50 and Slowing - Masters / Seniors Input Please

I am taking more off days or cross training days now do to trying to stay uninjured and a lessened amount of enthusiasm. It is hard to get too psyched up for a race when I go run my old training pace. I still can age grade pretty good but 17:45 5k's just don't excite me to go run some track workouts.

Mark has much work/family requirements these days and I think doesn't have the burn to race, he'd rather meet our Saturday morning group and go run a 10 mile run. I was in the same boat.

Knowing you will never run as fast as before has been a struggle.

I now look for unique races/courses and that has added some excitement to my races. ithout running any long runs, I recently completed the Pikes Peak ascent, as race I never did when I was young and faster. I still like duathlons, at least I can still goo fast on my bike.

Good Luck

I'm interested.

BHRR1 wrote:

This has been a great thread for us 50ish runners. Does anyone have any interest in a weekly 50ers training/race thread? I know there's a masters thread which is great but there's a big difference between 40s and 50s. I think we can relate better to our week to week struggles/gains and provide continous feedback and help for each other. Would anyone participate on a somewhat weekly basis? Should we at least give it a shot for a few weeks?

masters mid-sprinter wrote:

I suggest doing short sprints a couple of days a week, like 8x50 or 4x100 with near-full recoveries (five minutes at least).

After three days easy, I did these for the 2nd time this morning. My warm up was quite a bit faster, then 8x 55 with 90 second starts, 4 minutes walking around, and 4x 110 barefoot on the grass with 3 minute starts.

My warmup felt good, but the sprints felt harder and my muscles felt tight. The sprints had felt rather easy on Monday. The 110's today were .3 slower on the average.

Maybe I should do these only once a week, to allow more recovery. They are more of a challenge to my nerves than anything else. Afterwards I feel a slight headache in the back of my head, the same as when I ran sprints in my 20's.

Re weekly thread, I'm in.

sure start one up - a lot of the Masters thread regulars are in their 50s, though. But it's worth a shot.

as I said earlier, it took me three years to build up to doing these more than once a week. Be patient and take care of your legs and feet -- lots of self massage and stretching. I don't sprint until I am completely warm and stretched -- even if it takes a 45-minute warmup. Lately I get up at 6 a.m., jog to the turf for 7 a.m., and do a 75-minute workout three times a week that includes lots of drills and varied sprints. It took from age 49 to 52 to get to this point. Don't jump into this too quickly or you will get hurt. But you can regain a great deal of your speed and power. You just have to persevere and above all listen to your body.

This is my weekly schedule:

SUN -- 300 sprint, 100 jog, 100 sprint followed by 2x150.

MON -- sprints and drills; weights; 20-minute swim

TUE -- yoga class; 5x300 on grass; easy cross country

WED -- sprints and drills; weights; 20-minute swim

THU -- 40-minutes of cross country; yoga class

FRI -- sprints and drills; weights; 20-minute swim

SAT -- cross country or off

Yes, I obviously have time to do all of this. I'm self-employed and work from home, and I live across the street from a university, and also have a membership at a local YMCA. I have a supportive wife who's also very fit, so nutrition and activity are top priorities for us. I avoid running on the roads and I only do one workout per week (Sundays) on the track. The other sprint workouts are on astroturf, which is amazingly good on the joints. I've increased my speedwork by at least triple since starting on the turf earlier this summer.

GREAT THREAD

masters mid-sprinter wrote:

the principal is -- you want to touch down for as short a time as possible and lift off with power.

Thanks for your feedback.

Do you take 5 minute rests after the 50's?

mopak wrote:

Yeah, I'm leaning towards doing a regular "speed" work session. As you have probably noted elsewhere Driske I have started adding some barefoot grass "sprints" over 100-200m. It certainly helps me to feel like I can run faster, not sure whether it will happen on raceday but I'm hoping.

Barefoot sprints are great, especially on astroturf. I do some on my local high school's football field and sometimes run barefoot and slowly (due to the possibility of rocks, etc.) on the local grass soccer field. BTW, while running on the astroturf, I sometimes see the local high school track team which has a few runners also running barefoot. They are surprised to see an "old goat" sprinting the straights barefoot. Right now, I'm only doing long slow stuff due to an injury and being a few pounds overweight but I'll be back on the astroturf soon.

Bob Schul notes in his book In the Long Run that he ran 17:55 for 5K at age 60 and 39:55 for 10K at age 61, all on about 30 MPW. I assume it was all Igloi type training.

I'd sign on. 50's+ carries it own unique set of conundrums.

Talking about them with peers, beats the hell out of being propped up beside the jukebox.

satch age 68 wrote:

GREAT THREAD

On the other 800m for 50yr. plus thread you suggested people take up golf. Anal pore.

There is a high school track right by where I run on the grass, with an eight foot fence in between. I would love to run on that track and the field, during non school hours when the gate is not locked. Any suggestions for getting permission to use them?

A few decades ago I was in a low key race on a certified course where three 60+ runners ran in the 38's and 39's for a 10k. It was amazing.

There is a high school track right by where I run on the grass, with an eight foot fence in between. I would love to run on that track and the field, during non school hours when the gate is not locked. Any suggestions for getting permission to use them?

don't ask, just start running

mopak wrote:

Yeah, I'm leaning towards doing a regular "speed" work session. As you have probably noted elsewhere Driske I have started adding some barefoot grass "sprints" over 100-200m. It certainly helps me to feel like I can run faster, not sure whether it will happen on raceday but I'm hoping.

This is the most difficult issue; the need for vigorous exercises to maintain those young muscle characteristics but those vigorous exercises, when combined with mileage, seem to bring on injuries out of nowhere.

I'm just coming out of a week of cross training after tweaking my calf doing low box jumps and I did not know I was injured until about three days after the jumps.

Anyone who is familiar with Tinman's posts knows of critical velocity pace; that pace between hard 5k effort and 10k pace where you get the benefit of speed training without straining.

Some 'somewhat vigorous' efforts like at critical velocity seem intuitively to be a reasonable target for masters.

And, it seems that the critical velocity concept would be worth trying for other paces like doing work at a pace between half marathon pace and marathon pace in prep for a marathon.

In some ways, forumlating training strategies with an ever changing body is much more interesting and fresher at this age.

I'm not sure I understand. If the gate is not locked, I would just walk right in and run. If you need permission, probably the school's Athletic Director would be the guy to talk to.

In my case, the track and football field is open 24/7 and anyone can use it, no permission is required. If you do need permission, you might point out that high school students seeing adults training on the track could serve as inspiration to high schoolers to continue running after they complete high school. Thats the approach our local high school takes. I'm very welcome on our track as long as I stay out of the way during their actual practice hours.

Two years ago, I ran the Eugene Marathon and visited Hayward Field. I was amazed that I could just walk in and sit in the stands, no permission was required. I watched Galen Rupp work out. (I'm not sure when locals are allowed to actually use the track). Someone told me that Bill Bowerman instituted that kind of open policy.

gg wrote:

Anyone who is familiar with Tinman's posts knows of critical velocity pace; that pace between hard 5k effort and 10k pace where you get the benefit of speed training without straining.

Incorrect.

Quote from Tinman´s site: "An all-out run covering 35 to 45 minutes determines your CV pace".

That is 10k pace or slightly slower depending on how fast you are.

Well....Uvic. Track, take lessons!!!!

A very good approach for keeping running enthusiasm alive!!

Critical Velocity Pace? A new concept or a new name for tempo runs.

Actually this is a good thread here. Thanks here go to my e-mail bud for stering me to this.

Great thread......I would contribute to a weekly 50+ thread as well.

Without going into a ton of detail on my past, I'll contribute this:

First, manage the calf and groin injury (that you'll likely get or have gotten) well. The 'stick' advice is great and pay attention to any 'sports hernia' discussions. I've gone through both of these problems and I see many others in the mid-40s to 50s get them as well.

Second, I agree with changing paces for all of my runs. I do strides and fast sprints 3 X week (8 of them) and almost all of my workouts have steady running (critical velocity?) pace in them. Almost every time I run. However, I rarely run as fast as I possibly can. Personally, I've found this leads to injury very quickly for me so I avoid it.

Third, I cross ttrain - or whatever people call it. I run 4 days per week right now and swim, bike, etc on the other days. Each day I run, I get in about 10 miles. One of the 4 runs is a longer run (13 miles) but the others are all workouts. I rarely run slow and easy except for my warmup and cool down. And I try to run barefoot for those portions.

Everyone is different though. I like that there have been some significant suggestions here that work for me and that do not work for me. The weekly thread could answer some of these issues over time as a 'snapshot' of a week doesn't do anyone any good. It's the long haul that matters.