50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Allen1959 wrote:

Re: Streaks. Without going back through training logs, I would guess my longest streak was less than 14 days. And I've been at this since the early 70's.

My younger brother, though, had probably 15 years in the bank until major cancer surgery derailed his training. Since then, he's back up to nearly a decade again.

Streaks amaze me. Just can't imagine making the time to get our there every single day, no matter what else is happening in life. I've recently set a goal of running every other day, and I don't believe there's been a week yet when I haven't missed a couple consecutive days.

Hats off and kudos to Not Done Just Yet! Also, incredible backstory there, too. Makes my excuses seem insignificant!

I always am impressed by and concerned about those people who build long multi-year streaks of running. We each have our unique levels of physical durability. It takes an incredible work ethic and elite durability to get out and really run seriously for multiple years. I think my longest streak was between 30 and 60 days, and, usually, I don't go more than 3 weeks without a day or two off. I used to run with an internist who was at about 23 years of running at least 10 miles per day. He is about 10 years younger than I am, and knew at some point that he was destroying the cartilage in his knees. His streak ended with a knee replacement, and then he had the second knee replaced a couple of years later. Runners who get over-committed to continuing their streaks start ignoring the signals from their bodies when the need for recovery and healing arises. Almost none of us have the physical attributes needed to recover from every day running for decades on end. Kudos to those with the will and the physiology to do it.

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Jack wagon,

Seeing this is the second post after registering your handle today

If you click on a poster’s registered username, you can see when it was registered. Jack’s was registered in 2011, not today as you guessed.

Member since 2011. Zero archived posts until today. Handle registered today.

Registering a username is what makes one a member. Looks like September 2011 for Jack.

Last time I streaked it was the early 80s;) and I was wearing roller skates;)

Seriously though OG2 hit the nail pretty good. I would like to add my 2 cents...

For most of us a good streak is how long we can run injury free! That is a tasty carrot and most of us are into chasing carrots. OTOH I refuse to keep exact records on running injury free cause I am also superstitious.

Had a wonderful workout today. Usually I run early first thing to get me feeling good. Ended up doing a short bike ride instead. Turned into a 4x30" all out on the bike. Man I felt STRONG all the way no jello. So this got me all excited to try running fast up this steep 3 mile hill Herman Cape and play beat the clock so off I drove , guzzled a can of rock star and changed my mind. Day Jaw Vue did exact same shlt 3 years ago and efd up my calf so stopped at sutton camp ground did a nice sand warmup in a shady 60 degrees . Ran my rolling dirt trail loop at 5k effort in 5:17 that is 30 seconds faster than last time a few weeks ago! It seems like I have finally found a way to maintain aerobic base while developing my glycolytic energy system. Basically shorter faster with longer rest less overall volume on fast stuff while keeping the base high. Pretty much Van Aaken stuff used to be I am Aching stuff! No pain lots of gain too good to be true?

[quote]Farah fanatic wrote:

Registering a username is what makes one a member. Looks like September 2011 for Jack.[/quote

True, but different than registering a handle. That process is recent, and did not exist in 2011. As stated, he has two archived posts, both today.

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Farah fanatic wrote:

Registering a username is what makes one a member. Looks like September 2011 for Jack.

True, but different than registering a handle. That process is recent, and did not exist in 2011. As stated, he has two archived posts, both today.

So we agree that he registered his username in 2011 and not today.

He registered his handle today. Therefore, it will not be difficult for him to disengage from his trolling. Perhaps you should do the same.

Good day.

The guy has been a registered member since 2011. I don’t know why that is so hard for you to understand, or what difference it makes.

Here is a post with actual training, although it is not going to impress anyone.

THURSDAY, August 20, 2020:

RUNNING: Warmup followed by 4 miles at the track in 38:49 (9:42/mile), 74 F., sunny, windy, 48% humidity.

Splits: 9:06, 9:39, 10:28, 9:36 (last lap in 1:54 which is 7:36 mile pace).

My goal was to better the 36:00 time I recorded for 4 miles last month, so I was disappointed in my time; but at least I completed the run.

It's possible I'm suffering from overtraining, despite the fact I don't do much compared to many others here. Overtraining is a personal thing. The last couple years I've hardly run at all, but last week I ran 20 miles, which historically is a lot for me. Also I've lost almost 30 pounds since January which has to be a shock to the body.

After my 6 mile run in the morning two days ago, I felt too wiped out to accomplish anything the rest of the day, training or work-wise. Yesterday I got a little work done, but did no training at all for my first day off in a while.

Today I thought, "Maybe I'll shake things up in my training by trying to run a little faster for a change." I've been running 10:00-13:00 mile pace recently due to some aches and pains. But there was no gas in the tank, and I was significantly slower than I was a month ago.

I take 10 different supplements every day, but they don't seem to be helping much. Most of them are from an article on the NIH website that recommended certain supplements to improve mitochondrial activity.

It is what it is.

Brittle,

Instead of four miles straight, try: mile warm-up, 2 miles faster, mile with 200m faster / 200m easy. I think it might put a little pep in your step.

Igy

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Brittle,

Instead of four miles straight, try: mile warm-up, 2 miles faster, mile with 200m faster / 200m easy. I think it might put a little pep in your step.

Igy

Igy, thanks for the feedback, and maybe this time I'll try your idea. Gotta pick a day when I feel up to it, injury-wise.

Brittle,

There is a term for it, “pace lock.” To summarize, one trains frequently at the same pace, the body gets accustomed to it, and becomes harder to break out of that rut. Varying the speed, both on the downside, and the upside provides some different stimuli. The body responds, “hey, this is something new, oh, I guess I need to adapt.” The lower stress provides the reserves to tackle the higher training loads.

Igy

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Brittle,

There is a term for it, “pace lock.” To summarize, one trains frequently at the same pace, the body gets accustomed to it, and becomes harder to break out of that rut. Varying the speed, both on the downside, and the upside provides some different stimuli. The body responds, “hey, this is something new, oh, I guess I need to adapt.” The lower stress provides the reserves to tackle the higher training loads.

Igy

I like it

Brittle, on most runs these days I include maybe 600 meters of "telephone pole accelerations." Starting at a pole, I GRADUALLY accelerate to maybe 1-mile race pace by the time I reach the next pole, then ease back to a jog until the following pole.

In high school, we did something similar at the end of our daily warm-up: jog the turns on the track, gradually speed up on the straightaways, reaching full stride (400m race pace?) before easing into the next turn. Four laps of this.

The key is to very gradually accelerate, especially at our age.

I considered going "long" this morning (7.8 mile loop) -- sunny, low humidity, 52°, light breeze, hoping to come close to your recent weekly mileage. Knees haven't been happy this week, however, so I decided to turn around at 2.5 miles. Still might make 16 miles for the week, plus some bicycle-commuting (vehicle is being repaired).

Allen1959, too bad we can't run together; maybe I could run a little faster if I had company, and maybe you could run a little farther if you had company. But nothing is easy when parts are breaking, eh?

Re old guy II:

"Runners who get over-committed to continuing their streaks start ignoring the signals from their bodies when the need for recovery and healing arises. Almost none of us have the physical attributes needed to recover from every day running for decades on end."

I completely realize that I am very fortunate to recover fairly easily. But then again I am not busting out super hard workouts. Normally right around 15% of my current 55 mpw is 'hard'. By that I mean at or near 5K race pace. I can usually spread out the workouts by running early one day and late the next - that 12 hours extra rest certainly doesn't hurt any. Being retired for the last 7 1/2 years absolutely helps in that area.

Re Charlie:

"For most of us a good streak is how long we can run injury free!"

I completely agree. I have been incredibly 'lucky' not to get severely injured or sick at some point over the last 47 total years running. The closest I have come was a pretty decent grade two hammie tear earlier this year which knocked my 60 mpw down to 50 pretty quick with nothing under about 7:45 for two weeks. And way back in 1992 I lifted a 50 pound bag of carrots wrong and messed up my upper back for a couple of weeks. In fact, for about the first 10 years after turning 40 and still racing a lot I often entered races using "Lucky" as my first name on the entry forms.

A previous mini 'streak' was thrown out the window by a very very nasty bout of food poisoning. Ireally should have gone to the hospital with that one. But I was living alone and stubborn (surprise surprise) It was the only time in 33 years at work that I was sick enough to take two days off of work in a row. Half in jest, I had previously told the staff at work if I ever took two days off in a row, they had better check on me and take up a flower fund. I got several individual calls that second day. They were a decent bunch overall to work with.

Again, I re-emphasize I do consider every day is a gift in one way of another.

A streak of a different sort. My mate Johnny has run all 41 Melbourne Marathons, I think there are 5 or 6 guys left who have run them all. Johnny is the youngest and was easily fastest last few years. Hopefully the race is on this year.

This one isn't a streak but is pretty impressive.

Another running friend, a competitor since 1959 ran her first marathon in 1977 age 33. 3.00.36. She backed that up with a 2.55.36 that same year.

1989 at age 46 she drops a 2.59.50.

1991 at 48 2.58.23.

1993 at 50 3.03.38

1999 at 55 3.14.48

2010 at 66 3.27.54

2015 at 71 3.38.39

2017 at 73 she rolls through our local trail marathon in 3.52.19.

That was a month after a 12.54.9 indoor 3000m.

She backed that up with a 45 min road 10 k a few months later.

Don't worry she hasn't stopped. She had been running 24 min 5k Parkruns earlier this year at 76 years old.

Johnny is not only amazing to run those great age graded times, but think of her being out on the marathon course 30% longer than when she was 48. The stamina required is unworldly.