week I flew to Boston to surprise my other son at his IC4A 3000 race (8:16). Yesterday I was near Hilton Head racing a sprint triathlon and next week I'll be in VA Beach running the 8k. Whew! Thank goodness this was my spring break week.

Sun: Boston - day off

Mon: 7.4 hilly run, 2400 yd swim

Tue: 7.0 run with 4 x 400, 1000 swim - orthopaedic dr. says pain in my foot is a neuroma

Weds: :57 biking, aborted run due to foot pain

Thu: 7.0 run + strides, 1500 swim - foot better

Fri: 3.0 shakeout run + strides

Sat: Parris Island Sprint Tri (1st AG, 2nd in swim, 7th bike, 1st run) - it was great to actually pass people on the run for a change.

It's back to reality this week with school. I have 3 back to back classes on Tuesdays which put me on my feet for 3 1/2 hours straight. I don't notice that my feet hurt but I don't just stand and lecture, I move around a lot during class. I think the neuroma issue developed because the cast from my broken ankle was so tight. At first I thought I had a stress fracture but it hurt as soon as I got my cast off so that made no sense. As long as I wear sandals it feels OK so I hope it will get better over time. Good thing I live in the South!

Headed out into the vineyards for the world's prettiest 1:10 jog...used to be Sundays were meant for 18-22 mile hammer sessions with the guys but nowadays that's been replaced with the aforementioned jog with wife and dog (who just goes ape while flushing out birds and rabbits...even once quite recently, a wild boar...gulp)

This week was a whole lotta nothin'...30 miles of mostly easy running...a couple of lightweight track tempo runs...been gimpy and quite pressed for time professionally

Hoping to pour a glass of wine and watch NCAA Indoor T&F Champs this afternoon...they're on ESPN2 today at 4PM left coast time FYI

Have an extraordinary week of training and racing...we'll catch up with you again next Sunday morning...in the meantime, we'll leave the lights on ;)

Your pal,

MF

I'm back, baby! Not really, but starting to feel ready for some focused running again.

This winter, I've been running a few times a week outdoors, and one to three times indoors as part of the Orange Theory gym protocol. It's basically 25-30 minutes of treadmill running, plus an equal amount of time lifting and rowing.

The OT treadmill runs are pretty challenging in that they usually involve shorter efforts at 3-7 percent grades, combined with "push" and "all-out" segments at 1 percent, with rest intervals at "base pace." It's all a little goofy since lots of people in the classes aren't very experienced runners. Nonetheless, with music blaring and an instructor yelling encouragement and whatnot, the sessions are entertaining enough that I've been doing way more high-intensity running than I would on my own.

The whole "orange theory" thing is based on heart rate monitoring, with staying in the orange zone as the goal. Unfortunately, you can't import your own HR max, so the 83-91 percent of max that they use is a little off for me (my max is a bit on the low side, as is my resting HR).

Anyway, it's allowed me to keep up some intensity during the winter months. The downside is that my winter weight is way up, what with all the lifting and the lack of long, relaxed efforts. I can bench my bodyweight for a few reps now, which I haven't been able to do in years, but I've also ballooned to 175 pounds, up about 15 from when I ran a marathon in 2016.

If I can strip off the fat suit this spring I might have a decent summer of running ahead!