50 year old trying to run 4:30. Help!

Forget the 200's. The rest is OK. Injury prevention is paramount. Not sure why you're posting this question with your experience. You must know more than 98% of letsrunners. Also with your experience you would know that 4:30 is way out of reach - 4:50 maybe. FYI I was your standard and am 52 now.

I agree with Tony, Northwest Master, the current Record holder, you should get in decent 3k 5k shape first. You need to be in sub 16 shape for 5000m. Do you do any road races? Getting into about sub 33.30 shape would mean you have the endurance.

Leaky wrote:

Forget the 200's. The rest is OK. Injury prevention is paramount. Not sure why you're posting this question with your experience. You must know more than 98% of letsrunners. Also with your experience you would know that 4:30 is way out of reach - 4:50 maybe. FYI I was your standard and am 52 now.

4.30 isn't way out of reach, don't be such a cynic.

5 is hard

I'm only 44 and taking the same approach as many here mentioned: getting in the best 5km/10km shape I can before tackling the 800 and mile as a geezer.

"5 x 1 km at 3 km pace would be a recipe to injury"

Hell, it's all a recipe for injury but if you can't handle 5 X 1km @ 3km pace (equal time rest) then the mile time is not going to happen. I would not, however start your training with this workout. Begin with 5 X 1km @ current 5km pace (3:30km with 3min rest) and adjust the rep time as your races get faster. I also find longer reps like 1,200s @ 5km pace more beneficial, with almost equal time rest (your case 4:12 with say 3:30-4min rest). I'm finding now that 400s and even 800s @ 5km pace not that challenging anymore but I will do 800s @ 3km pace every other track workout (6 X 800m with equal time rest).

And do not neglect hills: they give you a load of strength throughout the training cycle: 200s and 400s @ 1500m effort with more than equal time rest (walk-jog back down hill) are wicked as you get closer to race date.

Gotta love the guys who look at master's records and say (if only to themselves): "4:25? That's soft. Hell, I ran that in high school on 30 miles a week. A few months of 50-60 miles and I'll have the record."

HAhAhahaha

Yes

wellnow wrote:

4:30 isn't way out of reach, don't be such a cynic.

Really? Name one man over 50 years-old who can do it now.

There IS one runner who could! I believe that Nolan Shaheed ran around 4:25-4:26 numerous times in his early 50s and was running around 4:43-4:45 after turning 55.

I am not aware of anyone over 50 who can do so now.

training advice wrote:

FTIR wrote:

Start here:

He is looking for training suggestions, not drugs.

"Drugs" ... really? Quite an accusation coming from an incarcerated drug-abusing pedophile.

To the original poster: I'd suggest starting with incremental goals rather than shooting for a near-world record performance right out of the gate (Nolan Shaheed, the record holder, ran 1:58 for 800 and 15:36 for a road 5K at about the same time he was running his M50 mile records). Given where you're starting from, there's no way that 4:30 is going to be the result for one of your first miles, so you're setting yourself up for disappointment by making that your goal. Shoot for 5 minutes first (or even 5:20), then bring it down as both your overall and race fitness improves.

I'm not trying to be negative or pessimisitc here. In fact, exactly the opposite! If you get into the process of incremental improvement (or, as so many of us masters can attest, of incremental slowing-down), you'll enjoy the hell out of yourself. But if your focus is on the type of phenomenal performance that can only result from long-term intense training (even if you're super-talented), then you'll have a long-term wait before you can feel that exhilarating sense of accomplishment that helps sustain us.

Oh, and listen to Northwest Master. He's right.

Good luck!

OrvilleAtkins wrote:

There IS one runner who could! I believe that Nolan Shaheed ran around 4:25-4:26 numerous times in his early 50s and was running around 4:43-4:45 after turning 55.

I am not aware of anyone over 50 who can do so now.

Yes, Nolan did it, but he is the World Recorder holder at 4:27.9 which he did in February of 2000. I think this shows how difficult if is for a 50 year-old to break 4:30, you just about need to break the world record to do it!

Tony Young will have a shot at this in a couple of years, but obviously the OP isn't Tony Young.

training advice wrote:

FTIR wrote:

Start here:

He is looking for training suggestions, not drugs.

Pete Magill is clean, asshole. Your conscience isn't. I would love to see you accuse him of taking drugs to his face.

M 65

4:56.4

Derek Turnbull

NZL

05.12.1926

29.02.1992

Wow, Amazing. Imagine being 65 and still able to run sub 5.

Shoot for a sub-5:00 mile, then maybe sub-4:45. Starting by shooting for the impossible dream is a good way to get discouraged.

I had a FTIR run on a humic acids sample. I treated the sample with Mn-Oxide and found some changes in the spectra over untreated humic acids.

I'm 52 and was aiming for a sub 5:00 mile last year (did 5:05 on an out and back road course - headwind all the way home. Also didn't have the chance to do any other 1 mile races for prep).

I've always found that 8 x 400m with about 1 1/2 - 2 min. recovery gives an average pace for what you can run for a mile. I guess you would have to start with slower than 4:30 pace and work down.

I also did some 1200m. time-trials at 5 min pace. I found that even after I could do the 400s comfortably, when I ran a half at the same stage, I had massive lactate build up. It only took a few weeks of stretching it out from 1000m. to 1200m. until I could do the time-trial quite comfortably.

I would say you might also want to do some faster 150, 200 or 300 repeats with longer recovery for lactate tolerance (maybe in sets - we used to do 3 x 4 x 150m with a walk back recovery).

Ideally you would want a few track races to prep too, including some 800s.

Don't necessarily agree with that. I'm low milage 52yo(about 30 per week), but I regularly run 6 x 1000m with around 2:30-2:45 recovery at well under 5k pace. I would think for a speedy runner, 5 x 1000m at 3k pace would be very possible.

Actually, working on the basis that I'd be pretty happy to break 11 mins for 2 miles (had a 17:38 best 5k last year), the last time I did 6 x 1000m. I did 5 at 3:27-28, with the last at 3:22, so comes out at about 3k pace.

You're going to need at least 57-58 sec 400 meter speed. Start there.

My Norton just said that Pete's site is unsafe?