50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Coyote Montane,

My hat is off, HM at 6:30 in highlands. And congrats with the first place among masters.

Was it near your place, BTW? I assume the weather there was not so comfortable yet, so the time could be even faster?

Coureur des bois,

Thanks a lot for sharing some important details of your training. I am especially interested in strengthening various "small things" such as tendons, ligaments, etc. Like some gents here, I am a bit debalanced: my cardiovascular system seems to be way stronger than the skeletal muscular one. The latter needs to be improved.

Within this context you info sounds quite inspiring , also testifying that this is doable in our age, too. I am especially absolutely impressed that you manage to stay injury-free showing such outstanding results!

I wish you a great season, bonne chance!

Coureur des bois wrote:

CM- 6:30 pace for a half marathon at 5,000 feet! Amazing. Seems the farther you go the better you are. Do you have any marathons planned for the future?

Felt solid on race day. Planning on Grandmas in 2 months. Mileage has been moderate but have mixed in a fair amount of cross training with xc skiing through March and stationary cycling since Feb, so getting in a pretty good base (usually 9-10 hr a week). I need the marathon to force me to do more volume, otherwise I get complacent at 8 about hours a week. Will be getting up to 2.5+ hour long runs soon.

Orient, the weather on race day was good for the most part (39F at the start, 50 by the finish) but the wind kicked up at about 50 minutes in, so a few of those miles into the wind were fairly gnarly. The course was goofy with 20 or more turns in the first 4 miles, and at least a dozen after that, and 1.5 mile of lumpy dirt path. But we're still getting snowfall about every other day (8 inches last night, 13 inches late last week).

Enjoyed this off the cuff workout today

20 minutes zone 1 aka jogging

8x100 on the track 21 down to 19 with 80 second jogs

400 76.10 just about even/19 for each 100 this was 800 effort on old wavy track not bad at all

20 minute walk

40 minutes zone 1

So the 76

I am thinking about getting a lactate meter just to find my zone 2.

Peter Attia has a great video on best lactate level for training and health:

https://youtu.be/txLrNhv8GW0

Greetings to all and wishes for a nice weekend!

Had the first race today since Sep. ’20. Opted for 5K (not 10) being concerned with potential injuries and remembering how my hip started “crying” after 8 km a year ago forcing me to slow down significantly to avoid getting DNF.

The weather was “hell sent” this morning. The temperature dropped from 58-59F to 38 overnight and kept falling through 35. It rained cats and dogs and shortly before the start the rain converted into a mix with snow also accompanied with strong and gusty wind. So, my last moment decision was to run in thermal underwear. Pretty absurd for late April…

However, the race itself went well. The good side of all this was that I became totally relaxed about the timing and did not expect any good result. Just considered it as a trial or a slightly-above-CV workout. And surprisingly “landed” with 19.10. Was especially happy that after entering the final km I started thinking something like: “And that is all? Perhaps I could make a couple km more….”. Accordingly, was able to inject the remaining fuel during the last 400-500 and take over a small group of younger guys who were some 40-50 m ahead.

For curiosity’s sake I opened a couple of so-called age-grading calculators and found that one of them returned 15.06 as an age-graded equivalent and another one even 15.01. I never raced 5K in my youth (just 3K sometimes with PR 8.40) and while the former time was likely doable some 35-40 years ago, the latter seemed unlikely to be achieved. So, I am theoretically in an equivalent form as 35-40 years ago, and this sounds good.

One more observation. It appears that “predictors” based on 5x1k interval work for me, with a certain adjustment though. Comparing with regular trainer shoes my today’s average was some 2 sec/km faster than intervals ' average a week ago. And some 3 sec/km slower than in “super shoes” 2 weeks ago.

Anyway, with my current miserable average mileage today’s result is likely the limit. Logged just 55 miles in March (was mostly skiing) and only 110 since 1 April. Hope to be able to reach at least 50 mpw in summer to move further.

Thanks to everybody here! There are so many insightful and informative posts in this thread and outstanding people that really inspire!

Nice run Orient, great result from hard work.

Great job, Orient! Very impressive. Congratulations.

nicely done! "hell sent" indeed -- cold rain is the worst.

Good week for me -- hamstring getting better (knocking on wood). Our club has a half-marathon next weekend, but I think that would be pushing it. Probably will make my comeback race an x-c 5k coming up late May.

M 1:40

Tu 1:45 double

W 1:40

Th 1:00 with 30:00 at marathon pace (thru 4 miles in 28:50)

F 1:30

Sa 1:10

Su 2:10

have a great week,

Dave

Ni ce 5k Orient. Also some good observations/tests you noted.

dhaaga- good luck on a total hamstring recovering and you upcoming race in May.

Significant workouts this week for me besides three days in the weight room lifting and some box jumping. A 16 miler at a farily good effort/pace, 6x800 with one minute rest avg 2:54, and nice run up in the mountains , and a couple of easy eight milers. I have one more week of coaching high school track. My top distance runner has run some nice pr's in the last couple of weeks including 1:54, 4:16, and 9:08 2 mile. The plan for this week is to have my boys help pace me on the track getting under the AR age 65-69 age group 10,000. Stay safe everyone

I finished painting my house. Good to bag the ladder time. Attractive result on the project. Last week hit 21 Igy miles which included two days running, 1500 yards swimming, and the two days walking. I’ll shoot for an extra day running next week. I hope to transition to a regular schedule next month.

Have a good week.

Igy

Nice job Coach. Good luck on the record attempt.

Nice race Orient, in what sounds like tough conditions. I had something of a slacker week with only 21 miles and taking Wed, Thur, Fri off. Although, I also am trying to be sensible about my mildly sore left heel. I still have plenty of time to get in shape since races here in San Diego look unlikely to occur before mid-June at the earliest.

M- 6mi easy 9:50/mi; PM 7mi bike

T- 3mi easy run/walk 12:24/mi

W- rest

Th- rest

F- rest

S- 6mi trails 9:12/mi with my son and d-in-law

Su- 6mi walk barefoot on the beach

Good running to all!

Greetings, fellow 50+ers! Your resident hobby jogger is here to report about 24 miles of actual running (no fluff) for the week. There were a couple of little niggles, but that seems to be par for the course at this age so I will not belabor that point. There was a bit of snow in the area this past week, but spring also made a welcome, if brief, appearance.

I did learn a valuable lesson this week. I normally run on alternate days, but my schedule often requires a b2b group most weeks. Normally I do those b2b days on Wed & Thurs, but decided to try something different this week. I did a long run on Monday, then decided to do a recovery run on Tuesday rather then delay the b2b to late in the week. This was a mistake. I hoped my recovery run would be in the 50-60 minute range, but instead I struggled to get to 40 minutes. I learned that I need a full day off after a long run. I guess I’m not to old to still learn a few things.

Sun: off

Mon: 72’ CR; body wt ex + med ball routine

Tues: 40’ CR; body wt ex

Wed: off

Thu: 57’ running (2); 16 oz curls

Fri: off

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

Best to most!

Orient, that’s a great result under tough conditions!

The x-rays of my broken shoulder, 29 days after the accident, got the thumbs-up from my orthopedist. Everything is in proper alignment and it all looks pretty well stuck together to this layman’s eyes. The ortho pronounced it “normal healing” and directed me to start physical therapy with passive range of motion exercises. The next day (Friday), 30 days after the accident, I attempted my first jog. The shoulder didn’t complain at all, but 50 yards down the road both hips seized up in nasty cramps and I had to give up and limp back up the driveway. Saturday I just spun the bike trainer and walked, 5.6 miles fast and another 3+ miles strolling with my dogs. Roughly ditto for today. Hips are still rather stiff.

So while it appears that my shoulder is going to heal fine and it isn’t an issue for running, the hip problem that caused me to crash while walking in the first place has not resolved and I don’t know what to do about it. I think the next time I try to jog I’ll first do 5 minutes of hip stretches before starting. I’ve always been of the opinion that stretching before running just causes injury, but since it seems I can’t run without stretching, I’ll try stretching. What else can I do?

A couple of comments on today’s posts; thoughts somewhat relevant to their posts.

On old fart’s back to back, Daniels recommend for high schoolers doing Friday or Saturday racing schedule their hard days back to back. Monday/Tuesday for Friday racing and Tuesday/Wednesday for Saturday racing. I think it could be an effective scheduling of training for masters.

On amkelley’s return to running. I utilized a mailbox fartlek recently. Week one, 1 mailbox running with 1 mailbox walking; increasing to 2-1, 3-1, and 4-1. By then perhaps sufficiently conditioned to return to a more traditional routine.

Igy

Nice run Orient!

Good luck on the 10K attempt CDB--I'm sure you'll knock it out of the stadium.

Good to hear that you are on the mend amk.

Here a recovery week from last weekend's half, but capped off with a 3K grind yesterday and LR today.

9.5 hours total, 8 hours running, 3 short cycle WOs as doubles. I just ran easy until Sat. but included 6X 200 on the track on Thursday as a tune up.

Did the 3K in Boulder primarily as track rust-buster/prep for a 5K in two weeks, which I plan to be rested/prepared. I was in a heat with 10-11 min seed times/planning on 10:40s-10:50s with slow first laps and then winding it up. That went sideways immediately when everyone went out fast, and I was DFL at 200--10 m behind the rest--at 41 sec, and 84 at 400. Passed a couple of runners on lap 2 by end of lap 3, I was already trashed and just ran 88s-90s to finish in 11:09 (age grade 85, which isn't terrible and is in fact the silver lining). That aside, saw a lot of familiar faces--people I hadn't seen since early last year and the event itself was great. Like clockwork.

18 mile LR today @7:56/mile--felt decent.

Going for some good volume in the week ahead >10 hr with a solid WO planned for Wed. We're still getting snow 2X or 3X a week. More ahead mid-week.

The Orient Express is rolling

CM next time I try a 5 I will prep with a 3 good one!

CDB Good Luck! Keston is a real class act 37:52 at Hayward classic no less also at Hayward Classic Doug Winn M60 35:47 just missing Clive Davies 35:19.

AMK Concept 2 rower. I row 4 or more times a day most of them short and easy with full ROM.

Started doing the Nordic Curls WOW is all I can say Simply WOW

Easy week lots of walking 2 runs

Onward!

Congrats. That's a really nice effort that far out from racing.

Encouraging for my 5k coming up. My best age graded was about 14:58. Very rarely race 5000m/5k when I was in my 20s. Did run 8:45 3000m with a 60 last 400m and 2:06 800m, and then had a lot of injury problems after and didn't get back to that level, but probably had a few more seconds to come.

Thought I see if I ran my 'long' run slower if I didn't look at my watch. Oops 8.3 miles in 58:59 = 7:05 per miles. Loop course with 155ft up/down, and I jogged the hills so as not to beat the legs up too much.

Had done 5.5 at 7:09 including 12x90 sec fast/easy on Saturday, so will interesting to see effect of those two runs back to back.

Going to have to find a way to slow myself down and get a few runs up to 90 min without wiping myself out for a week - maybe in the next cycle!

Love to get back down to the sort of territory you ran today.

Great perfomances here. Congrats.

Here is my hobby jogger week:

Mo: off

Tu: 1 h drills and jumps uphill

We: 7 miles easy, 4 x 100 m buildups with slow jog back

Th: 5 x 800 m with 400 m jog in average 3:05 min

Fr: 7 miles easy, 4 x 100 m buildups with slow jog back

Sa: 5 miles easy, 7.5 miles easy

Su: 8 miles easy

On Saturday, track was closed. Weekend runs always in hilly terrain.

Have a great week and greetings to the injured!