50+ Weekly Training Thread

Hi. Did a hilly 15K this morning in the pouring rain. Have abrasions in various places on my body(some I won't mention) from wet fabric rubbing since everything was soaked before the first mile. I was happy with my time at 68:08 but still only got 5th place age group. There are so many really fast runners out there it is amazing, especially in 50+. I race all year so although I have a few goal races I really can't take much of a break. My biggest real break is between Thanksgiving and New Years when I do 2 low key races in December. I find if I sluff off too much I put on weight quickly and lose everything I had previously worked for and it is just that much harder to get going. Running is so hard and time consuming that I'm afraid if I took a big break I wouldn't want to start again. Have a good week. TC

33 miles on 5 days running. I did some sharpening with 10 400's at 80% effort averaging 1:24 and yesterday hopped into a local 4 miler and managed a 25:46. Because the faster runners chose the 10 mile option of the two races I ended up winning this one just by pure dumb luck of the draw.

I feel like I build in more rest than most by never running Thursday's or Friday's so I have not taken a break since I started back in 2006. I will alter the mix, and after a Christmas 5k I'll get back off the track, do more mountains and trails and work on base through Feb. I'm still tempted to do some 1500's or 800's indoors but its hard to justify driving 200 miles to race for a couple of minutes.

Two solid track workouts, 3 tough weight/resistance workouts this week. My last goal track meet was late August. A sore achilles made me do low impact work the entire month of September, and for the last 3 weeks getting back into running/sprinting form has been challenging. Not to mention I have to lose 5 lbs. I usually take one week in between indoor and outdoor track season, and two weeks after outdoor track season. My fall off-season training is at a much lower level of intensity with longer intervals at lower speeds.

42 miles on 7 days. It was a fast-paced week, owing to running this Bourbon Chase Relay that started Friday evening and ended Saturday afternoon. In preparation, I had been doing a little more turnover work to try to crash-course my legs into race mode, given that I hadn't been doing any speed work since early August. This was all at the last minute, as I didn't fully commit to helping this team out until a week ago. I redoubled my efforts to try to get my hip to cooperate, too. In the end, I was pretty pleased with how my race legs went. I ran the 1st, 13th, and 25th legs of the relay and all had a net elevation gain. My average pace for the three legs that totaled 16.1 miles came out to about 6:10/mile. My first leg was 7.1 miles long and nearly half of it was on a gravel trail, it was all uphill and was my slowest at a 6:20 pace. Our team ended up 3rd overall. Not sure how much better I could have done if I was "race ready", maybe 10s/mile. All in all, though, the event was a blast (although my wife would beg to differ.) My hip is still a bit stiff, but it's continually getting better with all the exercises I've been doing. Not really sure how this week will go, as my legs are now sore as hell...but it's a rewarding kind of "sore as hell". :-)

As to the topic, this year, after my last goal race, my legs were pretty toasted, so I just backed off the speed work. So I guess that after my last "goal race", my main concern is to keep the base going, but try to let myself recoup from the "damage" associated with speed work. This winter, I plan to continue doing more strength and hill work, hoping that next summer's speed work doesn't take as big a toll on me as this year's did.

Hope everyone's in a good place.

Just switched to lower mileage a few weeks ago.

Was: 45-50mpw, mostly easy miles with a 12-16 mile long run.

Now: 35 mpw, no more than 5 miles a day with interval sessions of 10 x 400 in 3 of the days; 10 mile long run.

Reasoning: I was slowing down and not looking foward to the daily grind. The uptempo sessions have added some excitement, along with a speed infusion.

So far, it's been enjoyable.

Looks like everyone has had a good week so far with some impressive race times being turned in.

Typically, after a goal race I will take a week off then start another Lydiard style base building phase.

This week continues the minute per day build up. Although I was no where near rollerskis I managed to do a face plant by tripping over some debris in the pathway. This resulted in a strain deep in my left gluteus. I think I over extended a bit trying to catch myself. Nevertheless I put some Army trying to use with a nice PLF. While it continues to be a bit sore it is definately on the mend, so not break in the buildup.

Here was my week:

10/18 19 Min.

10/19 20 Min.

10/20 21 Min.

10/21 22 Min.

10/22 23 Min.

10/23 24 Min.

10/24 25 Min.

I a curious was to whether any of you have had a coach since you have been a master. If you have, was it a face to face sort of thing or via email? Also, what were the results? Did they help you achieve your goals?

Run On everyone!

Interesting week...two good sessions and one where I hit the wall like mile 23 of a marathon...was out to do 15 and just never felt good and by 1:15 was super lethargic...made an adjustment and turned it into 11 and immediately took two super easy recovery days...then went on to feel like a superstar in yesterday's time trial...lessons learned was that prior to hitting the wall, I only had one recovery day since the last hard session...these days more than ever, one must allow a more full rejuvenation period than in years past...and so here in comeback number 34 or 38 or some such foolish number spanning multiple decades managed a seventh consecutive 50 mile week.

"Train don't strain" and have a fine week of vintage running.

MF

a fine week for me with a total of 76 miles (a few of them hiking in the adirondacks) in six days. the week began with the 5K win i mentioned last week, continued midweek with a set of just four mile repeats at 10K pace in cold wind plus 8 or 10 strides, and culminated with a hiking trip where my husband and i ran as much as possible, but the ascent/descent in the snow was done at a walk. a fun time with new friends.

what do i do after my main goal race in a given season? search for a new goal race if i don't already have one on my calendar, sometimes continuing on the path i've been, although sometimes switching up the terrain or distance genre. right now, i'm in the process of moving down from ultras through xc, and ultimately to the mile in january. then i'll move back up in distance for an early spring 50 miler.

lucKY2b -glad you are making progress with the hip.

Runmore- a good coach can help your running improve much faster, if you are new at running. Running clubs often have coaches that will be happy to give advice when you join.

33 miles in 6 runs for the week.

Tues- 12x400 ave 80 sec.

Fri- 6x 90 sec hill reps, 4 1/2 min rec.

Will take a month or more off when there is a 6 month or more break in races, and then slowly build up to running 4 times a week. Or the end of a long track season, maybe ending in late May, and wanting to be ready to race well in Oct will mean taking only 3 weeks off, with no running or much else.

Hope everyone is enjoying the cooling temps,

Rich

Some steps up, but a bit of a setback, hopefully temporary

Ran 12 miles last week, most since June and that's the good news.

Mon-3

Wed-4

Sun-5

Also xc skied 3 times (we have a whopping 4" base, time for rock skis).

Tue-1:30 classic, mostly easy (2X 45 min)

Thr-1:40 skate with 2X6 min reps at LT effort (mistake)

Sat-40 min classic.

Weights (3X 40 or 50 min sessions)

Tue

Wed

Sun (did pull up PR with 3 sets: 19, 17, 14)

The Thursday skate with a couple faster reps was too much and I was hobbling on Friday. That's the setback. The good news is that things weren't too bad by Sunday's run.

I like to take 3 to 6 weeks recovery after a season, where I'll take a few days off after the last race and then just train easy/slow for the rest of the time. After 2 weeks of recovery I might start building in some threshold work once a week, and after about 4 weeks some strides and surges.

runmore, to answer your question about email coaching, i can answer an associated question. seven years ago i had a local coach, but we never met up in person other than socially now and then. he probably saw me race once or twice total and was there at my first-ever workout (before i started with him, i "just ran" but didn't "train"). within maybe four months of following his workouts, i dropped my marathon time from 3:35 to 3:21 and two years later, while being jointly coached by him and his then-wife, i achieved my PR of 3:17. that is, the changes he directed in my training were very effective -- they constituted the basic mix of paces, efforts, long runs, and recovery. prior to working with him/them, i just hadn't had a clue about what it meant to train. in addition, i found it fun to have an assignment to complete every day and then see how my "studying" led to success on the day of the test, so to speak. sometimes i miss having someone else set my schedule for me, but i also enjoy seeing things go well when i put it together myself and/or with the help of you folks.

44 miles on 6 days this week. I skipped yesterday's planned run to complete a small construction project with my son. When we finished we sat around drinking and watching football - living the Amnerican dream. About twice a year after goal races, I generally will drop down to running a very easy 4 mile loop from my house most days for a week or two until I feel like I am excited about picking up the mileage and intensity again.