50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Sure enjoyed that W10,000 yesterday. Wow!

Mon = 72 min easy, flat, hot
Tue = 72 min easy flat, hot
Wed = 72 min easy flat, hot
Thr = 72 min, easy in big park that KP’s kids will prob be invited to Sept 10th
Fri = Yard Work
Sat = 73 min easy, flat
Sun = 73 min easy, flat

Not very exciting running but it is the most I’ve done since March of 2011.

Have a good one!

Good morning. I continue to make progress in my training. I was able to absorb some weight training, gym exercises, and more running volume. Took a slight step back in training sessions to accommodate the varied stress. My weekly total was 44 Igy miles in 8 sessions: 12 miles running, 10 miles walking, 120 minutes spin biking, and 4,000 yards swimming. Improved general fitness can be gauged by a couple of factors including running mileage, spin biking revolutions, and elapsed swimming times. The goal will be to add a weight/gym session and running volume.

Have a good week.

Igy

Mon: no

Tue: 7 miles. 5 sets of curls, pull downs and swam.

Wed: 5 miles. Columbo episode “ Dawns early light” only episode where I am in favor of the murderer. Summer in AZ is like what winter used to be back in Indiana. Run/ read, re-runs. That’s it.

Thurs: 5 miles ( 4am) 5 sets of curls, pull downs and swam. Perry Mason episode “ Case of the jaded joker” classic “ I’m not a chuckle man!!!! “

Fri: 6 miles. Strides. even those re-injured my latest surgery knee.

Sat: 6 miles 5 sets of curls, pull downs and swam

Sun: 5 miles. Found a roof in the middle of the road after last nights monsoon wind storm. With my head lamp on at 4 am, at first I thought it was a car with a cover on it, but it was a crumpled up roof, ran 2 more miles after watching Levins effort in the marathon on TV… man that was a great race. Two sets of curls, gonna watch a couple episodes of Perry Mason, maybe watch “ Dawns early light” again because there is some catharsis even in that murdering Colobels performance.
I cheer when I hear him say to the guy that’s gonna close down his military academy “ And what do you believe in Bill? That plastic world of advertising you fit so well in?” ( he kills him a little later)…..THEN the mens 10000!!!!

also enjoyed men's marathon this morning, most of it while on treadmill in condo gym. great world champs so far.

M 1:50 double incl. 6 X 3:00 fairly hard uphills

Tu 1:20 with drills/strides

W 1:35 before annual self-proclaimed day off to go see Nationals in a day game (like most these days, a loss, but at least I saw a Soto homer and got the "senior discount" on ticket)

Th 1:20 with 5 X 4:00 (3:00 jog) at 5k effort (ave. 3:52 at 1000 meters) + 30:00 x-t

F 1:20

Sa 1:25 + 1:00 x-t

Su 2:40 picking it up at the end though probably not down to marathon pace

Have a great week,

Dave

Greetings!

After a surprisingly slow 10K a week ago (40:47) decided to re-charge the batteries and concentrate more on a mileage for the next 4-5 weeks. For it means 40 mpw. This week was far away from the goal, but yet inside the desired range of 30-40 mpw. All miles easy at 8:00 - 8:20 min/mi pace.

Mon – off
Tue - 6.5 miles
Wed - 6.5 miles
Thu – off
Fri – 4 miles
Sat – 8 miles
Sun – 6 miles
Subtotal – 31 miles

Happy running to all!

Greetings from Eugene
Fantabulous meet so far. How about last night’s sweep of the 100? 🧹

Just back from a training run out on Pre’s Trail. Was able to use my press credential to access the finish line of the marathon mid-run…very cool.

Headed over to watch the men’s 10,000 momentarily.

Lovin’ life in TrackTown.

Everybody stay well…have a most excellent week of training and racing.

Your pal,
MF

I'm jealous. The high today where I am is supposed to be 106 so I had to do my "training" (a 25 mile bike ride) at the same time as the first half of the marathon. I did get back in time to watch everything that mattered. What a bunch of very good times!

Still struggling with one thing or another. I've gotten the Morton's neuroma calmed down but still have a lot of tightness/pain in my butt area which I guess is the rheumatoid arthritis moving into different places. I didn't attempt any running this week but did manage to log 25 miles of fast (sub 15 min/mile) walking, 78 miles on the bike, 6 days in the gym, and several miles of slow walking wearing hiking boots and carrying a backpack loaded with somewhat more weight than I intend to carry on a 2-night trip.

I'm looking forward to the WC women's marathon tomorrow morning, and then hope to take off for another backpacking trip on Tuesday, weather permitting.

It seems to have taken about 10 days for me to fully recover from my July 4th 10k. I was still feeling tired early in the week, but yesterday and today were solid runs. 38 miles for the week -

M- 6mi easy at 10:30/mi

T- 4mi of 400 walk/400 run

W- 5 mi walk

Th- 6mi of easy run with 0:10 sprint every 5:00 (suggested by my Garmin) 9:22/mi ave

F- off

S- 7 mi hilly trails with my son 9:35/mi

Su- 10mi trails with my other son and d-in-law 8:36/mi

Good running and WC viewing to all!

Two weeks ago: traveled to San Diego to watch four games between the Giants and the Padres (spoiler alert: they split).
M, 7/4: 16M @ 10:30 pace (5M cut downs from 11:00 pace to 10:00) in a change-running shirt-three times weather

T: 55:00 treadmill @ 13:05 pace

W: 8.25M @ 10:30 pace in awful heat

Th: 45:00 treadmill- then off to the airport: great afternoon dining outside in La Jolla (70 deg, light marine layer) - Giants lose 2-1 in 10.

F: 10M canyon trail run with my two baseball dudes on 800’ of elevation: long lunch outside overlooking the La Jolla Cove with a long lost high school buddy - Giants stink up the ballpark, losing 6-1; late night snack dining outside

Sat: 6M delta canyon run with the hammer dropping the last 1.5M; brunch; 1.5-hour walk along the Del Mar bluffs; twilight game with the Giants winning 3-2, late; late dinner outside

S: repeat 10M canyon run only a minute per mile faster; early brunch before Giants bludgeoning Padres 12-0; airport; arrive home at 3 a.m.

M: 7.5M with 18x200 at dusk. 90’s but all in the shade

T: 80:00 treadmill @ 12:50 pace

W: 7M @ 10:15 pace in thick, hot air.

Th: 45:00 treadmill

F: 6M with 15x0.07 quick strides

Sat: 16M @ 10:40 pace in hot, thick air. Time on feet, though managed to pick up pace steadily, albeit slowly. Saved an elderly gentleman from his heat exhaustion that was becoming a stroke. Kept him engaged while directing water, towels, movement to shade, a 911 call, and then excused myself after having a paramedic contact his family.

I got the Tour, the WC, baseball, and the Open. Been a couple of weeks. Enjoy yours.

Managed another Ok week-

Sat 9 - 7 miles in 50:49 (7:15 pace) including 3x2000m (8:48. 8:58. 8:59) with 1000m/5 min easy run recovery + strides

Sun 10 - 8 miles in 59:46 (7:28 pace). Was Ok until hitting 13 mile headwind for last 1.5 which slowed things a bit!

Mon 11 - 4 miles in 33:00 (8:15 pace)

Tue 12 - 8.1 miles in 59:33 (7:22 pace), including 6x1000m (4:15 to 4:20 pace) with 800m slow recovery.

Wed 13 - 4.44 miles in 35:29 (8:00 pace).

Thur 14 - warm-up - 6x short-hill sprints - warm down.

Fri - 15 - Off, but did do a lot of walking

Sat - 16 - 6 miles in 43:13 (7:12 pace), including 16x200m in average 44.1 with around 60 sec/200m jog recovery.

Sun -17 - 5.41 miles in 39:59 (7:23).

I've been enjoying the World Champs the past few days. From my couch! Especially that last 600 of the 10000 today. Man!!! Got home from church in time to see the last 4 miles of the marathon. Yeah I admit it... I checked my phone for updates in the early miles during the sermon!

I logged 50.4 miles this race week. Mostly relaxed running with some clunky strides on Tuesday. My race Friday night went ok. Ended up 18:50 splitting 6:02,6:23,5:54, :31. I just can't handle any sort of hills. A train overpass about a half mile in seemed to zap any zip I had in my legs. Then we hit a golf course for about 600 yds then immediately into a cemetery that had a fairly steep rise for about a 1/4 mile. I was at 6:45 pace at one time during that 2nd mile while crawling up the hill. Just before 2 miles the course came back down with a long gradual downhill before hitting the same train overpass with about 600 to go. So I was able to get rolling pretty good the last mile to save my race. I never really felt that great. Maybe it was the 100% humidity or the 6:00 race time. Or working most of the day of the race. Age grades ok at 86.37%. Looking at past years, I've run about 30-40 seconds slower on this course. In 2013 I ran 17:06 at this race; two weeks before I ran 16:32. In 2014 I ran 17:05 at this race; a few weeks later I ran 16:38.

That's it from here. Still running at 100% healthy and my only goal is remaining that way. The times will then take care of themselves! Next race is an August 7 road mile.

Have a good run,

Dave

Excellent Twilight 5k Dave!

A bit of a setback for me this past week gearing up for Lexington. Aborted one of my tested & proven "Magic Workouts" Sunday (1200TT 400 400 200) when I went through 800m at a slow 2:45 (no look watch splits first 2 laps). Took one day off. Redemption Tuesday went way better with a 3:12 1000m TT. But then went into four straight days of DEAD LEG Syndrome! Lowlighted by dropping out of my 1500m race Sunday at 2:38 800 split. It just happened; if you know what I mean. Been there done that and therefore know what to do next to get my legs back. Some of this was caused by a lot of mental anxiety - life stuff.

Thought I'd throw this out there but I'm guessing you've tried about everything long ago, but: Have you tried crossover drills or running backwards? I apologize if you have already mentioned it and I missed it.

Rtype, thanks for the suggestion. I have not tried crossover drills (that's a basketball thing, isn't it?) but running backward works OK, or at least as OK as I'd expect for not being able to see where I'm going. Running backward does not, however, seem to improve my ability to run forward!

Great week and starting to run again. Got in 26 miles on the roads and 10 of them were at TH effort or faster. Legs are beat-up and my calves needed 4 days to recover from the steeps downhills. Think this coming week the calves will be able to handle running again.

The race August 14 is on a very slow route with steep rollers from start to end. It will be around 81F at start and nearly 100% humidity. Goal is to be around 6:15/mi. Ran the first 5 miles on Sunday at 6:24/mi which is the hardest section of the race and faster than the overall winner(6:28/mi) last race. This race will be much faster because of the prize money for the top 3 which they didn't have last race. Only a few hundred dollars but that is more than most of the runners make each week here in Thailand at their regular job. It starts at the Temple a short walk from the house.

Mon

Run 6.5 54:01:00 8:22/mi 136 bpm First non injury test run in months
TM 14-16% incline 1:10:10 117 bpm
Tue

TM 14-16% incline 1:21:04 117 bpm
Wed

Run 11.1 1:30:57 8:13/mi 144 bpm First faster run more than a mile in months. Slower than expected (6:07/mi for 5k with steep hill) and high heart rate. Added in some some hill surges at the end. Still hacking up gunk every couple minutes.
TM 14-16% incline 40:01:00 112 bpm
Thu

TM 14-16% incline 1:21:05 117 bpm
TM 14-16% incline 33:01:00 114 bpm
Fri

TM 14-16% incline 1:50:01 133 bpm 28x30 seconds 2k effort- 11 kph and 21cm incline, 4x20 @ 13 kph, + 15 mins of random 5k effort ints at 8kph and 21cm incline. I'm confused righting that...
Sat

TM 14-16% incline 1:20:01 122 bpm
TM 14-16% incline 20:29 113 bpm
Sun

Run 9 1:13:35 8:12/mi 151 bpm First 5 miles race route 32 mins threshold steep hill 6:24/mi. Faster than overall winner 3 years ago for first 5 miles. No prize money last time and guessing would need 6:00/mi up the hill and that ain't happening.
TM 26:16:00 95 bpm

Pardon me for delurking (I'm 2 years away from belonging in this thread)....

amkelley - I have been dealing with some very similar issues, though mine are not as pronounced as yours. I've also gone down the diagnostic rabbit hole - MRIs, EMGs, bloodwork, etc.

A few weeks ago, I got a second neurology opinion. This neuro suspected a mild focal dystonia, and prescribed me a drug called trihexyphenadyl (aka Artane). I take 1mg (a very small dose) 2 hours before running.

This medication has done wonders for me in terms of smoothing out the dystonia. It hasn't cured me 100%, but it has made things much better. Looking around on various message boards, it seems a few other people with runner's dystonia/focal dystonia have had good results as well.

I don't know if your neurologist has suggested trying Artane, or you've already tried it. If you haven't tried it, perhaps it's something you can raise with your neurologist?

Back to lurking....

All that other stuff sucks but this is what I see in your post. You ran a 3:12 1000 at 62 years old in a time trial! And the days that followed may have been due to that effort.

You're ready to go in Lexington.

Dave

Thanks for the confidence Dave. I needed that.