50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Been a long long time...

Took a few weeks off entirely late last year to see if I could get my gimpy right foot out of crippled mode...didn't work.

So, had a fourth cortisone shot a few weeks back...it worked! Best my foot has felt in years...alas, cortisone wears off and is really just a band aid. So, I've finally acquiesced and will undergo the foot surgery that I've been postponing for 5 or 6 years.

In mid-November, they're going to fuse together my cuneiform to my navicular which no longer function like a foot should, and instead, rub against one another in an inexplicably painful way. In the interim, we'll maintain the ability to run with cortisone therapy until then...heck, I may even race 5,000 in the Wine Country Senior Games track meet in a few weeks...the race director has agreed to bring a calendar instead of a stopwatch ;}

Been reading all of the diet dialogue the past couple of weeks...like marketing reserach, you can make the science say whatever it is you're trying to make it say. Eat what you like, just don't eat too much...and be sure there's wine involved.

Trusting that you all have had a fine week of training and racing...I'll look forward to hearing more.

your pal,

MF

KCgeezer wrote:

Olde Farte wrote:

In an effort to enhance my chances of jogging injury free through the spring and beyond, I’m giving the olde bod a couple of weeks of quality recovery. I’ll still be walking, but no jogging.

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.

Given that I’m in the midst of my “spring break”, I hadn’t planned to post today. But I changed my mind after reading KCgeezer’s thoughtful feedback. Being what some here would call a “hobby jogger”, soreness really isn’t a concern for me upon returning from such a short respite. The first couple of days I’ll keep the volume lower than usual, but that’s about the only concession I suspect I will require. In a few days I expect to be back to my usual volume and pedestrian pace.

I did, however, follow a similar philosophy during my coaching days. I prescribed a mandatory two week break from running at the end of each competitive season. Keep in mind that other activities were encouraged - basketball, swimming, hiking, etc. - just no running for running’s sake. I always preached “listen to your body”, but I had some very passionate and devoted athletes who occasionally required some educated intervention. The respite was not only for physical recovery, but also for mental recharging.

Of course, I recognize that there are differing philosophies. Thanks again to KCgeezer for not only taking the time to respond to my post, but also for his insight on this topic.

I’ll be back to posting my weekly activity next Sunday.

Best to most.

MikeF wrote:

Been reading all of the diet dialogue the past couple of weeks...like marketing reserach, you can make the science say whatever it is you're trying to make it say. Eat what you like, just don't eat too much...and be sure there's wine involved.

lucKY: I have zero doubt you’ll be back. Solve for X where Y is a sack of..um…”stuff”…that unerringly finds it’s way into the 50+ equation.

MikeF: I share with your crappy feet woes and fascination with streaking. I’m somewhere around your 2004 streak. Best to you getting your foot fixed!

Tue = 4 miles road with 10X 1 min on 2 min off

Thr = 4 windy miles with 3 @ 7:54 pace (7:51, 8:02, 7:48)

Sat = 4 windy miles with 3 @ 7:30 pace (7:23, 7:43, 7:24)

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

Another good week. Other than some lingering sinus and ear pain, all running systems are 100% green lights.

Have a good week folks!

MikeF - Thanks for the link to the article. Since complex motor activiites are involved, should I start to include wine drinking when I list my workouts each week?

Sun: 6.3 Easy, 2:00 bike

Mon: 3000 yd swim, :45 bike

Tue: Unplanned day off - both brother and sister in hospital

Wed: 6.3 Easy

Thu: FTP test on bike (hard effort) :45, 6.3 Easy

Fri: 5.2 Easy + Strides, core work

Sat: 12.0 Long Run

I'm off to Richmond, VA, to race 20,000m in a college track meet Friday night. The race doesn't even begin until 8:30pm which is close to my bedtime. I'll report back next week if I was able to stay awake to finish...

All the best to your surgeon and your rehab Mike F. We all know you aim to run forever. Might as well get your wheel repaired now.

50 Laps on a track! Tip my hat to your SCGal.

3rd 50 mpw in a row. This week's hill session was aborted due to a massive dead leg syndrome. But this weekend's 100min run with a 3mile tempo @ 7:00 pace was way better. I'm starting more water intake.

Good luck to all our global friends for life racing Indoor Worlds in Poland.

KP

My marathon is 7 days from today. This week I hit 71 miles, with a 12.7 mile run on Saturday that was way too fast, barely slower than half-marathon race pace. I was trying out my pre-race fueling strategy so I got up early, ate a big hunk of bread with honey, and waited two hours before heading out into the rain to run. I always run faster when I’m wide awake as compared to the usual 15-30 minute wakeup period, and I overdid it. I hope I didn’t blow it. I’m so nervous about this race that you’d think I’d never run a marathon before. (1) I’m afraid my grotesquely swollen Achilles heel will blow up before or during the race. No reason this should happen during a taper week when it has withstood several months of hard training, but the blow-ups don’t always occur for any apparent reason. (2) I’m worried about the weather. California has been unseasonably cool and wet for the past two months, and most of my recent runs, including all of my long runs, have been done in conditions ranging from cool to cold. I’m afraid March 31 will be one of the first warm days of the year and I’ll melt under the blazing sun during the last hour of the race. (3) I’m worried that I’ll get sick, and I’m almost tempted to stay away from the gym next week to avoid sources of infection. (4) I don’t know which shoes to wear. I did my three longest runs in three different pairs of shoes and all of them felt fine, but I’m still worried that I’ll make the wrong choice. (5) I still don’t know what to do about fueling during the race, which I have never done before. I’ve tried taking a gel four times in long training runs and have not had any problems, but I still have no confidence that it’s a good idea.

SCgal wrote:

I'm off to Richmond, VA, to race 20,000m in a college track meet Friday night. The race doesn't even begin until 8:30pm which is close to my bedtime. I'll report back next week if I was able to stay awake to finish...

I can relate. I normally go to bed around 9:00-9:15 to get up at 4:45. I have never tried running a race that late and I don't know whether it would work at all for me. Best of luck to you!

It was back to the normal training plan with a slightly tender lower back for me this week. 54 miles for the week -

M- 8 hills 9:41/mi ave

T- 7 walk with stride every 1/2 mile

W- 8 hills 8:21/mi ave

Th- 7 walk with stride every 1/2 mile

F- 8 hills 7:41/mi ave (recent PR for this loop)

S- 7 walk with stride every 1/2 mile

Su- 9 with 2mi w.u., 3x hard mi/easy mi (hard miles 7:33, 7:03, 7:02) 1mi w.d.

Eat what works for you and good running to all.

MikeF nice to see a post , hoping the foot surgery goes well!

AMKelly nice post! You have captured in words what we all feel the week before THE BIG RACE. Good luck you are one tough runner!

Well I got in my 7 days of 50 minutes per day . Another month or so and a bump to 60 maybe. Feel good.

5 days progressing from 40 to 60 percent of mhr

2 days in a row doing CharlieMaf on the track like this workout

4 miles 2 easy other 2 progression checking hr at end of each mile about 1 min rest

pace HR %karvonen

9:20 60%

7:53 70%

9:22 60%

6:20 80%

Easy speedwork that I can extend down the road once I reach my daily running time goal which is kinda open ended maybe 90 minutes a day who knows depends on how I adapt. Right now 50 minutes a day is pretty easy.

A variety of interesting reports last week. Best wishes for upcoming or continuing challenges and races. My training is progressing on the quality side, not to any notable benchmark, but at least to the point it is measureable. Stride is opening up and feeling increasingly natural. Warm-up miles are approaching my recent racing pace. Weight routine and core repetitions upped at similar rate. By the end of the week though, the legs were heavy and needed some down time, so skipped my Saturday long run. Still had enough energy to add two lines of drip irrigation and dig out a tree root that sheared a sprinkler head. I am little sore today so I’ll take a day off. The joys of home ownership. Monday morning will be 8 miles of Igloi intervals so need to rest up. My week:

Monday: AM- 2 miles easy; (Igloi intervals) 4 x 300m good swing / 100m easy; 400m easy; 4 x 600m fresh swing / 200m easy; 500m easy; 4 x 300m good swing / 100m easy; mile easy; PM- 3 miles easy/ walk

Tuesday: 3 miles easy/walk; core; 2 sets of 8 reps free weights

Wednesday: AM- 2 miles easy; 800m tempo @ 4:22 / 2:00 rest; 1,000m tempo @ 5:26 / 2:00 rest; mile tempo @ 8:42 / 2:00 rest; 1,000m tempo @ 5:25 / 2:00 rest; 800m @ 4:02; mile easy; PM- 2 mile walk

Thursday: same as Tuesday

Friday: Off

Saturday: 4 miles easy/walk in foothills

Sunday: Off

Igy

amkelley - Re-read what you just wrote and re-frame it:

1.) My Achilles has held up despite running 70+ miles per week!

2.) I've got an alternative race plan if the weather is warm!

3.) I'm going to get lots of rest this week to stay healthy!

4.) I can wear any pair of shoes because they all felt good!

5.) I've successfully used gels during my training runs!

We have followed your progress and are amazed by your persistence and strength. We'll be cheering you on from all over the country. You've done the work - now go and show yourself what you can do!

^Post of the week^

go get 'em! you're prepared really well; now you get to deploy all that fitness

fun week for me as we transition to spring with most days being quite chilly at first and then mild after noon

M 2:05 double

Tu 30:00

W 2:00 double including 20:00 track tempo (passed 5,000 in 19:54)

Th 2:00

F 1:30 with a few strides and 2 X 200 (43, 43)

Sa 1:10 + 30:00 x-t

Su 1:30 including fairly hilly road 10k in 38:35 (results not posted yet, but I think 2nd M55-59 and maybe about 12th-15th OA)

Last time I ran this race I finished in 37:02, but (a) slightly different course, and (b) 7 years ago, so I'm not too concerned about that. Generally felt good and competed reasonably well.

At the moment I'm tied for 17th in my 69-person NCAA bracket pool. Need top 3 to get any cash, so it's a long shot.

have a great week,

Dave

haven't posted in a while with the high school track season dominating my time--sometimes with races three days/nights a week. the week ahead has a dual meet wednesday, open house thursday, distance carnival friday night (races go as late as 10pm!), then back at it for another invitational saturday morning/afternoon...

on the plus side, it forces a taper leading up to carlsbad in two weeks, so i should be fresh.

training's going well, but racing still hasn't come completely around yet. but, echoing the optimism of earlier threads today, i can't complain: this carlsbad will be my 12th in a row, so i try not to take good health and fitness for granted. i ran 14 miles with some younger calcoasters training for marathons (they were going 20), and they were talking about fueling, ranging for some weird expanding gels all the way to the old school flat coca cola. glad i've stuck with shorter distances that don't have to deal with these considerations...

as for recent debates on diet, i ran my fastest professional times as a slightly undisciplined lacto-ovo-pesco vegetarian, but i'd be foolish to confuse this for why i ran fast. overall i was very disciplined about a good healthy diet, and i feel like that had at least something to do with it. my best times as a masters runner came with me eating whatever i want, but i generally have an occasionally bacon-infused healthy omnivorous diet with as much gluten as i can find, and moderate amounts of liquid bread...

good luck to MF with his vino-cortisone therapy; to SCgal, i wouldn't wish 50 laps on anyone at any time during the day, so i can only hope that it will be everything you want it to be and more; good to see KP back at it; good luck to amkelly with the marathon--you may feel like you haven't done a marathon before, but i actually have never done one, so pass on your nerves to me and i'll properly handle them until i never do a marathon some time in the future; charlie, good luck with your weekly progression; igy, keep channeling your inner-igloi; dhaaga, looks like your bracket is doing better than mine, but if washington can beat north carolina (which i'm watching right now), then my bracket will make a nice turnaround...

good luck to those running in poland, and carpe crepusculum,

cush

socalcush wrote:

good luck to amkelly with the marathon--you may feel like you haven't done a marathon before, but i actually have never done one, so pass on your nerves to me and i'll properly handle them until i never do a marathon some time in the future

Thanks, cush, I hereby bequeath you my nerves.

Actually, I feel my prep for this race has gone about as well as it could have up to this point. I just have to get through the next six days without having something go wrong. It's our spring break, so no students around, and I have a paper due on marathon day, so that should keep me hard at work and out of trouble.

Hey everyone,

Really appreciate the encouragement. I love the idea of trying to get faster at my age : )

So... here's my past week of training:

Sunday - worked all day

Monday - shocking time drops in my repeat 1000's - 6 reps from 3:52 to 3:55... I was trying to do VO2 pace but honestly, it felt really, really easy... I think I could have gone much faster (my son was smoking me... low 3:20s). Also did 2 mile warmup and 1.5 mile cooldown

Tuesday - 10 miles - 1:21:58 then 6.25 miles on stationary bike (loosened the legs up nicely)

Wednesday - 2 mile warmup; 1.5 miles circuit training/plyos; then 6 laps - 10 m. fly in zone; 30 m. sprint; 20 m. deceleration zone; light jog to complete the lap and do again; ended with 2 mile cooldown

Thursday - 5 miles - 41:50

Friday - worked all day

Saturday - my son had a track meet - I warmed up with him and cooled down with him before and after his 1500 and 800. I ended up with 3.25 miles (he PRd both races but best was seeing him winning the 1500 with a 4:56)... Have to admit it would have been fun to get a race in myself but that would have been odd at a race of about 1000 kids.

One comment about the food dialogue... Ever since I started doing this running training, my metabolism has gone into overdrive... I need to seriously keep eating or I lose weight. I'm not joking in that I end each day with a spoon, a box of life cereal, a jar of peanut butter, and a jar of.... nutella : ) And a big glass of juice. My wife thinks I'm nuts (I think she's right )

amkelley, best wishes, you have done so much so well that you now "deserve" this rest before the race. Use your best knowledge and instincts on shoes and gels, of course

Finally went over 30 miles for a week for the first time this year, with 33.5, d/t an 11 miler Tuesday at 10:06 pace. Had some decent pace short runs, too, the long one seemed to energize me more than drain me. Today, my wife and I ran a 0.4 mile straight stretch near our house four times over. Because of a needed pit stop, she started before me and so ran them all alone in 7:27 pace, 60 degree weather. I averaged 7:57 mile pace, and the last was fastest but so demanding.

Wow 20Km on the track...What a flashback!! I used to race walk competitively back in the mid 1970s into the early 1980s. Many of the 20km events (the Olympic distance) as well as many 10kms at that time were held on the track. Thank goodness for those counting laps so I could just concentrate on form and racing.

The upside was that you always had others around you and you could focus on working off the (or reeling them in). Same today although I can and do concentrate well when racing it is always easier when there are others in the immediate vicinity. Good luck on your race and stay focused!

My week;

Decent week as the weather is starting to break just a little - shed the tights three times this week as the temperature climbed into the high forties and today to 53 degrees! Strung together another good 50+ mile week (55 total) with 18% - or 10 miles- of that being some level of quality work.

M: 12x200 Hills with up to 7% grade then a long easy run afterwards 8 miles plus

T: Fairly easy 8 miles with some strides about halfway and 4 easy in the early evening 12

W: Ran with a much younger (37yo) friend for with two decent mile efforts 7

TH: Recovery run with 12 short strides in a group about halfway 7

F: Up, then 2 at 10k pace - short recovery then two x 1 mile - windy! 9

S: 6 Easy

S: 6 Breezy but at least warmer 1.5 mile and .6 at between 5 and 10k pace in the middle

Last weekend ran a smallish 5Km race - 30 degrees on a course that ended the last .4 miles on a partially frozen bike path with 2" of water under the ice along the way - Had to run on the water-logged but safer turf - a real cross country finish. Third overall, hung with the 18 and 20 yo 1/2 finishers until about half way and gained some back at the end (I think I may have been one of the very few who scouted the conditions on the last half mile through the park and know what to expect and where to step!) Pretty pleased with my time about 6:40 pace.

Mkarver wrote:

One comment about the food dialogue... Ever since I started doing this running training, my metabolism has gone into overdrive... I need to seriously keep eating or I lose weight. I'm not joking in that I end each day with a spoon, a box of life cereal, a jar of peanut butter, and a jar of.... nutella : ) And a big glass of juice. My wife thinks I'm nuts (I think she's right )

I think you mentioned on a previous post that you're 50 yrs old? That's fantastic if your metabolism has gone into overdrive in your middle-age. I noticed when I hit 50 my metabolism started to nose dive despite eating the same amount of calories and maintaining the same mileage & workout schedule (7 days a week mixed with 4 days of running & 3 days in the gym). Now at 59 if I just look at food I gain weight. Lol. The metabolism has gone dormat. I now take caffeine/green tea supps to boost the metabolism somewhat but still not enough.