50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

There recently was a discussion here along these same lines. In short, the consensus was that you can acclimate to heat and humidity, but only to a point. Given your recent experiences, it would seem that you have an idea of where that point is for you. Do not try to go much beyond it! Heat related medical issues are not uncommon among runners and they can be very dangerous. When it’s hot or humid, scale it back. Live to run another day.

As I posted several weeks ago I ran a 3k split in a 5k one minute faster than a 3k event eight days apart. The difference was about 30 degree temperature swing. Agree with the Cush comment on heat conditioning as also noted thru my coaching experience at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Oh, and here back to prize money and awards:

https://mobile.twitter.com/nickwillis/status/1149153755826311169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.letsrun.com%2Fforum%2Fflat_read.php%3Fthread%3D9487791

Igy

I lose 15-20 seconds per mile in high heat and humidity when racing 5k and up. However, I also think I am more prone to being bothered by those conditions than others.

RAN TODAY after two weeks of walking bike riding rowing sauna with some hard stuff on the bike

Nothing compares man NOTHING COMPARES

https://youtu.be/0-EF60neguk

*Week 422*

Salutations, 50+ers! So much discussion last week. I'm steering clear of the cheater discussion. Mostly just sad that some people feel compelled to cheat. How can there possibly be any personal satisfaction in living that lie? But whatever. Heat (but mostly humidity) affects me pretty badly, and I agree it's increasingly problematic for longer distances. No real solution than to try as best you can to acclimate, and to keep your weight (insulating layers) down. And yes, it's been damn hot/humid here for the past few weeks with no end in sight.

OK. On with the week. Got 6 days of walking or running/walking in. The two run/walk sessions that I did were the most intense exercising that I've done for a while . One was 12x(run 200m/walk 50m) on grass (around end-to-end soccer fields, basically), the other was 10x(run 1:00/walk 1:00); both finished with another 20+ minutes of walking. The knee felt pretty good during the run portions, but was a little tender afterwards. I have found that doing some retro-running (usually do 5 rounds of 30-40 step count per side with 1 minute walk between) during the last bit of each long walk or run/walk does help to mitigate the tightness/tenderness. The compression sleeve is making this all possible. I'm more hopeful than I was a month ago that I might be able to return to regular running at some point.

Looking forward to any race reports; I know racerdb has some good results. Anyone up in Ames, IA have a report from there?

Have a great week everyone!

All the Best!

lucKY2b, your retro-running is similar to what my father-in-law called “scout pace.” He used it to get to town faster in rural North Carolina. Sixteen paces walking and sixteen paces jogging.

Temperatures in the upper 80s most days. Saturdays with afternoon yard work assists getting acclimated to the heat.

Some great results from Ames. Glad I choose not to embarrass myself at the cost of an airline ticket.

The higher intensity training left me a little drained this week, so shortened up two of the training sessions. I may race at the YMCA All-Comers Championship this Thursday if my Monday session goes well.

Monday: AM- 2 miles E; mile tempo @ 8:19; 800m easy/walk; 1,000m interval @ 4:48; 600m easy/walk; 600m repetition @ 2:35; 400m; 200m fast @ 42; mile easy/walk; PM- 2 mike walk

Tuesday: 30:00 spin bike

Wednesday: AM-2 miles easy; 4 x 800m critical velocity @. 4:13 average / 1:00 rest; mile easy/walk; PM- 2 mile walk

Thursday: 30:00 spin

Friday: 4 miles easy in foothills

Saturday: 2 miles easy; 4 x 400m repetition @ 1:45, 1:42, 1:39, 1:35 / 400m walk; 400m walk

Have a good week.

Igy

Nothing special this week, just recovery running after my 10K on the 4th. Next week will all be recovery running too. For me at this age I think it really takes a good 3 weeks to recover from a 10K race. 36 miles for the week -

M- 7 mi walk

T- rest

W- rest

Th- 8 mi hills 9:54/mi

F- 8 mi hills 10:00/mi

S- 6mi trails with my son 9:09/mi

Su- 7mi walk

Good running to all!

happy Bastille Day. fun week for me of mostly easy running except for friday night mile:

M 2:00 double

Tu 1:40

W 30:00 + 60:00 cycle class

Th 40:00

F 50:00 incl. track mile 5:32.2 (37th OA, 2nd AG)

Sa 1:15 x-t

Su 30:00 + 60:00 x-t

Mile was as painful as ever, probably more so in view of my HPA (Hamstring Preservation Act) plan of pretty much never training at faster than 5k pace. Steady through 800 (1:21, 1:21), optical illusion on third lap ("I'm passing people, awesome!") as others slowed (1:23), tensing/tying up next 300, and then the homestretch went on forever as i cycled my legs while my body remained seemingly in the same place.

In any case, I can't complain since I beat my time from last year by 1.2 seconds. If i can keep that up for another 43 years, I'll PR at age 100. Looking forward to it.

have a great week,

Dave

lucKY: Glad to see you getting back to it.

dhaaga: Nice mile! Hard to believe I ran a 5:30 mile at 52. I aint gettin that back again.

Mon = 2 miles elliptical, easy

Tue = 1 mile elliptical, easy, 3.5 miles road, easy

Wed = 2 miles elliptical, easy

Thr = 4 miles road, easy to hard

Fri = 2.5 miles elliptical, easy

Sat = 4 miles road with 3 miles @ 8:53 pace

Sun = 4 miles gravel trail at 3800 feet, easy

My calf strain is improving. I tested it a bit on Thr and then just a little harder on Sat. The Sat run felt a lot harder than 8:53 pace but the calf felt fine.

Adding the elliptical is a bit of a mystery for me. I like things very simple and the elliptical adds a whole lot of unknown variables. But I know I need to work more and I honestly don’t think I can do it running. The elliptical is working my hips, upper glutes, lower back, and quads. I hope strengthening those muscles will help my overall running and does not create imbalances.

The experiment continues.

Have a good week folks!

First of three taper weeks prior to my marathon. It included a day off from running to let my heel settle down, a short backpacking trip that wasn’t much effort but did get me quite dehydrated, a lousy 10K race, and one semi-long run, for 49 miles total for the week.

M: Heel too sore to run, 17 miles on bike.

T: 5.8 mile easy run followed by 4 miles of hiking at 7000-7500 feet with a light backpack.

W: 4 miles of hiking.

R: 10.4 mile run.

F: 8.0 mile run.

S: 8.2 miles including 10K race in 50:36. First in age group and fourth overall female out of 98. The race felt OK but was disappointingly slow, a slower pace per mile than I ran for a half-marathon in May. I hope the residual dehydration from the backpack trip was to blame. Although the perceived effort during the race was high, after the race I felt little fatigue and it just seems that I didn’t run hard enough.

U: 16.4 mile run in 2:30 (9:10 pace). Warm morning, came back very light. I’ve been drinking like a fish ever since.

Charlie, I’m in total agreement that nothing compares with running! Glad you’re back.

dhaaga, nice job with the mile. I have run a mile for time exactly once in my life (a road mile) and it was the hardest race I’ve ever run. I’ll stick to 5K or longer, thank you.

Off to watch the deciding set of the Wimbledon final—pulling for Federer!

M59 -- 5'11" 172 lbs

Open PRs ---- 16:04, 2:40:30 (age 23)

Masters PRs -- 17:10, 2:56:03 (age 43)

M55-59 PRs --- 18:58, 3:07:23 (age 58)

Goal 1: 15K in 3 weeks (last race as M55-59)

Goal 2: Be competitive this fall as M60

July 8-14, 2019

M- 2-mi wu; 3 x 1-mile w/5-min jog; 3.0-mi cd

Tu- 16.2 miles @ 8:36/mi

W- Bike 24 miles @ 19.2 mph

Th- 4.0 miles @ 10:08/mi

Fr- 2-mi wu; 4 miles @ 7:07/mi; 2-mi cd

Sa- 5.1 miles @ 9:30/mi

Su- off or bike

TOTAL: 41.9 MILES

I experimented with a couple 36-hour ibuprofen regimens to facilitate two workouts this past week. Got the lead out somewhat. Monday was VO2max -- 3 x 1-mile: 6:30, 6:24, 6:23. Friday was a 4-mile threshold run at 7:07 average.

After struggling with longer efforts lately, I was happy to go well under 9-minute pace for 16 miles on Tuesday.

Utica Boilermaker results are posted. Congrats to CM! Looking forward to his race report. Will catch up with everyone's posts later. Be well, all!

Highlight of the week was runner’s re-union down in LA...think Serna, Virgin, Bobby Thomas, Terry Williams, Schilling, Genet, SoCal Cush, Pete Magill, Covert, Belger, Romero, Frankenstein, Blaty, Wysocki...and on and on

Got just 26 miles this week but nailed 110,700 lifetime.

Hope your week was twice as good.

Your pal,

MF

Had a pretty good day in Utica but overall time was slower than what I had hoped for. 5K splits were about 19:16, 19:05, and 19:10. Never felt comfortable.

1st in age group and apparently top 3 among all 50 plus, and as a non monetary bonus looks like maybe a top 3 masters age grade score as well.

Really like this race and it was great to return after nearly 30 years! Tremendous crowd support and after party unsurpassed.

My relatively long stretch of injury free running came to a end this week. The calf/Achilles issue that surfaced last Sunday is still a thing. Originally I had hoped to give it a go on Wednesday and it had improved quite a bit by then. But before that could happen, I visited some friends at their beach house and made the ill advised decision to walk barefoot back to their house from the beach. Hey, everyone else was doing it! So by caving in to peer pressure I ended up scorching the balls of my feet. Prior to that I had been involved in helping friends move which took 8 hours and involved quite a few stairs. By Thursday things felt recovered enough to strap on the high heeled trainers and test the leg issue. Although it was better, I shut things down at 20’ because I could tell it wasn’t going to end well if I tried to push on. So I’m giving it a few more days before I venture out again. Hopefully I’ll have something positive to report next week.

Thanks to Allen1959 for the shout out last week and the positive vibes. It was much appreciated.

Best to most.

Nice work to USATF Track Nats racers, and July road racers. Extra proud of one BTCM teammate who won the M50 5000m in a lickety-split time of 16:06.

Anyone here ever experienced medial plica syndrome? I think this is what I've been dealt in my left knee this week. Was pretty debilitating. Did classic online research and chose one possible solution = roll the t-bans. I've been successful with rolling whenever the lateral knee bothers me. The first roll had me in massive pain with the inside of the knee feeling like Popeye the sailor, or Bluto, was twisting it like a pretzel, and about to explode. After 3x 10 rolls day one with complete rest, 2x 10 rolls day two with a little jogging, 2x 10 rolls day 3 before a test run I was able to do a 20min tempo run (at 6:30p) with zero sensation/issues, 2x rolls day 4 with less Popeye feeling, followed by a 60min long run, I may have licked Bluto.

Anyone else on this plica syndrome?

Thanks.

KP

Coyote, congrats on your race at Utica. You didn't just win your age group, you annihilated it--and most of the 50s, too. Good job!

Likewise nice race Coyote, same to dhaaga. AmKelley, you’ll be ready for your race. You guys set the bar pretty high.

Enjoying all the posts before bed on Sunday evening.

Nice mile Dave. Another nice race from CM. They keep on coming!

Managed about 44 miles this week. Went back to an old regular workout of mine on Tuesday: 400-800-1200-1600-400 w/400 jog rest. Felt sluggish, track was hot. Ran it better than I did in May going 84.9, 2:53.0, 4:22.0, 5:47.7, 83.5.

Tapered down the rest of the week and ran about what I expected in my race Saturday. Ended up 17:51 going 5;42,5:39,6:01, :27 I was running pretty well up to about 2.5 miles. My Garmin analysis tells me I was still at 5:40 pace at 2.5 but then a real let-down for just a minute or two doomed me. (probably the part where you can't breathe or feel your legs and you're really fighting your will). Finished the last .1 strong. So I basically lost 15 seconds and a 17:35 race the last half mile. It will come but I need to be a little tougher when things get rough! Age grades to a 89.19% / 14:28. And if you age grade the race I move from 41st place overall to first. Looking thru the results, the oldest finisher ahead of me was just 32 years old!

I'll get back at it after a few easy days. Next race will be another 5k on Aug 3.

Have a good one,

Dave

Good run, had a longer let down a few weeks back. You did not lose focus for long.