50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Wow, oh wow. That hurt.

Despite what it looks like, Club Nationals was NOT muddy, even though it rained the day before. The new course had a long downhill in the beginning, which necessitated a faster start that I wanted and it was a hard, hard course. I enjoyed the course in 2009, but it felt much harder this time around. Of course, I'm older and I ran it faster this time, so maybe that was it. I can tell you that I had nothing left. People were screaming at me to kick and catch a few more people - and all I could think was "clearly, you have never seen me run if you think I have a kick!!" ;-)

I am mostly satisfied with my race, though, I wish I could have been tough enough to catch the two 50s just in front of me. I didn't realize that the other team only had two runners ahead of me, not three and i had mentally given up a bit thinking they'd skunked us again. I actually had NO idea where I was overall the entire race.

But even if I had somehow caught their 2nd, we still would have been one point down. My teammates ran spectacular races, finishing right behind me and I was very proud of our results. I was, sigh, 4th (no medal) in my AG and I think I was probably around 6th in the age-graded (not bad!), and my team got another 2nd.

It was great fun to catch up with people after the race and I nearly missed a ride back to our hotel because I was chatting. The post-race party was pretty lame, but our team eventually made it to a club where we danced our hearts out. It's a fun group and some of my very favorite people joined us and we had a blast.

We left at 5:15 am (EST) on our return (on 2 hours sleep) and had an uneventful trip back to Seattle, but my return to Portland was not so easy as there was 2.5 hour train delay and I didn't get home until 5:30 pm (PST). So, I am hoping that after my long sleep, I'll start kicking it back in gear today.

I'm bummed that I missed meeting Lucky and didn't get to say hi to skinnbones! (I yelled for you, however, and you looked GREAT!)

Time for some easy miles and to re-evaluate my training for next year.

Mon - 90 minute mountain bike ride.

Tue - 10 km run, 2 laps of a hilly trail loop 1st in 24+ 2d in 22 flat. Also 40 min. kyak.

Wed - 80 minute mountain bike ride.

Thu - 40 minute kyak on the lake after an 11.5 km hilly run on both dirt and bitumen roads in 56m.

Fri - 90 minute mountain bike ride. 30 minute kyak.

Sat - 90 minute mountain bike ride in the am. and a tough 9+k trail run in the pm (46m)

Sun - Very rugged 20 km trail run up on the range behind my home, 1h 54m.

A good week all round the plan is to get the bike fitness up a notch and that seems to be working. The running still ticked over nicely with about 50 or so kms of fair quality. I have also dropped a couple of kilos the last few weeks.

I have no real racing plans for the next couple of months. Feb. will see a group of us flying to the far south of Tasmania to tackle 7-8 days of very wild hiking on the South Coast Track. I will start adding in some heavy pack hikes to the activity list post Christmas.

So sad to hear of the loss of the young lady at the XC Nats.

A life cut way to short.

On a happier note it does seem the race went well for those from this thread.

Also spotted a result in our local paper. Last thursday night interclub 5000m one of local masters celebrated his recent 50th with a smart 16.37.

Keep up the good fight guys and girls.

You must have been right behind me lucky2B! 39:26. Concur with most of what you said...a little too quick at the start in 5:40 but mostly downhill and once you got going, you were pretty much locked in to going with the flow. You perfectly captured my feelings of miles 3 and 4...throttling back a bit...so didn't really get out of my comfort zone too far. I didn't think it was all that muddy. I didn't really have trouble with just rubber "spikeless" spikes but avoided the main inside track most of the way. May have cost me a little distance. I didn't go to the awards. Opted for a little out-of-the-way BBQ joint instead...not a drinker or partier for that matter.

Sounds like I was locked in behind you most of the way. Nice run.

Maybe I should have qualified what I said earlier about the mud. As you and MG stated, it was definitely not a mudfest, as the entire east half of the loop was in great shape. The west side, from the first big hill through the length along the prison border, did need to be negotiated. So yes, if you navigated properly, you could find a line that avoided the muddier spots, and I think that was key, but I also think negotiating that line was more labor intensive than people realized. Everyone seemed wiped out at the finish, and more so, it seemed, than three years ago. Maybe I just talked to the wrong people.

MG, great run! Sorry we didn't get to meet up. It all seemed to go by so fast. CNW was certainly well represented!

For those so inclined, there are some nice shots taken by Mike Scott on Shutterbug:

Of course, all the shots were on the nicer east side of the course.

This made me laugh. It's not really how it has been going, generally speaking....but I'll take it.

Ken, hope the lower back come to some resolution soon.

As Charlie says....onward!

FYI. Just found out from a teammate that the USATF Club Championships will be broadcast this evening 8pm EST via the local regional cable commission,

http://krcc-tv.com

They mostly broadcast city council and school board meetings, etc. I have no clue what the broadcast will include. Cheers!

Hi hope you are all keeping well,just thought i would drop you a line to let you know i have entered my first race for 20 years.A 10k road race "nick beer" in Llandudno wales uk on the 10th feb 2013.The last race i ran was a ten miler i won not very fast around 53 mins it came at the end of ahard week,heavy miles ie around 130 for the week a 20 miler the day before,the race.And the day after i just stopped that was it never ran again untill this year funny that.Never understood that maybe i was just tired.But the truth will come out in what 6/7 week and then i will see if i should just jog into the sun set or be dragged into, running as fast as i can away from the darn thing i do hope its the last one.

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Week 80

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Hello 50+ers. I’ve been grief-struck this entire week. First we had the unfortunate death of Ms. Roady here in Lexington associated with the Club XC event; then there was the mall shooting in Portland; and now the Sandy Hook massacre in Connecticut….and let’s not even get started on the violence in the Middle-East. It’s been a sorry week for humanity. My heart-felt sympathies to those affected by these tragedies.

As such, it is hard, at times, to take running very seriously. However, for me, it does offer a brief respite from life’s demands and cruelties; it brings me some inner peace. And so it is with joy and anticipation that I embrace my runs as a time to re-center myself and replenish my spirit. As corny as it may sound, running is a significant part of my daily affirmation.

That being said, I took a few days off following Club XC. Several reasons for that: 1) tired, 2) grading to do, 3) lousy weather. I did rebound to finish the week with 35 or so miles. My log reads as such:

Sun: 1.2 easy….just a quick jaunt around the hood to shake out the legs post Club XC.

Mon: 0 (grading, rain, little sleep…..yuck!)

Tue: 1.4 easy…by accident (ran across campus and back to take care of something).

Wed: 7.8 w/3.2@6:34 pace

Thur: 7.5 easy w/ 5 on grass

Fri: 7.2 (3.6 am super-easy, 3.6 pm easy-to-moderate)

Sat: 10.0 easy-ish

Not sure where I’ll go from here. I’m probably going to put more focus on building core strength, increasing range of motion, and improving stability over the winter months (along with reestablishing some base).

I was reading this article by Matt Fitzgerald:

http://running.competitor.com/2011/02/training/balance-better-run-better_21283

And I did not do well (not horribly, though) on this balance test:

http://www.realage.com/fitness/improve-your-balance

Any thoughts?

Alf….great to see that you’ve signed up for a 10k! I’ll look forward to hearing how this all unfolds.

OK, that’s about all I’ve got this week. Life is precious, go hug your family and your friends....then go for a run.

Cheers!

Whoa boy, what a week. I have no words to express the grief for all these events lately. I hold my kids close and grand-kids closer.

On running…..

I have not run a step since Nov 13th; and weeks before that my running had devolved into a few miles here and there. My heel /pf problem resurfaced with a vengeance. So I focused on hiking and to my great disappointment, the problem followed me there.

So this week, for the first time since 1979 I sought help for a running injury. I saw a Chiro certified in Active Release Therapy. I’m set up for 6 appointments.

Seems I should not have ignored that sharp pain in my left foot several months ago. Although he did not do a CT or bone scan, it looks a lot like I had a stress fracture of my heel bone. For the longest time I had assumed it was Plantar Fasciitis. It was not PF.

You’d think I would be smart enough to not ignore a sharp pain in the foot. Apparently not. This ART guy has fixed a few of my completely broken down running friends when standard Chiro did not work. So I am hopeful.

On balance….

The FIRST think the ART guy did was have me stand on one foot and do a squat. I looked like a cartoon-character flailing my arms trying to maintain balance.

So my assignment: “while brushing your teeth, or standing around, in general, just stand on one foot for 30 seconds or so…”. I had NO IDEA how awful my balance has become. He left me with this quote that hit home:

“All running is done on one foot, you know….”

It was a sad week; that's for sure. I just wish it were easier to discover when things were 'about to go wrong' so intervention could happen. I can't even watch the news on Conn.

I missed MG and a few others at Club Nats :( Seeing everyone is the highlight of my trip so it's unfortunate I didn't get to say hello to everyone.

My training this week has gone remarkably well considering it was a week off. I ran very little Monday and Tuesday but got in 15 Wednesday; easy, and 15 today; easy.

College kids are back in town so they drug me around the long run loop and I got to hear stories of 'beer miles' and 'beer 5Ks...' Ah, to be young again.

Now it's time to go to the warm side of the US for a few weeks. Next week's post will be from sunny Arizona.

Rtype, hope you get great success with ART...I use a great practitioner here who has helped me tremendously...also do almost weekly rolfing (this week was my 366th session over a 10 year period)...I'll go on record as saying that all of this ancillary body work is the ONLY reason I am still able to run ...at all.

Lucky2B, your focus on balance and strength here during the off season shall pay substantial dividends going forward in terms of injury abatement and longevity...love Rtype's ART guy quote about running on one foot

While out running yesterday, i heard someone coming up behind me...glanced over my shoulder and saw that 30 yards back was my teammate and recently announed USATF Runner of the Year M 55-59, Brian Pilcher...for shits and grins, I simultaneously took a shortcut and surged hard for 60 or 70 meters to no avail...he covered the moved in a nano second and we laughed with recless abandon at the silliness of it all...Brian provides great inspiration. He is obviously remarkably talented and an absolutely ferocious competitor but what what sets him apart is his incredibly comprehensive approach to the sport. Brian is a poster child (or poster senior in his case) for ancilary training...strength, conditioning, flexibility, bodywork etc...when tweaked and unable to run, you'll see him out on his Eliptigo tackling Mt Tamalpais in 3 hour endurance sessions...being exposed to guys like him lends great athletic perspective an keeps this old man fired up. Fortunate to have he and a few other local monsters of the geritol set as teammates and neighbors.

This was a pretty decent week of running considering my foot procedure just 10 days ago...focus was on mechanics, strength and the neuromuscular adjustments required to transition from months of marathon-like slogging to 800/1500 training and racing...included a couple trips to the gym and a track session that concluded with 400 meters in 76something...most importantly, am having huge FUN!

Remember to cherish every step AND those that are near and dear to you.

MF

Merry Holiday Time Oh Great Masters Of Real Living.

Cannot imagine the past 38 years without the daily affirmation of competitive running. How lucky we are to realize this benefit for a good life.

As for keeping this spirit going... seems wise to pick your best potion and make it a daily habit - just like running. For me it's been mostly that Pete Esogue book mixed in with a 20 sec PF stretch to each foot before getting out of bed every day. What works for me when I start to slack off is to go for 10 days in a row of this 15min ritual every morning as soon as I awake/roll out of bed. Pete's chapters focused on foot pain. I battled PF in each foot for 3 years. Surgery short-cutted the healing but the daily 15min drills STILL work for me to keep things rolling along.

KP

Week 12 of 12.

mon 11 mile (10 mile in 68 mins h/r 142 @level 3)

tues 7:15 mile rec

weds 10:04 (7 mile in 46 min 12 secs h/r 143 @level 3 )

thurs 8 mile easy @126 h/r

fri 7 mile (3 mile in 19min 21 sec h/r 145 @level3)

sat 5:07 mile rec

sun 13 mile 1hr 36 min slowest ever and longest run for 20 years!!!!!!!

weeks total 61:26 miles highest ever (well for 20 years)

Going to start hill training and tempo running for next 8 weeks.This i hope will give me some kind of speed and strength for my 10km road race.

You all take care and keep on running.

I squeezed out my third straight week at 50 or more miles even though I missed one day with work and travel. I thought I was starting to adapt well to being back at this mileage level and ran pretty hard on Tuesday. My legs were very fried the rest of the week although I felt good aerobically on my runs.

I hit my 63rd birthday this week so I have been paying more attention to my physical abilities such as balance for a number of years. I tried that balance test and did substantially better than the suggested age standard. I assume that this particular skill reflects that I am a lifelong surfer for whom foot small muscle motor control and balance are critical to my other sport. I wish I could also boast about how good my flexibility is, but that is something that is a constant challenge for me. I have become very conscientious about post-run stretching, particularly hamstrings, over the last several years. For me it makes a significant difference in both injury prevention and maintaining stride length.

Happy holidays and be safe to all!

Week 80: 11 hours 46 minutes in 11 runs. Cautiously upped the intensity: Tuesday 3x hill repeats plus some random extra hills on the way to and from "the" hill. Friday 20 minutes tempo (avg 4:35/km). Saturday the usual 2 hr 30 min long run. Sunday (today) 3x strides. Training is in a really good place right now.

Enough about me, I want to address the recent tragedies, and I'm going to take a contrary position. Yes, these are bad events. I can't even bear to think about 20 six- and seven-year-olds being senselessly murdered. It's tempting to conclude that the world is going to hell in a hurry, but what's really happening is that communications have become so efficient that the latest tragedy is instantly available worldwide.

I can't recall the exact year, maybe 1995, when Bruce Willis said in an interview that the world became a better place for him when he stopped watching the evening news. He called it "that daily dose of poison". The world is a big place, if you search far and wide you will find something horrific happening at this very moment. Well, you don't need to search, the broadcast news media are happy to do that for you. If you want the tragedy-of-the-minute, you can have it 24/7.

I tried Bruce Willis's advice, and found he was right. Then I took it a step further and ditched the TV completely, and found that my life became immeasurably better. I haven't had a TV in over 14 years, and don't miss it for a moment. As for the internet, I have a policy of "no video". I have never been on youtube, and when a website embeds a video, my browser announces "Additional plugins are required to display all the media on this page." Of course I don't install the plugins.

Some may say this is sticking my head in the sand. I say it is ahimsa, non-violence. I don't traumatize myself by constantly looking at images of the latest tragedy. I get my news from the radio, and believe it does not carry the same emotional weight as video. To this day I have never seen a picture of the World Trade Center burning. I have read that years after that event, there were some people, not even New Yorkers, who had a PTSD-like experience every time they encountered one of those images.

Let me go out on a limb here and say that the world is a far better and safer place than when I was a lad. Bad stuff happens, but not as often as before. It's just that watching the evening news gives the opposite impression.

Met with sports med doc and a good athletic trainer this past week. We suspect that all the tight turns on the flat indoor track may be contributing to my hip/back/leg issues, makes sense since most of this starting once I went indoors due to the cooler weather (problems with my fingers, chemo induced neuropathy, & cold) Began treatment, exercises, & running (some opposite direction runs on the indoor track). This week will be key, treatment everyday, so I hope by the end of the week I'll be able to do strides. It turns out one can get treatment quickly, and everyday, just have to pay out of pocket! Ouch.

Did the balance test, left leg (non-dominant) 31 seconds, right leg (dominant) 4, 4, 16 seconds = 8 average. Right leg is currently the more problematic one. I had been doing single leg squats since March, current problem sure did mess thing up.

Week of 12/10

Mon AM chiropractor, no runs, stretching.

Tue PM sports med doc, 2 + miles clockwise on indoor track, stretching & some exercises, 2 miles clockwise cool down, felt better, some referred pain.

Wed AM athletic trainer, massage, stretching, new exercises.

Thur AM athletic trainer, 4 mile run on treadmill @ 0% grade, felt better, down to 6:34 pace, massage, new exercises.

Fri PM athletic trainer, 5+ mile run outside, felt okay, however, very tired afterwards.

Sat PM no run. Stretching & new exercises.

Sun PM 5 mile clockwise indoors, new exercises plus some old ones, light stretching. Felt better, particularly starting around 2 1/2 miles. Weight down significantly, some other cancer related symptoms, need to schedule a blood draw to make sure nothing happening.

Regarding connectivity, yep, definitely a downside to it. I cancelled cable a few years ago and family, including spouse, couldn't take it!

Regarding Connecticut, I get too angry if I spend much time thinking about it, I don't understand these cowards. So sad for the parents and extended families of the victims.

A better week to all.

I believe in mankind. I believe our Destiny is to rise above violence in all forms but getting there will take time and courage.

For anyone who might enjoy an excellent doc on 1976 Oly Marathon:

http://www.youtube.com/user/tommytempo1

Audio interview with AlSal very relaxed conversational open opinions:

http://competitorradio.competitor.com/2012/12/alberto-salazar-2/

Alf is getting scary. Great week lots of promising improvement. Question,what effort/Heart Rate Percent are you going to run your tempos at?

Happy with my week except the old sweet tooth is giving me some trouble.Weight is yo-yoing started eating chocolate but might be related to the increased mileage.Weight stuck at 143 for now.

Highlights

Tuesday Dec 11th tempo 2 loops glendoveer 14/14 = 28 flat

No DOMS felt great way better recovery than on Nov 10th when I did the same run in 28:21 and suffered for a week with really sore quads. I think backing off after that allowed my body to recover and build up a bit so down the road I might do another too hard run right before an ez week.

Friday Dec 14th golidlox effort 2 loops 15/15 glendoveer 30 flat

the difference between 81 and 86 percent mhr seems to be just less than 30 secs per mile

"When the Moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars then peace will guide the planets and love will steer the stars"

lucKY2b wrote:

I was reading this article by Matt Fitzgerald:

http://running.competitor.com/2011/02/training/balance-better-run-better_21283

And I did not do well (not horribly, though) on this balance test:

http://www.realage.com/fitness/improve-your-balance

Any thoughts?

Among the ways to improve your balance, Matt Fitzgerald did not mention this one: look at the horizon instead of at your feet.

Rtype wrote:

Although he did not do a CT or bone scan, it looks a lot like I had a stress fracture of my heel bone.

Sounds likely. I read somewhere that this can result from chronic Plantar Fasciitis. There are some other possible nasties to the heel as well. That's when I started treating my own PF in earnest, even to the point of suffering with the sock.

WOC wrote:

... makes sense since most of this starting once I went indoors due to the cooler weather (problems with my fingers, chemo induced neuropathy, & cold) ...

I don't have access to an indoor track, do all my intervals on the road. Now I am kind of glad about that. I have a chronic right hip problem; who knows what might have happened on the turns? This week I will visit the ski outfitters and see what they have in the way of heated gloves. So far the winter has been mild, but I need to be prepared. Yeah, I'm a sissy! I'll let you know if I find anything good.