50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Rtype wrote:

Friday is Vegan day, Saturday is Keto day, and Sunday is Zone day cause Brittney does it.

I know lots of people are “on the vegan diet,” but a number of us are plant based for good. I eat anything whenever I like....just minus the foods I’ve decided I can’t ethically countenance. Basically what CM said.

The key element to focus on for long-term health and pain-free living: inflammation. Reduce that enough and pretty much everything else falls into place for us oldsters, assuming you are still active.

60+ wrote:

The key element to focus on for long-term health and pain-free living: inflammation. Reduce that enough and pretty much everything else falls into place for us oldsters, assuming you are still active.

Agreed, but far from convinced a Ketogenic diet is the solution. It is the newest miracle solution and will will be replaced by another in the next few years. With that said, I might be wrong but the odds are in my favor.

My less than educated opinion is carbs are fine but in moderation. Eating 2 cups of white rice 3 times a day, not too uncommon in my part of the world, will probably cause some inflammation as well as other health issues (diabetes...). I "think" complex carbs are worse than simple carbs ( white bread, jelly beans...) for me. Carbs with fiber seem to wreck my joints.

Lastly, protein is is what matters the most in the long run. If I cut protein my strength is impacted 100% of the time. My weight lifting reps at any weight drop substantially. I "think" this also hurts my running equally.

In the end, really not sure about what diet choices are the best :)

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

...Sorry rambling on here. You’ll understand when you get closer to 70.

Love it, Igy! Great stuff from the "old days." Jeff trained with John Mollring the summer of '70, and later roomed with him briefly in college. And Ole's dad, Jim, took up running as a master, and was in SMTC with Jeff.

True...but the Mediterranean diet is one of the best for cancer prevention. And we all know cancer rates go up signficantly with middle-age. I try to go organic when at all possible to avoid toxins (e.g., pesticides, hormones, GMOs, etc.). And man...does this food taste good! And red wine with the diet - well you what they say about aging like fine wine.

As someone who until recently thought Keto was Inspector Clouseau's house servant, I've looked over the diet and thought, hey, that sounds like my long run. You know - get up in the morning, don't eat, burn your glycogen from the night before and about 75 minutes in, you're burning fat. I usually do one regular run a week that way too. I snack on nuts and fruit. I cook with grains and vegetables.

It's called a plant-heavy or plant-based diet, and the jury is in -- it works. Plant-based diets give the eater the broadest latitude of any diet, so Big Mango's plate will look a lot different from mine, as he says, for both personal and cultural reasons. The goal is not "reduce inflammation," it's to properly fuel the body while extracting the maximum pleasure from eating.

I take a curcumin pill my chiro recommends, and I build in recovery days. That's about all I do for inflammation. Do I need to do more?

You’re actually burning fat right away, just at a reduced rate. Of course, this is all pace/effort dependent.

Allen1959 wrote:

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

...Sorry rambling on here. You’ll understand when you get closer to 70.

Love it, Igy! Great stuff from the "old days." Jeff trained with John Mollring the summer of '70, and later roomed with him briefly in college. And Ole's dad, Jim, took up running as a master, and was in SMTC with Jeff.

Allen1959,

We also referred to Jim as Ole. He was a very tough barrel chested master with around a 3 hour marathon at 60. In one race crapped all over himself and just kept motoring along. Ole (Jim) designed the original SMTC logo, looked like a life preserver. Tell Jeff I got in a fight with John Mollring at Paul Revere Junior High gardening class—rolling all over the ground with him getting the better of me. Also my freshman year at Santa Monica College we were running a very good distance medley relay at Mt. SAC and John dropped out of the mile leg. The half mile runner Tom Lynch (Jeff may also know) punched him. Jeff having lived with Mollring would understand all of this.

Igy

So a week ago I was mentioning about the fact that my 3rd metatarsal on my left foot felt like it was broken. I could barely walk on it last Sunday. I rested it on Monday as it began to feel better. Something hit me in the head like a brick. It occurred to me that my left foot was ½ size bigger than my right foot. I had neuroma surgery a couple of years ago for the 2nd metatarsal (same left foot). It now looked like I was going through the same thing with my 3rd metatarsal. After wracking my brain on why I was going through all this again I remembered that my left foot was bigger. I was wearing shoes that were fine for my right foot but my left foot did not have enough room. So I quickly bought a half size larger and went to the Brooks Ghosts which have a wider toe box. Almost immediately that 3rd metatarsal felt waaaay better. I am telling you this in case there is someone out there suffering from the same problem. Now I have to buy all bigger shoes, including dress shoes. By the way I was able to run 78 miles this past week even taking Monday off. Most of it was easy running but did get in an 8xmile cruise intervals with 200 jog recovering and a 15 miler mid-week. The times for those cruise intervals does not make a lot of sense since it was on gravel with a slight grade to it. So the downhill portions I was a little under six minutes and the uphill I was a little under seven minutes. I now have something to compare as I will do that same workout a few more times over the next several weeks. A few of those days this past week was a fairly long run in the morning followed by a shorter afternoon run. Good luck for those that will be running the 5k xc champs coming up in a couple of weeks.

PS I would encourge those out there with injuries to let us know. With all the experience on this board, some good cure treatments can be discussed.

Thanks for sharing that, I might need it someday. Diets are personal but injury is our common bond. As the old rascal used to say, “I feel your pain!”

*Week 378*

Greetings, 50+ers! Brief report (for me) today. Have a lot going on this morning. Two more important event this past week: 1) 36th wedding anniversary....blessed is all I can say; 2) Boise, ID will be our daughter and her BF's next nursing assignment. If they stay there long enough, hopefully, we'll be able make a trip out there and I'll get to meet Igy. Great discussion on weight, diets, training, etc. Glad you found a solution, 63, for the foot pain! Amazing!

Continuing to muddle along. 15-ish miles of running on 4 days as such:

Sun: 4.6 run 3:00/walk 2:00

Mon: 2.8 easy treadmill (25:00)

Tue: Off

Wed: Walk

Thu: 4.0 (8:05/mi)

Fri: Walk

Sat: 4.0 (7:50/mi avg)

The run portions of the run/walk start at 8:00/mi pace, but ended with the last couple at around 6:15/mi. Saturday's run accelerated down to about 7:00/mi by 2.7 miles, then eased off.

I'm already late for the rest of the day, so gotta get off here.

Look forward to your continued discussions and reports.

All the Best!

What about UK Football?

50 miles running for the week

2hr 30min aqua jogging

2 workouts on road

8 x 100

2 x 200 @ 33 1min b/t

2 x 400 @ 70 90sec b/t

2 x 800 @ 2:27 2min b/t

2 x 400 @ 70 90sec b/t

2 x 200 @ 33 1min b/t

8 x 100

6 x 800M @ 3min b/t

2:24, 2;22, 2:22, 2:22, 2:22, 2:19

Cheers

Another week of sticking to the training plan, but with more of the ups and downs that come with running while old. 53 miles -

M- 8 hills with the last 2 at threshold effort, 7:20, 6:31

T- 7 walk with 150M stride every 1/2 mile

W- 8 hills with the last 2 at threshold effort, 7:25, 6:33

Th- 7 walk with 150M stride every 1/2 mile

F- 8 hills with the last 2 at threshold effort, 7:05, 6:20

S- 7 walk with 150M stride every 1/2 mile (barefoot on the beach)

Su- 8 hills easy

Friday I ran a recent PR (best in the last 3 years) on my 8-mile hill loop. That afternoon I had some soreness in my right achilles. Yesterday morning it was still sore for my walk/run, and it was sore again this morning. It was not stiff coming down the stairs the last two mornings and does warm up as I run. I plan to stay on my mileage plan but back way down on the intensity until it clears up. Also, I will stick to my training shoes with the higher heels until the soreness goes away. I do have a 10K XC race next Saturday and a 5K XC race the Saturday after that. Those two races will provide plenty of training intensity for the next couple of weeks.

Good and healthy running to all!

Ole Olsen? Ketogenics? This thread gets more awesome all the time!

Two quick things to share...so yesterday, am at the local high school track for some hard repeats and who shows up? Larry Barnum. Only one of the greatest ever masters 400/800 in the world. He's tuning up for his newest age group, 75, which he turns in November...so we do part of our warm up together and I say something along the lines of being surprised that he's not in Malaga at Masters Worlds...and that I too had designs on said meet once upon a time...pains me to even follow the results from a far. Larry looks over and says, "likewise," and the with a wry smile and a twinkle in his eye says, "it's not a spectator sport." Classic.

I go 40.59 for my final 220...Larry runs 32 point.

Part 2 of this week's drivel: some of you may know that I keep an extensive historical archive of the sport...some 4,000 pieces collected over almost 50 years...I use said library to write about our sport's rich history. This week marks the 50th anniversary of the 1968 Echo Summit Olympic Trials. I have been doing a daily diary report on those Trials and those writings can be seen at

www.RunBlogRun.com

should you have any interest in such subject matter.

34 miles for the week...hopefully a one mile race 4 weeks from today... am now just 298 mikes shy of 110,000 lifetime miles and can practically smell the end...oh wait, I almost forgot..."there IS no finish line" ?

your pal,

MF

Old guy II

Regarding the sore achilles, be very careful regarding stretching it. I would warm it up a bit by jogging a few minutes very slowly and then stretch it very gently. Using steps and slowly dropping your heel is a good stretch. But do not over stretch it. Stretching is a good preventative measure but not so effective if something is already sore. You might just keep aggravating it by stretching. And then ice as soon as you finish running. Even a little massaging should help. Best of luck.

Pardon my absence in recent weeks. I have been traveling and otherwise preoccupied. Plus my Garmin can no longer find any satellites (I’ve tried both hard and soft resets to no avail). But I have been jogging and my injuries have just about completely healed. I have been jogging sans calf sleeves, though I have still been buttering up the calves with a touch of Ben Gay. The knee is much better with only a little occasional soreness now.

Today I was back to my typical 53’ for the first time in awhile. I am hoping for a good week and plan on resuming my inspirational weekly reports next Sunday. I’m sure you can’t wait.

Best to all!

congrats on the injury recovery -- always a good feeling.

I had a mostly fun week culminating in disappointing race, as follows:

M 1:15

Tu 1:50 double

W 1:00

th 1:00 + 1:00 x-t

F 50:00 + 30:00 x-t

Sa 40:00 x-t

Su half-marathon in 1:27:33 (56th OA, 3rd AG). 4 and a half mins. slower than same race last year. Some of that is weather (last year sunny, slight tailwind most of the way, 50's; this year about 60, headwind for first couple miles then from the side, but driving rain, slippery footing, many deep puddles to run/wade thru) and maybe a little being less far along in marathon training cycle (1 month to go last year; 2 months this time), but I don't think those account for 20 sec/mile. It's almost as if I'm getting older and slower.

On the bright side, age group 3rd will earn me $25, my first cash prize of 2018, so I can again list "professional distance runner" on my tax return. I wonder how fast they would audit me if I ever tried to deduct expenses (e.g., shoes) associated with this business.

have a great week,

Dave

MikeF: I was racing Larry’s wife in a mile race ten years ago and the last 150m he was yellling at her to “run like a sprinter.” At that point I had a funny thought to myself “run like a distance runner.” I will check out the blog. My father and I went to the LA Trials that year.

lucKY2b: Where is your daughter’s assignment? I think your daughter will enjoy the city. Fortunately for me many medical professionals choose Boise for the lifestyle, that and a growing retiree population makes the hospitals strong. Boise also has a VA Hospital. The masters running community seems to have a high percentage of folks tied in some way to the medical system. The two largest entities are St. Lukes and St. Alphonsus; I am in the St. Alphonsus system.

Speaking of medical the billing for my treatment has crossed $414,000 with $364,000 paid. If I had to pay this out of pocket I would have just said forget it. This week I was mapped for radiation therapy and tatooed (permanent) in three places. The small marks are used in conjunction with lazers to target the radiation. Treatment will start the week of 9/17, so I plan to race a road two mile next weekend. I have run this race three other times so it will be a good benchmark. My week, 35 miles:

Monday: 2 miles easy; 2 x ( 6 x 200m @ good speed / 100m walk; 400m walk/easy; 3 x 400m @ good swing / 200m walk; 400m walk/easy); mile easy/walk

Tuesday: 5 miles easy/walk; core and weights

Wednesday: 2 miles easy; 6 x 800m tempo @ 4:20, 4:17, 4:16, 4:15, 4:19, 4:12 / 2:00 rest; mile easy/walk

Thursday: 5 miles easy/walk

Friday: 4 miles easy; mile walk

Saturday: 6 miles easy in foothills

Sunday: Off

Igy

63, interesting outcome to your foot pain problem. I often suspect that many of us are wearing shoes that are too small. I’ve heard most people’s feet get bigger with age, and that is certainly the case for me—my shoe size increased about one full size between age 25 and 55. Now I have an additional golf-ball-sized bump on the back of my right heel from my Achilles tendonosis/retrocalcaneal bursitis, and I really need about a women’s size 8.5 on the left and a 9.5 on the right, but being too cheap to buy two pairs of shoes and throw the other two away, I just get shoes that fit my right and are very floppy on the left. I do wish there were a mechanism to order shoes that are different sizes on the left and right…

old guy II, that sounds like a great training week. I hope the Achilles calms down.

dhaaga, congratulations on your prize money even if it wasn’t the race you wanted. Hopefully it’s the weather and the training, not that you’re getting older and slower.

I had a reasonably encouraging week following my backpacking trip, but I still wonder where what speed I had has gone.

Mon: last day of backpacking.

Tues: 10.2 miles at 9:36 pace, dehydrated and sleepy.

Weds: 10.3 miles at 9:16 pace

Thurs: 10.2 miles at 9:13 pace

Fri: 90 minutes on bike trainer

Sat: 15.1 miles at 9:05 pace. Felt good while running, but I was really wiped out for the rest of the day. No way should that distance at that pace feel like that much work, but it’s by far the longest and generally best run I’ve had in about a month, so I hope it’s coming back.

Sun: 32 mile easy bike ride.

Encouraged by Saturday’s run, I entered a small local half-marathon in four weeks. My only goal will be to avoid running a PW.