50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Last Saturday was our Kansas City Corporate Challenge 1/2 marathon, first time for that distance in KCCC history, hilly course, on bike trails, and a 3 mile loop beforehand to thin the crowd (700 finished). Plus 70 degrees and 65 percent humid at the start. Ran consistent, conservative, and was able to maintain on hills. Fast, not really, but did win the Silver Medal in 60-64 age (lucky?, since 3 65 year olds beat me, but they had their own a.g.)

Pretty thrilled, as I'd imagined it to be my best chance to medal. Now if I can run a sub 7 mile in a couple weeks for the KCCC 1 mile, it'll be a great year, KCCC-wise

Ok, time was 1:53, a PW, but I'll still accept the Silver, it was something I'd visualized for the last month as a possibility, and it happened. How good is that!

A lot of good stuff again this week. Props all around to the racers out there toeing the line.

MG, AK-54, I'm impressed...nice races.

Racerdb, nice impromptu race; good luck on your HM this weekend...although if it's anything like here, it'll be a scorcher.

OMG and Mike L. Sounds like those were tough conditions. Times don't mean much when it's like that. I'd take the beer, anyways.

imarunr, I guess you'll start tapering this weekend, yes? My marathoning friend's spouses tell me that the taper is the hardest part of marathon training. For the spouses, that is....putting up with tapering marathoners when they start bouncing off the walls. ;-)

Alan B., glad to see you venturing back out. Hope it progresses smoothly.

runguru and others, just wanted to point out that there is no such thing as being "tardy" on this thread. If you got something you want to talk about, bring it up. I just try to keep it moving along by providing a weekly demarcation point.

Cheers!

As a matter of fact, I brought our fine local beer, Boulevard, as a treat for all my teammates who finished. Nothing like a cold beer on a warm day, especially when it's as good as Boulevard Wheat. I don't think any of my teammates turned it down :)

Base building question: Assuming I add about 3 miles/week (3 mile chunks), what is the best way to transition from 3 days/week x 3 miles/day to 6 days/week x 6 miles/day?

Option A: First build mileage to 3 days/week x 6 miles/day, then fill in the remaining days x 3 miles/day, then build the remaining days.

Option B: First fill to 6 days/week x 3 miles/day, then build the mileage on different days to 6 miles/day.

Option C: Some other pattern.

In short, how do you do it: keep the free days for as long as possible, or keep the daily mileage low for as long as possible? Best might mean "fastest way to increase fitness", but for me it means "absolute safest returning from injury". I'm particularly interested if the different objective affects your recommendation.

BTW, crosstraining is at about 11 hours/week right now, the plan is relax that to about 9 hours as the mileage goes up. Also, it seems to me that "listen to your body" goes without saying, and would apply equally to any build-up.

I'd go with option B if it were me. You don't have to progress quickly in terms of adding days, and in fact you don't have to go as far as 3 miles when you first add a day.

Take it slow and give yourself a chance to adapt and to recognize if a problem is developing.

I have found over the past year or so that it is not the number of days that I run, but how many easy days I give between hard efforts.

Today was my 370 consecutive day of running at least 1.5 miles (though mostly 3 miles or more per run), and since November I've been running 4 different types of hard workout days -- but taking at least 2 easy days between each hard one.

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Week 52

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I send greetings this morning from Iowa. We left Friday to lay the ashes of my wife’s aunt at the family farm, and meet up with her relatives from here. It will be a quick trip, in that we’ll be driving home today. We the 5 hour excursion we did yesterday, we’ll have been in the car about 26 hours by the end of today as we return to Lexington. And it’s hot and windy, to boot.

My mileage and body took a beating this week, so it’s not a great report. I managed 38 miles on 5 days. The week looked like this:

Sun: 7.6 easy

Mon: 6.5 easy + 4x(9 stories of stairs)

Tue: 7.4 w/5x200@37s

Wed: 6.5 w/3k (8 laps of this funky track) of 1/2 lap alternating 43s, 53s

Thu: 10.2 (5.1 am, 5.1 pm both easy)

Fri: 0

Sat: 0

As you can see, I did some light speed and strength stuff at the beginning of the week (M,T,W) then tried to dump some mileage Thursday before the trip. I originally thought that I would run Friday morning before we left, then Saturday morning while in Iowa, but that hasn’t panned out. Reason is that I strained my hip flexors after the easy run on Thursday afternoon. Not sure how it happened…but I’m pretty sure it has something to do with some yard work that doesn’t dhow up on the training schedule. Unlike mo’pak, I’m pretty much a runner, so all the clearing brush and loading the receptacle (we rented a box from the city) took more of a toll on my body than I realized. I’d spent probably 12 hours over TWR clearing, picking up, lifting, mowing, etc., etc.; much more than I’m used to doing. I probably shouldn’t have run the second time on Thursday after spending most of the mid-day in the yard. Such is life. Hopefully, the hips will feel better in a day or two, but I don’t want to chance running and really screw things up. I’ll talk about doing stairs another time, for now, we need to get ready to hit the road.

@Alan B, I'd probably start occasionally throwing in a longer run in the build up. Not making all the runs the same length...that's my knee-jerk response. Maybe something else will come to mind as we travel home.

At any rate, I hope you all are having a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend. I am grateful to all those that made the ultimate sacrifice to protect our freedom, and I have much respect for all those brave men and women in uniform (active and retired) that have carried on the legacy of these fallen heroes. God Bless.

Mon = 4, @ 8:19 pace

Tue = 5K with 6 1 min accelerations and 2 min rest

Wed = 5K @ 8:14 pace

Thr = rest

Fri = rest

Sat = 5, 5K race, 8th overall out of 252, 1st age group; 19:52

Sun = 5, pushing a stroller

Total = 20

This week was mostly just preparation for a local 5K.

Hope you don’t mind if I indulge a race report:

It was warm and very humid. I think, like 89% humidity.

The first mile is all downhill and although I planned to hold myself back.....I could not. I just felt too good. I hit mile one in about 6:05 (target was 6:15) but it really did feel slow. Early on I spotted an old running buddy who is a perennially fast guy. We have gone back and forth beating each other since about 1976 now. He, another friend, and I ran as a group most of the way. Actually, since I had beaten them a few races ago they both decided to just hang on me and let me pace. At the 5K turn around I heard rubber screeching and some loud cursing behind me. Seems our one friend caught his shoe on the turn-around sign and it ripped his shoe right off! That’s a first. He was not pleased.

He popped his shoe back on amazingly fast and quickly caught up to us and went through 2 miles at 12:35 or so. Obviously we had slowed. The final mile is a return up the hill we just ran down with some tricky curves up and over a bridge. This is where my one buddy began to accelerate. I tried to hang on but when we got to a little less than a half mile to go grinding up the final hill they both left me as I began to wilt in the heat.

Of the three of us, the guy that lost his shoe ended up with a 19:35 or so, my friend a 19:41, and me a 19:52. Oddly enough this was my highest finish in this race since I have been racing as a master. I don't know if that means the competition has thinned out or somehow, due to the heat and humidity, I actually had a decent race when others succumbed to the elements.

I felt excellent the whole time so I'm happy about that.

Still, I’d really like to go faster. But, well, heck, I'm going to need to train a little harder to earn faster times. How fast do I expect to be when I'm only spending a sum total of 5 hours and about 20 miles a week? I do not believe in cross training or any other kind of "core work" as I have little time for this.

I'm still weighing the costs vs. benefits on just how much time I'm willing to give up to running.

Long time no post but still slogging away...managed a 55-59 age group 1/2 marathon win last sunday (albeit a PW time)...201 miles these past 4 weeks probably not one under 7...514 consecutive days streak though (longest ever!) averaging just at 6 miles per run...should hit 99,000 miles Friday or Saturday and HOPEfully turn the odometer over in November then it'll be time for oil change, new tires and possibly some foot surgery.

Really looking forward to some very special runs counting down the final 1,000 miles...some great locations with even better friends.

Have a very fine holiday weekend...gotta run...literally ;)

MF

Week 52: 11 miles in three days like this:Tue 3 fartlek, + drills + stridesThu 3 easySat 5 run/walk, + stridesplus various cross-training all 7 days.

Yeah, I'm doing that. The buildup was just an example, I kept the distances constant so as not to muddy the waters. Didn't work.

Agreed. My attitude is to push as hard as I can while still allowing my injury to heal. But again, the +3 miles was just an example, the actual could be more or less.

So with my back issue, 3 miles is a hard day -- for the back. Does that change your answer?

Thanks for the responses. I'm in a mini-quandry about what to do week 53. Planning 6 next Saturday, 9 during the week, but don't know whether to do 3-3-3 or 6-3 or even 4.5-4.5. It probably doesn't matter now at such low mileage, but later in the buildup it might start to matter. Last year I did the option B (3-3-3) but I was healthy then.

Cool running, everyone.

Rtype wrote:

I do not believe in cross training or any other kind of "core work" as I have little time for this.

I think in the final analysis this is why I re-injured my back. I ran too many miles (55/week average for 2011) and didn't balance that with enough strength work. That's something to consider if you want to increase your mileage.

I would say you are getting a lot out of the miles you are putting in. Good race. Looks like you will get some chances to test your heat tolerance this summer.

Goal Race: Three Sisters Marathon, June 9th

Week of 05/20-05/26

Rollin', rollin', rollin'...

Sun, 05/20: 22.5 miles in 2:47:15 (7:34/mile avg.)

Splits: 2:30 (before I realized Garmin wasn't recording distance!), 7:34, 7:26, 7:21, 7:28, 7:20, 7:40, 7:42, 7:45, 7:22, 7:27, 7:38, 7:30, 7:38, 7:19, 7:01, 7:10, 7:11, 7:19, 7:05, 6:46, 7:09, 7:14

Ran miles 6-19 during the Rock 'N Roll Half Marathon.

Mon, 05/21: usual day off running

Tue, 05/22: 7 miles in 53:53 (7:42/mile avg.)

Wed, 05/23: 1.5 mile warmup, 8 mile tempo in 53:42, 1.5 mile cooldown

Splits: 6:34, 6:43, 6:38, 6:50, 6:40, 6:44, 6:41, 6:52

Day's total = 11 miles

Thu, 05/24: 6 miles easy (untimed)

Fri, 05/25: 8 miles in 62:45 (7:46/mile avg.)

Sat, 05/26: 6.5 miles in 44:00 (7:19/mile avg.)

Weekly total = 61 miles

Weights/core on Monday & Tuesday (slacked the rest of the week on that!)

TWO WEEKS TO GO! Taper time. :)

Cheers,

Tim

Ran 48 miles on 5 days plus 1 day biking (16 miles at moderate effort).

Unplanned rest day Friday, foot was sore so decided that a day off was best medicine.

Good workout on Sat, just 2nd speed (relative mind you) work of the year. 400s in 76, 77, 74, 75 and 200s in 36, 35, and 100s nice and brisk.

13.5 mile progression on Sunday with alternating 7:30/6:30s over last 6 miles.

Alan Bennet wrote:

I would say you are getting a lot out of the miles you are putting in. Good race. Looks like you will get some chances to test your heat tolerance this summer.

Thanks Alan. I have not offered any ideas on which track to take to build fitness safely after your injury because I've found I don't know as much as I used to think I knew. Truthfully, I do work with some folks to help but I've found they are so unique that it's impossible to generalize from one to the other. Other than the overly-generic advice of "try everything and rule out what does not work" I'm empty.

Racerdb wrote:

I'm running a HM next Saturday. Supposed to be my Spring goal race but I'm still not convinced I'm in real good racing shape. I decided I'm going to wear my Garmin to keep me in check early on. I've got to start racing smarter!

All the Best,

Dave

Congrats on the masters win Dave! Nice write up in the local paper too.

Good thing we didn't get Sunday's weather for race day.

Kevin52 wrote:

Racerdb wrote:

I'm running a HM next Saturday. Supposed to be my Spring goal race but I'm still not convinced I'm in real good racing shape. I decided I'm going to wear my Garmin to keep me in check early on. I've got to start racing smarter!

All the Best,

Dave

Congrats on the masters win Dave! Nice write up in the local paper too.

Good thing we didn't get Sunday's weather for race day.

Thanks....it was a pretty good day!

Had a good week. 52 miles including a day off Sunday and a 4 mile jog Friday. The HM went well. Finally able to hold back early going 601,558,556 for the first 3; last 10 were all between 5:40 & 5:50 splitting 57:26 for the last 10. Placed 3rd overall in 1:16:02. Darn near caught 2nd place around 11 miles, getting within 4 seconds (After not being able to see him at 5 miles ) but he ran a pretty good last 2 and buried me. It would have been great to get into the 1:15's but I'm good with my run...

Not sure what I'll do this week...probably 'just running'. I'm running Sunburst 10K this Saturday, then back off racing for the summer and rebuild.

All the Best,

Dave

Kevin52 wrote:

Nice write up in the local paper too.

City and name of the paper? Maybe we can find the article online.

Kevin52 wrote:

Nice write up in the local paper too.

Alan Bennet wrote: City and name of the paper? Maybe we can find the article online.

Super run, Dave!

Alan Bennet wrote:I would say you are getting a lot out of the miles you are putting in. Good race. Looks like you will get some chances to test your heat tolerance this summer.

MikeF wrote:Long time no post but still slogging away...managed a 55-59 age group 1/2 marathon win last sunday (albeit a PW time)...201 miles these past 4 weeks probably not one under 7...514 consecutive days streak though (longest ever!) averaging just at 6 miles per run...should hit 99,000 miles Friday or Saturday and HOPEfully turn the odometer over in November then it'll be time for oil change, new tires and possibly some foot surgery.

Really looking forward to some very special runs counting down the final 1,000 miles...some great locations with even better friends.

Amazing streak, Mike! Hard to fathom. Love your analogy. We're rooting you on!