50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Did the marathon on Monday rested for 4 days and ran an easy 3 yesterday and about 4 today plus a 5 mile hike.

I won't bore you with too many details but as I said earlier in the week that was incredibly hard. I went out in just about 1:30, a very conservative pace, and held 7 through 22. My downfall was having to stop to tie a loose shoelace just before 22 and after less than a minute of that could barely muster sub 8, and then things got weird and scary at about 24.8.

Have run and ski raced in all sorts of adverse conditions but never anything under such relentlessly bad weather. Considering the clothing thread if I had to do it again, I might have worn a jacket (have 30 year old Asics water resistant top with a very light liner) with an under armor compression shirt to start (and switching half way through to merino wool). My xc windbriefs under half tights might have been better than just regular shorts. Never felt cold on my hands or head (polypro gloves and buff around my ears with running/ball cap to keep rain out of my eyes) although these were saturated by mile 8 or 10.

Coyote tough running for sure. Not only were you faced with running in less than ideal conditions the exposure over time is debilitating. Nice run.

Igy

Well I got 26 miles in of running 40 miles of biking. We went to two track meets. And I weigh meat on Friday and then we hosted the night Invitational on Saturday. Anyways I feel good if not busy from coaching. And I'm going to move on to my next training here shortly once we get to the end of April. I think. Iggy it's good to see that you're getting stronger and better my thoughts are with you. My marathoner that I coach who is 48 ran 305 at Boston. So the conditions were brutal, no kidding right. Anyways I ran my last run as a 52 year old today and I did my last bike as well. Tomorrow I turn 53

Happy birthday, Mike.

Holy Cow Batman...has anyone seen this? This is one muscular monster who won the 50-54 age-group at London with a time of 2:36! And I thought Chris Solinski was a big runner. This guy's marathon training program is insane for a man of his age:

http://club.runthrough.co.uk/grahams-blog-to-winning-the-v50-london-marathon-the-build-up/

The guy was a 3.47 1500 metre runner in his young days. Gave up running and hit the weights for 20 years. Returned to running and snuck under 3 hours in the marathon in his late 40s. He has worked hard at shedding a lot of his bulk and has a sub 2.32 as a 50 year old.

As muscular as he is he races at about 72 kg/158 lb and is 170 cm/5'7" tall so not as huge as he might look.

Mon. 35 min. kayak.

Tue. 30 min. hike. 70 min. mountain bike ride with 3 x up Viewing Rock 9.53, 9.36, 9.06. My best and strava CR is 8.31. All up 18 rocky kms with 410 metres elevation gain.

Brisk 3.5 km walk into work at lunchtime and a brisk 3.5 km walk back to the car at 10.30 pm.

Wed. 1 hour/ 6 km hoke with 15 kg weighted vest. 30 min. kayak.

Thu. Time trial climb on the mountain bike up Mt Hickey. 4 km in 29.50, best is 29.20. All up 18 kms with 630 metres elevation gain. The 4 km tt section was descended in 5 minutes.

Fri. 30 min kayak .

Pm. Mountain bike ride out to Axedale 20 kms on trail in 50 mins.

7.30 pm. "Light up the trail" bike event from Axedale back to my town of Heathcote.

27 kms.

A group of 4 inc. my former work colleague Eveline took off out front.

Ev is a gun masters mtn rider. Her husband an elite masters rider and her son were towing Ev and another guy along. I jumped across to Ev's wheel and hung on. I stayed with them for 20 kms before being squirted off the back up a hill. From there it was a cruisey solo spin in the dark with just a few owls and marsupials for company.

Sat. Just a 4 km walk.

Sun. Our town's third year of putting on the railtrail marathon. 120 starters plus a dozen or so Ekiden teams. A former world duathlon champ won in 2.35 on a sunny morning. Also a half, a 10 km a 5 km and a mile race. All of those events looped around past my property. 650 participants all up. Pretty big for a town of 2500.

I decided to jog around the 5 km course. I settled into a gentle 4.45 km pace and soon found myself in 3d place. Just after half way I was 2d still just holding 4.45s (all my hamstring could tolerate). I somewhat accidentally hit the front half a km out and won in 23.36. Pretty hard to believe that could win a race. 1st prize was a $100 so I won't complain.

Congrats on the 5K win, mo'pak! That's pretty cool!

I signed up for the Bolder Boulder 10k a few weeks ago and have been trying to stay in the mid-20s for weekly mileage. My left hip was bothering me a good bit last month -- diagnosed as arthritic and suggested for resurfacing or replacement -- but it has been behaving better lately.

A good 50-minute run on Sunday was encouraging -- stayed on 7:30-7:40 pace over roughly the Boulder racecourse without pushing particularly hard. Seems like 7-minute race pace might be achievable if I can keep making progress until May 28, and avoid any setbacks. I turn 51 on May 30 ...

My older boy who turns 10 in early May is getting excited to race Bolder Boulder with mom. She's been injured a good bit this spring and he's gunning for something close to 50 minutes (54 flat last year). Mom and dad's days of staying in front of the progeny at races are numbered!

This very last week was only 26.5 miles, but seems that my body needs more rest after the heavier week of 37 miles the week before. My wife is back from Tucson, where she's been tending to her now age 87 Mom who has Alzheimers and will soon need to get moved into a facility. So said wife needed a good workout, and we hit the track for 2x200,1x400,1x800,1x400,2x200. Kept paces all under 8 min/miles for me, around 7 min/mile for her, except for the 800 in 3:39. A good first step.

We have the net downhill Trolley Run 4 miler this weekend, and I signed us up for the October Des Moines races of the 1/2 for me and 5 km for her. Plenty of other races in between, but these have early sign-up savings. Only cost me $65 for the half, now I just need to get there healthy.

Hope to get in a long run tomorrow, like 13-14, prior to my 1/2 on May 19. Talk about a lot of people having the guts to endure 26 miles of ugliness at Boston, and what a terrific runner Kipchoge is with London, we watched him win the World Champs 5000 eons ago!

Just Amazed wrote:

Holy Cow Batman...has anyone seen this? This is one muscular monster who won the 50-54 age-group at London with a time of 2:36! And I thought Chris Solinski was a big runner. This guy's marathon training program is insane for a man of his age:

http://club.runthrough.co.uk/grahams-blog-to-winning-the-v50-london-marathon-the-build-up/

So this guy runs easy only once a week, and the rest is either hard or harder. Certainly very unconventional for his age. But apparently it works for him. And long and easy every day worked for Whitlock. So to each his own.

M: off.

T-SA: 7 miles.

SU: 10 miles (last 5 miles @ 7:45-7:40-7:37-7:37-7:25)

This is a bit easier schedule that what I had done for two weeks before marathon. (My work schedule during the week made it harder to do anything more.) So I will see how this tapering actually works well, I think I am in a decent shape. The race day weather does not look good (very windy), so I will figure out how to hide behind other people as much as possible.

mo'pak wrote:

The guy was a 3.47 1500 metre runner in his young days. Gave up running and hit the weights for 20 years. Returned to running and snuck under 3 hours in the marathon in his late 40s. He has worked hard at shedding a lot of his bulk and has a sub 2.32 as a 50 year old.

As muscular as he is he races at about 72 kg/158 lb and is 170 cm/5'7" tall so not as huge as he might look.

C'mon man!...this guy must be a genetic freak who should be studied in the lab! His sub-2:31 thon age grades to ~90.27 - World-class level! And 5-7/158?...are you freaking kidding me? I'm late 50s, 5-7/165 and the last marathon I did several years ago on an easy course I couldn't break 3:45! I doubt a 10 lb weight loss would put me anywhere near this cat's sizzling times. ? Btw, the legendary Ed Whitlock was ~112 lbs on a 5-7 frame. All of the faster marathoners (AG >85%) in the masters club I belong to are very small & thin, almost frail like with absolutely no muscle mass. In fact, the top World-class elite marathoners of today average a paltry 124 lbs!

RF good luck with your marathon....maybe some day I will walk one;)

Wonder how Mr.Green would do using Ed's training program?

After a year of 3 hours per day of walking it has become really easy. Sometimes I am tempted to gradually transition using miko miko run walk method . Running 3 hours a day even if I only covered 12 miles at 4mph or 15 at 5mph would be big miles. Would I finally achieve world domination? Would I be accused of cheating;) Time to start a youtube channel! or maybe I will just enjoy being fit and feeling good too easy as we all suffer the same affliction wanting more.

Charlie,

My father-in-law grew up in rural North Carolina in the late 1920s. To get into the nearest town he did scout pace, 16 strides walking and 16 strides jogging. My wife and I did a variation of that today.

Igy

[quote]Charlie wrote:

Wonder how Mr.Green would do using Ed's training program?[quote]Which one...Whitlock's or Hellebuyck's? ?

@ Igy run walk is good stuff. Not sure if you followed the miko miko stuff but running at 20 minutes per mile pretty funny stuff but I swear it has helped my calf muscles.

@ OG II 100 meter strides every half mile for 7 miles. Seem like a smart way to get in 1400 meters of strides.

@Allen man you are ripping those 800s maybe you should consider a mile time trial at some point 5:45 or better right now?

Gershler trng:

Recovery is until HR gets to 120 bpm. End of session when HR does not drop below 120 with a limit of 90 seconds.

Day 1 100 meters at best time + 3 seconds if 16 was your best 100 then 19 seconds

Day 2 200 meters at best time + 6 seconds if 34 was your best time then 40 seconds

Day 3 600 meters at best time + 18 seconds if 57 was your best time then 75 seconds

Rest then repeat days 1 thru 3

You could program a tread mill to do this and record your HRR data kinda fun to try

The 600s would be way harder than the 100s or 200s

Ed's training was very different in his 50s though.

When Jack Foster ran his 2.20 at 50 he had been ticking off 40 to 50 miles then cranked out a month of high quality 70 to 80 miles.

Green apparently does much slower paced endurance running then nails it for 3 months.

5'7" and 158 is not unusual for 2.32 but obviously 2.32 is not too common among 50 year olds. He is 4lb heavier than Turnbull when he ran 2.38 at 60 and 2.41 at 65 but Turnbull was taller. Turnbull only ran 3 to 4 days per week. One long run of 3 to 4 hours in the bush and 2 or 3 runs of about 10 miles at about 6.30 pace.

Foster was about the same height as Green but about 15 lbs lighter when he ran 2.20 at 50.

Charlie wrote:

... maybe you should consider a mile time trial at some point 5:45 or better right now?

The mile isn't on my radar right now, but coincidentally there is a one-mile track race in a neighboring city this Saturday. That's the only event, FAT timing, well-organized. And I will be in town, too. Sadly, it's the same time as the memorial service for late mother-in-law.

I have a 5K scheduled in a few weeks. Certified, flat course. I need to be close to 6:07/mile pace to be on target for my 15K goal in August. Doesn't look too likely, especially as I am still eight pounds overweight. But, yeah, last week's 800m repeats bolstered my confidence.