50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Feb. 15-21.

M-SA: off (snow/ice).

SU: 10.6km.

Feb. 22-28.

M-W: off. (Got the vaccine on Monday. 101 degree fever on Tuesday. Took Wednesday off just to error on the safe side.)

R-SA: 10.7km.

SU: 19.6km.

Mar. 1-7.

M: off.

T-W: 10.7km.

R: 12.5km.

F-SA: 10.7km.

SU: 21.4km.

Mar. 8-14.

M: off.

T-W: 10.7km.

R: 14.2km. (10:07-9:51-9:39-9:33-9:23-9:14-9:04-8:41.)

F: 10.5km.

SA: 10.7km.

SU: 21.4km. (10:31-10:20-10:11-10:01-9:51-9:45-9:35-9:21-9:15-9:05-8:57-8:40)

Heavy rain on Thursday created some deep water puddle on my regular course, so I had to do 14 laps of a smaller (750m) loop instead of my regular (1.78km) loop. And then, I had to fight strong wind on Sunday. So basically I am back to where I was six weeks ago after snow storm and covid vaccine. Hopefully, the weather will be better this week.

A couple of fast old man runs at Glenhuntly Milers meet here in Australia.

Mark Hipworth a 2.18 800 60-64. I think he has previously ran 2.15 in the age group.

John Bermingham a 4.58 1500 70-74.

John ran about 4.00 back in the day and also a 2.16 marathon.

To clarify John ran about 4.00 mile back in the day.

I figured as much with the 2:16 some decades ago.

Having run the equivalent of about a 5:54 1500 in January, a 4:58 in the 70-74s is spectacularly impressive to me. But a 2:16 marathon PR indicates some serious talent and ability to train properly.

'mopac wrote:

A couple of fast old man runs at Glenhuntly Milers meet here in Australia.

Mark Hipworth a 2.18 800 60-64. I think he has previously ran 2.15 in the age group.

John Bermingham a 4.58 1500 70-74.

John ran about 4.00 back in the day and also a 2.16 marathon.

John looks like a good shot at a sub 3 for 70+ only 2 others have done this.

Remarkable run span at such high levels actually age grades better at 70 than his open PR's

John has posted serious younger master's times too but I would have to research.

He ran an 18.08 5000 on the track at 69 and 3 months. I think he ran 13.35 back in 76 but missed out on OG selection.

#correction 69 and 9 months.

79 days down, 286 to go:

March 14-20

sun: 12

mon: 5 (with h.s. team)

tue: am--5: 1x1200 (79 pace, 3:58), 2x800 (2:38/2:39), 2x400 (73/70)--pacing female teammate trying to break 5 in the mile

pm--2 (with h.s. team)

pm, pt. 2: 6: 1x1200 (3:55), 2x800 (2:36/2:36), 1x1200 (3:51), 4x400 (75/75/72/72)--pacing female 2:38 marathoner teammate

wed: 4 (with h.s. team)

thu: am--4

pm pt 1--3 miles with h.s. team

pm pt 2--10 (8 miles @ 6:10-ish pace, quicker through 5, but last 3 fell off as teammate i was pacing over the last 8 miles of a half marathon time trial started to falter)

fri: 5

sat: 13 (hilly run in 1:54)

funny old man moment while pacing teammates in a half marathon thursday: i jumped in at the 5 mile mark and over the first couple of miles we were going 6 flat pace on a paved road loop around newport's backbay when my hip just sort of gave out (nerve spasm?) and i tumbled to the ground. i knew as i hit the deck i was fine so quickly yelled out "keep going, i'm fine!" as they slowed to see the damage--i didn't want to wreck their rhythm. i pretty much did a tuck and roll and caught right back up, with the worst of the damage being the scraped up palms of my hands. funny that i've been putting in a fair amount of miles on not-so-even trails but relatively smooth asphalt takes me down...

carpe crepusculum,

cush

gracious response to your fall. In that situation I usually just yell "why can't they make asphalt that doesn't rise up and trip people anymore?"

another week of slow stuff with uneven progress for my hamstring:

M off

Tu 45:00 with form drills

W 50:00

Th 1:00

F 50:00

Sa 55:00

Su 1:10

happy Spring and have a great week,

Dave

Greetings, fellow 50+ers, and happy spring! What a difference a few days can make. I cancelled my scheduled run for Monday due to the single digit windchill temps, but then yesterday I was running in shorts, a visor instead of the knit hat, and only two upper layers instead of the usual winter three. Life is good!

Despite the extra day off, I was still able to get in a bit more than 20 miles of actual running this week. The b2b rest days were good for these old legs. The hammy continues to improve to the point where I may try a few strides this week and possibly reintroduce some of the post-run exercises that I had temporarily set aside.

I am scheduled to get my second vax shot on Thursday, so I plan to do b2b runs on Wed/Thu so I can recover for a couple of days, if necessary. From what I’m hearing, the second shot can be a doozy. Hopefully one day off will suffice.

Sun-Mon: off

Tues: 71’ CR; body wt ex + med ball routine

Wed: off

Thu: 74’ CR; body wt ex + med ball routine

Fri: walk

Sat: 61’ CR; body wt ex + med ball routine

Best to most!

Socalcush: That is a good one. As you get older the hits just keep coming. Haha.. Hurting your back sneezing, pulling a hammy picking up a piece of paper….aging is just great!

Tue = 4 miles greenway with 3 @ 8:03 pace

Thr = 3 miles easy greenway

Sat = 5K Race: 24:27, 7:52 pace (7:51, 8:03, 7:52)

Sun = 4 miles easy new greenway with 3 @ 9:30 pace

Race Report: Short Version: Goal was to not PW, not get injured, and crack 8-minute pace. Mission accomplished.

Long Version: I was really happy and relieved to not run a personal worst since my training has been limited. Just 11 days ago 8:19 pace was as fast as I could go for a 5K. So, I’m really happy with that improvement curve. For the race itself it was sunny and 29 degrees. Due to covid they grouped us by times and sent us off 30 seconds or so apart. I just stuck the pace around 7:57 and waited to feel bad. But instead, I felt good every step of the way and finished at 6:30 pace for the last 400 or so. This indicated I could have run harder. The age group was 45 and over, so I was 4th out of 10 or so in that odd group. All in all, a very nice return to racing.

Make it a good week.

Best for most not to fall off a roof. ?Taking my time on the front of the house where I have to contend with varying roof lines. Getting around everything with some ingenuity. Still many trips up and down a ladder, and crawling across the roof. The front should be finished today or Tuesday, since we are expecting rain Monday. Speaking of wind chill, it gets cold up on the roof with temperatures in the 40s and wind blowing. The rest of the house should go much faster with a spray rig and fewer roof lines. Hopefully I can finish this up by mid-April and get back to training. I already miss it.

Have a good week.

Igy

wow cush that's cray! I have had my knee buckle (in the past year and a half) but have not taken a fall yet. Glad you'r e okay.

47 miles on 6 days, plus a couple hours of exercise bike for cross training.

Covid shot on Tuesday and could barely run under 9 min miles for the next two days.

Sold out and got a pair of Dragonflies this week, those feel really good. I did just a short workout on the track Friday (500, 3X 300, and a 200) with the 500 at tempo effort, the rest were comfortably fast/roughly 3K to mile pace.

7K "race" today but with individual starts within waves and no one running race pace in my wave a totally solo time trial effort in 26:26. Wore the Endorphin Speed instead of Endorphin Pro to test those out. Not bad, but I time wise, not seeing much difference between those and old Adios Boost 3-4. A good thing is the cushioning so I can recover more quickly.

After 6 weeks of increasing about 2 miles a week from 37 to 49 miles a week and 30 straight days of running (which is a long streak for me), it felt like time for an easy week. I cut back to about 60% of last week's mileage with 28 miles and 2 rest days. My legs still were feeling a bit dead this morning, so next week I'll probably keep it very easy for most of the week.

M- 7mi 9:42/mi

T- 4mi 11:15/mi

W- 5mi 9:42/mi

Th- rest

F- 5mi 12:06/mi

S- rest

Su- 7mi trails with my son 8:34/mi

Good running to all!

Rtype, Congrats on exceeding your goal. Maybe that lsd worked?

CM yeah I want a pair of the flys too but hard to come by right now.

18 miles a week 2 days on 2 days off most of it slow in the sand.

Highlights

Did a 30 second all out hill felt really good

Did a 60 minute long run felt good 3x20 R5minutes . Closed good over the last 16 minutes as I felt like running to the barn with a good result but I am not taking the bait

Rtype, good job with the race—that sounds encouraging.

socalcush, watch that hitting the pavement stuff! I hope the hip doesn’t continue to cause trouble.

Coyote, nice time trial/race. It seems almost everyone I know gets temporarily wiped out by that second vaccine dose. I hope we don’t end up all having to get annual boosters but I suspect that may be the case.

I continued to lay off running to let my pulled hip muscle heal, and it does seem to be healing. At least now when I clip out of my bike pedals with that leg it doesn’t hurt, while two weeks ago doing that was very painful. Here’s my "training" week:

Mon: 75 minutes on bike trainer

Tues: 75 minutes on trainer, 13 miles on outdoor bike

Weds: 6.6 mile walk at 14:15/mile, 16 miles on bike

Thurs: 7.4 mile walk at 14:03/mile, 9 mile bike ride truncated by rain

Fri: 77 minutes on trainer

Sat: 7.8 mile walk at 14:22/mile, 16 miles on bike

Sun: 32 miles on bike

Currently my plan is to attempt a very short jog tomorrow morning. I’m really worried that my leg strength will have deteriorated so badly by summer that I won’t be able to keep up with my husband on backpack trips. I don’t think the fast walking is doing much for running fitness but it’s good training for hiking. Next step is to wear a weighted backpack while doing it.

Good weekend for this 64-year-old.

Had to take mother in law (who is 105) back home from the coast to Eugene, so ran on the track by the Amazon trail.

With warm-up/warm-down ended up with 7.34 miles at 7:39 average, including

16 x 200m in approx 45 sec, with 200m float at an average of 57-58 sec for 6:45 average for the (nearly) 4 miles.

Pushed for time today, so did steady 5 miles at average of 7:10 - went 7:30, 7:28, 7:09, 6:56 and 6:47. Surprised that I felt well-recovered from yesterday.

Still no idea what I could do for a 5k, but at least it should be quicker than 6:45 per mile!

Might try a 5k in Eugene at the end of April which will be first race in about 2 years, I think.