50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Unofficially 5:22 road mile at 5400'.

Nice.

*Week 426*

Greetings, 50+ers! Great discussion last week; sorry I completely missed out. I have had to completely put running and this thread on the back burner this week. My time has been pretty much consumed by either a) Asst. Dean ramp-up (and our Division Office Manager tendered her resignation right before we're starting fall semester hiring adjuncts,) b) meetings (3-all day and 1-half day), c) hanging with daughter (in town til Wed,) d) a music festival yesterday, and e) some other shtuff (the "h" is significant) that needed immediate attention.

I'll try to be a better participant; It'll get better, but probably not before this coming week. Carry on!

All the Best!

well done. sounds like grueling conditions for a race.

i had a fun week leading up to vacation week:

M 50:00 incl. 2 X 12:00 half-marathon pace (2:00 recovery)

Tu 1:50 double

W 1:20 super-slow on rocky trail

Th 1:30 double incl. hill repeats

F 1:10

Sa 1:00

Su 3:00 --mercifully low humidity and pleasant this morning, unusually good conditions for August

have a great week,

Dave

So at 5:50am I check the weather map and there’s a ferocious looking front coming our way. I decide not to wait until 7:10 when the 7am group run actually starts and get out pronto. I feel awful. Did my legs go out dancing last night and not tell me??

At about 5.3 miles I see the first lightning, I do a 180 and that’s where my (planned) tempo run begins. I get all the way home and add some miles at the nearby park for a 6-mile, 45-minute T run. It’s nice to be at the point in my running where I can improvise with confidence. The run is shortened only because I feel like crud.

Here’s the other takeaway — take the HR strap when doing tempo. As it turns out because I felt crummy, I could not rely on either effort or pace to tell me if I was running tempo. You veterans know your heart by heart, but for me HR is still essential to ensuring I don’t overdo it on days like this.

48 miles thusly:

Mon - rest

Tue, Thu, F, Sat - easy runs 8.7mi 6.14mi 6mi 7.9mi

We - track work 5K in 700-800m intervals = 8.63mi total

Today - 11.32mi with 6mi at T

This week Kid Coach is having us do short intervals. Can’t wait ....

Today is the five week anniversary of my calf injury. After three aborted attempts to return during the first three weeks, I’ve tried to be more patient (not easy). The knot in my calf has significantly (though not completely) dwindled and my soleus soreness (originally mistaken for high Achilles) is improving. I’m not yet sure if I’m ready for prime time, but I hope to try some mixed walking and jogging this week. Hoping for the best.

Regarding the race weight discussion, I do pay attention to my weight but not for racing purposes as I am more of a hobby jogger than someone training for competition. For me, running is a tool to control my weight, whereas it sounds like many of you try to control your weight to improve your racing. I get it. I will say that when I coached young women, it was considered verboten to discuss weight or body style with the athletes. We definitely discussed nutrition, but that was the extent of it.

Best to most.

Good morning from Eagle, Idaho. Temperatures have moderated a bit, but humidity is high for our part of the country. We have had evening thunderstorms, but not much rain. We lost one of our cats earlier in the week, which is a major upset in our household. She showed up banging at the cat door at 2:30 am Tuesday. Of course we were more than happy to have our sleep disturbed, and celebrated her return with some ice cream sandwiches. That event disrupted the entire work and exercise week.

Saturday I competed in the Barber to Boise 5k. This race was once one of the most scheduled events with close to 2,000 entrants. Unfortunately other races and mistakes in management have dwindled participation to around 200. I ran 36 seconds faster than the previous week with a 27:32. It is pretty clear that I peaked for my Portland Masters and July 4th races, and have been on the other side the past month. Next Saturday I plan to do the Idaho Senior Games Track competition. If I decide to spend seven hours at the track I will run the 1500m, 400m, 800m and 200m in that order.

I have already mapped out a tentative plan for the fall. Following next week’s race(s) I’ll take two weeks of just easy aerobic exercise. Son and I plan to go backpacking, perhaps take a short trip with my wife. I have my one year CT scan and oncologist appointment on the 19th so have to cross that hurdle before making definitive plans. I am assuming this is just a routine appointment, which will grow in length over time. So the thought is to focus on strength in the fall, with the first six weeks after Labor Day a weekly schedule of Monday-hills repetitions, Wednesday-road tempos, and Saturday-foothill long run. The balance to the week will include running, walking, swimming, and weight training. I am stepping away from the spin bike on concerns that the body position is not good for internal organs that received chemotherapy and radiation.

Have a good week.

Igy

KCgeezer, of course, you could wait until 11AM like I am to run here in KC! Did not even hear the rain earlier :) Loved your comments about dancing legs the night before.

As to running in college, tried out for the U of Iowa track team back in the late 70's. Did not even last 2 days, so consider myself a D0 (division zero) runner in college :) But then, I was just a sub 40 10 km runner (improved to 36 at best). Not what they were after, but that's ok, I love my running and that coach would have been a nightmare (he smoked his cigarettes next to the track even during indoor meets that he put on!).

On to a long walk for today, hope for 5-6 miles.

CM, impressive mile time at any altitude! This was a very non-standard week for me between my continuing hamstring soreness and a bunch of medical tests at the beginning of the week. Since I am hitting 70 in a couple of months my GP recommended a fairly comprehensive set of tests. I got some good and not so good results back. The Doc ordered a 24hr ECG because of my low HR and his concern about the possibility of pauses during sleep. Ave. for the 24hrs was 52 bpm and 31 bpm while sleeping with no abnormalities or irregularities, which, he said, "looks like the heart of a superstar athlete". He also ordered a coronary calcium scan which came back on the wrong side of average, 73rd percentile of build up for my age. So, even though my cholesterol scores were good (189 total, 89 LDL) he started me on statins Thursday. The scan also showed an aortic aneurysm (not as bad as it sounds) which was small enough that it requires no treatment, just annual monitoring to see if it's stable. He did say to avoid activities that generate really high blood pressure, i.e. no weight lifting greater than 50% of body weight, and to generally go for longer lower intensity exercise choices, but didn't tell me to stop racing (yay!).

I haven't noticed any effect of the statins on my activities yet (muscles soreness and cramping are not uncommon side effects). Between my lingering hamstring problem and medical exam results I decided it was time to turn my mountain and road bikes from wall art back into exercise equipment and do more cross training regularly. I spent a couple of days cleaning up and tuning up my mountain bike and did my first test ride this morning. On the actual exercise front my week was -

Mon-Thu off

Fri- 7mi walk

Sat- 7mi run trails with my son 9:14/mi ave (hamstring felt fine)

Sun- 1 mi walk (hamstring moderately sore) 7mi bike 39min.

Good running stay healthy (if that's possible for a 50+ runner)!

I had planned to back off on the running and do more cycling this week, but this area just had a sudden explosion of puncturevine to the point where one almost can’t ride a bike outdoors. (If you don’t know what puncturevine is—its thorns are called goatheads around here—consider yourself fortunate.) My husband, who rides every day, has been getting about one flat tire per ride, and I also flatted on my one and only ride this week. Flat tires are a fact of life for a cyclist but this year’s crop is the worst I’ve ever seen and the goatheads make the roads nearly impassable on a road bike. So this week I logged 62 slow miles of running. I’m planning a 3-day backpack trip Monday through Wednesday which will give me some enforced time off from running.

Allen53, good job on a tough 5K, and also on getting your long run stretched out. It’s motivating to see folks in our age group improving!

Coyote, nice road mile at elevation.

lucKY2b, I can relate. I think I have things under control as department chair with 1.5 weeks before the start of the semester, but I’m also aware that things can go south in a hurry if an important staff person quits. I feel nervous about disappearing from e-mail contact for 3 days at this time of the year, but am determined to get one last fling in the mountains before the old grind starts back up.

dhaaga, you sound like you’re training for an ultra with that 3-hour run…

Igy, congrats on the improved 5K and good luck at the Senior Games! That sounds like a grueling itinerary. Your reappearing cat reminds me of an incident nearly 20 years ago. Our old cat, Ed, disappeared for no apparent reason and was gone for over a week. We shed some tears, put his toys and bowls away, etc. 12 days later we were awakened in the middle of the night by yowling at the door and in bolted Ed, dirty, skinny, and terrified looking, but very much alive. Our best guess was that he had been treed by coyotes and took a long time to escape. Or perhaps he was abducted by aliens. After a few good meals Ed seemed none the worse for wear and he lived another 3 years, but from that day onward he refused to leave the house except during broad daylight.

I’m looking forward to 3 days of hanging out in the wilderness and doing a bit of stomping up and down mountainsides at 8500-9000 feet.

amkelley, enjoyed the Ed story. Gidget was gone 30 hours. She is not adventurous, so out of character. She was wet and walking with a limp. Who knows what she got into?

WOW: 12× 400 @80-85s with 200j = 95s. Did manage a mid week 10 miler and this am ran with a group to preview the usatf master 5k championship course typical Atl down, up, down , up. Weather has been very warm 90- 93 degrees. I really don't need to weigh myself bc I can tell when I'm gaining weight. Not so worried about losing weight.

Carry on.

Week 5 base

Daily runs now at 40 minutes between 40 and 60 percent mhr most at 50

1 Tempo run too hard but fun 26:49 up a 3 mile hill with 1000 feet of gain . What was really good about this run was how easy I was breathing between 4/4 and 3/4 with a little at 3/3 Checked my HR it was over 180 So this is like it used to be.

Felt it the next day so I am going to limit these during base but still do weekly tempos just not so hard

btw ran the same 3 mile hill at 50 percent mhr 120bpm in 38 minutes;) enjoyed this one too heck I want to keep going

So my theory on why so many endurance athletes end up of afib is because they spend allmost all of their time when working out at or above 60 percent of mhr. That is the dogma. Well my understanding is that once you reach 60 percent of mhr you are close to max stroke volume which seems like a very stressful thing for your heart and arteries since the mechanism that fills the left vent is blood pressure of course this is just my untrained thinking but if you read the article on Ed vs Earl you will find that Ed's heart showed no signs of left vent hypertrophy nor did he have any a fib where as Earl does have afib he hammbers Ed jogged . What is amazing is that Ed jogged a ton with no ill effects on his heart. Speculating here but Ed was running way below 60 percent of mhr. Ok wanted to mention this for years now I have.

Diet is working well cutting out the wheat and dairy as well as uncooked veggies has vastly improved my gut lectins . I bought an instapot to cook the crappy lectins outta stuff like lentils and it works good. My BMs would make Mussolini happy.

Speaking of Mussolini, I am reading Winston Churchill’s History of World War II. Mussolini plays a pivotal role in the enabling of Hitler’s early moves of absorbing Austria and Czechoslovakia. Unbelievable work of scholarship. Interesting side stories like attending a dinner party with German ambassador Ribbentrop the day of the Czechoslovakia invasion. Ribbentrop was rather cocky with both sides avoiding the obvious topic. Churchill remarks that was the last time he saw Ribbentrop before he was hanged (Nuremberg). Churchill was famous for wearing out secretaries. I can see why, the six volume set of this work is massive.

Mike Lundgren wrote:

KCgeezer, of course, you could wait until 11AM like I am to run here in KC! Did not even hear the rain earlier.

Yep, it fooled me good this morning. You didn’t get poured on, though? My sister was out riding her bike and at about 11:45 the skies opened up colossally. But no lightning. THAT is what will get me to run tempo even on easy-run days!

Igy, that’s a fascinating reason for giving up the spin bike, did the doctor tell you that?

Mike,

No. Last year I had prostatitis following chemotherapy, it coincided with more spin biking. My PSA went from a normal under 0.82 to 22.7. Once I stopped chemotherapy and spin biking the PSA returned to under 0.82. My follicular lymphoma caused a six inch conglomeration of cancerous lymph nodes in the lower abdominal cavity by the prostate, urethra and bowel. I realize this sounds scary awful but the chemo shrunk them immediately. However, the last CT scan (February) showed a build-up of scar tissue at the site. A known risk of my treatments is a restriction of vascularization, and associated decrease in function. Knowing I had a CT scan coming up my wife warned me about my recent more frequent spin biking. As I backed off the activity I noticed an improvement in a variety of associated bodily functions. Upon reading last year and revisiting literature again, biking is a risk for those experiencing prostate among other issues, although currently considered temporary, I decided it was not worth the risk. Besides swimming gets my heart rate up higher and it is something I prefer, however the spin biking can be convenient on a lazy morning. Hope this information is helpful to others.

Igy

Sorry, the above should have been addressed to KCgeezer. Here is one article, and tgere are many more on the subject:

https://prostate.net/articles/can-bike-riding-cause-prostatitis/

Mike Lundgren wrote:

KCgeezer, of course, you could wait until 11AM like I am to run here in KC! Did not even hear the rain earlier :) Loved your comments about dancing legs the night before.

As to running in college, tried out for the U of Iowa track team back in the late 70's. Did not even last 2 days, so consider myself a D0 (division zero) runner in college :) But then, I was just a sub 40 10 km runner (improved to 36 at best). Not what they were after, but that's ok, I love my running and that coach would have been a nightmare (he smoked his cigarettes next to the track even during indoor meets that he put on!).

On to a long walk for today, hope for 5-6 miles.

Wheeler or Cretz? I went to school with kids from both families. Legendary figures there!

After my sophomore year I trained with several current and former runners from the team and kind of wanted to transfer, as a walk-on. Maybe could have been 6th or 7th on the team on a good day. But my parents wouldn't hear of it! They were happy to have me out of town and stuck at D3. If I could do it all over I'd have transferred to Wisco or UMinn and just run on my own.

good to see people lacing 'em up and racing well--gives me hope. olde farte, if you haven't already tried the "calf heart attack" regimen prescribed on this thread a few times, i would absolutely recommend it.

an encouraging week for me: ran everyday, elliptigoed (elliptiwent?) most everyday, punctuated by saturday's 4 mile run (longest run in 2.5 months) in the hills with my new h.s. team (some have never run on a dirt trail before), and 4 miles today at just under 7:10 pace. school year begins tomorrow, and now that i'm coaching and teaching at the same school again for the first time in 12 years, i'll have to see if that positively or negatively affects my training.

still a long way from racing--i'll see if i can add strides to my workouts this week and go from there...

on racing weight: i found that somehow i'd magically lose a few pounds right as i got to championship season, both when i was young and sort of as a masters. i don't know if it was a delayed effect from the increase intensity, or even the decrease as i tapered. this has only sorta happened as a masters runner because not every year has had a "championship season" with target races spread out over the year.

on college: i did run d1, but i was a walk-on at ucla before earning some scholarship money my last two years (of a five year career). i'm not sure i would have survived today's shrinking rosters and what-have-you-don- for-me-lately philosophies, and was lucky to have a coach who allowed me to develop.

carpe crepusculum,

cush