50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Today is day 116 post achilles Tenex op. Hit my goal of 23 miles last week; my long run is up to 8 miles. Things continue to go well. All runs have been painfree, comfortable and feeling smooth. That's not to say I haven't had some 'moments'. But any pain has been just very short lived shooting 'twinges' that quickly dissipate or minor soreness. Still running just 4 days/week.

M: 5 Miles run in 45:09 [9:01 per mile] 933, 918, 901, 846, 831

T: 15 Miles bike in 39:32 22.8mph HR117

W: 6 Miles run in 53:29 [8:54 per mile] 937,918,901,846,830,817 HR137

Th: 9.3 Miles ride in 30:02 18.6mph, HR96

F: 8 Miles in 1:09:44 [8:43 per mile] 937,918,901,845,831,816,803,800 HR137

S: 4 Miles in 36:44 [9:11 per mile] 940,918,901,845 HR 131

This week I'll hit 25 miles. My long run will be up to 9 miles. Four days of running. We'll be upNorth this weekend and I really have no desire to run in a ton of snow, hills and bitter temps, so I'm doing 6-6-0-9-4 (hopefully!) to get my 25 miles in before we leave. Then take Sat & Sun off except for some XC skiing.

And I think I'm going to jump into the duathlon ring. My son-in-law is doing a sprint tri in Northern MI this summer and he got me interested in the duathlon at the same event. 5k run, 12k bike, 5 k run. It should be interesting!

Have a good run,

Dave

Our distribution of vaccine will be strictly administered in order of priority. I assume my 2 daughters will be given it in the first 2 weeks. It will be mandatory for them as Covid testers. Also mandatory for my wife and myself but as we work in regional hospitals it may take a bit longer. Our region has had no cases since August and in total only about 20 or so. I imagine the quarantine staff will all be getting it day one. We have had 2 quarantine staff get infected the past 2 weeks despite no apparent breaches of infection control protocol. We have had no community acquired cases for about a month and those previous cases originated from a quarantined returned traveller (from LA).

That Tom Brady fella seems to be the Michael Tuck of your football. Not sure he could run 5 k as fast as Tucky could though.

Is your three weeks off mandatory? I am eligible for the vaccine, but no inventory last two weeks for my cohort. Tom Brady if nothing else has a love of competition that keeps him going.

Dave,

I bet you'll love duathlon! Make sure you read the rules before you race. Do you know the difference between drafting and non-drafting? You need to know what your race allows and know the spacing for non-drafting races. Also practice your transitions...I've run off to do the last run with a helmet on my head ;-) Oops!

Made me think of longtime US duathlon star Russ Jones. He was a 2.19 guy but got hit by a car and had some serious leg injuries. Took up duathlon and is still competing at top level into his 60s. Kept it short and sharp, about 60 to 70 km a week running and about 120 to 140 a week cycling.

My next couple of weeks are going to be ad-hoc training. We will be heading away for 3 nights for our annual "Christmas" family gathering. Probably be home one day and then we will be off travelling down the SW coast with our swag. I will leave the kayak and the bikes at home. Could be away as long as 2 weeks not sure.

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Is your three weeks off mandatory? I am eligible for the vaccine, but no inventory last two weeks for my cohort. Tom Brady if nothing else has a love of competition that keeps him going.

Sort of. We have workplace laws that give us 5 weeks annual leave and I have accumulated 6 weeks as I had a week leftover from past years. The boss likes to try and keep us from accumulating too much. I applied for 2 weeks post school holidays but she asked me to take 3 instead. I will be taking 2 weeks of long service leave in April. I think I have over 3 months of that available.

Michael Tuck was an understated superstar of Aussie football. His last game was another premiership with the mighty Hawks. He retired as games record holder and also played the most finals and won the most premierships. Interesting in such a physical game he was a skinny guy. 6'2" and 165 lbs.

Enjoy your time off. I know very little about Ausie football, but perhaps players are on the field, and run more. In American football with the offense and defense separate players, and liberal substitutions more a power than endurance sport. In my track coaching years I had some football players come out for the team after their season. The athletes were in the sprints, jumps, and throws; never competed in anything over 400 meters.

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Enjoy your time off. I know very little about Ausie football, but perhaps players are on the field, and run more. In American football with the offense and defense separate players, and liberal substitutions more a power than endurance sport. In my track coaching years I had some football players come out for the team after their season. The athletes were in the sprints, jumps, and throws; never competed in anything over 400 meters.

That makes sense since football is an explosive sport, like sprinting, jumping, and throwing.

M:off.

T-W: 10.7km.

R: 12.5km. (9:54-9:29-9:13-9:03-8:59-8:57-8:23.)

F-SA: 10.7km.

SU: 19.6km. (10:14-10:06-9:56-9:48-9:38-9:26-9:16-9:04-8:55-8:47-8:21)

So this was a cutback week. Thurday's run was pretty tough with strong wind. Sunday's run was much easier. It was cold (mid-20s), but my body warmed up after a few laps. 1:52 faster than two weeks ago, including 12 sec. for the final lap.

Now my biggest concern is the weather next week. (It should be okay at least this week.)

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Enjoy your time off. I know very little about Ausie football, but perhaps players are on the field, and run more. In American football with the offense and defense separate players, and liberal substitutions more a power than endurance sport. In my track coaching years I had some football players come out for the team after their season. The athletes were in the sprints, jumps, and throws; never competed in anything over 400 meters.

AFL midfielders typically cover 13 to 16 km a game. Mark Blicavs was a 3.40 1500 guy pre football. At about 6'6" and 200 odd lbs he can't do that anymore but he covers those sort of distances in a match.

The two biggest names in the game Dustin Martin and Patrick Dangerfield are power guys rather than endurance types. They still cover some territory during a game (10 to 12 kms). Danger was a quickish teenager, sub 11. Dusty is just a freakish beast not sure how quick he actually is.

I hear you. I just want to get through Feb. Treadmill runs with a mask aren’t fun!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

We have heavy snow here, with more predicted over night. That with attempts to increase the intensity of training made this a somewhat disjointed week.

Have a good week.

Igy

Another week of rebuilding, jogging a little farther and taking days off as necessary to rest my heel.

Mon: 8.0 mile jog

Tues: 8.0 mile jog

Weds: 82 min on bike trainer, 10 miles on outdoor bike

Thurs: 8.6 mile jog

Fri: 75 min on bike trainer, 10 miles on outdoor bike

Sat: 9.1 mile jog

Sun: 45 min on bike trainer, 3 mile walk with dogs and husband. Still planning to either get out for a short outdoor bike ride later today (not cold but quite windy today) or else get on the bike trainer again.

Almost 34 miles jogging for the week, plus at least 20 miles on bike and over 3.5 hours on stationary trainer.

Many of you are in the grip of serious winter weather. Stay safe! And I won’t gloat about my weather, 40s to 50s, dry and breezy.

Hi runners,

the cold got us this week. just stayed in bed or on the sofa below -15°C and called this week the big recovery. Relax.

Finally got in 4 easy runs in snow.

Next week temperature will come back to freezing point and life goes on.

Take care!

Greetings, 50+ers! We are in the grips of winter with multiple plowable snow events this past week and a couple more forecast for this week. Much of the country is experiencing the same. Still, I was lucky enough to be able to get out for nearly 22 miles of actual running last week...even yesterday with wind chills in the teens (my moustache froze again!). Fortunately we have lots of experience with this kind of weather, so the roads were promptly cleared down to the pavement in most places. I did have to proceed gingerly in a few icy areas, but not too often. We are expecting some icing events in the coming days, so I may be singing a different tune by next week’s report. Meanwhile, life is good!

Sun: 57’ CR; body wt ex

Mon: off

Tues: 52’ CR; body wt ex

Wed: off

Thu: 54’ total (3 runs); 16 oz curls

Fri: off

Sat: 62’ CR; body wt ex

The week’s anticipated med ball routines were replaced with snow shoveling. ☃️

Best to most!

Tue = 4 miles industrial park with 3 @ 8:53, 60 degrees!

Thr = 4 miles with 3 @ 8:57 on treadmill, cold rain out

Sat = 4 miles with 1.5 miles of a “ladder” of 8 200’s from 7:30 pace to 6 min pace (on treadmill due to ice storm)

Sun = 4 miles with 3 @ 8:57 on TM

Good running week despite the weather. Spent more time on the treadmill than usual, but that gave me a chance to watch most of that Rolling Stones concert in Hampton in 1981…that I planned to go to but missed.

Feeling solid.

Have a good one.

We are in the grips of Winter here too. I've had to wear a t-shirt under my long sleeve running shirt several times and have been wearing my running tights rather than shorts about 2/3rds of the time. I count my blessings every time I head out the door to run. A good steady 40 miles this week after 37 miles last week. I hope to settle at about 45mpw for the next couple of months starting next week.

M-rest

T- 7mi hills 9:33/mi

W- 7mi flat 9:05/mi

Th- 7mi hills 9:32/mi

F- 7mi flat 9:29/mi

S- 6mi hilly trails with my son 8:32/mi

Su- 6mi flat 9:15/mi

Good running to all!

*Week 507*

Greetings, 50+ers! The week started out promising, as I got a couple decent walks in, but an ice storm hit us mid-week wreaking havoc and I lost my motivation to do much beyond holing up, watching Netflix, and trying to get 1/2-3/4" layer of ice off the sidewalk, the car, the sharp corner of our street that everyone seems to have trouble with (we'll call it cross-training). I haven't even started on the broken branches. Usually this stuff melts in a few days, but not this time, and now we're scheduled for a foot of snow tonight through Tuesday. Back in Wisconsin, this would be no big deal, but down here in Kentucky, anything that is not a thoroughfare doesn't get treated and the whole town shuts down. We'll get through this, but I'm just feeling a little bit of those mid-winter doldrums.

Oh, it is Valentine's Day, so spending the day with my one and only (like every day for the past 300+) has been nice. Hang in there!

All the Best!

can't complain about the weather here--as i tell my runners everyday, "it's a beautiful day in orange county, doesn't get any better than this."

another solid week of training--45 days down, 320 to go. first sub-5 mile for 2021--i keep a calendar year streak going (1982-2021) as well as my age streak (14-53). it was probably around 95% effort; the good and bad is that two weeks ago i would have said there was no way i could pace the full mile, but i'm still not sure when sub-5 became so hard. while i know i'm fortunate to be running and healthy with ever-improving fitness, my ego still gets bruised (and fired up) in light of efforts like sean wade's recent 12k/15k/10 mile record run at 5:25-ish mile pace. i guess i should follow the other advice i give my athletes: "play the comparison game and you'll always lose"...

FEBRUARY 7-13

sun: 9 (hilly trails, took 75 minutes)

mon: 6

tue: am--6

pm--6: 4x800 (242/232/228/244), 4x400 (74/74/66/74)

wed: 7

thu: am--5

pm--3

fri: 4

sat: 8 (mile--actually 1610 meters-- TT @ 4:59 pacing some teammates)

carpe crepusculum,

cush