Masters Weekend Runs and Races

Started 'real' running about 6 weeks ago (turned 50) after 2 1/2 years off (probably averaging around 10 mpw during that time).

Decided to jump into a 5k to see if I still had any interest in racing, ended up running 18:59 and feeling pretty easy so maybe it's time to dust off the shoes!

Hello, fellow masters.

It's fun seeing how many Americans are caught up in the Olympic fever. I was having a couple of beers last night at a bar, and the band stopped playing so that they and the audience could watch Phelps and his teammates take gold in the swimming relay finals.

My week was more interesting than normal. A group of us did a 2+ hour run on a remote section of the Finger Lakes National forest yesterday morning. It was an absolutely perfect day for running, and I definitely got in my hills for the week. I only fell once, but had a few close calls.

We did a somewhat spontaneous beer mile on Friday, and that was tougher than I thought. I knew I was in trouble when we experimented with chugging out of cans and bottles on Thursday - it was much easier in college. We decided to go with cans. I ended up finishing in a respectable 9:07, but can do better now that I know how to find the rhythm between drinking and burping. My running splits added up to about 5:30, so there's not much I can do there, but my drinking splits of 0:20, 1:30, 1:10 and 0:45 are low hanging fruit. Jim Derick was the winner in an incredible 6:54, which puts him in the top 6 or 7 for 40+. I had trash-talked him a little during the week saying that he only had about 6 seconds per lap to compensate for my better drinking skills. That was quickly laid to rest when he reeled off a 64 second lap after his first beer. It was a fun evening and good practice for a showdown with some of my other Enclave teammates later this fall.

The track workouts went well this week - I averaged 3:13 for 5x1000m, with the last one in 3:10. My longer interval workout was 4x1 mile, which I ramped from 5:24 down to 5:15 for a 5:20 average. This has traditionally been my benchmark for my 5k pace, so I'm anxious to see how my theory holds together this fall. But any racing will have to wait until after Hood to Coast. Muddy Girl has put in a heroic effort to put together a good team, and I'm the lucky one who gets to run legs 5, 17 and 29.

Post 'em up! Unfortunately for me, it's off to work for several hours.

Greetings. Am enjoying the Olympics via the Danish website. Watched the women's marathon on the Norwegian website. Great to watch without commercial interuption. Just watched the men's 1500m semi's.

Poor Deena, what a horrible experience. Great for Shalane, you could watch the others coming back to her.

Marginal week again, nothing exciting in my training.

Have a good week!

Congrats on the Beer Mile time, it is a tough event. My 4th Annual Simi Valley Beer Mile is this Saturday. While you are running those H-to-C legs, you might ask yourself which is tougher.

Good success to all running H-to-C.

nyloco - Muddy Girl got me to run those same HTC legs a few years back. Took me about ... oh ... one year to recover! ;-)

Seriously, good luck with that.

Had a better week. As suspected, dropping a couple pounds (on the way to dropping many more) definitely made the running easier. No new injuries, and the old ones aren't affecting workouts. Even enjoyed myself on a long hill run yesterday. I really wish the key to our sport was beer and ice cream consumption (by which I mean, lots of both!), but unfortunately running as light as possible seems to be the path to both success and enjoyment.

Have a great week!

Carefully, assembled racing gear Saturday night, including the flats I left sitting home on the bed last time I went road racing. Went to the web site to confirm driving directions and start time - discovered race was Saturday morning. Just another masters moment - the body is willing, but the mind is weak.

Bad week running-wise here. I had a twinge in my quad which flared up when I tried to do a tempo run on Tuesday, so that lasted all of 10 seconds. Took the rest of the week off because yesterday was the Club Championships in Central Park, a 5-miler. Ran horribly, just under 30. I wasn't going very fast, but it hurt the whole way. On the plus side, the quad was not in play. Now it's hunkering down for NY.

So today I got in a good 8-miler.

I watched the women's marathon on NBC and on Saudi TV. But the 10K this morning was not on because they showed women's basketball.

Joe

Try this link

http://www.aelling.lir.dk/public/

It had been listed on letsrun earlier.

Click on the TV in the center, a new screen appears, then look toward the bottom and click on '??????Kategori' This lists several - Sport TV is what you want and don't accidentally hit the 'Erotica TV' link. After pressing 'Sport TV' the next bar lists several sport channels. The Danish sites are good - watched the 10K and 1500m semi's this morning. Yesterday watched the marathon on the Norwegian Channel - had to install the Koo Player which took 2 minutes.

No commercials.

Cheers

Howdy Masters. Thanks for getting us started Skin.

Early a.m. found me with a small group splashing through a shallow creek to a switchbacking singletrack a few miles up a heavily wooded slope to some forest roads on the ridge. The climb was a slow burn, just what the doctor ordered after a week of post-track season sloth, taking days off, pigging out on bacon cheeseburgers, fried chicken, chips and beer. Looking forward to laying in some base miles and longer repeats in the coming weeks.

Hope everybody has a great week.

Great story! It was especially funny since it hits so close to home!

Since I whined all the way through a 14 mile run earlier today, I figured I'd better post before my training partner spreads other information.

Long weekend for me but I'm still in one piece.

skinnbones wrote:

Since I whined all the way through a 14 mile run earlier today, I figured I'd better post before my training partner spreads other information.

I call foul! I call foul!

Is there no honor rules on this thread!?! How can we let one of our own side step those!?!

I can't believe my training partner steals my thunder! That's what I get for having to take a nap after the long run today! Another sign that I'm getting old!

I won't go into detail, and won't mention any whining! However let's just say don't ever suggest adding on a simple 1 mile loop on the traditional long run.....even if you actually got the training partner off the xc ski machine and having him actually run long on Sunday!!

Good week for me...50 miles with a solid tempo run, a couple of good repeat miles and a good long run this am.

Hi. Sitting here waiting for the men's 10K to come on. Too bad about Lagat. Ithought for sure he would make it. Maybe in the 5K. NY Loco, sounds like you are having a very fun summer. Hey driske, I'm going to sign up for that Whistle Stop 1/2 this afternoon. It sounds like a good time and I need something to look forward to and train for. Take care.TC

I conclude that the weight of the world must stay even. since SoCal Pete lost a few, I took up the slack by gaining a few pounds on vacation, and I could feel them during a sluggish tempo run Friday morning. Proud to do my part for the team, just as Geb did in the 10,000 [by the way, thanks to whoever posted on letsrun this morning that the 10,000 would be on NBC in the afternoon. My schedule from before the Games sed it would be on after midnight sunday night].

have a great week.

Ran 1.25 miles this week. The .25 was to make my back injury hut like hell before my MRI on Wednesday. I figured it was best for it to show up well on the pictures. Haven't had the result yet.

Did about 90 minutes of elliptical every day, along with some cycling.

Teams are shaping up well. Girls look really, really good right now. I am hoping we can make a trip to Portland with them this year.

Happy Olympic Week(s) to you all. I think I have watched more swimming in these Olympics (and have become somewhat of an expert) than I spent at any public pool or lake in my lifetime! Cool to see an athlete like Phelps (& Bolt) rise to a higher level. Each generation has their "M Jordan"

My week was either phenominal workouts (12-15 mile days) or I never got a workout in (3 zero running days).

Feel great and enjoying the Summer to its fullest. Off to "another" BBQ now. I hope the beers on tap are some good micro's!

I get more consistent this next week.

cheers,

ty

I've been enjoying the Olympics via that Danish website too.

The Norwegian feed for the marathon was great, as they had Ingrid Kristiansen on as extra commentator, and they kept trying to get her to compare both the conditions and the development of the race to LA in 1984. Even though I have occasional trouble with her dialect of Norwegian, it was fun to hear.

My own running is going only so-so. Am doing about 80 miles/week, but have been struggling with anemia. Some days are decent; others I have to walk just about every uphill and my breathing is off even on the flats. I can't wait for the weather to turn normal again in a month or so! Us Dutch people were just not made to live in the South. :-)

Hope everyone has a great week,

Maurits

This was my rest week after the rigors of the championship meet in Spokane. I jumped into a circuit training class at my employer's fitness center during my Wednesday lunch hour. Wow. It was hard, and I thought I was a tough cookie. I made it through all the circuits with good form and my head held high, but afterwards I was wiped out. And the next day my quads were screaming from too many dumbbell squats. I loved it! Gonna do it every Wednesday for cross-training efforts.

That was my only activity this week aside from stretching, but of course I didn't cut back at all calorie-wise, so my pants feel tight. I'm anxious to ease back into my off-season training. Tomorrow will be weights. Tuesday I'll join our XC group for some trail running. Let's see, Wednesday will be X training class, Thursday will be track, and I think I will take the weekends off for awhile. Hopefully that will make my pants looser.

Forgot to say that I laughed out loud at nyloco's beer mile narrative. Rock on, Scott!

Happy running to all, and good luck with upcoming races.

To JPGarland - How were the results of that race? I heard through the grapevine that one of my mates (also over 40) recently ran 25:23 for 5miles (and he currently is in NY).