50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Just time for a short drive by before I head out for today's run (and before it gets too hot).

After many months of feeling off, and racing well off the mark, I had a pleasantly surprising Bolder Boulder 10K last week. Kept pace and got top 3 in 50s. Won my age too (they do single age categories because it's a fairly large race). Hope that continues.

Good luck to everyone as we head into true summer, and belated 'happy birthday' to this thread.

Week 261: 4 hours even in 6 runs.

Mon,Tue,Wed,Fri,Sun - each 30 minutes

Sat - 90 mins good pace with 3x strides thrown in

A set-back with the rib this week... Not because of the running, but because I tried riding the bike to work on Tue and Wed, too soon for that. So I took Thu as a complete rest day and shelved the bike.

@lucKY2b - RE my intentions these past weeks: The short runs have all been intentional. As for the long runs... yes, yes, yes, no, yes.

Going to double 2x 30 mins some days this week, see how the rib goes.

I continued to cross train this week to give my knotted soleus muscle time to heal. Three rounds of ART have enabled me to walk without pain and today I'm actually going to try to jog a little. I've been biking as cross training. I did six hours of riding keeping my HR at 140-145 so I hope I won't be totally out of shape.

This was a really rough week for my family. My husband has been an assistant coach at our HS for the past three years and gave up a college job to step in and help out when our prior distance coach resigned. He couldn't be the head coach because the school doesn't want a non-teacher to have that position. So he was an assistant who ran the entire program and devoted 100% of his time to the team. Prior to his arrival, the school had had 3 state qualifiers in the past 10 years. Since his arrival, both the boys' and girls' XC teams finished in the top three every year and he has had multiple state qualifiers in events ranging from the 800 to 3200. He's a level II certified coach, was a scholarship runner for Syracuse in college, and raised more than $40,000 to fund the team last year. He was the Assistant Coach of the Year in our state in 2015.

To make a long story short, the teacher who had been the head coach for 38 years decided to retire last week. He hadn't told anyone about it until graduation. The next day, the AD offered the head coach position to a young guy whose only function as an assistant coach was to do the meet entries for the line-up my husband made into the computer. He has never run cross country, knows nothing about writing training plans, doesn't realize he will have to do fund raising, and he and his wife are trying to start a family. He's clueless about what being a head coach involves - but he's a teacher so he got the job. Then he texted my husband saying he won't need my husband's help because he can handle everything himself.

My husband is devastated. He loves his runners and they love him, He is strict and demanding and encourages them to be better than they think they can be. I had only seen him cry twice in 30 years. Now I've seen him cry three times as he read texts and emails from current and former runners and their families. Our team is in shock but the school won't budge - he's not a teacher. So if you ever wonder why your child's/grandchild's coaching is so poor, maybe now you'll understand.

Nice week and congrats on the race lucKY.

Congrats Co58. That’s a prestigious race.

SCgal, sorry about your husband. I wonder if the school devalues Track and CC? If a coach contributes to the football team similarly to your husband, I wonder if they would have been so quick to dismiss them?

Mon = 90 min easy, Hanging Rock Battlefield Trail

Tue = Rest

Wed = 90 min easy, mostly trail (hot and humid, 86 degrees)

Thu = Rest, long travel day, got back too late to run

Fri = 90 min easy, 45 min cemetery, 45 min trail

Sat = 30 min, w 15 easy and 15 moderately hard

Sun = 90 min medium, rocky trail loop

It was a good week where the 90 minute'ers got easier on my legs. However, I have this odd pain that started in my shoulder blade area and has moved to the back of my neck. It’s been gradually coming on for 2 or 3 weeks. In 41 years of running can’t remember that one happening before. Any ideas? Is it that I'm just not adapted to 90 minute runs yet?

Yep lucKY, you must have read my mind. I added a little pace on Saturday to add some balance to my training and begin the slow progression to prep for racing in the fall.

Have a good week all.

Thanks for the warm welcome and greetings last week from this community of 50 plus athletes! As I have had an easier week (in terms of less classes taught during exam week), I actually had a chance to browse over this thread a bit and enjoyed reading about all you people successfully balancing your running/training with the rest of your family/job duties.Inspiring for sure!

Scal girl : sorry to here about hubby's misfortunes ,

obviously the school's loss and totally unfair..

Anyhow, this week's break in school hustle seemed to bump me up to 7 runs from the usual 5. To be fair, I probably have time, if I squeezed, to train 7 runs a week every week but I am trying to gradually build up, without effecting my playime energy with 2 boys (6 and 3) at home, keep an eye on the whole picture..

Anyhow :

Mon.: 5.5 easy ,slow,recover from hard 10 yesterday

Tues.: 5.5 easy but felt little better

Wed. 8 X 200 up a hill,jog down, 5 total

Thurs: 5.5 steady

Fri.: 5 easy

Sat. 4 jog

Sunday: tempo treadmill 6 miles 35.55 then 4.5 easy

For my benchmark run on the treadmill I wanted to do 10.2 mles in an hour, slightly better than last week, but about three minutes into it a lady on the rowing machine leaves the gym all to myself, and , unbeknownst to me , turned off all air-con!! Needless to say after 10 minutes I was already suffering and had to pull out at 6 miles..The temperature was 30 degrees on the reading when i checked.. Hong Kong has been consistantly 32c/90F ,75%humidity so difficult for this Canuck!

Happy running

Kirk

You should start a new thread and post this, LetsRun forum participants are famous for solving these kind of problems.

I had further modest progress with my runners knee rehab this week. 26 miles -

M - 4 mi. I intended to run 4 miles, but after 2 miles at 9:15 pace my left Achilles started to hurt (my runners knee inflammation is in my right knee) and I walked the last 2 miles.

T - 4 mi. walking at 15:00/mi pace

W - 4 mi. walking at 15:00/mi pace

Th - 4 mi. walking at 15:00/mi pace

F - rest

Sa - 6 miles of run 1mi/walk 1 mi, the running miles were at 8:15/mi pace

Su - 4 mi. walking at 15:00/mi pace.

SCgal, sorry to hear about your husband's situation. I have seen too many examples of high school principals (and some college ADs) who made XC and track coaching decisions on arbitrary or political considerations rather than program performance.

SCgal, very sorry to hear about your husband's situation. I feel bad for him, but even more so for those kids who have blossomed under his tutelage. I've seen this all too often in HS sports having spent 18+ years officiating HS track.

26 miles on 4 runs and 103 miles on 5 GO rides looked like this:

Mon 25+ mile GO ride

Tue track:

300-300-500 @mile pace with sub 60sec 200jogs; 300-300-300-200 same but quicker 200 finish; then 15+ mile GO

Weds 7 mile am run, 20 mile lunchtime GO

Thu 21 mile GO

Fri 6.5 mile am run; 20 mile lunchtime GO

Sun race 1500@4:41; 800@ 2:19 with 45 mins in between, plus 4+mile warmups. Feeling positive after this effort.

Wow. Well done Jeff. The equivalent of sub 5 mile,(?) plus the 800 to boot.. Not too shabby at 53! Thanks for update...

Still feeling like Father Time is kicking my butt good these days. Just feeling ragged and run down on nearly every run. Co58 inspired me to finally get things checked out. I have a Dr appt the first week of July to get things looked over.

So with that being said, I'm not going down without a fight! Running everyday, miles around 50 mpw, doing the best I can with workouts...though not anywhere near what I've been accustomed to in the past. Heck I've got almost 1100 miles in so far this year so you would think that alone would get me in sort-of-decent shape.

Running a 5K this weekend. Don't really want to do it but I promised my training partner I would make the trek up to the race with him. Hopeful of being within one minute of what I ran last year at this race though my only goal is to not run a personal worse; I've run 119 5k's with a record slow time of 17:48. It may be in danger of going down...

Keep up the good fight,

Dave

Wow this is heartbreaking. So sorry to hear your husband's challenges. So many of us have benefited more than we can ever know or say from the dedication of volunteers and it's painful to hear stories of great ones slighted.Are there other schools in your area where your husband could help out? Any chance of the new head coach accepting a hand once the season gets underway and he realizes he's in over his head, maybe?

Hey All:

Week 4 of current phase

M 4 miles easy

T 2 miles warm-up 4 x 400m @ 6:20/mile pace. Hot, tired.

W rest

Th 4 miles tempo 1 mile easy

F rest (supposed to be hockey; didn't realize they took the ice out for maintenance)

S 6 miles easy

Su rest

19 total for the week. Feeling good about my dedication but also feeling sort of stale. Easy week coming up ahead of the Columbus Arts Fest 5k on 6/11. Plan is to go out in 7:00 and 14:00 then see if it's a question of hanging on or finishing strong. It would be nice to get under 22:00 as a start then see what I can do with more long-term, focused training. My goal for the year was sub-20:00 but I'm not sure that's realistic. For one thing I've got about 15+ pounds that need to go to optimize my performance.

Last year I ran 22:45 on very unfocused running on a course that had a long hill at the finish but which also was, I suspect, about 80m short. So if I can nudge 22:00 this weekend I'll be very happy.

In brief ... I just turned 49, which coincided with getting laid off from work, so I did the only logical thing and signed up for a fall marathon. The hope is to go back to Boston to celebrate my 50th next spring. I've run it three times ('05, '07 and '09), never beating the qualifying standard by more than about 5 minutes. So, I'm definitely not at the level of some of the regulars here, but I like to run and I'm hoping it proves to be a productive outlet this summer while I search for a new job.

My wife's also a runner; we have a 5 year old and an 8 year old, so there are the usual challenges with scheduling, etc. I'm usually pretty sturdy, but recently has a knotted calf that required a 10-day break. I'm typically able to hold together with 30-40+ miles per week, but things get dicey with schedules and injuries at 50 or above.

Returning from the calf strain ...

Friday: 5 miles easy

Saturday: 9 miles steady

Sunday: Off

Monday: Treadmill, 4 miles progression from 10 min pace to 6:30 pace, plus weights

Rest of the week: We will have to see. Calf feels fine.

there is no simple solution. this has happened many times to many good coaches - I experienced it twice at the same school under 2 different athletic directors.

The issue is CC/track are not important sports to HS AD's. Schools could easily change their policy, but it is simper and easier to leave it as it. Some schools will have the policy on the books and not enforce until they want to or until the AD feels the need to flex their muscles. I was at a school that used it as an excuse to get rid of one good coach, but then not let a teacher from within the school coach (can't have it both ways = of actually they can and do).

we actually see some of this AD posturing even at the college level where the AD wants to bring in "their man" so they let someone go...or this happened at a major University in Basketball - the AD tried to bully the coach the very successful coach too much and it ended up costing the AD his job.

They will always fall back on the hire from within even when that hire is of an inferior coach.

we should tabulate how people this has happened to - would make a good book. maybe a documentary.

18 miles. + 5 hockey games. (3 in one day; Saturday).

Alumni High School Tournament in Illinois. Turned out I was the second oldest ('82 grad). We lost in the old-timers division semi-final game to a team that averaged 10 years younger than our team's 38 yr average. Yes that means the old-timers division was won by a team whose average age was 28 and to boot they had a team member that is paid to play hockey. ... and I can't beat my 15 year old daughter in a skate to the blue line.

I was 'slightly' outclassed, but managed a goal and 2 assists for the weekend.

Not much in the way of actual running last week, but hoping to get my very sore body up out of this chair and out there to get the week started.

Cheers

KenB

C0l0rado wrote:

so I did the only logical thing and signed up for a fall marathon. The hope is to go back to Boston to celebrate my 50th next spring.

Welcome to the thread. Which fall marathon are you running?

Here is my week.

M: swimming 1000m.

T: 8 miles.

W: 7 miles.

R: 7 miles.

F: 8 miles.

SA: 7 miles.

SU: 12.2 miles.

So I have resumed "workouts" on Tuesday and Friday, since I don't count the Sunday run as a workout. Well, the progressions I did were not much of workout, either, since they topped @ 8:06/mile on Tuesday and 8:00/mile on Friday. I will try to gradually increase the tempo, and eventually move to one a week once I get to doing a longer progression on Sunday.

racerdb, good that you followed through with a check up. Hope that you get some answers and back on track. You've had a great run for many years and I suspect you'll be ripping some fast times again before too long.

SCgal been there, been there under somewhat similar circumstances, but not quite as wrenching. I got passed over for the coaching position for someone 'more connected' and had to resort to some creative means to get the athletes the proper training for at least part of the year. In the end it did work out in a lot of ways, but a lot of kids were not optimally trained and underachieved. Are there alternatives for coaching at other schools?

followed up with endo, and he felt NBD for now. Just keep eating well and tracking the A1C blood sugar every few months and we'll go from there.

Mon. 3 times up and down the steep roo track, a tick over 500 metres long but pretty rugged, ran out of daylight. Total running 5.8 km in 49 mins, 255 metres of elevation gain. A bit of flat stuff before and after.

Tue. Same deal, 3 x up and down before dark. Total running 6.1 km in 52 mins, 255 metres of elevation gain.

Wed. Got home 10 mins earlier so ran a 4th climb then kept going up another km to the top of the range but it was pitch black by then so I walked the steep 1500 metres descent home. Total run was 4.8 kms in 49 mins with 380 metres of elevation gain.

Thu. A brisk 5 km morning walk then stopped at the sports precinct. 5 mins on the rower, 5 mins on the elliptical. Then dips, pulldowns, presses, chins, pushups stepups, split squats, lunges, squats, hip bridges, planks. Then jogged a barefoot lap of the football oval. 3 x 150 metre strides. 10 minute shuttle run. This consists of 4 turning points 6.5 metres apart. It is 130 metres each run, usually complete each in around 40 secs and restart on the minute. Another barefoot lap then put the shoes on and jogged 6 mins home.

Pm. 16.5 km mountain bike ride, with 3 x 2.5 km climbs inc a pb of 11.54. Total time 1 h 7 m, elevation gain 390 metres. Then a 36 min. kayak session on the lake.

Fri. A cold wet 35 min kayak session on the Campaspe River followed by a soggy 15.5 km mountain bike ride with 4 x 1.9 km hills in 47 mins, 190 metres of elevation gain.

Saturday. Another wet one. Club run. Did about 2 km of jogging then ran a muddy 6.7 km club race at 4.40 km pace, I was happy to stay back and just work a bit below 100 % race effort.

Sunday. Another club run. A very muddy 8 km race, ran about the same pace and effort as for Saturday. Totalled about 13 kms of running. Stopped for a bit of a hike on the way home, 3.6 km hilly in 40 mins, then a 25 min kayak session on the river.

I was happy with the week. Lots of fun in the hills, it probably doesn't do much to improve top end running but it is keeping me fit. I didn't feel inclined to race on the weekend but didn't want to miss the social side of things. I joined in the races but held myself in check. They were still solid hitouts though.

Thanks everyone for the sympathy you've expressed for my husband and his team. He's exploring other options and moving forward. I just found out this morning that my leg pain is a stress fracture, which is what I had suspected. Looks like I'll be doing lots of biking and swimming this summer. Maybe triathalons are in my future...