50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Interesting comments and posts that have moved the discussion from the silliness of how you count duration of training to what constitutes fitness. For general purposes 3-5 hours of aerobic, resistance, flexibility and balance training. For those with the genes, 15-20 hours of focused dedication is required to compete nationally as a masters middle distance or long distance runner. Fairly obvious that the results in either form is determined by the structure and quality of training.

Igy

Just An Old Fitness Enthusiast (No One Special) wrote:

But what about upper body? I can't see where only running would do anything to prevent muscle wasting of the upper body.

I agree. Until age 40 I never set foot in a gym, just ran a lot and did some cycling. My legs were strong and I was aerobically very fit, but I had zero upper body strength. At 40 I married a gym rat and started doing resistance training, reluctantly, a few times a week. Now at 60, I'm much slower as a runner but surely stronger in the upper body and core. My arms are still skinny but at least they have some muscle tone.

There are so many normal life activities for which it's useful to have some strength. General house and yard work, slinging large bags of dog food, lifting my 55-pound, 5-month-old puppy in and out of our SUV...I think it's really important to maintain the ability to do these things as you get older, and particularly for a testosterone-deprived female, it isn't going to come from running/walking alone.

AK-67 wrote:

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

I get it. Like the folks peddling a spin bike reading a magazine. I suppose the goal is multitasking, dubious value however. OK.

How does reading while spinning reduce the value of the exercise?

Who reads magazines anymore? ? Almost everyone I see at the gym, especially the youngsters, are on their smartphones & tablets while doing cardio. I see people watching movies or video chatting while they are on the spin bike, elliptical, TM and all that.

Just the other day, I needed to use a certain leg machine and a young girl beat me to it. She did one set and started to watch a movie/video on her smartphone. She never did another set and 15 mins elapsed while she's glued to her smartphone. I couldn't wait any longer and it was my last excercise of the day. So, I approached her and said; "excuse me Miss...you've been on this machine for 15 mins doing nothing, and I need to use it." She grins and somewhat embarrassed says; "Oh....I'm sooooo sorry....I'm catching up on some shows." ?

That was the point about purpose. There may be a lot of activity generating little results.

I've gotten way behind here. Belated congrats on all the fine race results, especially SCgal. Wow!

BRLT wrote:

I basically get nothing out of the running fitness wise at 11 mins a mile . But hey 100 calories a mile :)

For me, that's key. I've been sidelined for three months, and have put on 23 pounds.

Plus, even at 11:00/mile, I still get some aerobic conditioning and enough stress on connective tissue, etc, to maintain resiliency, I think.

After a few tries at introducing elliptical and stationary bike training, I finally gave up and just now scheduled an appointment with a sports medicine specialist. Even the bike hurts my knee.

Meanwhile, I am down to a single pair of pants that fit. I literally split all my other work pants. This is crazy. No sweaty running clothes, but I still need to do laundry every day! And I refuse to buy any more 34-inch waist pants -- just not right for waist to be same as inseam ...

I know my problem advanced osteoarthritis of my left hip with a labral tear and impinged hip . The wheels fell off at 59YO . Ran an 18:47 5K had a hard time walking back to the car . The slow miles are the new normal. Lots of bike now and will get my endurance addiction by setting some 100 mile century rides . But yes upper body work in my 60s is a must . 200+ push-ups most days in the weight room with my shot put and discus throwers and getting on the rowing machine .

Oh and eating a whole lot less along with little in the way of alcohol. Trying to stay in the low 150s and not running 80+ miles a week is hard when you still eat like a 7 min mile runner .

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

That was the point about purpose. There may be a lot of activity generating little results.

I wouldn’t consider sitting down and watching a show on one’s phone to be “a lot of activity”.

Coyote Montane, I had forgotten (senior moment) that you grew up/started running in Iowa City. You'd love to see it now, with what was once an indoor mall directly south of the quad, now housing some restaurants, but also several U of IA departments, like their Public Health dept and much, much more.

As a runner, you'd especially enjoy seeing their dedicated cross-country course. We were there last year for NCAA D1 Regionals, what a blast. Not an easy course, with it's hills. Very near Finkbine golf course.

Yes, Jane was an early athletic warrior, tennis, basketball (remember that Iowa high schools for girls were then 3 on 3, separated at half court from offense and defense! Girls could not run the length of the court and play 5 on 5!)

The new Rec Center does not have a track that you could run races on, it's more like a rectangle with the 4 corners rounded, too bad, else a fantastic facility, and very well used. I did not get over to the old one to see if it still has the 200 track that Iowa used for indoor meets, sure hope it's there.

Check it out though and let us know, we felt so at home getting back to IC and the U of I!

CM, now that I think of it, I think the old Rec Center has the banked track that was purchased from Portland after they hosted the World Indoor T&F Champs

BRLT wrote:

The wheels fell off at 59YO . Ran an 18:47 5K had a hard time walking back to the car . The slow miles are the new normal. Lots of bike now and will get my endurance addiction by setting some 100 mile century rides.

For me, it seems the ingestion of sugar satisfies the same brain-chemical receptors as exercise. So I've substituted sweets for running. Net result hasn't been good. Alcohol consumption is limited to one or two beers or glasses of wine per week.

My brother has proposed a double century ride with him in late June. I remain hopeful.

Your late-50s performances are impressive. I didn't break 20:00 for 5K at 59, and only managed a 3:07 marathon at 58. I had hopes of getting close to 3:00 at 60 (this coming autumn), but this knee injury wrecked that dream. Rest for three months hasn't helped at all, nor the protocol I successfully followed to overcome runners knee a year ago. I suspect this is an impact injury ... tripped and landed hard on the knee last fall.

I will hopefully get a diagnosis on Monday.

Allen1959 wrote:

[... I didn't break 20:00 for 5K at 59...

Oops, meant to say "19:00." I ran 19:13.

AK-67 wrote:

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

That was the point about purpose. There may be a lot of activity generating little results.

I wouldn’t consider sitting down and watching a show on one’s phone to be “a lot of activity”.

Yea and reading a magazine, but whatever I post you will disagree. Best to most.

Those years from 55 to 59 were as fun as my early years . I have been running since 6th grade . Broke 3 hours for the marathon back in the 70s . One time . Then said nothing more than half of that .

The older I get the more use it or lose it applies. Taking 2 years off more or less (58,59) cost me big time. I used to be able to take time off then come roaring back in no time. Not anymore.

Cross train bike hike row walk do what ever you can but do a lot of it every day that is my plan.

Why do this?

https://fellrnr.com/wiki/Endurance_Adaptations

Really cool running calculator:

https://fellrnr.com/wiki/Running_Calculator

My suggestion based on 5:52 mile crazy fast stuff but I like it:

https://fellrnr.com/wiki/Calculator_Results?Distance=1&Hours=0&Minutes=5&Seconds=52&Temperature=&TempUnits=Fahrenheit&Weight=&WeightUnits=Pounds&Mileage=

Charlie, inputting my 19:13 5K time, that calculator's prediction for 1-mile was way too slow (6:03 vs 5:38), and way too fast for the marathon (3:00 vs the 3:07 I ran a year before when my 5K was sub-19).

That's generally the case for calculators, and age-grading, too (for low-mileage me), but this one seems particularly extreme ...

So much information! This calculator predicts a 3:49 marathon off a 1:50:30 HM, which seems overly optimistic. But we'll see in 3.5 weeks.

It also thinks that if I could get back down to my 33-year-old racing weight of about 105 pounds, I could run a marathon in 3:32. I don't think so...

Charlie wrote:

Really cool running calculator:

https://fellrnr.com/wiki/Running_Calculator

My suggestion based on 5:52 mile crazy fast stuff but I like it:

https://fellrnr.com/wiki/Calculator_Results?Distance=1&Hours=0&Minutes=5&Seconds=52&Temperature=&TempUnits=Fahrenheit&Weight=&WeightUnits=Pounds&Mileage=

There are now a plethora of these "calculators" out there now, I'm not sure why, given the gold standards of the WMA and IAAF versions, anybody wastes their time producing them, other than as mental masturbation. This is literally the most worthless one I've seen. One would have to have 100% ST fibers for this to have any value whatsoever.