50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Back in my college coaching days I would create a spread sheet copying the idea of Freeman’s mesocycle or yearly plan. It was helpful because I had a planned meet schedule, with key meets, where I could outline base and peaking periods. Since we had to compete in cross country, indoor and outdoor track, you really needed to have a building phase following the indoor season. Also, it was helpful to have a larger squad, so you could rotate people in and out of competitions in order to avoid burning your athletes out. Toward the end of my career I had about two dozen women, and three dozen men on the team. Just feeding athletes on road trips was a logistical challenge. So any planning aids were helpful.

48.5 miles

I couldn’t do another step this morning.

Just started another medication. A statin.

My cholesterol is sky high. Despite the fact that I’ve been a very active runner for 44 years.

Anyway, I either have been feeling side effects or it’s all in my head ha

If I would have just talked myself into another 1.5 this morning, that would have been my 14th week over 50 mpw this year.

The Marathon Project Marathon was run near my home this morning... a beautiful morning.

I bought two pairs of Brooks Launch. I’ve been buying those shoes since I read the McMillan Group runners used to buy two pairs and train in em here in AZ.

That article came out years ago.

I guess in 44 years looking back on this farewell tour, I think my top 4 shoes of all time were.

1. Brooks Launch

2. The first Nike Skylon

3. Nike Terra TC

4. Nike Colombia ( the first real training shoe I ever owned. I ran for two years in just low cut tennis shoes ha)

Pretty basic week. Moving back to doing more single (longer) discipline days after doing lots of double discipline shorter session days.

Mon. 49 min kayak and 53 min mtb ride.

Tue. 13 km 71 min forest run.

Wed. 103 min mtb ride.

Thu. 11 km 61 min forest run.

Fri. 49 min kayak and 42 min mtb ride.

Sat. 93 min mtb ride.

Sun. 5.3 km hilly run 33 mins. then social run 7.3 km in 44 mins. then 1 km barefoot on the grass in 4.48.

Moving ok. Not much intensity in there but solid workload by my standards.

Hey, gang. I’m back! I recently returned to LRC after a hiatus of several years and was very pleased and excited to see this thread alive and presumably well. I even recognize a couple of the posters from the old days (I’m looking at you, mopac and Lucky).

There’s no way I can catch up by reading the several years worth of posts that I missed, so I’ll likely just linger for awhile and perhaps occasionally chime in with a thought or two.

It’s good to be back!

Running Dogg wrote:I’ll likely just linger for awhile and perhaps occasionally chime in with a thought or two.

Are you running regularly? If so, I would be interested in following weekly training posts.

Your name is familiar, but I don't recall specifics. I started posting in September 2016. Shortly after that, I went back and read the entire thread (but not previous iterations).

My weekly report:

M61, 5'11, 180 lbs

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

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

50+ PRs (age 58): 18:58, 3:07:23

Only one run this past week.

Tuesday -- 7.0 miles @ 9:14/mi

No weather problems -- only a couple inches of snow here. The problem is worsening knee pain.

The previous issue that sidelined my serious training a couple years ago is still there, and continues to limit my training. But this is new -- mostly on the inner side of my knee, rather than the patellar area. I had a couple sleepless nights because of the constant pain. After five days off, though, I might try a few miles today.

Enjoy a festive holiday, everyone!

wazzu1452 wrote:

QUESTION: At 50 - Is it smart to run every day or better to take rest days?

I usually take one day off each week. I think the longest "streak" I ever had was 13 days. But I think it is more of a personal thing than an age issue. Lagat always took a day off even when he was young. Geb used to run 364 days a year. Apparently, both worked pretty well.

My week.

M: off.

T-W: 10.7km.

R: 12.5km. (10:13-9:53-9:40-9:29-9:25-9:15-9;08-8;37)

F-SA: 10.7km.

SU: 16km. (10:25-10:03-9:52-9:42-9:37-9:23-9:15-9:05-8:46)

Compared to two weeks ago, the "long" run on Sunday was 1:51 faster including 9 sec in the last lap. So I consider this as a step in the right direction.

wazzu1452 wrote:

I am 53

QUESTION: At 50 - Is it smart to run every day or better to take rest days?

Everyone is an experiment of one and responds differently.

If you feel you need a day off - take it. That is the truest definition of 'smart'.

I am 64 and personally I get at least an easy 3-4 in even on my 'rest' days. However after 48 years of running I am pretty sure I have learned to read my body's response to the previous day's run pretty well.

And this is not recommended for anyone else, I but have 27 1/2+ year streak of 3+ miles a day going. I don't think that has hurt me in any way, but except for the psychological benefit, I don't think some of easy runs after hard hard workouts, 1/2 or full marathons did any good. I also have a pretty strong immune system and haven't gotten sick in a couple of decades and have been incredibly fortunate in the way of incurring injuries. Saying that to recognize that I am indeed very very fortunate and every day is a gift.

Finally I will add this to you wazzu1452, if you are injured DO back off or stop until you feel better.

ps, also looking forward some racing in 2021....

@Not Done

Incredible story and your doing it at 64! My three year streak of not any major injuries is beyond my wildest dreams. Occasionally the hips have forced me to take 3-10 days off. Running everyday never ends well for me but sure fun until the wheels fall off.

*Week 500*

Continued Seasons Greetings, 50+ers! Wow! 500 weeks (truthfully I think it's a week or so further along where I didn't update properly. )...and so we end 2020 (thank goodness!) I'm still trying to get my mojo back. Gotten a few good walks in, but mostly been thinking of all the other things I let slide over the semester that need to be taken care of...and trying to relax, too. Physically, I feel like Allen1959 and I are in pretty similar circumstances, although mentally, Allen's a little further along in terms of gumption.

Good to see some new/old posters join/rejoin the fray. Good to see some encouraging updates from a few that have been ailing. I knew we had some coaching expertise in the group and it seems to keep expanding. The only formal coaching I've ever done was a year out of high school when they needed an interim XC coach. My HS coach chose to move over to start the new girls XC team (hard to believe, in retrospect, that that we hadn't had a girls XC team at Madison West until 1978,) and asked if I could take over coaching the boys (I'd assisted the previous year.) He continued to take care of the budgetary and scheduling issues, but I managed the day-to-day training. It was still a fair amount of responsibility for a 19-year-old, and probably wasn't the best option, but we made it through the year. I was kind of relieved when they didn't want me to continue the following year, as my hands were full with upper division class work, but I would have done it had they needed me.

I remain ever hopeful that 2021 will be a year where we return to a more normal state of affairs: group runs, live racing and associated camaraderie, and generally just getting out-and-about. Happy that through it all we've had this masters community to share our experiences.

That's all for now. Be safe out there and keep doing what you're doing!

All the Best!

Greetings, fellow 50+ers, and happy last week of 2020. I don’t think many of us will miss this year too much. Thankfully I’ve been relatively healthy with only a few down times and that good health has meant plenty of mentally therapeutic running. I’ve certainly needed it!

And a big congrats to lucKY2b for keeping this ship afloat and on course for 500 weeks! I know we all appreciate having your steady hand at the helm. Thank you!

Regarding my running, it was another gold medal week with 20+ miles of actual running. The weather was more cooperative, though still challenging at times, with heavy rain and strong winds replacing the previous week’s snowfall. But it wasn’t bad enough to interrupt my planned running schedule. Life is good!

Sun: 53’ CR; body wt ex + med ball routine

Mon: off

Tues: 57’ CR; body wt ex + med ball routine

Wed: walk

Thu: 50’ CR; 16 oz curls

Fri: off

Sat: 53’ CR; body wt ex + med ball routine

Best to most!

Ok, this week needed a correction, because I crossed my limits last week:

Mo off

Tu 1 h drills and jumps uphill

We 7 miles easy, 6x100 m build ups with slow jog back

Th 7 miles with 10 km progressed from medium to sub threshold with average of 7:10 min/mile

Fr 7 miles easy, 6x100 m build ups with slow jog back

Sa 7 miles easy with 10x200m on dirt in 38 s with slow jog back

Su 1:25 h recovery (in the dark AM before the storm arrives)

Had to take Monday off because simply needed it. Last week was eventually above my current limit of sustainable training. Will throttle down a bit and go on with the next base building block until end of January (if everything holds up).

Sport frei, stay safe

More niggles than I'd care for (foot and SI, plus my knee has been acting up lately/Baker's cyst has come back which makes bending somewhat painful), but it ended up being an okay end-of-year week. Had planned to ski on Christmas day, but the ankle thing prevented that. Hope to get out there a day or two next week.

M-5.7 easy

T-7.8 with some speed fartlek, just a couple minutes worth of pick ups and accelerations but SI joint started acting up, so I dropped that immediately and just ran easy another 30 minutes

W-6.1 easy (very cold wind)

T-9.1 regular effort, with some hills; all was good until the final 0.1 when I got to an intersection with people and cars and was trying to figure which way they all would go, and twisted my foot because I took a misstep. So that hurt for the rest of the day.

F-bike ride (72 minutes, about the duration I would have run)

S-easy double of 4.5 and 3.4 miles

S-12 with 3X 1 mile tempo effort

50 miles plus the bike ride, foot/ankle seem okay

congrats on 500 weeks! very impressive. I think the closest I ever came to such a streak was about 120, in that case a monthly newsletter for my high school class (N = 23 graduates, so not huge to say the least) for the first 10 years or so after graduation. Any one is no big deal, but doing anything very consistently for a long time is a challenge....If I'd known someone was going to invent the internet, and I could have made it a blog rather than a type-xerox-mail job, I might have been able to keep going longer.

As to my training week......

M 1:00

Tu 2:10 double

W 1:30 with 5 X 5:00 (3:00 jog) at 5k effort (just about 1300 meters on each repeat)

Th 1:15

F 1:00

Sa 1:30 with total 24:00 moderately hard hills of various lengths (maybe 1:15 to 3:30 each)

Su 1:00 with drills and strides

Have a great last week of 2020,

Dave

I completed my best volume week since January, that goes for running (27) and equivalent miles (28-Igy miles). In fact, I have exercised every day since before Thanksgiving, with multiple doubles. By Saturday I was fatigued, we had an icy slush on the roads, so I used the day to cut back on my training. Perhaps I will also take today off as well. Like Newbi, I feel I am close to my capacity at the moment, and I need to absorb the training prior to moving to the next block.

Sunday: 60:00 spin

Monday: AM- 2 miles easy; 6 x 200m good speed / 100m easy; 400m easy; 6 x 400m good swing / 200m easy; 400m easy; 6 x 200m good speed / 200m easy; mile easy; 2 sets free weight; core exercises; PM- 36:00 easy + 6:00 walk

Tuesday: 2,000 yard swim

Wednesday: AM- 2 miles easy; 8 x 800m critical velocity @ 4:30 average / 1:00 rest; mile easy; 2 sets free weights; core exercises; PM- 42:00 easy + 8:00 walk

Thursday: 2,000 yard swim + 60:00 spin

Friday: 4 mile walk

Saturday: 5 miles easy @ 11:50 / mile

Happy New Year,

Igy

lucKY: Thank you for keeping it going! This thread is an inspiring touchstone.

Tue = 4 miles greenway with 3 @ 8:28 pace (8:14, 8:37, 8:34)

Thr = 4 miles easy treadmill (snow and ice)

Sat = 4 miles medium greenway (18 degrees)

Sun = 4 miles medium greenway (25 degrees)

Nice, but cold Christmas week. We actually had a white Christmas here in hillbilly-land. Just worked on keeping the cadence up and staying over my feet (easier said than done for me).

Have a good one.

I’ll add my thanks to lucKY2b for keeping this thread going, and I share your hopes for a better 2021.

Coyote, too bad about the foot/SI niggles. Are you riding a bike outdoors in the Colorado winter or was that indoor cycling?

dhaaga, you just keep ticking along!

Igy, I rather envy the variation in your training. I do running, cycling, and free weights (which I don’t report as I consider them not part of running training), but I don’t have anywhere to swim. That was true even before the pandemic; my gym (now in bankruptcy) had a pool that was kept at about 90 degrees and reeked of chlorine, and was useless for lap swimming.

I spent a lot of time watching football and doing not much else this holiday week. The first two days of the week featured all-day claustrophobic fog, and the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction came and went with no possibility of seeing the sky. I didn’t feel too bad this week, but I can barely get under 11-minute miles with the limited stride length due to the stiffness in my hips. I did manage to jog every day except Christmas, when I substituted the bike trainer to rest my Achilles, and I shuffled through 62 miles for the week, my highest mileage in quite a while. It’s still another week and a half until my follow-up appointment with my rheumatologist, which will be an all-day event with a three-hour drive each way. I hope it’s worth it.

Happy New Year in advance. 2021 has a pretty low bar to meet.

Happy almost New Year to all. In the Winter I am always mildly reluctant to post anything about my weather because it usually so nice here. Christmas day we had dinner with my son and his family and we BBQ'd and ate outside on his patio. It was sunny and 70 degrees when we sat down to dinner at 3PM. Tomorrow probably will be the first day this Winter that I have to run in the rain. I don't think I've had to run in colder than mid-40s temps at all this year. It certainly makes year-round running easier to do.

My training continued on the upswing with a comfortable 42 miles and a workout PR on my 7-mile trail loop this morning. I'm working towards stabilizing my base at about 50mpw again for the early part of next year.

M- 6mi walk with strides

T- 4mi walk

W- 6mi hills 10:05/mi

Th- 6mi walk with strides

F- 6mi walk with strides

S- 7mi of 1mi w.u., 6x800 at 4:12 with 800 walk-jog recovery

Su- 7mi trails 7:56/mi ave (my route is a rolling, but net downhill, first 6 miles with a rocky, technical section in the 6th mile, and then a 0.6mi 300' climb in the final mile)

Good running to all!

Mon. 49 min kayak and 47 min bike, started out on the roadie but had an early flat so walked it home and grabbed the mountain bike.

Tue. 15 pleasant kms of running in the forest in 89 mins.

Wed. 98 mins on the mountain bike through the forests.

Thu. 60 mins of short steep hill running. 8.2 kms with 300 metres elevation gain.

Fri. 50 min kayak and 50 min road bike.

Sat. 103 min sluggish mountain bike in the forests.

Sun. 18 kms of hilly running in 112 mins 380 metres elevation gain.

A pleasing week.

Chritmas Day was windy but a sunny 25 deg C. It was a work day for us my wife headed in at 6am me at 2.30pm which gave me time to paddle, hike and bike. I was home at 11.30 pm. Boxing day was our get together with the kids hence the sluggish evening bike ride on a far too full belly.

Well done Lucky on keeping us rolling for 500 weeks.

“Igy, I rather envy the variation in your training. I do running, cycling, and free weights (which I don’t report as I consider them not part of running training), but I don’t have anywhere to swim. That was true even before the pandemic; my gym (now in bankruptcy) had a pool that was kept at about 90 degrees and reeked of chlorine, and was useless for lap swimming.”

amkelley,

I have been a YMCA member for twenty years. I actually get my membership free now with my AARP Medicare Supplement Plan. One location is close to where our running group meets, and the other about two miles from my house. So convenient. Many of the staff and members I have known for years have disappeared with Covid. Our Treasure Valley YMCA was fortunate to receive a $10 million donation from the former Mrs. Bezos. Seems like a much nicer person than her ex.

I am plotting a half marathon effort. Need to keep my volume up. My last was fifteen years ago.

Best wishes for ironing out the health issues.

Igy