50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

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Week 273

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Salutations, 50+ers! Last full week of hot and humid August; good riddance! Week started out great with a couple of drier days, but they were quickly extinguished with the same-old same old. As such, the week started out great, but I slogged into the finish of my ~30 miles on 5 days of running. Log reads as such:

Sun: 5.8 w/Form Drills

Mon: 3.5 easy grass/trails (8:38 pace)

Tues: 6.5 intervals--2x12,2x8,2x4 all w/4 jog

Wed: Off (long day of classes)

Thur: Off (100 heat index)

Fri: 10.0 variable (7:56 avg pace)

Sat: 4.1 easy (8:03)

The lower humidity made the 82 degree track day almost blissful. With about 210-215 jog recovery between each rep, managed to get through the whole workout: 2x1200 (4:51,4:48), 2x800 (3:09,3:05), 2x400 (87,85). Had planned to run Thursday after classes, but just couldn't muster up the energy to slog through a run @100 heat index. Decided to run long (for me) Friday morning, instead. The first 5 went pretty well as I was cruising along steadily dropping the pace from 8:10 to the 7:10, but then the Sun started to heat things up pretty quickly, and the last 5 miles was a chore....the last three miles average 8:2x and that included a couple of necessary, untimed breaks. I was pretty dehydrated for the rest of the day, too. Normally, runs of 12 or less, I've never carried water with me, I would have benefited from some Friday. The slog really killed my quads for some reason, and Saturday's short run felt very sluggish. Attended a music festival from 5:30-11:30 pm Saturday night, where we stood on our feet the entire time. I can feel how stiff my quads are this morning. There will be lots of roller action today, that's for sure.

Happy Birthday to Mo'pak, you've had quite the adventure in England! And we're less than one-week apart in age, as I hit 57 later this week. So far, the 55-59 age-group has not been kind to me. Hopefully, I can get things righted, though the arthritis in the big toes is only getting worse. Walking barefoot through the house (sometimes more like hobbling) can be quite painful at times. Bothers me less when I run, but it's still there.

A lot of interesting stuff from last week.

-Racerdb is on a roll! I think the fall promises to be fruitful!

-I was surprised that you were racing so soon OGII! Well done getting to the starting line and making your goal.

-Sorry Dave H. about tweaking your hamstring, knocked me out for a month at the beginning of the year. Frustrating, for sure.

-SCgal, glad you're getting a few more running days in. Looking forward to your report on the CRIM mile.

-AlanB, a lot of time on your feet last week. I'd be whipped and need a down week!

-Thanks for the interesting info, trnm, hope that your situation remains stable.

-Welome, SDRunner, nice week! Not sure of your running history, but you're getting some solid runs in. Do you do any speed work, or is that what you use 5k races for? I agree about the lower-back and doing core work.

OK, that's probably enough from me...didn't get to everyone. Can't wait for fall racing weather! I'll probably stick mostly to 5k's (an 8k would be nice) as my training volume doesn't really lend itself to longer races. What are your fall plans?

All the Best!

Thanks, as always, for letting a youngster (49.5) play along!

Good week. Tired, but hanging in there.

Mon: 6.5 slow

Tues: 9.5 with 2 X 20 minutes tempo at 7:30

Weds: Off

Thurs: 9.5 steady at 8:00

Friday: 5 slow

Sat: 6.5 slow

Sun: 15.5 with 11 at 7:30 pace. Had to push at the end but not flat-out.

Have fun and stay healthy!

Please excuse my absence. I've been dealing with some Achilles tendinitis for the past few months which has reduced my running nearly to the point of nonexistence. My golf game, too.

The word is that these things typically take 3-6 months to rectify themselves, though I have a buddy who was out for 18 months. I'm currently in month 4 and there has definitely been improvement, but there is still a way to go. Instead of limping through a painful mile and being sore for days afterward as I was doing in May, I'm now doing the occasional limp-free deuce with limited soreness afterward. And I was able to play 18 holes on Thursday without a lot of discomfort, but I did ride a cart.

Anyway I just thought I'd check in as it has been awhile. Hopefully I'll be returning to full hobby jogger form in the coming weeks.

My incremental progress on getting my knee healthy again continued. This is week 16 since the injury. After my first XC race last Saturday I took both Sunday and Monday off since the race did generate a little soreness in my knee, and because I wanted to move up the running mileage up this week. So, I ended up at 31 miles for the week.

M - rest

T- 6 miles with a hard 2 miles uphill in the middle 8:49/mi ave

W- 5 miles walk

Th- 6 miles with 2 x hard mile/ easy mile at 7:27, 7:21

F- rest

S- 9 miles hard on hilly trails with my son and d-in-law 8:52/mi ave

Su- 5 miles walk

60 years old, prostate cancer, colectomy, 6 epidurals, 2 knee surgeries since 1977.

Tues: 6.2 mi.

Wed. 4.1 mi.

Thur: 7 mi.

Fri: a.m. 6.2

a.m. 4.1 mi. (3 hours after a.m.)

Sat: a.m. 8.1

p.m. 2.1

Sun: 6.2 mi.

Have to take next 3 days off so PSA level will stay low for blood test on Thursday. Will start again Thursday right after blood test.

best of luck with the achilles. I had my first bout of AT in high school, so I'd say it takes at least 38 years to resolve.....just kidding, plenty of good days in between, and actually fine last couple years. Lots of stretching, strengthening and ice have helped. sounds like you're on the right track.

pretty fun week on my end incl....

Monday 10 miles

tues. 5 miles + 40:00 stationary bike

weds. 10 with form drills, 8 X 100 strides, 4 X 3:00 hill repeats (2:00 recovery)

Thurs. 6 + 24:00 stationary bike

Fri. 8

Sat. 12 with 6 X 1000 (400 jog) average 3:38

Sun. 7 + 32:00 stationary bike

question came up about Fall plans -- mine is mainly Richmond marathon in November -- having dropped out (well, switched to half during the race) of Philadelphia last year, I haven't finished a marathon since boston 2014 so I'm eager to get to the start line healthy.

have a great week,

Dave

Greetings - new to forum -50 yo regular running x4 years with PRs of 23:17 , 50:40, 1:57:20 all in 2015 . I ran the NYC marathon last year and blew up - finished but it wasn't pretty. I had to take a break x 12 weeks this past spring due to a nagging PF issue which didn't get better with rest. Since March I have been slowly building my base again and am up to 30 miles a week on 6 days running with a long run of 9 and a run of hill repeats of 6 ; rest of miles slow and easy. I have a 1/2 scheduled for first week of November. Just trying to get my miles up again for another marathon try in late 2017.

Richmond is a great race- I am a native and always ran the 1/2 when I was in high school- looking back I ran 1:35 as a 13 year old - sigh.....

After two heavy weeks, this was a bit of a breather.

5 days of running only 25 miles.

Highlights of the week:

Tuesday - with 12 yo D - 3x200, 2x400, 3x200

Saturday - cooler and misty air saw me running nearly 30 seconds faster per mile than usual. Finally felt like all the running in the humidity actually paid off.

Happy birthday Mopak and lucKY!. 57 here too and the M55 AG has been…um….unpleasant from a racing standpoint.

Experiment # 501 Commencing:

I took 2 weeks completely off other than the 50 pushups and crunches I do every day. No running, walking, hiking, elliptical or treadmill. I have to say it was pretty liberating to NOT have to do anything. I dropped 2 more pounds as I’m watching my diet. I’m down 7 pounds since mid-july.

Mon = 2.25 miles @ 8:42 pace: 8:58, 8:35, 8:08 pace

Tue = Rest

Wed = 2.25 miles @ 8:35 pace: 8:46, 8:27, 8:21 pace

Thur = 2.25 miles @ 8:19 pace: 8:37, 8:12, 7:41 pace

Fri = Rest

Sat = 2.25 miles @ 8:32 pace: 8:40, 8:31, 8:07 pace

Sun = 2.25 miles easy

Tot = 11.25 miles

My runs are medium effort with the goal of simply letting the fitness come to me without hammering any one run. Next week I move to 2.5 miles and my goal is to get to 3’s and see how it goes before making any changes.

Have a great week everyone!

Scubacane wrote:

Greetings - new to forum -50 yo regular running x4 years with PRs of 23:17 , 50:40, 1:57:20 all in 2015 . I ran the NYC marathon last year and blew up - finished but it wasn't pretty. I had to take a break x 12 weeks this past spring due to a nagging PF issue which didn't get better with rest. Since March I have been slowly building my base again and am up to 30 miles a week on 6 days running with a long run of 9 and a run of hill repeats of 6 ; rest of miles slow and easy. I have a 1/2 scheduled for first week of November. Just trying to get my miles up again for another marathon try in late 2017.

Richmond is a great race- I am a native and always ran the 1/2 when I was in high school- looking back I ran 1:35 as a 13 year old - sigh.....

My first 10K was a point to point in Petersburg Va. and I don't recall what year. 81? I had been running for 4 years before my first race.

Started at a school and ended downtown, hilly...I still have a picture someplace. Stationed at Ft. Lee. One of my buddies was a road guard and took the picture...38:44. What a great running life its been,,Does that race still exist?

Hey All:

Happy Birthday, Mo'pak and Lucky!

Good week for me. Building things up a little including getting more serious about my long runs:

M 5 easy

T 3 miles tempo @ 7:17 and 1 mile easy

W rest

R 4 easy

F 5 easy

S rest

S 9.4 easy @ 8:37/mile (opening miles about 8:50; closing about 8:30s)

27 miles on the week--my highest mileage in about 25 years and today's run my longest in the same time span. Excited to be back at it more seriously and grateful to all of you, since the forum is a great help for motivation.

Fall plans: the Columbus Half on 10/16. I'm tentatively aiming for 1:38 or 7:28 pace, if the next six weeks or so go well. I'm going to get up not much beyond 31-33 miles/week so not really enough mileage for a serious race, but I'll lengthen my Sunday runs to 11-12 miles and open conservatively, I hope. If all goes well I'd like to move up to about 40 miles/week through the winter and see if I can run some faster races in 2017.

I'm following a modified Hal Higdon training plan, essentially one long run per week and one speed workout, alternating tempos and intervals. The intervals call for 400m @ 5k pace. Seems like short reps to me for half marathon training--any thoughts?

Have a great week everyone. Alan B, are you running CBus?

Andy

lucKY2b wrote:

-Racerdb is on a roll! I think the fall promises to be fruitful!

I couldn't be any happier with my '3 month roll'. Its so nice to be running with little to no issues, especially after struggling with my horrible heel pain for two years.

Had a nice 43 mile recovery week. Man, that HM really kicked my butt good! I took Monday off then just easy short runs until Friday when I finally felt back to normal. Had a real nice 12 miler @7:18/pace on Saturday in humid rainy conditions. Finished up the last 6 in 719,715,708,702,655,606.

This week calls for 69 miles with a 4 mile tempo on Wed and 15 on Saturday. I've got a 5 mile race in two weeks.

Have a good week,

Dave

Good afternoon,

M-5 miles 8.30 pac

T-5 miles 9 min pace

W- 3 miles slow

T- 7 miles on trail 9.5 average

F-rest

S-5k 23:55 2nd place AG 60-69

All she wrote

Week 273: 7 hr 30 min in 6 runs

Mon - 1 hr easy

Tue - 1 hr 15 min with 3x hill repeat

Wed - 1 hr easy

Thu - off

Fri - 1 hr moderate

Sat - 2 hr 15 min long run

Sun - 1 hr "easy" at 2 PM (actually _hard_)

A cross-training error on Monday resulted in a sore right hip which just worsened each day. Probably should not have done the hill on Tuesday morning but didn't know it yet. So I took Thursday completely off -- no run, no bike, no TKD, just walked a cautious 6.5 miles. Friday was more caution as I skipped the weekly tempo, instead I finished with some MP effort. Saturday I felt good: out in 1:12 with the 9:30/mile group, back in 0:57 solo (8:05-ish based on the 8:00 group passing), additional 0:06 on the final hill for the 2:15. For people checking the pace-math at home, my out portions with the group are always "longer" than the back portions. On the out portions I do extra loops while waiting for the group at the water stops. On the way back I can just grab and go. Today was a bear. Over 5 liters in fluids consumed with about 0.5 liter "to show" for it.

@Hoser, eh - Not racing, but I will be there, volunteering at the MIT (Fleet Feet) tent. Swing by and tell me all about how your race went. Also check out the group. The race director and medical director both run with this group.

I'm so sad for our friend Spikez. I don't know if many of you are aware of her suspension but I just heard about it this evening. Here is the link to the article that explains the circumstances: http://masterstrack.com/star-hurdler-liz-palmer-given-3-12-year-usada-doping-suspension/. Liz has been a supportive, encouraging presence in track and on this thread. I will miss her a lot and wish her the best in whatever the future holds.

Well, the heat and humidity of the Midwest finally arrived, late rather than early, in KC this year. So it was not pretty, but ran the Royals Run 5 km in 25:08, a full minute slower than last year, though much warmer, 70 degrees and 85% RH. Best part was taking 2nd in the 65-69 age group, and there were 3 other guys in the 25's, 3rd being only 9 seconds back. My first age group award in this 65+ group.

26 miles for the week, and the lower back/hip soreness is slowly going away. No run today, just walking, theraband, tree-limb breaking to clean up the yard. Still hope to get fitter and run a solid 8 km and 1/2 marathon yet this year.

P.S. My wife ran 24:25 despite her slow recovery from the knee issues from the 4th of July. Won her age group, but was upset with being passed by and "older" woman of 62 by one second (wife is 59).

Sounds good, Alan. Glad you've recovered from tweaking your hip. All going well I'll look for you after the half on 10/16.Andy

Alan Bennet wrote:

@Hoser, eh - Not racing, but I will be there, volunteering at the MIT (Fleet Feet) tent. Swing by and tell me all about how your race went. Also check out the group. The race director and medical director both run with this group.

SCgal wrote:

I'm so sad for our friend Spikez. I don't know if many of you are aware of her suspension but I just heard about it this evening. Here is the link to the article that explains the circumstances:

http://masterstrack.com/star-hurdler-liz-palmer-given-3-12-year-usada-doping-suspension/

. Liz has been a supportive, encouraging presence in track and on this thread. I will miss her a lot and wish her the best in whatever the future holds.

This breaks my heart. I do not know Liz other than a few comments made on this site. While I am not a Masters Track racer, I am a racer. To be a racer is to have heart, desire, and strength. The camaraderie, sense of purpose and occasional ribbing of fellow competitors is what racing is really about. To think that she will have to forgo all that racing has to offer, on a technicality, saddens me to no end. As, I said, I do not know you Liz but please, hold your head high, make no excuses and know you did nothing wrong. Take comfort in the fact that you made your sport a better place and have made a difference in many folks lives that you do not, nor will ever know.

M: off.

T: 4 miles / 7 miles.

W: 10 miles (4th-6th miles @ 7:57-7:47-7:37, 7th-9th miles @ 7:30).

R: 4 miles / 7 miles.

F: 8 miles.

SA: 7 miles.

SU: 16.7 miles.

I extended my workout to 10 miles, with a little less intensity than last week. I plan to do two more of this before the half marathon. It was very hot and humid yesterday, but I survived the 16.7 miles. One thing I have discovered over this summer is that as long as my head does not get overheated, I can still finish my run. (Of course, I have to slow down in extreme heat.)