50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

66 y/o...haven’t Pr’d since 1988, last race I’d consider good 1993. Never stopped training .. pretty hard.

1807 miles so far this year.

Race on Thursday. Picked up my packet today.

I got you beat, I haven’t PRed since 1975. 😹

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

I got you beat, I haven’t PRed since 1975. 😹

aside from ultarmarathons, no PRs since 1980 ;{

I was in error, two in 1976, my last year young man competitive running age 25: 3,000m 8:24 and one hour run 11 miles, 1300 yards.

Good luck in your Turkey Trot

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

I got you beat, I haven’t PRed since 1975. 😹

I PR every day!

It is all about the base

MikeF. wrote:

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

I got you beat, I haven’t PRed since 1975. 😹

aside from ultarmarathons, no PRs since 1980 ;{

Last PR about' 92 - fastest 3000 s/c at age 35, after doing the event on and off for about 15 years!

Hi Folks. A belated Happy Thanks Giving Holiday. hope those of you who ran in Turkey Trots raced well. Ok my week

Monday: Weights

Tuesday: 35 minutes

Wednesday: Weights

Thursday : 40 minutes

Friday: AM-I hour 10 minutes PM- Weights

Saturday: Rest

Today: Drills and strides. Followed by 1 mile of bends (jog)/Straights (Fast strides). Ran in Dragon Flys....felt great with a fast cadence. Normally I would do this in Asics Sortie flats (Minimalist). But what a difference wearing the Dragonflys especially as my school track in China is hard. And no reaction suffered by my achilles tendons.

Next week I will just increase things and add another stride session on Tuesday. My patella is ok, just a matter of managing it, icing it after every run and taking each day as it comes

Have a great week guys

Owain

Owain Lewes wrote:

Hi Folks. A belated Happy Thanks Giving Holiday. hope those of you who ran in Turkey Trots raced well. Ok my week

Monday: Weights

Tuesday: 35 minutes

Wednesday: Weights

Thursday : 40 minutes

Friday: AM-I hour 10 minutes PM- Weights

Saturday: Rest

Today: Drills and strides. Followed by 1 mile of bends (jog)/Straights (Fast strides). Ran in Dragon Flys....felt great with a fast cadence. Normally I would do this in Asics Sortie flats (Minimalist). But what a difference wearing the Dragonflys especially as my school track in China is hard. And no reaction suffered by my achilles tendons.

Next week I will just increase things and add another stride session on Tuesday. My patella is ok, just a matter of managing it, icing it after every run and taking each day as it comes

Have a great week guys

Owain

Do you think your achilles and patella issues would resolve if you stopped lifting weights?

Turkey Trotted Yesterday. 19:50 for 5k 4th overall (3 high schoolers home for the holidays). I'll take it for M61 and in preparation for Club Nats XC as this course had a steep third-mile hill.

happy post-Thanksgiving, everyone.

Stiff and sore in recovery from Northern Central Railroad trail marathon yesterday, 15th overall and 1st M60-64 in 3:08:48 (age grade 81%). I think last week I gave 3:03-3:10 as range from various predictors and stated intent to go out at 7:10/mile. Ended up at 7:12/mile with mile 26 in 7:15, so pretty close to expectation overall.....

......but actually out too fast given conditions (1:32:47 first half, 1:36:01 second half) -- after a downhill first 0.8 miles, this course is out and back, and the first half is in the slightly uphill direction, and yesterday into a steady wind (forecast was for 14 mph at race time; don't know actual, but definitely gusty and cold -- glad i wore tights). So even effort would have been the opposite -- faster on the way back with tailwind.

Hamstring, hip, piriformis, everything got tight and sore early -- I was probably too tense running into the wind and was between packs so not really sharing the load of leading into it (there was one young guy I was near from mile 5 to 7 or so, but he'd surge to get away every time I caught up, so I can't say we were smart about teamwork). Tough stretch from about 10 to the turnaround, but I got a second wind thereafter.

Qualified for Boston '23, and unless I forget quickly what the race felt like that will likely be next marathon.

have a great week,

Dave

PS big props to CM on 3:02 at age 63 earlier this year -- I think i was on that pace for about 2 miles.

Owain,

Achilles (left) and patella (right) issues are here too. Hope to get rid of them in winter if the ski season is long enough and gives some rest to these "components".

This my week was quite weak, as some previous ones. Bad weather, a hell of work with too late arrivals home and too early departures from.

Nevertheless, moderate tempos go well.

Mon – off

Tue – 7 miles on road with 3x1.5 km moderate in the middle (6:30, 6:18, 6:19)

Wed, Thu – off

Fri – 50 min elliptical

Sat – 7 miles with 5 km tempo in the middle on dirty/icy/slippery trail at 22:47

Sun – 6 miles with 3 km tempo in the middle on dirty/icy/slippery trail at 12:57

Greetings and wishes for happy and injury-free run to all!

dhaaga,

Dave, congrats on your great race at the NCR marathon! What did the course look like? Does the word "trail" there mean that there was no or little pavement, but just an off-road?

Quick post before sleep at 9pm. Crazy week and around 100 miles for the first time in 10 years. Some hard stuff mixed in and feeling great. 1 week into my 3 week crash marathon training done and hope the luck continues. Not feeling fast but hoping that is caused by the volume. Ran first long run in years today. 16.5 miles and with 4 miles 5 secs under marathon pace and 5 more of 1-2 mile ints at around 6 min pace. Much harder than it should have been and was struggling to hold 8 min pace the last 5 miles. Think 2:46 is far from reality at this point. Won the over 50 at this race twice the last few years with 2:46 and change but hope I can top three with a sub 2:50.

About 30 of the miles were VERY slow jogs on the treadmill so only 70 true running miles. Treadmill in italics.

Mon

16,0 mi 2:00:03 130 bpm 25x1 min at 3k rt

4,4 mi 36:13:00 124 bpm

Tue

6,9 mi 1:00:02 113 bpm

2,3 mi 26:15:00 103 bpm

3,8 mi 34:52:00 114 bpm

Wed

6,3 mi 46:33:00 136 bpm 4 miles at MP

5,4 mi 40:12:00 130 bpm

Thu

7,8 mi 1:07:01 119 bpm

5,2 mi 43:13:00 120 bpm

Fri

11,6 mi 1:36:58 119 bpm

3,9 mi 30:19:00 107 bpm

Sat

3,9 mi 48:01:00 105 bpm

4,4 mi 31:56:00 132 bpm

Sun 16,3 mi 2:01:34 133 bpm 4 miles 5 secs below marathon pace + 5 more 1-2 mile ints around 6:00/mi

2,2 mi 27:03:00 103 bpm

18x Running 99.8 14:20:16 121 bpm

Checking in after just playing the lurker for a few weeks. Trying to minimize social media from my life. It feels like such a huge waste of time and energy. I've been off Facebook for about a year, just keeping it active to keep my business page alive. I got away from Strava too. It just wasn't for me.

Lot's of new names here. I'm trying to keep up with everyone and maybe figure out who people are! Probably best to keep it mostly anonymous. My running seems to be going in the right direction. Minimal aches and the achilles is doing very well. I've kept the miles up over 40 each week since June. The past two weeks have been 50+. I'm really happy to get that sub 19 out of the way at our Turkey Trot last week. I ran what I thought I was capable of running at 18:45. For a 86.7% age grade. Which gives me ton's of confidence I can get back into the 90%'s next spring after a solid winter of 5k specific training! Since that was done on low mileage of mostly easy running. It's kinda hard to believe a 90% will only take an 18:08 when I turn 62 next May. Of course that's all dependent upon remaining mostly healthy!

I've got no races planned in the near future. I'm shooting for a goal 5k race in June and sort of thinking about the Masters Mile champs if I can get my time down under 5:15 or so. And maybe a HM in Northern MI with my daughter next May.

Welp, I guess that's it from here. Keep on keeping on...

Dave

Greetings, fellow 50+ers and Happy Hanukkah to those celebrating!

This holiday week had much joy with the grandkids visiting for the entire week. They even brought my spouse and I a “special” present…they gave us a cold! Oh, well, what you gonna do? They live several hundred miles away, so we don’t see them very often. When we do we make the most of it, short term health be damned.

Though the illness was mild, it did set my running back a bit as I opted out of running on Friday. That gave me three consecutive rest days which I believe was beneficial. I was back to running today and only had to blow my nose once. Anyway they are gone now, so I currently have no excuses for the coming week.

We did see our first snowflakes of the season and are now regularly waking up to freezing temps. The windchill was in the low 20s for Wednesday’s run, so I broke out the running pants for the first time this season. The cold/windy weather and the extra layers tend to slow me down a bit, but I should be able to maintain my usual volume with all else being equal. With the extra day off this week, put me down for a smidge over 16 actual running miles for the week. Life is good!

Mon: 63’ CR; body wt ex + med ball routine

Tues: off

Wed: 54’ CR; body wt ex + med ball routine

Thu-Sat: off (illness)

Sun: 54’ CR; body wt ex + med ball routine

Best to most!

Nice racing from several folks. This week I took some days away from running to let the hip heal. Managed 3,000 yards swimming, 60 minutes spin bike, 4 miles walking, and 3 miles running. Saturday’s running workout included 4 x 100m repetition in 24 and a tempo 1200m in 6:04. I will try to add a bit going forward.

Have a good week.

Igy

Happy Thanksgiving weekend to all! As someone who has changed sports and events multiple times my PRs are scattered through the decades. 220yd and 440yd -1972, marathon and 10k -1985, 1/2 mar - ?, mile - 1992, 5k -1997.

Dhaaga congratulations on an impressive marathon time. Racerdb solid 5k. KPdx good tune up race and don't forget to schedule your Covid test the week before Club XC. I just scheduled mine for the Monday before. This week was an easy taper week for me with just 25 miles. I don't feel as fresh as would like, but that's fine with two more weeks to the race.

dhaaga, congrats on the solid marathon under what seems like tough conditions!

BigMango, so far so good on the quickly ramped-up marathon training. Keeping fingers crossed.

Racerdb, that’s an excellent 5K turkey trot. Congratulations!

I was able to jog only three days this week because of continuing hip cramps. My left hip came up a little sore after Tuesday’s jog so I took Wednesday off. My Thanksgiving morning jog seemed to go OK but immediately afterward the hip seized up and I could barely walk for the rest of the day, and I took the rest of the week off. I’ve been taking supplemental magnesium for a couple of weeks because I’ve read that a Mg deficiency can cause muscle spasms, and the defining characteristic of dystonia is having muscles firing at inappropriate points in the stride. But the Mg seems to be having the opposite effect, not only the hip cramps but also bad calf/ankle cramps waking me up at night. So I’ve quit that supplement and will see if it helps.

Mon: 3.6 mile jog in 41 min, 38 min bike trainer, 10 min rowing, gym

Tues: 4.1 mile jog in 46 min, gym, 12 mile bike ride (bailed out after 2 flat tires)

Weds: 45 min bike trainer, gym, 18 mile bike ride

Thurs: 4.1 mile jog in 45 min, 22 mile bike ride. Hip very painful after run.

Fri: 45 min bike trainer, gym, 22 mile bike ride.

Sat: 45 min bike trainer, 24 mile bike ride, gym.

Sun: 46 min bike trainer, will ride bike outdoors later once it warms up.

The Dystonia Recovery Program releases content on a weekly basis, and the first week wasn’t useful—just a few very simple exercises that are things I can do easily and am already doing, like dorsiflexion of the ankle, plus things like breathing exercises which seem silly. Today I should get access to the next week’s worth of leg stuff, and I’ll see if that’s any more useful. So far I think this is just a way of slowly separating me from a small amount of money (it’s on a subscription basis, $35 per month) but I’ll give it at least a few more weeks.