My wife and I are looking at taking turmeric/honey combination, but have read that the supplements tend to absorb better. Anyone have experience with turmeric or the curcumin capsules? Thanks!
My wife and I are looking at taking turmeric/honey combination, but have read that the supplements tend to absorb better. Anyone have experience with turmeric or the curcumin capsules? Thanks!
KP, Glad your wife is ok and you got to say good bye to your dad, so sorry about your friend's daughter. Enjoy that run in the mountains.
L2B , Never pulled a hammy running easy . Mild pulls can come around pretty quickly.
Spikez , Best thing I ever did to strengthen for my feet was to start going barefoot.
Alan , Muscle Satellite Cells pretty cool stuff.
10 hours of hilly hiking evenly spaced over 7 days
6 minutes of hard uphill running
40 minutes warm up hiking up and down the hill
3 x 1 minute hard up the hill with full recovery walking
3 x 1 minute hard up the hill with short recovery
35 minutes easy hiking up and down the hill
Plan to progress to 3 hours a day hiking over the next few months
Also carefully add to the hard running but only 1 day per week.
Slowly build back to doing my bread and butter workouts:
1. Fast Continuous Runs anywhere from 2 to 6 miles.
2. Short to Long HILLS running Pretty Darn Hard.
Keep the Hiking volume high for base and recovery.
KP - My condolences on your dad's passing and on the loss of your friend's daughter. In one case a blessing and the other such a tragedy. I completely understand your desire to run and to get back to the mountains.
LucKY - Sorry to hear about your hamstring but glad you're being smart about not pushing too much.
Spikez - Congratulations on your progress. I'm sure it seems slow to you but you'll be back stronger than ever!
hnb - Good luck with your upcoming biopsy and on achieving your 2016 goals.
I got in 36.5 miles this week with one interval workout. I've been running every day on the Lakeshore Trail along Chicago's lakefront. It's flat and beautiful but it's been so windy I feel like I'm running hills in one direction and flying in the other. At least we haven't had snow or ice this year, but It looks like winter is due to arrive later this week. Time for this southern gal to head home!
A short report today. Christmas eve dinner at one daughter-in-law's house, Christmas dinner at the other daughter-in-law's house, and yesterday dinner with them and grandkids at our house. 32 miles this week with the fist half walking and the second half running for the first time since my soleus injury at club nationals. I am scared to get on a scale at this point and not going to do so for at least a week.
KP, condolences to you and your friend, from Jane and me. So glad you could see "Dad" one last time. And glad that you have good news about your wife, too, so you can travel together. Take your time on your comeback, emotions can run pretty high right now, right?
Will post running comments soon. Mike
Mon. 10 km run on the Axedale golf course 55 mins, just easy plodding.
Tue. 35 min paddle on the lake, what's left of it. I walked out along my old 4 km loop taking photos!
10 km run from home on dirt roads, some rugged trail and the dirt railtrail in 55 mins, 100 m of elevation gain in that, the last 2 km at 5 min pace.
Wed. 10 km run on the hilly Pyalong golf course in 54 mins, 136 m of elevation gain. Pretty much either going up or going down, a great surfaceas it was overgrown until recent years. Last km in a lively 4.24, all be it downhill.
12.5 km gentle spin on the mtn bike.
Thu. A good solid 23 km ride on the mtb out into the One Eye Forest and home, 120 m of elevation gain. 1 h 15 m. Picked up Mum to bring her to our place for Christmas.
Fri. Out early for 23 km on the mtb into the Argyle Forest and home in 1.25 160 m of elevation gain, a bit more technical.
Sat. Out late with the cool change for a 10 km run on the lovely Tooby Baynton Rd. 55 min with 230 m of elevation gain. Windy, wet and temps 20 deg C cooler than previous day.
Sun. Last of the guests left in the arvo so out to the lake for a 40 min paddle.
Then off for a slow trot up through the McIvor Ranges 10 km in 1 h 10 m with 350 rocky metres of elevation gain.
A pleasing week, also incorporated a lot more supp work a nd walking than in recent weeks. I did eat far too much but oh well...
Bad luck about the hammy L2b. Tough week KP, I lost my dad same time of the year in 2012, this year lost my sister. Getting out doing what we do is a great help to get through these times.
hnb. I have had 2 biopsies both all clear, my PSA snuck back up from mid 5s to over 6 last month so my team will keep a close eye on it and if it goes any higher send me for an MRI.
Well, that's a wrap for me on 2015.
"Raced" a 50K trail ultra this morning just because I had never done a run longer than 26.2 before and wanted to see what all the fuss was. To prepare for this ridiculous stunt I ran 91 miles last week with Sat and Sun long runs. The race had about 4.5K of elevation gain and loss so I was pretty scared about it but I took it very easy in the early stages and finished pretty good. I was 11th overall and 1st in AG (50-59) but that's not really saying a whole lot since there like maybe 100 people in the race. It felt like a super-long Long Run only it was on the most gorgeous, single-track trails you can imagine. Worth it right there!
I did start to get calf cramps and actually fell pretty hard when both calfs cramped on a downhill at mile 29.
I'm feeling pretty good about the year and I'm ready to go after some things next year.
Here's to a healthy and happy New Year for all of us!
Week 238: 8 hours 0 minutes in 7 runs, as planned. 1 slow, 5 easy, 1 long run 2 hrs going easy on the outbound and pushing pretty hard on the return. Weeks 239-240 more of the same, then a fallback week, then easing into some 5K-specific work.
Yeah it's heck getting old, but I'm trying to talk about it as little as possible. Sorry about your dad, KP. Good to look on the bright side, but it hits harder than you realize at first, so get some extra rest and avoid stress for a while.
@lucKY2b - Travel is a leg-killer, but there is more going on. Check your log for the last month or so. Not enough easy mileage in there, and then last week was a big jump comparatively.
KP sorry about your your loss. My mom died from Alzheimer's last year. And the untimely accident to your friend's daughter. Tragic.
Charlie made some good points last week by mentioning the cross training benefits of nordic skiing and hiking. Nordic skiers are often pretty good runners and some can run fast distance times off of amazingly low mileage, but in addition to skiing, their dryland training includes hill walking with poles (and jogging down), hill bounding with and with out poles (this can range from short 15 sec bursts to grueling interval sets of like 10-20X 2 min on a 10-20% slope, and jogging down for recovery.
Anyway, in my case although not great on native running ability, the ski training/racing for 20+ of the past 30 or so years has allowed me to keep at the running for more years than might be expected. If nothing I've had good longevity.
Went DH skiing for two days with my kids last week--and they skied me into the ground. I'm definitely feeling my age there! Can still do Black Diamonds and mogul slopes, and Blue slopes are a cakewak, but my leg strength and reaction time are not there anymore. Tree skiing in powder (at least steep stuff) is probably out of my realm.
The skiing is not as accessible as in AK but planning to spend the next two months doing more of the nordic base work, hill climbs and bounding for dryland training, and getting on the snow a couple times a week maybe. It's both a respite from running while allowing as much or more cardiovascular benefit and it's sort of fun. I've had some knee issues with the bounding, trying to keep up with teens, but maybe a moderate amount on my own would be reasonable.
32 miles, 2 days DH, and a 1:45 nordic venture last week. Plus two core/upper body workouts, to maintain some muscle under that skinny fat.
Condolences, KP, on losing your dad; it's tough regardless of the circumstances. And for the loss of your friends daughter....how heart-wrenching. My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and their friends. Really glad to hear that your wife's tests came back clear.@Elviejo, kudos on completing the 50k trail race. Even just finishing is a victory!I see a few are posting up their year end totals and goals. I guess I'll get to that next week. Seems that the experiences from this past year have pretty much run the gamut!
Alan Bennet wrote:
@lucKY2b - Travel is a leg-killer, but there is more going on. Check your log for the last month or so. Not enough easy mileage in there, and then last week was a big jump comparatively.
OK, it's been a recurring subtext that my training has been pretty erratic for the past few months. Looking back on the log, there really is only a two week window around Thanksgiving where my training was way off, other than that, there isn't really a big jump anywhere. But let's talk about "easy" days. Do they have to be running? Not mentioned in most of this is that I do walk a fair amount. During the school-year, I walk 3+ miles every weekday (usually with a laden backpack), and I think that's adequate recovery between the actual running miles. I don't do more that two hard full sessions per week (and usually only one). I'll throw in a hard mile here and there, but the rest is in the easy-to-moderate range. But I do agree that a confluence of events (too much time in the car, having done a long run the day before, going for a longer than usual walk in the morning, probably not hydrating properly, having an erratic training schedule) spurred the injury, and erratic training is one aspect of it. The good news is that I think I'm OK now, but I'm still going to take it easy for a bit longer.
Carry on!
I like walking fine. I would never say anything bad about it. But I believe it needs to be about 6 or 7 continuous miles if it's going to count as a substitute for an easy run.
lucKY2b wrote:
I'll throw in a hard mile here and there, but the rest is in the easy-to-moderate range.
I noticed that. The hard and moderate parts I don't agree with.
Maybe I'm wrong about all this. The important thing is that you are thinking about it. Clearly you need to make *some* kind of adjustment.
Thanks for the feedback. I'm truly just trying to understand, so I accept all criticism openly.
Alan Bennet wrote:But I believe it needs to be about 6 or 7 continuous miles if it's going to count as a substitute for an easy run.
Almost two hours of continuous walking? Sounds excessive as recovery to me. Why so much? What's your rationale?
Alan Bennet wrote:The hard and moderate parts I don't agree with. Maybe I'm wrong about all this.
Please elaborate. Most my effort interpretations are assessed by feel. You can look on Strava, if you'd like a closer look at my full profile (most is in there since the spring.) I'm easy to find.
Alan Bennet wrote: The important thing is that you are thinking about it. Clearly you need to make *some* kind of adjustment.
On that I 100% agree, just wish I could accommodate my thoughts more in line with the actions I'd *like* to take. It's been tough lately; a lot going on---some of it is environmental, some of it is physiological.
Thanks for your candid critique.
lucKY2b wrote:
I'm guessing the combination of too much time in the car, followed by a long run, then a long walk with a lot of standing around had just fatigued it to the point where it cramped up during the run and when I extended the leg forward that was it.
When I was 51 I set my old-man PR in the 1500 in Richmond Va. I had a meeting back in Roanoke, a 3 hr drive, so I immediately hopped in the car to drive back. I developed a cramp in my glute that basically did not resolve for about a year no matter what I did to fix it. So I'm voting for the car as the likely culprit. I also think their's a rather complex and, unfortunately, ominous larger pattern at work, and the reason for the popularity of this thread, in that, older athletes are, in reality, struggling against the 2nd law of thermodynamics; the older something gets the more if falls apart. It's exciting, challenging, and baffling to do what we do.
2015 Accomplishments
Age 51 - healthy mostly
22:08 5K down from 24:41 in 2014
Fastest mile - 6:48 (3rd mile of a 5K)
Longest Run - 11.5 miles in a 9:20 avg.
longest time not running due to injury or sickness - 3 weeks
2016 goals
Age 52 - healthy - it's a goal. - started taking a multivitamin for the first time last week.
20:30 for 5k - 1:38 PR
Run a half marathon - time? Not sure. 8:30 avg maybe. will need to consult Daniels.
Longest run - 16 miles
Fastest mile - break 6:00
Longest consecutive days not running due to sickness or injury - less than 7 days
Finally, Hold off 12 yo daughter in the mile and 5k for 1 more year, unless of course I hit my goals and she still kicks my butt, which would be pretty cool. Her PRs are 6:32 and 24:11 with basically no training, so I'm not confident.
Cheers to everybody and have a healthy new year.
Ken
lucKY2b wrote:
Thanks for your candid critique.
I actually deleted most of my critique, because I thought it would upset you. The fact you are willing to hear it means you just went up a couple more notches in my estimation. So here goes.
Recovery is a complicated thing. If it were just about restocking glycogen in the muscles, we could get that lying on the couch. The way I see it, during proper recovery we need to provide a slight stress to the endocrine system and a moderate stress to the connective tissues. Any type of cross training will stress the endocrine system, but I have learned the hard way that training the connective tissues is quite specific. Walking is the closest thing to running, but because of the lower force profile, it takes a lot of walking to get enough stress to the connective tissues. Increasing intensity (e.g. walking hills or walking with weights) fixes that but runs the risk of stressing the endocrine system too much.
Let's look at your Week 236 (your other weeks have a similar pattern).
Sun: 5.6 easyish (7:23 avg)
Mon: 4.1 Progression (8:00 -> 6:20)
Tue: off
Wed: 7.0 w/6xhill repeats
Thur: 5.2 (6:46 avg)
Fri: 4.1 w/1@6:16 (6:51 avg)
Sat: 7.5 easy (7:41 avg)
By your own estimation, 7:41 is easy and 7:23 is easyish (and by comparison in week 235 on Saturday you did 9.0 w/4 at 7:00 pace and said it was "a little too hard"). So having established that 7:00 is not easy, that means in six days you ran just two of them easy (or "easyish"), while four of them had at least some hard or moderate running.
And that is the part I disagree with. It should be flipped, two days hard and four days easy. Truly easy, not easy/moderate, not easy with a hard mile. Younger runners can do three and three, or a (young) freak like Gerry Lindgren could do a fartlek every day. But us old-timers have to be smart about it.
The thing is, we can get away with it for a while. Especially if we have been running higher mileage and drop down, it seems fine to keep the intensity and drop the easy miles. Actually we can even increase the intensity! With lower volume the legs feel quite fresh all the time. But it only works for a while. I don't know enough about cell biology to say exactly what happens, but if the endocrine system never recovers, then eventually something happens to the muscles, and they either get overtrained or outright injured.
Just today a much younger friend asked me "how many workouts can I do in a week?" (I said it depends on his goal and where he is in the cycle.) A few weeks ago he was telling me how amazing his workouts have been since he dropped his mileage after the marathon in October. Suddenly they are not so amazing, and he is starting to hurt just about everywhere, which is why he asked me about it. More as a sounding board than an oracle. I basically told him that all runners make the same mistake (I did it myself not so long ago), and just to run as slow as possible for a week and then ease back into it. That last advice is not my idea. I got it from Lydiard.
OK, I see your point, AlanB, but I don't think the other weeks have a similar pattern to the Week 236 that I posted, because that week had a *terrible* typo in it. Thursday, was a 7:46 pace run, not 6:46. If it were 6:46, I certainly would have talked about it in the accompanying text---my bad.
So week 236 really looks like this:
Sun: 5.6 easyish (7:23 avg)
Mon: 4.1 Progression (8:00 -> 6:20)
Tue: off
Wed: 7.0 w/6xhill repeats
***Thur: 5.2 (7:46 avg)***
Fri: 4.1 w/1@6:16 (6:51 avg)
Sat: 7.5 easy (7:41 avg)
Does that change your assessment of the week?
As for walking and recovery, I'll have to think about it more, but yes, I would certainly prefer to be running. Thanks for your thoughts.
Sorry, didn't mean to sound glib in that last response (I'll blame it on posting just before midnight on New Year's Eve.) I'm pretty embarrassed about the typo (not that it is the first or the last), but it sure does change the complexion of the week. Point of fact, though, is that I *definitely* would have referred to 5.2@6:46 as a hard tempo and would *never* try to do that the day after a hill workout. But your points are well taken, Alan.
Happy New Year, Everyone!
7:46 makes a big difference obviously.
@Rtype - I agree with your analysis. But still we need to figure out how to train. And how to drive. I use the rest areas.
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Week 239
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Happy 2016, 50+ers! A New Year with new goals and hopefully a renewed commitment to achieving them. Summing up the past year for me, in a word, inconsistent. To many sputters and false starts to be content with the year, both in terms of running and nutrition. The year's numbers are not great:
Mileage: ~1375 miles
Races: 5x5K (19:31 fastest), 1x10K (a miserably humid 41:00), and three legs of an 80-mile relay.
Weight: lowest was 163 (briefly), but spent most the year in the 165-168 range.
A couple of niggles that set me back a week here and a few days there; thankfully, nothing major. I mentioned last week that I've been feeling just a bit out of kilter for quite some time now, but mostly I'm just grateful to be able to keep batting away at this.
This week was easy, with very little to discuss.
Mon: and Tues: Short easy walks
Wed: 3.2 miles of brisk walk/jog (with hills)
Thur: 3.4 miles of 2:00 brisk walk/1:00 run
Fri: 4.5 miles easy (8:40 avg pace)
Sat: off
Hammie is feeling fine, so the pull was indeed pretty minor. I promised myself I'd be cautious; today will be the first day that I give it a little more stress (little being the operative word.)
2016 Fitness Goals: I would love to get back over 2000 miles of volume, get back into the 18:xx range (sub-18:30 would be pie-in-the-sky awesome), get my weight back under 160, and work more on my core strength.
After last weeks discussions regarding recovery runs, and talking with one of my running buddies here, I see AlanB's point, so I'm committed to trying to add a few more truly easy miles on those off days.
I've done a little searching online regarding recovery runs, and there seems to be a range of thoughts.
Here's what Matt Fitzgerald says:
http://www.active.com/running/articles/a-fresh-perspective-on-recovery-runs
and Ed Eyestone:
http://www.runnersworld.com/running-tips/the-importance-of-rest-days
and Jeff Galloway:
http://www.runnersworld.com/injury-prevention-recovery/get-proper-muscle-recovery
Having read all these articles, I don't feel that my walks are out of line with what they suggest; a 60-minute walk seems to be on the high end. Even so, following AlanB's suggestion, 2-3 super-easy miles following workouts will by my attempted addition. My buddy suggested using a heart-rate monitor to insure that the effort stays below 65%; not sure I'll go that far, but I might a few times just to see what that pace should be for me.
I see that nobody got back to 1500Master's inquiry. I've never done supplements, so I don't have any advice in that regard.
OK. That's my post for the week. I hope that everyone's years have gotten off to a good start! How would you gauge your 2015? What are your goals for this year? Any New Year's Day races to report?
All the best!
Glad the Hammy is getting better lucKY.
Last year was a Jekyll and Hyde type of year: I raced 7 times and had a good first half of the year. By July 1 my knees started bugging me and its been a struggle since.
I started a new/old methodology of training two weeks ago:
Week #2
Mon = 2 miles easy
Tue = 2 miles easy
Wed = 2 miles easy
Thr = Rest
Fri = Rest
Sat = 2 miles easy
Sun = 2 miles easy
Tot = 14 miles
I took a month off running and walked an hour a day. I’m taking a page out of my training log from the years 2007 through 2011. Through that period I had continuous improvement and set my 50+ PR’s. My philosophy at the time was to never run on Thursday’s or Friday’s, do a hill-workout or leg turnover on Tuesday’s, something hard on Saturday’s (race or intervals), and something a little longer on Sunday’s. Monday’s, Wed’s and Sunday’s were very easy runs. By resting Thur and Fri I was always able to jump in a race at the last minute on Sat. Those rest days proved to be protective against my own stupidity. I also wore the green Superfeet inserts. I stopped wearing them in 2013 due to a bone bruise on my heel that seemed to be irritated by the Superfeet (some may remember I had to wear a cast and worked out on the elliptical with the cast). My knees have BOTH hurt since then and I’m pretty sure over-pronation is the root cause of my constant knee issues. I’ve now had the Superfeet back in for 3 weeks and my knees are already improved.
I know there is nothing magic in this plan but it sure worked for me then. I also know I aint the same guy I was then. I began deteriorating at about 52 and a half and it’s been a hell of a struggle to stay injury free since then.