50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Massive congrats to all who competed in Poland. Remarkable Performances.

I was fit, fast, and lucky enough to score a Gold & Silver when I was 45. But I must say... "wow, the talent is so much deeper nearly 13 years later". Watching some of our friends from the USA and other Nations LiveStream and via Video has inspired me to get it together like then = so much more than just running. Talking all the little things, especially for this 50+ Club. Biggest hurdle for me? 10lbs heavier = 10+% weaker!

May we all continue to share our aspiration and dedication to enable racing for fun forever. And yes I do believe it's fun to "win". Defined by every individual.

KP

AMK race start time was 7am if Modesto .

7 days 50 minutes a day most runs pretty easy

today it occurred to me that running is ezr kinda nice to feel relaxed just cruising along

so bumped up to 60 minutes but not across the board maybe just 60 minutes instead of 50

when I feel good.

My spring break has ended and I'm back in the fold, though not without a pair of hiccups. Wednesday was my first day back and my quads were not happy. I suspect the culprit might have been the 9 hours I spent flying the day before in economy. My minimal leg room was reduced even more by the "entertainment box" taking up half the space below the seat in front of me. Not fun. Then I came down with a cold which led me to postpone Thursday's scheduled jog. By Friday, the quads had mostly calmed down, but I still had the head cold. I know there is no aerobic benefit to running with a cold, but I wanted to shake out the legs (especially the quads). So I'm progressing back to my typical intensity and volume. Hopefully I'll be there by the time of next week's report.

Sun-Tues: off

Wed: 33' jog; body wt ex

Thu-Fri: off

Sat: 43' jog; body wt ex

Best to most!

Congrats again CM! Hell of a HM!

lucKY: Good luck to Kentucky…up to a point, too bad my Cav’s will whoop ‘em ?

SCgal: Congrats on the 3 American Records!

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

Thr = 4 miles with 3 @ 7:56 pace (7:59, 7:59, 7:51)

Sat = 4 miles with 3 @ 7:37 pace (7:31, 7:29, 7:50)

Sun = 4 miles easy @ 4000 feet on gravel

OK week. Tue was the easiest 8min pace run I’ve done in years. Sat, I was not prepared for 80 degrees. I just wilted in the last mile. I’ve been having some ear/sinus junk going on and that’s been dragging me down a bit. Today ran on the mountain, hoping the 3000 feet elevation change and subsequent multiple ear-popping would help clear my head a bit. I think it did.

On the positive, legs and feet remain solid.

Have a good week folks!

Congrats to the 50+ stars for a great week of racing: Coyote, SCgal amd amkelley. As mikedf would say “Solid.”

Hey everyone,

I love reading the posts of some of you amazing runners (fast times, lots of miles): Not Done Just Yet, KCgeezer, Racerdb, Ghost of Igloi, Coyote Montane (wow!!!), SCgal (setting records!!!), etc…

Amkelly – very cool to hear that you have the same experience with metabolism… I hope I have the same “problem” when I’m 60 : ) Hope your race went well.

Dave Waddles – Glad to see another late starter runner posting!!!! You have amazing 400m speed for your age… I’m jealous!!!

As for my week:

Sunday - 5 miles through forest trails - 41:58; Bike 5.25 miles on stationary bike

Monday - One of my favorite workouts with my son: 2 mile warmup, 1.5 miles of circuit training/plyometrics, 6 fly 30's... jog 10 meters, sprint 30 meters, deacceleration zone for 20 meters, complete 400 meter lap and repeat; 2 mile cooldown

Tuesday - played 1v1 volleyball with my son before school (more tiring than one might think).

Wednesday - I got 3.25 miles by doing all of my son's warmups and cooldowns at his track meet (he set the meet record in the 2 mile with an 11:17 - middle school meet). I also worked on the hurdle crew... those hurdles were heavy... my arms were sore for days afterwards...

Thursday - worked all day

Friday - I knew this was going to be a tough one... my son had his paces reset after the track meet and I was worried he was going to get out of my range for his moderate tempo run. After a 2 mile warmup, we had 5 miles at "moderate tempo"... his range was set at 6:52-7:13/mile... I tried to stay with him... I actually was pretty pleased with a 35:38... but... 65 seconds behind him... after I finished... I was allowed 30 seconds rest and then right into a 2 mile cooldown. Did I mention it was in the low 80s... no clouds....

Saturday - rest....

SCgal what a cool performance, Coyote, man that was SO studly...looking forward to hear of AMkelley marathon.

I knocked out a wicked 24 miles of slogging for the week...just 304 miles YTD in spite of not having missed a day (92 day 'streak')...on pace for my lowest annual mileage...ever. BUT, cortisone shot holding up well and may even attempt some 'introduction to track 101' workouts this week by including something like 10 x 100 meter cut downs...did my first of the season yesterday...4 x 50 meters strides...spooky slow...just trying to maintain a sense of humor about it all.

Wishing you all an extraordinary week of masters training and racing.

your pal,

MF

You might think that a 60-year-old woman with decades of running experience would have some sense about attempting her first marathon finish in 15 years. You’d be wrong. Idiotically, I went through the half in a time within 20 seconds of my last half-marathon race back in November. But it felt so easy! About four miles later the wheels came off big time. I did a lot of fast walking in the final 8 miles because my calves kept cramping up when I tried to run. I kept going mainly because the shortest way back to my car was along the marathon route and there was no other easy way to get back—no real options in between finishing the race and getting picked up by the meat wagon. I wasn’t meat wagon fodder yet, and I tried to walk as fast as I could when I couldn't jog. So I did post an official time of 4:01:37, with a 21 minute positive split! I won my age group by many miles and Boston qualified by over 18 minutes, but this was NOT the result I was looking for.

I’m going to kick back and lick my physical and psychological wounds this week, and think about next steps. Now that I’ve at least finished a marathon in this decade and gotten part of the monkey off my back, I’d like to try again to do it right. But not anytime soon.

I join lucKY2b and others in welcoming Dave Waddles to the group. Best of luck with your upcoming marathon! As dhaaga notes, “usually people go out too fast”. Amen.

dhaaga, hope you have a great race at Cherry Blossom.

SCgal, congratulations on a great run and kudos to your accommodating husband!

Congrats again to Coyote on a terrific WC half-marathon.

Running out of energy to read the rest of this week's posts. Maybe after a nap.

Seeing I can only handle that pace for a couple of miles....seems pretty good and with better pacing....

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Seeing I can only handle that pace for a couple of miles....seems pretty good and with better pacing....

Well, yes. On the one hand, I'm pleased that 13.1 miles in 1:50:10 felt so easy. Suggests I can race a half-marathon a whole lot faster than I did in November. Too bad this wasn't a half-marathon.

amkelley wrote:

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Seeing I can only handle that pace for a couple of miles....seems pretty good and with better pacing....

Well, yes. On the one hand, I'm pleased that 13.1 miles in 1:50:10 felt so easy. Suggests I can race a half-marathon a whole lot faster than I did in November. Too bad this wasn't a half-marathon.

amkelley,

The factor that I see is just time racing. When you were younger 2:45:00 racing, now at an older age you are asking another 1:00:00+. Not easy at all. Actually very difficult. Good job, you are fit.

Igy

Mkarver - Sounds like you had a pretty decent week especially with that Friday run with your son! Nice time. How old are you, anyway?

Real quick rundown of my week - Managed 54 mpw including a small 5k race at Eastern Michigan University on Thursday.

The start is only 1 1/4 miles from our back door so it was an okay warm up over there. The course is part of my weekly "milk-run" route so it was very very familiar course and I knew exactly what to expect (plus this is the third year I have run this race).

I am sure I was the oldest entrant at 62 plus and my wife was a close second (61 and 11 months - lol!)

They 'advertised' the race on a couple of running calendars so there was a pretty decent turn out. A lot of fit looking young bucks (and does too) turned out.

I figured the heck with it might as make it a decent run as the weather (63 degrees) was near perfect and went out a little faster than normal on a slightly rolling first mile at 6:15.

Hit mile two at 12:32 even and thought I was okay, but wheels got wobbly at 2 1/4 or so and got passed by the first female. Hung on the best I could and wound up fourth overall, but the fun part (at least to me) is the combined ages of the first three finishers was less than my age. Ha! Not sure what that means except top time in these races have certainly slowed over the last 2025 years AND so far 2019 is developing nicely.

Back to 24 degrees this morning but got 11 in for the day - overall a good week. Hope others had a good week too!

sorry this didn't work out as you'd hoped [though in absolute terms, an AG win and Boston Qualifier by a lot is impressive]. I hope your recovery goes well.

Dave

PS sorry if this shows up twice -- posted earlier but got weird error message. computers are not my friends.

dhaaga wrote:

nice going! sounds like you've really responded well to your training. What marathon are you targeting for late April?

Usually people go out too fast, so I hesitate to say this, but I wonder if 7:45/mile is maybe on the conservative side for a goal pace. Particularly this workout........

Mon. 20 miles 1st 10 @MP+10s(7:55) 2nd 10@MP-15s(7:30)

.......made me wonder. even if it were a race, 20 miles averaging under MP, with negative split, is remarkable.

Initially, I had the same thought. There is absolutely no way I could do this workout. The fastest 20 mile workout in my marathon training cycle is usually 4-5 minutes slower than the first 20 miles of the following race.

But then, there are people who can push themselves much harder in workouts than I do. So I cannot make any informed judgement without knowing his training history or splits in his last marathon. I would say, start conservatively, and pick up the pace after the halfway point if it feels too easy. I have run negative split only once out of 12 marathons. And even that one had a spectacular collapse in the last 1.2 miles.

My week.

M: off.

T-SA: 7 miles.

SU: 14.2 miles. (8:54 for the first mile, 7:52-7:22 for the last two miles.)

Sunday's long run was 2 minutes faster than the same distance from two weeks ago, with the fastest closing speed of the year. (And that 7:52 in the penultimate mile felt relatively easy.) So I am slowly getting back to decent shape. I have only four weeks left until my next race (half). So I will have to take this "work-in-progress" to the start line. But there will be more races ahead, and hopefully I can get into better shape.

First Congratulations to-Coyote Montane,Scgal,amkelly,NotDoneJustYet on their amazing races! Inspiring each and everyone.

lucKY2b,dhaaga,amkelly,Mkarver,Rfreader.Thank You for the warm welcome i'm really looking forward to learning about and talking Masters running with some of the most knowledgeable people in the sport.

dhaaga,Rfreader.-I guess I just use 7:45/mile as MP because that's what my last and only marathon pace was.I have read several different training plans(i don't follow any specifically) and they each say to not use goal marathon pace as your training MP but most recent.That was my interpretation anyways.Rfreader here are some splits and mileage since.

My 1 and only marathon was run in Oct of 2018.Splits were 10k-47:59 Half -1:41:55 20mile-2:36:14 fin.-3:23:46

1st half 1:41:55 2nd half 1:41:51. HR avg 83.3% ofMHR weather was perfect 55 and drizzly.

Felt good after and was back running after a day off.

Mileage by month since: Nov 244 Dec 188 Jan 223 Feb 253 March 307

The plan is to run the Illinois Marathon on April 27th-so 4 weeks give or take.Thinking maybe of trying for a 7:25/7:30/mile pace.April 6th I am thinking of running a local Half marathon at my goal marathon pace,just to see how it feels. Too ambitious? or just right? Thank you for posting your thoughts as I pretty much make it up as I go along.

So many inspirational stories. Great performances from many of you including CM. You are now the best in the world.

So I thought I would add quite a story to this site. It took place several years ago at a xc masters worlds championships. I was very confident in my fitness and thought I had a chance to win. That is until 20 minutes before the race. My calf became too tight to race. But I wanted to at least see if I could run some of the race. So I started on the back row and limped along. At about one mile in it my calf began to loosen up a bit. I remember thinking how great it would be just to finish the race. At about 7 minutes into the 8k course I was able to run faster. I then pulled into the top 10. Now I am thinking that I could place in the top 10 if I could keep my calf from cramping ago. Shortly after that I looked up and saw the top four runners in the lead though they were 150 meters up on me. But I was now flying. I caught the leaders a little passed three miles. The only person that came with me was the defending world xc champion. We battled back and forth for the rest of the way. I made one last push with 100 meters to go and won. I was so shocked that even though I thought I had won, I had to ask the finish line judge. I can't tell you how I felt. The main reason for telling you this is not for my glory since I owe everything to God. But rather I am telling you my story as it might motivate someone out there that needs motivating. Never never give up.

I am still not running since my two surgeries (shoulder( December 10th) and foot tendon (end of Feb). I was planning on running in a couple of days until this weekend took place. I never had a kidney stone until yestersday. The pain was so fierce my wife took me into the emergency. After three doses of morphine the pain was under control. A cat scan was carried out. Not only did I have a stone, the pressure of the stone itself tore the ureter from the kidney. So my urine was emptying into the kidney or somewhere else. I now have a stint onto my ureter near the kidney. So glad I was under during the operation. Imagine putting a small camera and a stint up the penis! So the doctor said it would be a few weeks before the total pain went away before going back in and have the stint removed. He also said I would need to spend another night if I could not keep down any food and the pain was too much. I had a lot of people praying for me. The surgery today went well. I was expecting to eat soup and jello. Instead about five minutes after being taken back to my hospital room after the surgery I was hungary so I ordered a burger, yogurt, and a brownie. And then on the way home we stopped and had icecream. I do not have the pain, general fatigueness, or clouded head from all those pain killers. I totally expected not to be able to coach the rest of the week. Some of you may not believe in God, but He believes in you. I will be at track practice tomorrow. RB

RB you've had a rough road, best wishes for a rapid and full recovery from all of this and looking forward to seeing you out on the circuit next year.

Heyall.

I suspect every once in a while a 50+ person asks for advice on learning the steeple. The final frontier.

I'm a fit, 18 flat 5k guy, around 51 years old. I feel like learning something new.

Is this stupid? Is it an automatic 'no never don't even think about it' or can it work? Is there a built up level of knowledge on it?

RB, you are one tough dude, racing and otherwise. Heal up.

Igy