50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

I think one of the keys is holding on to your speed, whatever level that is.

Igy

This is where I feel like the aging process is on my side a bit. I was never any good at distance running compared to faster running but not sprinting. Kind of like Goldilocks of running too long too short just right...1500 meters. My freshman english teacher was also the assistant XC coach. I was 20 as a freshman fresh out of the Army. We did a lot of running in Korea in the Army so I was in good shape. He saw me out running and invited me to come to a practice. I had no idea but thought cool. I show up and these guys are doing 6 x 400 with equal rest. The 400 was an out and back on a grass field. No way would I let these dudes get away from me. The head coach looked shocked as I just held on through the whole thing with my heart exploding. He gave me a pair of shoes and some shorts and thought he found someone. Then they started running long and I just hated it so after a few months I quit. So finally as I approach 61 I have found just right. Run Fast Repeat!

KP,

Fast time and good job. Your time will drop in the next race (s). I think you just need a little more time to absorb your recent training.

Igy

Charlie,

It is working for you. In fact I plan to do some similar sessions as I get closer to my key race (early August). I am doing a variation of what has worked in the past, with adjustments for the infirmities of age. Igy Miles, my variation of Badger Miles, basically hours of cross training. Hey, I may never run any faster but my pants fit loser.

Igy

I have lurked on this thread awhile; I think it's time to post. I'm in my late 50s and was a decent collegiate athlete as a sprinter, but fell away from fitness until my rising blood pressure and expanding waistline made me decide that it was time to lace them up again. Some time ago I had a series of unfortunate life events that laid me quite low, but the love of family and friends pulled me out of the ditch and I'm on the right path. Hence the screen name.

I'd love to get back to sprinting but first I must get back to fitness. My workouts consist of 5 miles of 3 minutes jogging 1 minute walking. At first I had to walk the entire thing. I do this 3 times a week. I lift weights twice a week and I've lost 10 lbs. I have 10 more to go. My goal is to sprint in the Senior Games, if not 2019, then 2021.

I really like reading all of your posts. Thanks for the inspiration to get back into it.

@KP I am sticking to my guesstimate but extending the prediction to sometime in the next month:)

@Igy What race are you running in August?

Phoenix,

Good for you. You may want to contact your USATF association and get involved in masters programs. You will meet many inspirational athletes who may have experienced similar challenges.

Best,

Igy

Charlie,

The Idaho Senior Games Track is the first Saturday in August, the 5k Road two weeks later. My focus is 1500 meters and 5k road. The first race on the track is the 1500, but I will probably at least double back to the 800. So I am trying to get enough base to handle at least these three races.

Igy

The goalposts keep moving, and so do I, thank goodness. Going from a youthful 1:23 1/2 marathon to "swearing" I'd never race another 1/2 if I cannot break 2 hours, to realizing that it was a very good effort and worth the time/effort/fun/challenge meant that I want to still pin on the race number. Knock on wood, the body is holding up, too.

My 7:32.5 mile was all out, all the way, and in windy and very warm conditions, and without any speed/sharpening. I can run faster :) :)

I love to run, that's the bottom line, and racing is still the icing on the cake, long as I don't race too often and get burned out from it.

I love your attitude, Mike. We may be older, but we're still breathing. There's nothing wrong with moving the goalposts. We did as we got faster and now we're doing it again. What goes around, comes around.

Stay healthy, my friend.

A summary of my week - I jogged/walked my 5 mile course three times. I've been averaging 12 minute miles so I'm going to start pushing so I can speed up that pace. I lifted twice this week but unfortunately tweaked my back a bit doing squats. Nothing major, it's just sore this morning and a reminder that I am not 21 any longer. 12 lbs overweight - hope to have it off in 3 months. Happy Fathers Day to all the dads!

Happy fathers day.

"Don't let them put you down, don't let 'em push you around

don't let 'em ever change your point of view."

Thanks Igy and icars, and a big Happy Father's Day to all you Dads. I know KP has some great sons that he's so proud of. Must be great to watch them race, too. My late father is very much a part of my love of sports, even when sports can get ugly with violence or drugs.

Going to try to run 10 miles today, my first "long" run in a month. A very cool day in KC after bad storms blew through each of the last two nights, power out for 80,000 as of last night, but we're ok here. Wishing you all good health and age group PR's.

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Week 314

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Greetings, 50+er's! Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there. Wife, daughter and I will go for a barbeque brunch and listen to some great jazz singing later this morning. Always feel very blessed to be able to spend some time with our bright, energetic, and compassionate daughter.

Another complete week, though I'm still not getting those long runs in. But I'm now on day 19 of this run streak, so this is good; managed 32-1/2 miles on 7 days as such:

Sun: 5.2 w/Easy 3.1@8:10/mi & form drills

Mon: 5.1 Easy (7:57/mi)

Tue: 5.1 Intervals (10x200,200 jog rec.) all 40-41s

Wed: 3.0 Very Easy (8:30/mi)

Thu: 5.0 Easy-to-moderate (7:30/mi)

Fri: 4.0 Easy&Hard (7:21/mi avg pace) 3rd mile@6:30

Sat: 5.0 Mostly Easy (8:01/mi avg) >50% on trail, last mile @7:12

It's been generally hot and muggy this week, and I've been running in the evenings, which explains a bit of the lack of inclination to do long runs. Also, streaking has left me a bit tired, but hopefully another couple weeks and I'll be over that hump (for me it takes about that long to adjust to daily running.) Disappointed in the track workout, in that I had to stop and cool off after 5 reps of the 200's. Also thinking how 40s 200's is slower than my mile pace from 5-years ago....and this felt pretty hard (moving goalposts....) My quads were pretty sore afterwards, so I curtailed the deep yoga squats for the rest of the week. I'll get back to them this week, and hopefully get in a long run, too.

Most interesting thing we did this week was have a group run on the 1-mile harness-racing track. It's fairly compact dirt, and I did wheel it off beforehand and on the first try measured it at 5283 feet. I tried out my spikeless spikes for lap 3 and they worked great on this surface. Our club is planning to have a mile race on this track in October, and Friday's group run was a test run, of sorts. Should be fun. One thing that's interesting is that it's sooo deceptive; coming off the far turn to the homestretch it looks a lot closer than the 350 yards to the finish that it is.

Good stuff from last week. Racerdb dissected his very solid race, which age graded to just a few points below his best. There are so many little things that can get you, and Dave enumerated almost everyone, so 10s/mi under expectation can't really be that disappointing, IMHO. KP, likewise, was very solid in his 1500 effort. I agree that we were maybe being a little optimistic, but we should be and must remain optimistic, right?

A couple of new comers, Welcome! Hope the thread brings you some motivation. Wish some of our old regulars could venture their way back here and just touch base to let us know how things are going. For example, I wonder if Troy Reeder, steepler at Furman U., is msr's son.

OK, that's it from me. Hope you are training well. Anything on the racing front to report?

All the Best!

Mike and gloria, thanks for the FD wishes. I send the same to all Dads out there in LRC land.

Progress was good this week. The calf is still a little weak and sometimes there's a little tightness, but it hasn't stopped my jogging progression. I did three days last week working up to 38' yesterday. The pace is also gradually progressing, but I'm erring on the slow side for now. Fingers crossed that I can get to 45' by week's end without any issues.

Also got in a couple of days of golf. That part of my exercise routine is not coming around quite as well. Haven't broken any clubs yet, but I make no promises for the future. Eh, I'd rather be running anyway.

Keep up the good work, all.

Going to hit 107 degrees here today so gotta get jogging sooner rather than later

Nothing of consequence to report from this week's training log aside from Wednesday made 200 'streak' days in a row (1001 miles or exactly 5 miles per day)...the highlight of the week a 5 miles on the track in 43:23...first mile 9:48 and work down to 7:28...basic age 61 maintenance mode

Looking forward to this coming week...getting a cortisone shot in my uncooperative right foot on Tuesday and watching track in Sacramento on Thursday throu Sunday...should be a great ( if not boiling hot) Nationals

As always, many thanks for the geezer fitness inspirations

Your pal

MF

Happy Father's Day! about to go to a jazz brunch with my wife, so apparently I'm in sync with you.

good week of training for me -- 11 hours running, 2 hours x-training

M 50:00 run, 60 x-t [mix bike, elliptical, stairmaster], yoga class

Tu 1:40 incl. good set of hill repeats

W 1:45 double

Th 2:10 double

F 1:25 with mile-pace(ish) repeats 200 - 400-600-800-600-400-200 (200 jogs except 400 jog after the 800)

43-1:26-2:10-2:55-2:09-1:26-43

Sa 1:20 run, 60:00 bike

Su 1:50

running an evening 5k next Sat. -- got some good high-humidity acclimatization in this week.

have a great week,

Dave

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there. It also happens to be my 45th wedding anniversary. My wife and I did a bit of champagne and steak yesterday evening which probably didn't improve this morning's workout, but we are going to do that again tonight and I will see if it helps tomorrow morning.

I had another good week continuing with my heart rate based run/walk program with 55 miles total and two sub-7 workout miles this week. However, yesterday my resting heart rate was up about 5 bpm and this morning it was up another 5 bpm, so it definitely is time to take some easy days until it drops back down. Here was my week:

M- 8 flat walk/run 11:51/mi ave

T- 8 hills walk/run 10:44/mi ave with running miles of 7:26, 9:13, 6:47, 6:57

W- 7 flat walk-run 14:41/mi ave

Th- 9 hills walk/run 11:27/mi ave

F- 8 flat walk/run 14:36/mi ave

S- 8 hills walk/run 13:25/mi ave

Su- 7 flat walk/run 14:24/mi ave

Happy Father's Day to all of us "fatherly running for life mentors".

Thanks for the shout outs folks. ... Just trying to enjoy racing as if it might be your last one. Helps me to relax, still run as hard as I can, and, like y'all reap great rewards like new friends for life. Last night was a grass roots street mile in a village noth of Portland - The St John's Mile. 2 loops including sidewalk with homeless-type folks and bar patrons cheering us on. My takeaway was this could be a bigger event next year if we rallied around a give-back cause. I raced tored but felt better and better on the second loop. Hopefully demonstarting "racing fitness" as my season winds up with an 800 all-comer Wed, and a 1500-800 double Sat-Sun next week.

Found out that highschool girl that dusted me by 8 seconds for our final 300m during my 4:47 1500 last Wed ran 2:09 for 800 a few days before!!

No jazz brunch here in Eagle, Idaho that I know of. So satisfied that the wife is making one of my favorites--French toast. Last week was my highest volume in this cycle, 60+ Igy miles split about evenly between running and cross training. My weight continues to head south, now in the upper 160s. I am aiming for the mid-150s, which may take several more months.

Monday: AM- 2 miles easy; form drills; 2 x (100m-200m-400m-600m-300m @ repetition pace / with half the distance easy / walk recovery) 24, 23; 49, 47; 1:39, 1:37; 2:31, 2:30; 1:15, 1:13; mile easy; PM- 3.25 mile walking

Tuesday: AM- 60:00 spin; core routine; weights; PM- 1,750 yards swimming

Wednesday: 2 miles easy; form drills; 2 x (400m-800m-1,200m @ interval pace / with half the distance easy recovery) 1:50, 1:48; 3:46, 3:42: 5:44, 5:40; mile easy; PM- 3.25 mile walk

Thursday: same as Tuesday

Friday: AM- 3 miles easy; 16 x 100m 2 easy, 2 good; 10:00 pool run; AM- 3.25 mile walk

Saturday: AM- 2 miles easy; 4 x 100m strides; 2,000m short tempo pace @ 9:15 / 800m easy; 1,000m interval pace @ 4:20 / 500m easy ; 2 x 500m repetition pace @ 2:04, 2:04 / 300m walk-easy; 5 x 200m fast pace @ 47, 44, 45, 44, 43 / 200m walk; 800m easy; PM- 2 mile walk

Sunday: 4 mile walk

Have a good Father's Day.

Igy