50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Rtype wrote:

lucKY: Great to see you getting back out there! *week #* Where’s Allan Bennett when you need him?

Big congrats to Coyote Montane on the USATF 8K

...

Sat = 5K race @ 7:27 pace with miles of 7:39, 7:30, and 7:13 (23/278 Overall, 1st of 9 in M60)

Sun = 4 miles easy, rails-to-trails cinder, later today

...

Thanks, and yeah, I miss Allan B.

Props to you too, Rtype; Nice steady improvement over the course of this year.

Also echo props to CM; only 13s off the great Norm Green's 60-64 AR. Well done!

I changed my mind.

Good morning from Eagle, Idaho. Weather has turned spring like. Temperatures still in the freezing range to start the day. Most of my faster running is in the morning so sill bundled up. Nevertheless training times continue to drop. Wednesday’s CV workout was 13 seconds faster per rep from a shorter series of the same in December. Mileage is creeping up about 30 miles and another six walking. I generally log everything physical I do, even yard work if it is especially tough. Helps to explain the level of running activity or lack thereof.

Monday: AM- 2 miles easy; 5 x 250m good swing / 150m easy; 400m easy; 4 x 500m fresh swing / 200m east; 400m easy; 5 x 250m good swing / 150m easy; mile easy; PM- 3 miles walk/easy

Tuesday: 3 miles easy/walk; core; 2 sets free weights

Wednesday: AM- 2 miles easy; 8 x 600m critical velocity @ 3:30, 3:25, 3:26, 3:22, 3:18, 3:14, 3:11, 3:01 / 1:00 rest; mile easy; PM- 2.5 miles walking

Thursday: same as Tuesdat

Friday: AM- 3 miles easy/walk; PM- easy/walk

Saturday: 6 miles hilly foothills run

Sunday: Off

Igy

Yay, Rtype! Congratulations on the improvement and the win.

Glad to hear you're back at it, LucKY.

Nice 8k CM. Heard it was a bit breezy this year.

Sun: 6.1 Easy, :45 biking on Spanish Moss Trail, Beaufort, SC. Wish it could have been longer.

Mon: 7.0 Easy

Tue: 7.7 Track - 2mi @10k pace/800jog/2x400 @mile pace/400 jog, 2800 yd swim

Wed: 1:05 biking

Thu: 7.2 Easy, 2400 yd swim

Fri: 5.3 Easy + Strides, 1:02 biking

Sat: 12.1 Long run

Total: 45.4 running, 2:52 biking, 4,000yds swimming

Hope spring is coming to those of you further north...

Our St Pat's report (my wife and I). Wonderful, 40+ degree day with sun, warming as the morning progressed, mild wind. This 4 miler is a course we ran one year ago (course was far different in prior years). It has a nasty downhill and turnaround to go back up (approx 1/4 to 1/3 mile each way?) at the midpoint. Since I have not been running any hard/tempo efforts, even my opening 8:50 felt pretty brisk, and I finished with a 34:51. Problem is that I was 2 minutes faster last year! Aging or intimidation or just a lack of quality work leading up? I finished 6th in age group 65-69, so no race series points. My wife, however, even with a very bad stitch for 3 miles, ran 32:44 and only 47 seconds off last year, and won her 60-64. Her ability to race still amazes me, regardless of personal/physical challenges.

I agree about logging other activities, especially if I am mowing my yard in the summer, that 1.5 hour effort counts in my book, don't really do much else for hard yard work and any other maintaining of the house (roofing, etc.) is hired out.

For me, only logging walks if it's intending as a run alternative, but I would rather get a more solid effort from elliptical and/or stationary bikes.

Got my green on today, life is good!

Impressive! Determination & Tenacity! ?

Question: The critical velocity intervals on Weds is proceeded with a 2 mile warm-up & 1 mile cool down with 1 min recovery between intervals? (I might give that workout a shot, of course adjusting the target times a little slower for me).

One more question: Do you have any trouble finding a track to do the intervals at? (I presume you do them on an outdoor 400m track?). The real good tracks here in my city happen to be part a large HS football stadium complex that is heavily gated with barbwire fencing & secured with cameras like Ft. Knox. Lol. The middle-school tracks, which are not fenced & open to the public, are in deplorable condition and not safe to run on (ruts, potholes, cracks, craters, etc).

This will be part of a chapter of a book on working on titled: "No where to run." ?

Old Cat,

Thanks on the “tenacity and determination.” Made my day.

In regards to the workout routine that is a correct assumption. I adjusted the CV workout for my conditioning and age. I have been alternating weeks of CV and Tempo pace or 10k pace and 1/2 Marathon pace, running longer slower and 1:30 to 2:00 rest on the tempos. I seem to be getting stronger and recover well.

In regards to the track access, the YMCA I go to is next to a high school in Downtown Boise and there is a facilities arrangement. However, we may lose access as they are planning an expanded facility in the near future. If so, I plan to mark out distances or run for minutes on dirt/pavement using the same general philosophy.

Igy

Rtype, enjoyed your race report. Nice job! I had to laugh at your comment about the children and adults behaving like children. One of my pet peeves about big races.

Igy, glad to see your continued progress. And I’m glad you’ve decided to stick with this thread.

My marathon is 2 weeks from today and at present all systems are go. My week:

Monday: after traveling to the opposite coast plus the onset of Daylight Savings Time, I went out to run in Alexandria, VA at a time that felt like 1:45 am on my body clock. I slogged through an appropriately unambitious 5.5 miles and called it good.

Tuesday: With a slightly more relaxed morning schedule and partly adjusted to the new time zone, got out for 8.0 miles investigating one of the many bike paths in the D.C. area. Wished I’d had enough time to investigate further.

Wednesday: After working a full day (9 to 5) on the east coast and then traveling another full day to get home to the middle of nowhere on the west coast, I slept about 4 hours and then dragged myself out to run 9.6 miles. Felt better than expected.

Thursday: 10.4 miles after a solid 8 hours of sleep.

Friday: 10.5 miles after another 8 hours of sleep.

Saturday: 18.0 miles at 8:50 pace. Extremely encouraging; I’d be happy to average that pace for 8 miles in a training run. I tried to get after it from the very start and managed to get the tempo up and hold it. I finished feeling tired but not whacked. I’m starting to believe that training really does still work, even at my age.

Sunday: My bad heel felt better than it normally does after a long run, so I put in an easy 7.8 miles to finish with just under 70 miles for the week (but who’s counting?).

I feel I’m ready to go, and now the goal for the next two weeks is to avoid doing anything stupid.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy week.

Congratulations to all the racers, and it always is interesting to read the race reports. All of last week's discussion about logging walking was some kind of foreshadowing for me because all I can do now is walk. Monday I added another item to my list of things I can't or shouldn't do at age 69. After 3hrs of hard charging stoop labor weeding in my yard I discovered that I had a pinched nerve in my lower back. Anything that involved the slightest bending at the waist was very unpleasant. Tuesday through Friday were no activity days with a steady diet of Aleve. Yesterday I felt improved enough to get out and walk (with very careful upright posture), and this morning felt a little better and I repeated that. I expect that I am 3-4 days away from easing back into running steadily again. So, my week was 23 miles of walking, 7 Monday and 8 yesterday and today.

Good running and sensible activities to all!

amkelley, thanks....you are ready...hay is in the barn....

old guy II....digging a trench today on one side of the house....installing a drain to move gutter water away from the foundation....a lot of river rock...I’d best be careful....

Igy

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

old guy II....digging a trench today on one side of the house....installing a drain to move gutter water away from the foundation....a lot of river rock...I’d best be careful....

Igy

It's sure as heck not the same as in our 30s, or even in our 50s :>(

Hi everyone - I've lurked on Let's Run for a while but never posted.... figured I might as well... First some background: I'm not a real runner like the rest of you. I played other sports my entire life, was generally considered fairly quick, but running was always a supplement to my other sports. My son is an 8th grader, started running when he was 7. He also played lots of other sports. Over the years, I would sometimes train with him (I'd maybe get 10-15 miles/week). I turned 50 this past summer (thus qualifying for this forum : ) This past fall, he surprised me and dropped all his other sports to focus on running. Since he did this, I've generally done about 4 of his trainings/week - he enjoys the company and I get fit.

Stats:

5'10" about 145lbs (lost a lot of weight with all the running).

100m - my son timed me as part of a parent-coach 4*100 - said my leg was 12.8 (a little over a year ago).

200m - 30sec. this past fall.

400m - 1:09 this past fall

800m - 2:39 over the summer

1 mile - 5:51 over the summer

2 miles - 13:05 in January

5k - 21:09 last year

So... I guess we post what we did over the last week? I'm going to start with Saturday since this was my incentive to post : )

Sat. 5k - 20:08 - major PR!! (my son smoked me with an 18:08)

Sun - 10.5 miles in 1:30:03

Mon - 2 mile warmup, 8 repeat 400s (1:22-1:26 - Intensive Tempo), 2.5 mile cooldown

Tues - played volleyball with son before school

Wed - nothing/worked

Thurs - 2 mile warmup, 6 repeat 1000s (3:56-4:00 - VO2 workout), 2.5 mile cooldown

Fri - recovery jog consisting of retrieving golf balls hit by my son before school

Sat - 2 mile warmup; 30 min. lactate threshold test - I made it 6630meters (my son went 7670m) - aerobic pace jog to complete 5 miles; 1 mile cooldown.

Hope everyone has a nice week!

Thanks for the shoutout rtype (nice race by the way), lucKY, and SCgal.

Back home sort of. But way out of whack with a very early start this morning on the return.

My best case was a 28:20, which would be an age grade PB. But thought that'd be doubtful with the winds. Temps were good, in the low 50s, 10-15 mph wind from NW, this negatively impacting miles 3-4.5/with mostly tail wind on other stretches. Last year I ran very even splits, but it was not windy. This time throw even pacing off the beach with the gusts of wind.

Was 5:45, ~11:16 for 1 and 2 (just before hitting the boardwalk) with the tailwind. Up ahead were pack of about 6 runners. Other than that some big gaps. Just before heading into the wind (about 3K) I put down the hammer and caught them by about 2.2 miles. Was able to draft off them for a mile (was 17:00 or so at mile 3). After catching my breath and getting into a rhythm, tried to break out ahead ahead a couple times but that only strung them out, an then someone else would sling shot ahead again, so I would tuck back in. The next mile was slow, about 5:55 (22:55), so I figured the record was out but figured that I could have a strong finish. Hung with those guys (mix of 40s and 50s masters and a couple young guys from the open race). As we and we turned onto the boardwalk (4.5 miles) heading south with wind at our backs, I was able to turn on the jets and out kick all but 2 of them. Last mile was at 5:33 pace or so! So finished in 28:19 and just a few ticks slower than last year. Can't complain at all about anything. They do a great job at that race and the after party is a blast.

Mkarver,

You have some excellent speed for yor age. Keep your schedule and your 800m and mile will drop quite a bit.

Igy

lucKY2b wrote:

I'm with amkelley regarding unpleasant banter. My motto regarding detractors is "let it go!" You can't win by barking at people that you don't agree with, so why even try? Doesn't do you or the thread any favors.

I’m with you too, even though I have my moments of weakness when I let the ‘fake news’ get to me. I should know better and will endeavor to ignore the noise.

St. Patty’s Day 5k result: 23:45, good enough for 2nd 65-69. Erin go bragh!

These were exactly the conditions when it was time for my tempo run, so I didn't even think twice, I drove to the indoor arena and plunked down my five bucks. My timing wasn't the best, and I had to work around the Park University track team, but they were just practicing getting out of the blocks. Still, it made for more than a few lane-5-to-lane-4 and lane-4-to-lane-1 moves, complete with directional pointing ("I'm going ... here")

By the way Matt Fitzgerald has a term for this as well, he calls it his "Week of Slow," the idea being to get people to stop running their easy runs at near-tempo pace. (Better that they actually run it tempo, in fact, instead of settling into that no-man's-land where they're setting themselves up for overtraining injuries while getting minimal aerobic benefit over an easy run.)

My chiro and I were talking about this the other week. We both agreed that it hardly seems worth it to stop running because you're sore for days after you resume! I'm seriously looking at Charlie's niko niko as a way to manage my downtime. Not during training cycles, when XT is the right tool for recovery, but when I want to take a break without paying a price when I resume training.

Good call. And great news on the times!!

Great job you two. FWIW, my time was off 40 seconds from last year, and same with two other guys I finished with. (If you want to learn my true identity, go look up the guy who was 9th OA.)

So for now I'm done, really really done, with short races. This one was the last straw. I hit the turnaround (down the hill) right on my goal time ... and then lost too much time going up the hill ... and just couldn't claw it back. This is a route I run routinely. I know it. And it still got away from me. The time pressure of these under-10K races is getting to me, so I'll be glad for my first half marathon in April.

29.5 miles thusly:

M - 5 miles

Tu - 0 miles BUT ... got a massage

W - 28 minute tempo run, indoor track = 7.23 miles

Th - 3.76 miles

F - 2 niko niko miles

S - 24:28 in the 4 miler

Su - 5.91 miles

Mkarver wrote:

First some background: I'm not a real runner like the rest of you. ...

My son is an 8th grader, started running when he was 7. ...

This past fall, he surprised me and dropped all his other sports to focus on running. Since he did this, I've generally done about 4 of his trainings/week - he enjoys the company and I get fit.

Mkarver, I'd like to introduce you to a very special gentleman ...

KCgeezer,

The Park University Track Coach Brian Renshaw was one of my former athletes. I coached at Barton County Community College in Great Bend, Kansas 1979-1982. Brian was on my last team there.

Igy