fall masters training

I ran a 2:09/800 this summer in NY!! I run easy long miles and one track workout a week.

I've been hiking and climbing almost daily all summer, on rainy days I am ramping things up. Ran 13 yesterday, the first run over 6 miles since mid-June.

I've been doing maintenance weekly speed fartlek sessions to keep some turnover. Legs feeling pretty darn good at 53!

I had a good track season, but it extends for such a long time especially for those of us who run indoor track. I've found that 4-6 weeks of base training, core work and maybe a moderate interval workout once a week gets me mentally and aerobically prepared for competition again.

I do enjoy cross country, but they serve more as early season races for the indoor track season (first meet is early December).

I live in Houston and obviously summer is brutal here. September the weather not so hot and October is when I crank up my intensities. In the past, if I am able to do half-decent workouts in the summber, when fall arrives I find myself doing very good workouts

what do you all think of hills and 1000m repeats this fall?

Mileage, long runs, tempo runs and 2-3 times a week striders. A couple of 5kms and a 10km and maybe a XC race thrown in by Thanksgiving. Some indoor races in January-March along with more base training, weekly tempo and once a week speed sessions (e.g., 6-8 X 150m @ 800pace with 2 min rest). More serious speed sessions in April-May as I get ready for Canadian Masters outdoor in June.

So far mileage building is going very well, no injuries and legs feel fresh at 50mpw. Want to get to 60mpw over winter at age 45 with as mentioned tempos and one speed session.

Hills are great anytime of year except during peak competition season. I live in a hilly area and feel I get enough of them without doing repeats, but that's probably debatable.1000 repeats are one of my favorite workouts. I just did a set last night, but at slightly slower than 5k pace rather than slightly faster (which is where they tend to be in mid-season). We were lucky to have had good weather starting in early April and still have a group meeting every week for an interval session. Winter will be tougher.

miss master wrote:

what do you all think of hills and 1000m repeats this fall?

This is a time of year (post track) to recover and then build up your reserves slowly for the next years (hopeful) onslaught on the oval.

Build up your mileage. Work on core work a couple times a week - at least. Start doing hills weekly (:30 - 5:00) - mix it up. Instead of speed sessions on the track, I aim for the trails and either run marked courses or do ??minute repeats. Since I do some XC, this includes up & down terrain, with plenty of 90 degree turns thrown in.

Take a down week at least each month & aim for some kind of competition about every month.

Great mental break time.

Cheers

ty

any other master's struggle with training and producing desired results in races, for me I have only been running for 10yrs (now 42) and really have struggled this year, interested to hear about rest periods of one week or more as this is something I have never done, when things go bad (as in races or feeling tired, fatigue) I usually just keeping training and for the most part do more training hopefully to gain fitness, obviously this way doesn't work and concerned that I have dug myself into a big hole that I cannot get out, for the last few weeks my easy runs have been difficult and don't have the feeling of easy anymore, blood work done and everything normal(thyroid, ferritin, etc.), not sure what else to do, any ideas?

also meant to add I find myself getting sick quite often over the last few years, even more so than my kids, seem to pick up a virus or something frequently

My lack of rest weeks is probably attributed to believing I would lose fitness and attitude of doing more we make will race faster

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