50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Hey Allen,

Glad to read you are working on your knees.

At 62 a 4:59 is 94.21 which is about 4 percent better than my best age graded score which was right before turning 44 ran 4:13 for 1500. This was my first and last year of really running the 1500 before INJURYs took over.

All or none has permeated my comeback attempts. Finally realized that being fit and able to run trumps all other running goals. Feel very free now but still gonna try and bust 5 once that is over it will be busting x and y you know what I mean;)

Running late with my post, already Wednesday here in Oz.

Mon. 8 km mtn bike then changed shoes and nogged a slow 3 .2 km of trails in 22 min. Back home on the bike 5.5 kms. Also 44 min. kayak session.

Tue. 21 kms rugged mtn biking in 1 h 20 m.

Wed. 8 kms of technical trail running with 290 metres elevation gain. 1 hr 3 mins. Slow and easy.

Thu. Quick climb up Mt Alexander on the mountain bike. 19 km loop with 540 metres elevation gain. 1 hr 10 m.

Fri. 37 min. kayak session on a swift flowing Campaspe. No rain to speak of in 2018 but the water is being released from Lake Eppalock for irrigation and environmental flows so the river is nice and high and fast.

Sat. Drove out to nearby Tooborac and parked the car at the top of Hayes Hill. Walked 3 steep downhill kms in 28 mins. then slowly ran 5.5 very steep kms then cruised 2.5 back. 55 mins of running with 380 metres elevation gain.

Sun. 10 kms on the mountain bike then changed shoes and trotted out a slow 3 km of trails in 20 mins. Back home on the bike 7.5 kms.

Also plenty of walking included and quite a few times up and down the fire escape stairs at work.

Pleased to be able to get in a couple of half decent runs without hamstring discomfort. It is a bit iffy the day after though.

I will stick to running only Wednesday and Saturday this week and maybe hike hills or mtn bike on Sunday.

Mighty impressive running Coyote man. Great to see SC back in the thick of things too.

posting early before work travel day.....

Happy Spring, everyone. ok week of running for me, including:

M 1:25

tu 1:30

W 1:45 with some pickups

Th 1:00 + 1:00 cycle class

F 1:15

Sa 1:00 incl. 5k parkrun 19:47 (3rd OA, 1st AG)

Su [planned as of now] 1:20

2 weeks to cherry blossom 10-mile [spring goal race]. I'm wary of racing all out in cold conditions secondary to history of calf and hamstring strains, so I ran the parkrun yesterday somewhat cautiously, and it's a rolling course, and I was blocked a bit at start, and there were three 180 turns and [your favorite excuse here] but still a little dismayed by the time, which is around the same pace as a recent hilly 10-mile. Oh well, clearer report card coming soon.

have a great week,

Dave

*Week 354*

Greetings, 50+ers! Really short report on this Palm Sunday. A bit of a step back this week, only about 19 miles on 5 days. Log reads as such:

Sun: 5.3 Super Easy (8:57/mi avg) last day of mini-streak

Mon: Off

Tue: 3.0 (7:58/mi) Treadmill Sadness, 8:23/mi down to 7:30/mi

Wed: 3.0 (7:59/mi) more of the same T'mill Sadness

Thu: 4.4 Easy-to-moderate (7:47/mi avg) Mile-3@7:13

Fri: 3.2 Easyish (8:00/mi) dead legs from 5-hour drive

Sat: Off Conference and crappy weather

Not much to say. I won't explain why I was running T'mill on Tuesday and Wednesday, and why I didn't hit a T'mill on Saturday (weather was plumb awful all day...we hovered around the freezing mark and had rain, sleet, snow, hail, lightening, high wind....you name it.) Even so, grateful we didn't have the weather of those in the northeast! Yikes! BTW, I hadn't been on a mill in over a year, and I hated every minute of it. This week should be better (knock on wood;) hope to get 6-7 in today to start it off right.

That's all I've got. How's it going in your neck of the woods?

All the Best!

I'm checking in early in hopes I can get outside this afternoon for my run/bike/run workout. We've gone back to winter with rain/sleet/thunder/wind and grey skies. It's hard to believe I was running in shorts and a singlet two weeks ago. I'm in a lull between my three April races and things have been crazy at work so this was a "keep your nose to the grindstone" week for me. I'm looking forward to finally getting back to normal with one "speed" workout scheduled for next week.

Sun: Race recovery - 6.3 E (9:01)/2 hr biking

Mon: 10.1 (9:28)/2100 yd swim

Tue: 7 E

Wed: 2400 yd swim

Thu: 7 E/ 1 hr biking

Fri: off

Sat: 9 PRO (10:30 -> 8:30)

Hope you all have a great week!

A belated thanks for the USATF Indoor Nats kudos. I'm always pleased with a Championship Medal. At the same time, even this here old track dog made a few tactical errors. The first was so classic I shared it with the high school kids I coach.

No chance for a 1500 Gold or Silver at 57.75 years young but as luck would have it Steve Spence was a no-show after his stellar 3000 victory. I sat on 4th forever and then hit the bold shift in pace for the Bronze with 550 to go. Had a commanding lock on third with 100 to go. I let up in the home stretch as I lapped 2 guys when out of nowhere and at the line the Bronze was stolen. Damn! Told the high schoolers... "Never look back; more importantly never ever back off in a final, EVER!"

Had a chance for the super tactical (slow) 800 Gold the next day but again made an error by not going around 2 guys boxing me in to close the gap on the wire-to-wire winner. I finally hit the brakes to step out and to the right with 150 to go to chase the winner only to run out of real estate. Silver is cool; but lessons re-learned even for this old dog.

All-in-all I had a blast toeing the line and hanging out in Landover, DC, and Raleigh NC with my college roomate, temmate, and old friend. THAT's what this is all about; ain't that right y'all?

KP

I'm also posting early as I hope to get out on the bike later, once it warms up. After an unusually warm and dry January and first part of February, the past five weeks have been unseasonably cool and wet. Fine for running, but it sucks on a bike. Today it's sunny and dry, but windy and currently 39 degrees at 7 am. Need to wait a while before venturing out on the bike.

My heel seems to have regressed again to tolerating a run only every other day. So this week I got only 34 miles in three runs, Tu-Th-Sat. Saturday's run was 13.7 miles at 9:03/mile pace. I can't remember the last time I ran 10+ miles on a weekend (i.e., wide awake and warmed up) and was slower than 9 min/miles. I wasn't trying to go hard, but slowness was still alarming. I seem to have slowed down very dramatically over the past year and I don't know how much of that can be attributed to my chronic Achilles heel problems, because even in January and February, when I was able to run 50-60 mpw, I didn't get any speed back. Is it only the inevitable effect of aging, 7 weeks before my 60th birthday?

Sometimes I think I should just quit timing any runs except races, and simply go out and enjoy running. Which I still do, until I finish and look at the clock.

Next week is our spring break and I wish I were healthy enough to take advantage of it!

I hope you all have a great week.

Week 23 March 18 36 minutes

- March 19 20 minutes ez tempo barefoot in the dunes

- March 22 treadmill intervals 16 minutes

warmup

7/7,8/6 2 minutes of 30 sec

10/4 1 minute

7/7 4 minutes HR 164 short rest

6/8 4 minutes HR 168 long rest

9/5 2.5 minutes HR 168 long rest

11/0 2.5 minutes HR 171

Almost back to where I was at the first of the year. Watching a bunch of ultra running on youtube maybe that is what I should do?

Another incremental mileage increase this past week -- four runs totaling 50 miles. With nineteen weeks to goal race, I will continue the base-building for another month or so, then add one workout a week. I would start running some strides now, but my knees and achilles are still tender and bothersome. I am hopefull, though, as I'm seeing some progress with the muscle strength/balance work at the gym.

M58 -- 5'11" 169 lbs

2017 races -- 18:58 5K, 59:59 15K, 3:07:23 marathon

Goal -- Defend M55-59 title in August 15K

Training status -- Injury rehab, mileage build

March 19-25, 2018

Mon -- 15 mins elliptical, 25 mins treadmill

Tue -- 12.2 miles @ 8:03/mi (roads)

Wed -- 10.0 miles @ 8:58/mi (roads)

Thu --2 x 20 mins elliptical

Fri -- 16.6 miles @ 8:18/mi (roads)

Sat -- 12.0 miles @ 9:48/mi (roads)

Sun -- off

WEEK TOTAL: 50.8 MILES (roads)

Have a good week!

-Allen

It was a good week as the peroneal recovery is progressing nicely. A small amount of soreness remains which I attribute to bruising from a Graston treatment on Wednesday. Volume is progressing nicely, though I did back off a but today in deference to the weather. The golf course is closed, but hopefully will re-open later this week.

Mon: off

Tues: 35' jog, body wt ex

Wed: treatment

Thu: off

Fri: 41' jog, body wt ex

Sat: off

Sun: 35' jog

Best to all.

I was in the DC area last weekend and I stopped by the masters championships in Landover in order to spectate a bit. Inspiring stuff - amazing athletes! Gave this old goat some motivation. My foot is still gimpy, but less gimpy each day. I figure I have about 3 more weeks of this low impact crap before I can start to build up again. In the meantime, my lifting is going well and I am seeing definition where once there was none. Always encouraging. I'm also learning the "Bro Nod" and have no hesitation about telling some of those cell phone users who are "resting" (and resting and resting) "Mind if I work in?" I'm no longer a newbie!

Result for Carlsbad 5k 2018

https://www.sportstats.ca/display-results.xhtml?raceid=96206&status=results&category=Men

Congrats to OGII and Cush on C’bad! Looking forward to their reports.

lucKY, I’m finding the TM to be a little too tempting. I have a laptop with some high quality headphones set up on a shelf at eye level, a little AC/DC on YouTube (live at River Plate) and I have a hard time stopping.

Tu: 34 min medium rocky trail

Thr: 35 min easy treadmill due to snow on trails

Sa: 35 min very hard, very steep, very rocky trail

Su: 35 min easy, treadmill due to snow on trails

Another good week with some wild weather here in the Mid-Atlantic. On Wednesday we had 5 inches of snow and Saturday another 3 or so of heavy sloppy snow. I managed to get my hard climb in on Sat before it started snowing. Really hard grinding and the legs just numb on that climb. That felt like I am finally getting some actual training done rather than just plodding along.

Have a good week folks.

Belated congrats to KP for the medal at indoors! And looking forward to reports from Carlsbad.

Last big week before some taper (miles rounded)

M - 6 recovery

T - 10 (double)

W- 14 with 7 mile tempo with hills over last 3; okay that was hard

R - 9 easy

F - 11 (double) with PM reps, but not too much 5X 3 minutes at slower than 5K, faster than 10K, with 1 min recovery

S - 9 easy (hilly trails)

Su - 21 moderate/easy for 15, marathon effort for 6

even 80 for the week, I'll be in the 60s next week

Cush up there, and old guy II second 65-69 in a little over 20. Good job guys.

Igy

Hey cool stuff at Masters! Michelle and I were coming back with the team and really wished we could have stopped to race. Michelle ran a 2:37 down in Myrtle Beach and we are both looking forward to Outdoor Masters.

I coach in the same conference as Steve and our Children were the same age so we used to talk about coaching and parenting a lot. He and I have gone for several runs together at meets - though he is kind enough to run my pace.

Before that though...two weeks out from National Duathlon. So far have covered 960 on the bike and 433 running. I may not be race ready but I am as ready as I can be. Here was the week that was

Mon 10 miles 7:43 pace HR avg 143

Tue 4 easy walk 14 on the bike 135 watts

Wed 2 WU 1600 6:58, 800 3:30, 600, 2:21, 200 43 - felt good PM Trainer night 18 miles 150 Watts

Thu Run-bike 3 mile run 7:28 then 15 miles at 21mph 180 watts in 43 minutes

Fri 4 easy walk 30 minute easy bike 135 watts

Saturday Race 5k 21:15 PM 30 min easy Bike 135 watts felt ok inthe race but was kind of tired.

Sunday 19 miles on the bike 4 easy racewalk 150 Watts

Some solid work this week and then easy next.

I just got home after some team members got together for lunch and a beer or two after the Carlsbad 5K. Racing conditions were great this morning, clear, sunny and about 58 degrees. My time was quite a bit slower than I was hoping for, but I was pleased with my race effort and I have a better idea where I am on fitness now. I was hoping to get under 20:00, but couldn't hold on to the pace the last mile. From the race mile markers I was at 6:20 at the mile, which is exactly where I wanted to be and 12:44 at the 2 mile, which I wanted to hit at 12:40. The 3rd mile was not so close to my plan. Even though it didn't feel too bad I slowed to about 6:50 for the 3rd mile, and could not generate much of a sprint for the final 0.1 mi healthy downhill. All in all my race effort was where I wanted it to be, my first two miles were right where I wanted them to be on time, and I certainly can't complain about my best ever age group finish at Carlsbad, getting 2nd after several years of 3rds. I just checked the age-grading for my time and it's 84.44%, which is my highest ever age-graded percentage. I've had a couple of 82.xx% races in the last couple of years but this continues my modest upward progress. (In my mid-40s I would usually hit 76-78% age-grade, and it has consistently improved about 2% every 5 years since then. Thank you all for the congratulations, and my congratulations to SoCal and all the other racers out there.

Mon. Hilly 4 km hike on 42 min. 33 min. kayak and 1 hour mountain bike.

Tue. 1 hr 27 min mountain bike orienteering.

Wed. 10 km run inc 4 km/430 m. uphill effort.

Thu. 1 hr 4 min mountain bike.

Fri. 40 min kayak. 5 km steep rugged untracked hiking, 1 hr 12 min, 330 m. elevation gain.

Sat. 5 km steep hill running,55 min. (3 reps up 900 metre long trail gaining 180 metres).

Sun. 7.6 km hilly hike in 1 hr 16 min.

Feeling quite fit and managing to keep the hamstring tendonopathy on hold if not at bay.

I am hoping to be able to at least run around in the local club races over the wintet season. I doubt I will be anywhere near competitive but will just be happyto enjoy the camraderie.