50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

paul061 - Good luck this weekend - we look forward to your race report!

*************************

Week 204

*************************

Salutations, 50+ers!

Not much to offer this week. Rtype, I sincerely hope that you are right that the intense relay last weekend will eventually pay dividends and help propel me on to a better place, but right now, I'm still on the tail end of recovery. I usually expect a down week and a few niggles to contend with, but in the postlude to the previous weekend's relay adventure, I jacked up my back and especially my right hip. It's clear that the lack of core exercises, that I quit doing on account of this abdominal tear (now approaching 2 years hence), has fully caught up to me. Something in the piriformis area was well traumatized and weakened by the pounding it took; I don't even have the lateral strength to do a proper side-plank right now! I probably would have been OK had I stopped at two legs, but I think the third leg of last weekend's journey put me over the edge. I tried to jog a little Tuesday, hoping the hip would loosen up, but it didn't, and I abandoned the jog after a couple of miles on the track. As such, plenty of walking (2-4 miles most days), a good amount of stretching (multiple times a day), and a serious foam-roller action (also every day) have been the order of this week.

Mind you, this is meant to be an honest, not a somber, assessment. I'm happy that I did the event; I've been here before; things are finally calming down; and I'll be OK. It did expose the serious weak link I knew was there, and I'll need to address it if I'm ever to get to proper racing form. I was reluctant to get back to core exercises because it was moving me away from running at the time, but it's well past time to find a way back to doing what I know is a necessary component to a balanced training regimen.

Knowing that this coming week will be more productive than what I report here today (I'll take another stab at running today), I certainly hope that you all have fared much better, and look forward to your reports. Anyone race this weekend? (Nice races last week on the track, KP!)

Good Luck, Paul061, on your marathon this morning!

All the Best!

lucKY: I'd chalk that thing you did last week as a once in a great while adventure, something very memorable, fun, but a little risky. Sorta like sky-diving, but with a hard landing. Worth it....once you get over the landing....

My week:

Mon = 3, easy, road and trail

Tue = 5, hard, greenway miles of 6:30, 6:40, 6:43

Wed = 3, easy, road and trail

Thr = 3, easy, road and trail

Fri = 2, easy, road and trail

Sat = 5, hard, track 1600's of 6:22, 6:22, and 800's of ~3:10 (Dog) and 3:05

Sun = 3 easy, trail, run/hike

Tot = 24

A good week between races. Nothing much eventful other than a dog jumped in my way in the middle of my last 1600 on the track Sat. The track is fenced in, and multiple signs restricting all activity to running but these two teens had their dog there throwing the football. I love dogs and I'm sure he's a good dog but they could not keep him off the track. It was infuriating since I was finishing up a really good workout and the wind and temp were the best since November of last year. So my 1st 800 was estimated from my Garmin pace, but the second one was ran angry. As for the teens, I was angry, gave 'em 1 min to get out or I was calling animal control. They left quickly.

As for the specifics of the 1600 workout I had chosen laps of 1:37 and planned 6:28 1600's. Historically, I can do a 5K at about +6 seconds slower than my 1600's in this workout; meaning a 6:34(20:24 5K). Hitting 6:22's was a pleasant surprise as this gets me close to sub 20 (6:28 pace = 20:05 5K). My original goals for the year were first just to break 21 in the 5K. Then 20:30. I had no plans to break 20 but the trend is headed that way. But, as we know, avoiding the dogs in the way can be tricky.......

Have a great week everyone!

After my interval workout last Sunday one of my calves definitely felt tight and a little bit sore. So, a week earlier than planned, I took an easy recovery week. Mon.-Fri. I just ran an easy 4 miles each day and the tightness in my calf slowly improved. Yesterday, I tried to run a faster 4miles. I ran 3 miles at about 7:30 pace and then felt my calf start to tighten again so I slowed down and jogged home. Today was another easy 4 miles, with no noticeable problem, for 28 for the week. Tomorrow I will try to go back to an easy 8 miles, and if that feels fine, then repeat it each day until next Saturday and then try a faster workout.

Better catch-up so here's my 2 week report...Been enjoying everyone's posts; didn't have time to post.

Getting back to normal after a little vacation to SC last week. My system always feels all messed up and out of sync when my routine changes. The diet changes with eating out several times each day and usually eating too much, seems we spend a ton of time walking, staying up too late, then having to run early so I don't impede on the plans for the day. And on top of that I was still congested for most of the past 2-weeks. Seems to be about done, finally.

So... I have felt kind of clunky lately but sticking to the workout plan.

M: 12 miles @ 7:16. Post run coughing attack.

T: 8 miles @ 7:24 w/8x20sec post run strides @ 5:10

W: 10 miles @ 6:42 inc 5 mile tempo 30:32 (614,610,606,603,559) then 4x30 sec @ 5:10

Th: 6 miles easy

F: 9.8 miles inc 3xmile 5:34,5:32,5:24 w/400 jog rest

S: 6.3 miles easy @ 4:30am before a 11 drive to SC

S: Hilly 10.4 miles @ 7:20 in Greenville, SC

M: Hilly 9 miles @ 7:32 in Greenville, SC

T: 10 miles @ 7:00 on the Swamp Rabbit Trail inc 4x.7 miles at...5:59,5:48,5:28,5:34 w/.3 jog rest..

W: off drive home

Th: 8 miles @ 7:21

F: am: 4.5 easy, pm: 5.5 easy

S: 9.8 miles @ 6:58 inc 4 mile tempo 24:10 (605,607,602,556) then 6x30 sec hills. Felt like crap.

S: 4 miles easy

This weeks schedule is a solid 58 mile week with Tuesday & Friday workouts and a 15 miler Sunday. Next race is a 5K on May 16.

That's it from here...Keep on keeping on!

Dave

Thanks everyone for the well wishes. I can call myself a marathon runner now :-). Came in at 3:44:11 with splits at 1:51:46 and 1:52:24. I ran outta gas at the 23 mile mark and there were a couple of hills after that that really slowed me down. All in all it was a good day, the course was really hilly and I didn't train for hills. I ran the race exactly as I planned and wouldn't change anything if I had to do it again. the bad thing was my Garmin pooped out on me at mile 18 so I had to fly blind the last 8 miles. I really would like to see those last splits.

Here is the Garmin data for the first 18

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/764332804

Condolences mo'pak.

Week here went pretty well. I'm into a pattern of feeling mostly awful between races, which have been about 3-4 weeks apart since February, but feeling pretty good on race day.

Did a 25K trail race on Saturday, near Colorado Springs (elev. 6900-7400 on a 2 lap course). Fifth overall and semi-masters winner on a technicality because 2nd overall was 40 and was ranked in the open category.

56 miles for the week. I might not race until mid-June. Have a busy summer planned and 5 or 6 weeks of just running might be good.

Congratulations Paul ( I will NEVER call myself a marathon runner!) and get well wishes to L2B. So I'm unpacking now, We have the basics unpacked and now we have the "what do we do with this?" type of boxes. I will say it now, "My husband has far too many clothes." I will say he's extremely well turned-out (does a lot of public speaking and needs to look good) but he's got to discard a bunch of stuff. There's just too much of it.

OK - training: It's going well. I finally unpacked my track spikes late this morning so I will plan on taking my practice hurdles (which now live in the back of my SUV) to the track tomorrow morning. I've been doing weights and speed endurance work for the past week and a half and I'm feeling quite strong. My intervals are still kicking my butt, but it's taking a much greater effort to push my heart rate up. Today I did speed endurance intervals (6x150 under 23 sec with 1 min rest). My planned week ahead - Tomorrow hurdle work. Tuesday rest. Wednesday weights. Thursday speed endurance, Friday stairs. Saturday rest, Sunday block work and more speed endurance. First meet in 3 weeks!

Have a good week!

Tues. I walked 4.8 km then jogged/hiked 3.2 inc a steep trail. Then out for a steep rough 15 km mtn bike ride in 1 h 13 m.

Wed. A brisk 6 km walk then 10.7 km steep trail run/hike with 465 m of elevation gain. 1 h 30 m.

Thu. Paddling kayak on the lake.

Fri 48 km ride into work.

Sat. 15 mins on the elliptical.

Sun. Hiked 8 km with about 17 kgs on my back, 220 m of elevation gain.

Pretty minimal week, just trying to keep fit without stressing the hamstring.

Thanks for the kind words and condolences.

Belated condolences, mo'pak.

Week 204: 4 hours 0 minutes in 8 runs, 6 @30 mins and Saturday @1 hr. Bit of a tough weekend here with a funeral amongst other things. I fit it all in including my runs but by Sunday my running was slow, I tried to post here last night but fell asleep before I could manage it.

@Paul061 - Nice debut. I thought anything under 4 hrs would be good but didn't want to jinx you.

@mo'pak - So you don't overstride, but you did not explicitly state that Mandy does overstride. I deduce yes.

Congratulations on your first marathon, Paul. It's nice that you ran almost an even pace on your first marathon. Hopefully, I can run another marathon later this year.

Here is my week.

M: rest.

T-SA: 7 miles.

SU: 11.1 miles. (1:37)

It was very hot (low 80s) and windy on Sunday. I have to get up earlier to avoid the heat, but I guess I cannot avoid the wind. My glute/hamstrings are feeling better, although it was a bit sore after Sunday's run. Seems like my electric stimulation with heating is working. (Or it could be my strength exercise...)

Alan, Mandy has a seemingly ideal running stride. High knee lift, good extension and covers plenty of ground. She is my height and about 20 kgs lighter than me. But her cadence is around 130 per min. when running at 15 kph as we were in those photos. That day she ran the first km in 4.00 but dropped off to 4.40 pace by the end (3.2 km). Her stride shortens noticeably as she fatigues.

Alan do you or anyone else have any suggestions for training resources for me. I realize that after following the marathon training plan, I have no idea what to do next. All of my previous training was base training, I'm pretty sure I need to start some sort of speed work or hill work but I don't know what, when or how much. I also know I need to get my mileage up around 50 MPW and so how does the speed work play into that. Any thoughts, thanks!

*************************

Week 205

*************************

Happy Mother's Day, 50+ers, especially to you ladies of the group! Hope that you have a special day lined up! I'm leaving all arrangements up to my daughter, who just graduated with her nursing degree this weekend and already has a full-time job with bennies lined up! At this point, I feel that my job is done and I'm off the hook (OK, I'm kidding a bit....and let's not get into the whole marriage thing.....) ;-)

I'm relieved to say that my niggles (especially the hip) have quieted down, and I'm back on the road again. Kept the mileage low this week, but I did actually get in some speed (but not pushing to exhaustion.) Managed 18.7+ miles on four days of running. Did a fair amount of walking (especially on the non-running days....unquantified), too. Log reads as such:

Sun: off

Mon: 4.2 easyish (7:40/mi pace)

Tue: 4.6 w/4x400 (87 avg), 2x200 (36 avg), 4x100 strides

Wed: off

Thu: 4.2 moderate (7:10/mi pace)

Fri: off

Sat: 5.7 w/2.7@6:40/mi pace

So the week off didn't kill me, but I did notice that I was a bit rusty on the track Tuesday. After 4x400 at a pace I'd done two weeks ago, I was gasping, so I backed off and just did a couple 200's with full rest, and then opted to just run a couple strides and call it a day. Thursday, was just a quick run sandwiched between other obligations, and Saturday, the second mile had a long downhill which got me moving, then I kept it going for another 1.7 before I ran out of gas, eased up to 7:30 for the last two miles in (including back up the long hill. This week will be back to "normal" (I'm still not quite sure what that is these days.) I am itching to get back to racing, though, so that's a good sign; I haven't felt the desire to race in a long while.

Good news out of my high school: Olin Hacker (Olympian Tim Hacker's son) ran his first sub-9 3200m (also a school record.) Ran it pretty much solo for the last mile as the guy he was trading off laps with cut out after the mile mark.

Fun story on masterstrack.com:

http://masterstrack.com/2015/05/35799/

Props on your marathon, Paul061. Even splits, even though you say you ran out of gas at 23 miles. I say that is success! Hope you get some good answers on the what-to-do-next question. From my perspective, I would say it wouldn't hurt to drop down in distance for a while and work on improving your speed. Working on speed leads to better form; which then improves running economy (when done properly, so there is some ancillary stuff you'll want to include in that); which will then pay dividends if-and-when you choose to go back up in distance.....at least that's my conjecture.

OK. That's what I've got for this week. Onward and upward, knock on wood. I hope you are all doing well, and I look forward to your reports!

All the Best!

Greetings all!

I missed posting last week due to picking up my son from college, grading final exams, graduation etc. Tomorrow I'm heading off to England with 20 college students for a few weeks so I'm going to keep this short.

My week:

Sun: off - glute issues are back

Mon: 6 easy - ART

Tue: 6 easy

Wed: 7.6 (4 + 3X1600/400) 7:30-7:40

Thu: 8 easy - ART - glutes feeling better

Fri: off - out of town at conference

Sat: 6

Total: 33.6

Paul061 - Belated congratulations on your run!

Running Formula reader - tell us about your e-stim. Do you have your own machine? If so, what kind? I've often thought I would like to get one but I hear such mixed reviews. I know it helps when I've had it at PT.

Happy running!

Happy Mother’s Day!

lucKY, the fact that you survived last week and are not dinged-up bodes pretty well for the future.

SCgal, ART is the only thing I’ve seen work for glute issues. I had a case of it lasting 2 years. I had to change putting my wallet in my back pocket due to that problem.

My so-so week:

Mon = 3, easy, road and trail

Tue = 5, hard, greenway miles of 6:35, 6:46, 6:57 (hot and windy)

Wed = 3, easy, road and trail

Thr = 2, easy, road and trail

Fri = 1, easy, road

Sat = 5, hard, race: 21:23, 10th OA out of 298, 1st, AG

Sun = 3 easy, trail, run/hike (actually got son to run some with me).

Tot = 22

To prep for the Sat race I did mile reps on the course. At 5:15 pm it was hot and windy. I learned I'm not adapted to the heat and slowed on miles 2 and 3.

The race Sat started at 5:17 pm and was even hotter than Tue with bright sunshine and gusty hot winds. The airport temp was 82 but it was closer to 86 on the street. We all baked just standing around waiting for the race to start. The plan was to start at 6:45 pace and see where that took me. I hit 6:45 but started slowing right away as I got the dreaded cotton-mouth. Mile 2 was 6:57 and I was really struggling. The only funny thing in this race was at about 2 miles I caught this 13 yo kid. He saw me looking at my Garmin and he asked if we were going sub-20 pace. I said, no, we were way off. He took off and I never saw him again! Other than the kid I was still passing people. The 3rd mile was a very slow but very hard 7:04 mile. At the finish I saw more people puking and dry-heaving than I can remember in a long time. Last year in this race I ran 3 seconds faster but the temp was in the low 70's. I was 21st overall. This year that same time got me 10th overall. Most folks ran about a minute slower this year than last. So even though the time stinks I'll chalk it up as an improvement.

Have a great week everyone!

Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers...my sons and step-daughters have gone above and beyond, and our apartment is filled with the scent of flowers from the arrangements they sent. We're taking my mother-in-law out to lunch in a couple of hours. And I spent my morning at the track with a sprinting friend (who is also a mother). We celebrated a good workout with a couple of post-sprinting protein shakes.

Unfortunately my hurdling has hit a snag. A campus policeman politely but firmly told me that I couldn't bring equipment (hurdles) on the Santa Monica College track without a permit and liability insurance. So I will investigate what that entails. We already have an umbrella policy so I may just have to add the college as an additional insured. Hoops to jump through, ugh! In the meantime my friend and I are investigating other venues. She thinks Long Beach State may be a possibility, we'll see.

This morning we met at a local park which has a running track around a soccer field. The track was crammed with runners and walkers and it only has 5 lanes so our speed work was limited. We practiced sprints on the soccer field and I was able to work in some hurdles there as well (astroturf wasn't too bad with spikes). I'm going to visit this track mid-week during the day and hopefully it will be empty enough so that I can fit in some hurdle runs on the track instead of the infield. I still plan on entering the hurdles at the Striders meet on the 23rd but I may have to be prepared for some humbling results if my practice is limited.

Hope everyone has a great week ahead!

Have been MIA for a bit, but reading every week what you all are up to.

Had a bad car accident and finally got the x-ray results. Concussion fracture of the L4. It hurts, both physically and mentally. Hopefully PT and a brace will do the trick but will see what the doc says versus surgery.

Cherish each day my friends, if I crashed 50 yards +/- I would likely be dead. Someone was watching out for me. Run like you mean it.

Matt

My week didn't go as planned, but probably was the right thing to get my sore calf close to normal. I had planned to try to go 8 easy on Monday, but my calf again tightened up soon after 3 miles so I stopped at 4. Tuesday I did an easy 4 which felt a little better. Wednesday I had to report for jury duty downtown. In my county they have a "one day or one trial" requirement. If you don't get sent to a court room by early afternoon you are set free. I hadn't been called all morning and they gave us a 90 minute lunch break so I went out and walked 5 miles downtown. In the afternoon they did call me and sent me out to a courtroom. It was a criminal case and the defense and prosecution spent the last hour of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning picking a jury. Thursday, I again went out at lunch and walked 5 miles because I had too much work back at the office to get in a run after the court day. Friday the lawyers finally got to questioning me. Because I am ex-military and did some temporary duty as a shore patrol officer when I served, the defense has booted me off the jury panel in each of the several times I have been called over the years. I got home it time to get in 4 miles easy on Friday. Saturday the leg was feeling OK, so I ran a moderately hard 8 trail miles with my son. The calf was a little stiff afterwards, but not painful. Today I ran another easy 4 which felt fine for 32 miles for the week. Now, next week should be back to the training plan and no more jury duty for a couple of years.