50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

*Week 399*

Greetings, 50+ers! First off, thanks for the condolences regarding my niece's untimely death. Rough week for my sister, with the funeral held during the height of the polar vortex event. Wasn't able to travel up there given that, among other things, my wife had slipped and fallen last week and fractured her wrist. Glad January is over! February can only be better. Given all the events and the volume of promotion portfolios I've had to review this week (that will continue for the next few weeks,) I still wasn't able to get things together. I did manage three good long walks, a short midweek run, and a 4-mile run yesterday. On the plus side, I went ahead and joined Planet Fitness. They have a core circuit that my plan is to make a regular part of my weekly routine (as soon as I can generate a "routine", that is.)

At 59, I have no plans to retire anytime soon. I really enjoy interacting with college-aged kids; does my soul good. In fact, looks like I'll be our Asst. Dean for Natural Sciences starting next fall. I was thinking I'd continue on as full-time until about 67-68, then maybe switch to part-time; I figure I'll know when it's time to hang it up.

That's about it for me. Kudos to those that toed the line in Tallahassee! Some stout running by some 50+ers out there! Looking forward to reading your reports.

All the Best!

Thanks EVERYONE for the leg descrepency advice. I’m confident, now, my son will be a happier person.

I’m ending week 3 of retirement. Coaching high school isn’t work for me but a JOY so that’s going really well. Missing the GOOD people from the Big Swoosh but nothing more. Training is going slightly better with more time to focus on quality day to day. Yeaterday’s 90 Minute Run with the youngins was good. I’m hoping to benefit from longer LSD runs too. We shall see how this helps my middle-distance performances later this spring and summer. As for us Masters sometimes it sucks being at the tail end of your age-group. Sometimes it’s awesome to surprise the younger agers. But I find it always goes well before, during, and after, to just “toe the line”.

Well done to all Tallahassee Athletes yesterday.

KP

lucKY2b, tough week for you and here is to better February. Great runs by SCgal, Cush and Coyote. Looked like a lot of fun. For me still under the weather with an upper respiratory infection. I did managed two days of walking and some carpet cleaning. Perhaps more to log next week.

Igy

Hey, flying back from FL already so here’s a race brief.

Started up 2019 about how 2019 finished but stage and circumstances different. Then I was sort of washed out at the end of a long year of training and racing now not yet sharp after a break and reset.

Figured a low or mid 29 would compete for age title and I was right about that. Didn’t quite execute however. I moved up with the leaders by half mile, about 30th overall and ran most of the next mile just behind 1 and 2 as we moved up through the field. Just before the hill, known as the wall (not terribly long or steep but doing it 3x is an equalizer/gut check), I got a couple steps ahead of them. Eased up the hill and that’s where Joe put the hammer down. And he gapped me pretty well over the next half mile. After that I pretty much stayed in the same position. Splits were about 5:48 11:41 and 18:22 through 5K. Finished in 28:47 and 2nd, very similar to Spokane. Dropped a few spots in age grade but a silverside to that is I gain a year pretty soon. Feel good though and have no regrets, but need better fitness and maybe consider some tactical adjustments in future races. Great venue and events!

Really enjoyed watching the open races. And then went to some post race parties. Ended up at a local brewery and had some quality time and trash talking with Cush and a few of his SoCal mates. It was hilarious, but glad to get out early while sober and my virtue intact. Had a good side discussion with Cush about how we can take nothing for granted.

Until the next one.

CM somewhere over the heartland.

I managed a high-mileage week (77 miles) but ended with a disappointing attempt at a long run. I had planned to do a 20-miler this weekend but I woke up Saturday morning feeling tired and out of sorts and decided to push the long run off to Sunday. It stormed wildly all night, but this morning the temperature was a pleasant 50 and it was raining only lightly, but still very windy. I still didn’t feel really up for a long run, and within a few miles I decided to cut back on the distance. I ended up running 16.1 miles at 9:12 pace and wasn’t happy with either the distance or the pace, though I'd like to blame the pace on the fact that the headwind going out was stronger than the tailwind coming back. Time to curl up with the Super Bowl and try again next week.

Mike Lundgren, good news on finally being on the road back. Coyote, congrats on a fine race. And my condolences to all of you in the parts of the country affected by the polar vortex. Here in California we’re grumbling about the series of rain/wind storms passing by. And about the forecast lows of near 30 for later this week. Tough life.

Cheers to all.

great race. congratulations!

I had a fun week of training and am pleased to be saying goodbye for now to the very cold weather we had for a bit [albeit nothing like the upper Midwest]/

M 1:00 + 30:00 x-t

Tu 1:40 double

W 1:35 double + 1:00 x-t

Th 1:20 with hill repeats

F 50:00

Sa 1:10 + 1:00 x-t

Su 2:30 with 30:00 at marathon pace

hoping for a close exciting game tonight and success in my efforts to stay up "late" to see all of it.

have a great week,

Dave

Make that 29:47 - a 28 would’ve been killer

Another week of making the doughnuts.

~35 miles 7 days 5 per day.

Two days did some tempo running about 25 minutes total.

All running barefoot in the dunes.

Base is great but only because running in the sand barefoot leaves me feeling fresh. Gonna stick 40 minutes a day until it gets too easy with tempos here and there plus a few reps as well.

I had a respectable week with only one glitch. Thursday’s temps and wind chills were on the dangerous side, so I postponed my scheduled jog to Friday when the wind chills had moderated to the upper single digits. Intensity continues to increase naturally and there are no major aches or pains. I have gradually been adding exercises back to my post-jog routine without incident. Living the dream.

Sun: 51’ jog; body wt ex

Mon: walk w/ the bride

Tues: 53’ jog; body wt ex

Wed: walk to complete errands

Thu: polar vortex

Fri: 50’ jog; body wt ex

Sat: off

Sun: 49’ jog; body wt ex

Best to most.

The Syracuse guy would say you need to toughen up.

Congratulations to SCgal, Cush and Coyote on their XC racing. I was just looking at a couple of Mike Scott race photos of SC Cush and some others on FB before this. After 33 straight days of at least 7 miles each day my body said it might be time for a break on Friday. I just felt tired and not quite right running so I wrapped my run up at 3 miles. I didn't have any specific aches but something didn't feel quite right in my stride. In an effort to break out of my lifelong training approach of too much, too fast, too soon and then injured, I opted for a day off yesterday and today. January was an outstanding month of training for me and I finished it with 233 miles. I'm pretty sure I won't lose all that fitness over a weekend with no running. 30 miles for the week.

Good running and better weather to all!

Congrats Coyote, Cush and SCgal!

Tue = 4 miles with 3 miles progression on TM: 8:05, 7:35, 7:23

Thr = 4 miles, medium, treadmill

Sat = 4 miles road with 3 miles @ 7:43 pace

Sun = 4 miles, medium, rails-to-trails cinder

Good week. Tue was really cold out so I opted for a TM progression. Not much thinkin to it. Just started at 7 mph and kept hitting the little “+” button until I got to 8.2 which is 7:19 pace. I’m pretty certain now my TM’s paces are a little easier than outdoor running. But, since IT does not change I can measure improvement by comparing to previous runs on it.

Sat I repeated the same course as the last few weeks with very little variance in time. We’ll see if racing shakes me lose from the plateau. I don’t want to change anything right before I begin racing as I’m feeling so well now I fear messing it up.

Oh yeah, totally forgot, I turned 60 on the 22nd. Funny, I was making a big deal out of it and now I’m wondering why all the fuss?

Have a great week everyone!

Echoing the Congrats Coyote, Cush and SCgal! Tough week l2b...

Rtype wrote:

Oh yeah, totally forgot, I turned 60 on the 22nd. Funny, I was making a big deal out of it and now I’m wondering why all the fuss?

I'll be joining you in 16 months. Yep KP... Its no fun being at the top of our age groups!

I've had a rock solid past two weeks. Both right at 54 miles. Getting in my long run, strides and tempos. Finished the last four of my 10 yesterday all around 7:05. I can feel the tide turning which is really encouraging after struggling for so long. But...I won't get too excited until I can string together 6 more months like January.

Actually contacted my team last week. Sounds like there is some interest in getting together for the Mile Champs and Club XC. Might be something there to train for!

The Polar Vortex came and went. The -50 wind chill was a real thing on Wednesday. But we grilled out today! Its almost 50 above! Truthfully I didn't think it was that bad. Just went about my day like any other winters day.

Anyhow thats it from here. Have a good week.

Dave

I'm grateful to folks for sharing honestly. It's helpful to hear from those who've struggled for years to keep from overtraining, something I'm susceptible to.

Indeed, this week was right on the edge -- only 36 miles but not a junk furlong in it. Two of the hardest workouts I've ever done correctly (there are plenty I overdid), including my first-ever mixed-interval run, something many of you have experience with. Here it is, with 2-minute jogs after each rep:

two 1-minute all-out intervals,

two 3-minute threshold intervals,

a 10-minute tempo,

two more 3-minute threshold intervals, and

two last 1-minute all-out (if you got any all-out left).

The other one was a 5k race simulator, 5 x 1000 at pace, but because it was 10 below outside I did it on the treadmill, which is like building a Minecraft house in Fortnite -- simulation on top of simulation. All I know is I was sore for 48 hours.

We'll see how all the suffering pays off on Saturday!

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

The Syracuse guy would say you need to toughen up.

Nope. Sounds like he’s plenty tough.

I remain interested in hearing how participants in this thread deal with challenging cold conditions. Many of you have already chimed in and I’m thankful for your thoughts. Given the recent polar vortex conditions, especially in the upper midwest and northeast, perhaps a few more of you would be willing to share your experiences. Thanks in advance.

On January 16th the temperatures were right around the freezing level and it started to snow mid-workout. On the cool-down one of my training partners fell hard after slipping on a slick spot. His knee swelled up and is just now returning to normal. Which goes to the original point of being smart rather than adhering to some meaningless standard.

I think we all came to that conclusion earlier. But if you’re advocating not running when the temperature is around freezing, I don’t think you’ll find many takers here for that kind of advice.

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

On January 16th the temperatures were right around the freezing level and it started to snow mid-workout. On the cool-down one of my training partners fell hard after slipping on a slick spot. His knee swelled up and is just now returning to normal. Which goes to the original point of being smart rather than adhering to some meaningless standard.

He's lucky that he didn't sustain any structural damage to his knee. Several years ago in my mid-50s I fell hard on an icy HS track doing speed work where I tore up my knee pretty good costing me months (9 to be exact) of not being able to run and copious amounts of rehab. The knee is permanently damaged and is developing OA as age into my late 50s. I'd give anything to go back in time and skip speed work for a few days or so until the track thawed out. What's the old saying? Discretion is the better part of valor.?

Racerdb wrote:

I'll be joining you in 16 months. Yep KP... Its no fun being at the top of our age groups!

I would just offer a word of caution as folks approach 60. According to the Road Runners of America report the numbers of participants drops dramatically at age 60. Personally, I've seen quite a few folks fall by the wayside in their late 50's. I noted previously a race I'm doing in 2 weeks their is only 1 other M60 person with, now, 199 people registered but lots of 50's.