50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Well I am thinking I might be fully recovered. I had no symptoms at all this week

I missed posting last week so this is what I got done

Saturday ran 8 miles 7:49 pace

Monday 60 Bike recovery

Monday Off

Tuesday ran 10*200 with sprinters - might have hit 32

Wednesday 60 on bike 150 watts

Thursday 40-300-200-300-400 with sprinters again mostly sub 6 pace

Friday - 60 minutes 156 watts

Saturday 10 miles 7:44 pace

Sunday 60 minutes 163 watts

Fun week getting better

Olde Farte wrote:

It was another good week (knock on wood) with improving quantity and quality. The big change was the first sweatshirt inducing jogs. And with temps forecast for the 20s this week, I went looking for my running gloves (found them!). I don’t want to jinx myself, but I’ve been giving some thought to entereing the local turkey trot. It will be a last minute decision as I want to be sure I’m injury free. Still no golf, but I expect I’ll be playing again soon.

Sun: walk w/ the bride

Mon: 52’ jog, body wt ex

Tues: walk w/ the bride

Wed: 51’ jog w/ 1 mi utility pole fartlek (2 on, 2 off), body wt ex

Thu: off

Fri: 53’ jog/run, body wt ex

Sat: dancing

Best to most.

Utility poles, that was a favorite of Tom Von Ruden when I ran at Oklaoma State. We usually did 1-2-3-4 with one pole rest on the farm roads outside of Stillwater. One area was particularlly tough up a hill by the Animal Husbandry Farm.

Nice to read a couple of stories of recovery this week (besides Igy's of course).

Allen, too bad you don't live in Kansas City, I think we'd train well together!

So here's a question for the hive -- when you take a break do you well and truly take, a, break? Or do you dial down the intensity and/or volume but keep running year-round?

I ask because I don't really feel like taking a break this year. I'm enjoying the ongoing challenge of building volume, doing more T work, and getting the injury prevention routines done. Today I tried something new (from Dave's suggestion) and ran 5 miles followed by 3 miles at MP. Here's my volume by week and moderate/hard %:

Week ending

10/20 43.05 (10%)

10/13 37.18 (30%)

10/06 48.73 (15%)

09/29 38.78 (12%)

09/22 46.14 (21%)

09/15 44.83 (18%)

09/08 43.40 (18%)

I've run two races (one at fast tempo) and taken four rest days in those seven weeks. I feel fine. While I'm happy to dial it down after my last 5K of the season, simply stopping for 1-2 weeks doesn't make sense to me this year. I feel like I've got momentum and work to do.

Mon. 1 hr 32 min mountain bike ride.

Tue. 9.5 km trail run in 1 hr 05 min. 370 metres elevation gain. Inc. a 500 metre long hill climbing at 30 to 40 % gradient.

Wed. 22.5 km/ 1 hr 11 min mtb ride inc 7 km climb in 32 mins.

Thu. 12 km trail run in 1 hr 22 min. 390 metres of elevation gain inc that same steep climb as Tuesday.

Fri. 21 km /1 hr 45 min mountain bike ride with 700 metres elevation gain inc 2 climbs up Mt Tarrengower

Stopped at the river for an easy 20 minutes kayak.

Sat. 8 km trail run inc 10 x 110 metre steep uphill efforts. Total time 1 hr 09 min. Total elevation gain 490 metres.

Sun. Easy 10 km recovery jog on easy trails in 1 hr.

About 4 and half hours of trail running and about the same mountain biking. A bit slack with the kayak though.

Solid enough week.

My weight is down near my "happy range".

My resting pulse has dropped a few beats back to it's usual rate.

2 weeks to go until 4 Peaks. It is gonna be pretty bloody ugly but I am at least fit enough to have a bit of a crack at it.

mo ‘pac,

One of my running mates is visiting Oz. He flew into Sydney, then driving 1,000 miles total along the coast. Major plans center around scuba diving. Best wishes on Four Peaks.

Igy

I've never heard of 'watts' as a way of tracking effort. How is it done?

Looks like I had a decent week here. Just staying the course with consistent moderate weeks. The heel seems to be doing better these days.

The log reads 42 miles with a missed day. The 10 miler felt very comfortable.

Mon: 6.9 miles @ 8:03/mi. Legs thoroughly trashed. Felt cold after working in the cold all day. I should have run this morning.

Tue: 7.1 miles @ 7:18/mi. A pretty good run with Chris. Felt good. 50'ish, sunny and windy. 8:12,7:53,7:51,6:34,6:24,6:14,8:01

Wed: 5.4 miles @ 8:24/mi. Easy morning wakeup run, kept in the easy zone. Heel felt fine.

Thur: Missed today. Ran out of time…

Fri: 6.9 miles @ 7:45/mi. Decent run but felt sleep deprived. Took Vicki to the airport for an 6:00am flight.

Sat: 10.0 miles @ 7:20/mi. Solid progressive run…awesome morning, before the storm! Long runs are getting better. 803,740,738,728,721,721,710,703,654,642

Sun: 6.0 miles @ 8:12/mi. Easy run to cap my week. Steady and very comfortable.

Thanks SCg. Never know what to expect but I do like running in Greenville. Hope the course isn't too hilly! And I hope I don't eat too much while there...

I think I've adapted to running again so after my race this weekend I may start adding more miles to my weeks. I'll probably miss Thursday since we'll be driving 11 hours...I may, or may not, try to sneak a little run in when we get there.

Have a good week everyone!

Dave

KC - It would be great to have an occasional training partner at a similar fitness level. Unfortunately, 100 percent of my training is solo. There are active clubs in nearby cities, with organized runs and workouts, but "nearby" is an hour, and two hours of driving doesn't seem worth it. Almost, but not quite ...

racerdb - Looks like fitness is returning very nicely. Good luck in the race!

amkelley - Hope the latest wrinkle is inconsequential. I thought of you as I began drawing up my 2019 schedule -- I am considering two half marathons in the spring, a few weeks apart. A hilly one, then a flat one. Sure would like to run 1:25 ...

Igy - Good to see you solidly back on the comeback trail, too!

Allen1959 wrote:

Igy - Good to see you solidly back on the comeback trail, too!

Allen1959, thanks, doing my best.

Others, check out the new All American Track Standards. Thoughts? I think they are too easy.

New Masters All American Standard

For example, the new M60 Mile is 6:20, which is 5 seconds slower than the old M65. The M65 is now 6:55.

Women’s:

https://imgur.com/a/uQ76TMQ

Men’s New Standard:

https://imgur.com/a/tC1KMhP

I just realized I am a much bigger stud than I thought I was. When my wife gets home I plan to puff out my chest and tell her the news. Perhaps not. Since I know the response: “bring in the trash containers, the garbage truck just finished.”

Igy

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Others, check out the new All American Track Standards. Thoughts? I think they are too easy.

Link please.

Here:

https://www.nationalmastersnews.com/aas.htm

19:30 for a 5K is literally what I do when I run it at threshold pace. That's not a brag, that's just silly.

Look photo above, copied from National Masters News.

I agree that those standards are too easy, at least for W65-69. I think they're designed to sell All-American certificates. I don't even have standards in two of my events (10,000m and steeple). Does that mean that I qualify as All-American if I run those events regardless of my time?

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Others, check out the new All American Track Standards. Thoughts? I think they are too easy.

KCgeezer wrote:

19:30 for a 5K is literally what I do when I run it at threshold pace. That's not a brag, that's just silly.

I agree. Shouldn't All-American status be somewhat of a challenge? Not bragging either but c'mon. Most of those Road Race paces are daily very easy jogs. The 10 mile standard is at 8:06 pace!

Dave

Yea well I have an All American Genius Award all you have to do is pass the online All American Genius Test and send me twenty bucks and you get a nice certificate with your name on it. For an additional twenty bucks you get a T-Shirt.

KCgeezer wrote:

Here:

https://www.nationalmastersnews.com/aas.htm

19:30 for a 5K is literally what I do when I run it at threshold pace. That's not a brag, that's just silly.

Thanks for that KC.

So the road times have not changed...just track?