50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Not Done Just Yet wrote:

Re: Brad Barton and the 4:19

Not sure if you saw the youtube video of Barton's 4:19 post just a couple days ago

Pretty darn impressive....just will leave it at that.

Agreed! The man works hard! Leaves nothing on the track. Here's vid from when he was 48. Go forward to about 6 min. Looks a little alarming but I believe that's just hypoxia from absolutely killing it. I've only seen this at nationals when kids go above and beyond.

Masters Blast from the Past:

https://youtu.be/h6ayWsaHiug?t=113

Charlie wrote:

Masters Blast from the Past:

https://youtu.be/h6ayWsaHiug?t=113

Thanks Charlie - I hadn't seen this one - what a kick!

Good luck in today’s 5000m Charlie. And so few others who toe that Portland Track Classic line. I’m one of those NOT this year.

ABQ was an interesting reality check on fitness and health. I did have a lot more fun in the 800m finishing 5th but once again nothing close to smooth powerful confident racing ability from just 8-10 months ago.

I am posting early for no good reason

KPdx wrote:

Good luck in today’s 5000m Charlie. And so few others who toe that Portland Track Classic line. I’m one of those NOT this year.

ABQ was an interesting reality check on fitness and health. I did have a lot more fun in the 800m finishing 5th but once again nothing close to smooth powerful confident racing ability from just 8-10 months ago.

KP no worries 60 is just like 40 except OLDER. I am sure you will bounce back just fine.

Well the highlight of the meet was meeting Igy. He had a good day but I will let him recap it for ya.

Enjoyed the race felt pretty good but my time was not what I wanted but close enough for now.

Comfortable 19:05 62.8 years young . Started off good thru fist 5 laps then I slowed down just was not willing to hurt.My breathing and effort stayed the same 2/2 but my laps were 2 to 4 seconds slower. Costing me 25 seconds over laps 6 thu 11. Then I felt energized and kicked to close in 85. I liked that 85 I was huffing and puffing but running pretty fast so there is hope.

Time to start another BASE....Van Aken Style....maybe shoot for sub 19 road in Feb . at the Couples Classic one of my favorite road runs in Eugene.

Charlie wrote:

Comfortable 19:05 62.8 years young.

Charlie, that's a great result. I was chasing 19 last year at 59, and did no better than 19:13. I need a sandy beach!

What's next on your racing calendar?

Allen1959 wrote:

Charlie wrote:

Comfortable 19:05 62.8 years young.

Charlie, that's a great result. I was chasing 19 last year at 59, and did no better than 19:13. I need a sandy beach!

What's next on your racing calendar?

Thanks Allen

Probably run the joggers mile in 2 or 3 weeks gotta squeak under 6 to make my 3 year streak official but really I am shutting it down and just doing base until Feb 2020 maybe buildup from 50 minutes a day of jogging to 60 .

Sand is the only way I can run everyday.

Great job, Charlie. Wow.

Back in Eagle. Hooked it home a few minutes after Charlie. 800 miles driving in two days, but worth it.

Great meeting Charlie and he had a fine race; looked great. One of the best 60 years olds out there.

Me 26:08, 3:39 better than a road 5k 1/1/2019. So progress.

Charlie’s time 2nd on US posted times.

Congratulations Charlie! Brilliant result.

Re Charlie:

" Comfortable 19:05 62.8 years young . Started off good thru fist 5 laps then I slowed down just was not willing to hurt.My breathing and effort stayed the same 2/2 but my laps were 2 to 4 seconds slower. Costing me 25 seconds over laps 6 thu 11. Then I felt energized and kicked to close in 85. I liked that 85 I was huffing and puffing but running pretty fast so there is hope."

Great job Charlie...

And that closer in :85? Whew - Way to kick it in!

Let us know how that mile race goes for you too please.

*Week 419*

Greetings, 50+ers! Well, if there is improvement, it's slow. I seem to be able to walk without pain, and I can run at a good clip without pain, but it's that intermediate pace (i.e.-one at which I can continuously run) that is causing my knee issues. So walk and run/walk is what I'm doing, ended up about like last week, with 4 long brisk walks and two run/walk sessions (longest continuous run section was about 1/2 mile.) Working on other exercises to try and get at the heart of the problem. I agree with Rtype that there seems to be some imbalances as some the muscles just around the knee get stiff and sore, especially when sitting for periods. We'll keep this protocol and hopefully things will gradually improve, if not, then I guess I'll have to bite the bullet and get professional assessment.

Kudos, once again, to some fine racing. Charlie, that is a pretty remarkable time! And glad to see Igy making such progress! KP, I'd say the trip to ABQ was a success; you also seem to be on the rebound. Rtype, dhaaga, Coyote, KCGeezer nice racing from last week, and quite the remarkable bike ride, Allen...Geez!

OK. Onward and upward, as they say. Hope y'all have had a great week!

All the Best!

Great Racing to Charlie & Igy! I passed by MHCC around mid-day and thought about y'all two in that earlier 5000m. Reckon those positive thoughts came true. Seriously Charlie... really good 12.5 lapper! And 3+mins improvement Igy? Nice work to both of y'all.

I haven't run a step since the 800th meter at ABQ. Starting to feel like I want to "just run". A good thing. Hope to build the base back just like Charlie did and a lot of you masters of training and racing.

Thanks, as always, for the inspiration.

KP

Good morning all. I told Charlie he would lap me twice, but he made it three. It was good to chat both before and after the race. Feel like I know Charlie, so the conversation was easy, and much to talk about in a short period of time. I also met one of the other competitors, who after I introduced myself said “You’re Igy.”

I started the race with the idea of checking my splits only at 1,000 meter marks. Also, wanted to feel out the first kilometer, calibrated to a pace I could hold the entire race. I was close, but probably got a little too enthusiastic in the middle of the race (5:12, 5:08, 5:06, 5:24, 5:18). The 3,000 meters split of 15:26 was a minutes faster than my 3k race the week before, but I was racing in 30 degree cooler weather. The race age grades 6% better than the previous week to 65%.

Key workouts last week were: Monday: 2 x mile tempo @ 8:10, 8:07 / 2:00 rest; and Wednesday: 2 x 1,000m interval @ 4:43, 4:40 / 600m easy. Similar to Charlie’s sentiment I plan to rebuild my base by adding back in some doubles with walking and swimming, back in the gym for weights and core. I plan to race twice on the road and twice on the track over the next two months. I will wrap up the summer with a backpacking trip and a road trip with my wife.

Igy

Congratulations to all the racers on some excellent results! I managed a very good week of base rebuilding hanging on for 52 miles of running -

M- 8mi hills 8:30/mi

T- 8mi hills 9:22/mi

W- 4mi hills 9:34/mi (tired)

Th- 8mi hills 8:37/mi

F- 8mi hills 8:42/mi

S- 8mi hills 9:27/mi

Su- 8mi hills 10:22 (really tired)

Now it will be back to the training plan with some higher intensity efforts added back in.

Back in the saddle after last weekend’s extended break from jogging. Though there was no jogging for a few days, there was activity involving the legs, so when I returned to action on Tuesday I kept things short to compensate. The remainder of the week was back to normal. Actually added a few more pushups and some med ball work. Life is good.

Thanks to Charlie for last week’s suggestion and congrats on a very impressive race performance. You earned it and deserve it.

Sun-Mon: off

Tues: 36’ jog; body wt ex

Wed: walk w/ the bride

Thu: 51’ jog; body wt ex, short med ball routine

Fri: off

Sat: 52’ jog; body wt ex, short med ball routine

Best to most.

Running 70+ miles for five of the past six weeks left me feeling generally run down and beat up. Although I had a good long run last Saturday, the baseline level of heel soreness has been creeping up and I have acquired a persistent stiffness/soreness in my right hip/butt area. The last straw, however, was something rather silly: I apparently missed a strip with the Body Glide before I ran on a hot sweaty morning and came back with a nasty chafe under my bra. So I decided to back off a bit. I ended up with just under 50 miles for the week in the form of one moderately long run, three medium-length runs, two days of cross-training on the bike and one day of low-key recreational walking.

M 10.5 mile run

T 11.0 mile run, hot

W 11.0 mile run, hot and chafed

R 7 mile walk/hike at 7000 feet, leisurely with husband and puppies

F 32 mile bike ride easy

S 17.1 mile run at 9:04/mile pace. Had originally planned to go longer but between my heel issues and getting very little sleep the night before (puppies!), I decided against a big effort.

U 32 mile bike ride

Charlie, that’s an excellent 5K time!

Igy, thumbs-up on the huge improvement over January.

I'm planning a mini-backpacking trip with husband and puppies on Friday-Saturday. Very little distance with our youngest being not yet 4 months, but it will be the first experience for both of them in a tent overnight and I suspect little sleeping will occur. Between the sleep deprivation, odd backpacking diet, and the inevitable dehydration that occurs on any backpacking trip at elevation, I'm sure I won't be worth a darn on Sunday morning. So I'm thinking about a long run on Thursday morning instead, which is forecast to be very cool. Fortunately my academic summer schedule is flexible enough to allow that. I'll see how I feel by Thursday.

That's a great run Charlie. On my road 18:00 flat at 56, I should be close to something like that now at 62, but I'm not sure that I could get within a minute at the moment.

Charlie - I would be interested to find out how hard/easy you would find some of the sessions I've done, since I haven't raced a lot in the last few years, while I got injuries sorted out, and don't have a lot of calibration. So last four Saturday track have been-

6x1000m - with 2 min/200m jog - first 1 in 4:10, rest in about 4:06 + 3x100 at about 17-18 sec.

5 x 1200m - with 2 min/400m jog recover - all 1200m at 5:00 - so averaged about 7 min per mile for whole session

17x200m - with 1 min/400m jog recover - goal was 45 sec for the 200m, they ended up averaging about 43, with the recoveries just a couple of seconds over a minute. I miscounted and ended up with 17 not 16. Time for the 6800m (short 4.25 miles) was 29:44, so again close to 7 min mile for the whole session.

5x1000m - with 2 min/200m jog - all 3:59 to 4:01 - was going to do 6 of these, but probably ran too hard on Friday (5 miles at 7:17 per mile), and had run 6 miles with 4800m at 6:50 per mile (tempo) on Wednesday.

It tends to be leg-fatigue that is limiting rather than cardio. Yesterday heart-rate was high 140s (I think my max is probably around 165 - it was 172 four or five years back), occasionally touching 150, but not having the leg-freshness to maintain. Heart-rate dropping back to the 114-118 range on the recoveries.

These are all supposed to be more aerobic cruise type than 3k/5k sessions. I'm not looking to peak until October, and I'm hoping for further progress with the injury before I switch to faster stuff.

Generally doing two quicker days a week, one slow 60-75 minute run on trails on Sunday, and the other four days steady 5 mile runs. I might be doing them a bit quickly as they would nearly all be under 8 min per mile.

I broke down and bought a Garmin about a month ago, and it seems to massively over-estimate what I could do. Gives me a V02 Max of 58 (possible, since I was lab tested at 72 in my 40s), but then projects a 17:43 5k, when I doubt I would break 20 min.

I'm just hoping that when I do switch to things 3k/5k pace 1000s that there is going to be some miraculous leap forward.

Anyway, I'd be interested in any input relative to what you are doing (or anyone else in the 60-64 age group).