50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Phoenix Rising wrote:

The piano case is a work of art. Truly a gem and a labor of love.

Allen1959, wow! Now you make me feel like a slacker on both my running and woodworking. That case is a beautiful and difficult piece of workmanship.

Phoenix Rising wrote:

Bean counter 2.0 wrote:

You just referred to yourself four times in a single paragraph.

Who gives a rat's ass? No one.

You must be new here. Welcome!

nice! congrats. good to get recognition for longevity,

dave

Dave, you are sitting just ahead of multiple world record breaker Don Ritchie.

This is a cool list.

I could stand a chance of making an opposite sort of list--people who ran all N of their sub-X marathons in the shortest period of time. Three sub-2:50s in five months, but none before or after. I wonder how many other women have that odd distinction.

amkelley wrote:

Three sub-2:50s in five months, but none before or after.

I am reminded how similar our marathon careers were. For me, all four of my sub-2:50 races were within 8 months -- Sept '82, Oct '82, Nov '82, Apr '83. None before or after.

The big difference, of course, is that you were national class, and I wasn't noteworthy, even locally!

I had my first PT visit today. He was startled by my complete inflexibility. My strength imbalances weren't as pronounced as I had suspected. He also mentioned that runners are his least favorite patients -- they're too reluctant to back off training enough to heal. I assured him I haven't run in three weeks, and have no races currently on my calendar.

Allen1959 wrote:

amkelley wrote:

Three sub-2:50s in five months, but none before or after.

I am reminded how similar our marathon careers were. For me, all four of my sub-2:50 races were within 8 months -- Sept '82, Oct '82, Nov '82, Apr '83. None before or after.

Yes, there are a lot of similarities. One difference is that you're about a year younger than I, but you did your best marathoning 8-9 years before I did (mine were all in 1991). The other, more salient difference is that you can still run close to a 3-hour marathon, while I haven't finished one since 2004 and would struggle to get in under 4 hours now.

One more: on the rare occasions I've seen a physical therapist, they have always been horrified by my lack of flexibility. They always prescribe stretching, which always causes additional injuries.

amkelley wrote:

One more: on the rare occasions I've seen a physical therapist, they have always been horrified by my lack of flexibility. They always prescribe stretching, which always causes additional injuries.

PT’s, OT’s, ART Chrio’s sure seem to push the flexibility argument. Given that the science is NOT clear on the benefits I am amazed how they cling to it like gospel. Sorry, I get a knee-jerk reaction that they are just selling me something to make a buck. And we runners are the biggest, most gullible, fad-loving saps ever!

Rtype wrote:

amkelley wrote:

One more: on the rare occasions I've seen a physical therapist, they have always been horrified by my lack of flexibility. They always prescribe stretching, which always causes additional injuries.

PT’s, OT’s, ART Chrio’s sure seem to push the flexibility argument. Given that the science is NOT clear on the benefits I am amazed how they cling to it like gospel. Sorry, I get a knee-jerk reaction that they are just selling me something to make a buck. And we runners are the biggest, most gullible, fad-loving saps ever!

Increased flexibility can actually be detrimental to performance, especially in the explosive events.

And so must be you, rookie. We don't take kindly to trolls. Bugger off.

Welcome Wagon wrote:

Phoenix Rising wrote:

Who gives a rat's ass? No one.

You must be new here. Welcome!

Have not posted for a while, found out that I had a small bone chip in my medial right heel. It was painful, but also created bursitis in my lateral right heel, which I had d/t compensating. That was some time around Aug 8 or 12. So went from a 31 mile week, to 4 and 6 mile weeks, plus about 4 hours weekly on the AirDyne, then 5 straight weeks of zero running, and gradually resumed with every other day runs. Those weeks were of 13, 15 1/2, and last week of 26 with runs every day finally.

I did get weekly chiro care of ART and dry needling in the bursa. I did not get a cortisone shot. I worked in Hoka Clifton's (and ran in them), until the pain was reduced to mild soreness at the start and then lessened with the runs. I now have a couple runs in some Newtons (forcing me into a more mid-foot landing) and just yesterday, a run on the track in my LunaRacers for 3 glorious miles. My runs a couple weeks ago were at 11-12 minute/mile pace, yesterday finally able to do 3200m in 18:15. Also ran the Des Moines 5 km (my Garmin and my wife's both measured it at 3.2 miles) in 28:01, for 3rd in age group, last week. Progress! Considering that race was on 4 hours sleep after my brother's wedding, too! And, yes, a lovely wedding and reception, great fun. Just disappointing that I couldn't run the DM 1/2 like I have many other years, aw well, progress is seen. I agree with others that stretching is not part of my domain.

Other part of my rehab was icing twice daily, faithfully!

I too, had all 3 of my best marathons in a brief period, 2:59 Chicago in October 1983, 2:55 Louisville 4 weeks later, 2:54 Grandma's June 1984.

Signed up for an 8 km this Saturday, supposed to be temps in 30 degree range, burr!

Rusty old coot wrote:

And so must be you, rookie. We don't take kindly to trolls. Bugger off.

Welcome Wagon wrote:

You must be new here. Welcome!

"Welcome Wagon" is a long time poster on letsrun. It is an honor to have him post on a thread.

Markschuitz25 wrote:

Rusty old coot wrote:

And so must be you, rookie. We don't take kindly to trolls. Bugger off.

"Welcome Wagon" is a long time poster on letsrun. It is an honor to have him post on a thread.

What's so special about "Welcome Wagon?" Why is it an "honor" to have he/she post on this thread?

Is this one of those "who's who" in masters distance runner type forums. It seems like there isn’t a lot of imput or postings from less accomplished or non-competitive masters runners (e.g., recreational runners, fitness runners, etc), and more about highly-competitive, very serious, fast masters who regulary post their accomplishments and weekly training blocks, which many of us on the outside looking in could never dream of doing.

Is this one of those "who's who" in masters distance runner type forums. It seems like there isn’t a lot of imput or postings from less accomplished or non-competitive masters runners (e.g., recreational runners, fitness runners, etc), and more about highly-competitive, very serious, fast masters who regulary post their accomplishments and weekly training blocks, which many of us on the outside looking in could never dream of doing.

This thread includes masters runners of a wide range of ability. Not much group thinking. The posters are pretty disparate and independent.

My clubmate JJ clocked a 6.51 for 1500 metres on Saturday. Pretty good running as he has ticked over into the 80 plus age group.

*Week 333*

Howdy 50+ers! Still fumbling around trying to get my act together. This week, Academic Leadership Academy shtuff got in the way; thankfully, just two more days of this in mid-November. Managed another 20 miles on 5 days.

Sun: 5.0 Easy-to-moderate (7:45 avg pace)

Mon: Off

Tue: 4.1 w/8x(200@~47-48s, 200@57-58s)

Wed: 2.7 Moderate (7:32/mi)

Thu: 2.7 Moderate-to-hard (7:19/mi, but with a break)

Fri: Off

Sat: 5.5 Easy-to-moderate (7:51/m) took a break at 3.

Probably should be doing more slow running, but my runs are all still pretty short and I do still do a lot of walking (other than Wed.&Thur. when I had the off-campus Academy.) Tuesday, we modulated pace every 200m on the track, averaged the two miles at 7:07/mi pace. Had to take a break to catch my breath on Thursday (from 0.7 to 1.4 I was in the 6:30 range) and to stretch my right hip @ 3-mile mark on Saturday (it's been inordinately tight from sitting around so much Wed.&Thur.) Other days felt pretty good. Meant to run Friday, too, but after teaching labs and dealing with students until about 2, my wife was wanted to go out to Keeneland for the second-to-last day of fall horse-racing. Couldn't find a way to sneak in a run.

That's all I've got. Pretty minimal report. Hope you all are getting along OK. Any more nice races to report?

All the Best!

I'll check in early and assume that I will get today's 7 mile recovery walk/run started in about 30 minutes. Yesterday I ran my 7th XC race in 10 weeks, the last series race with the championship race coming up in two weeks. I was very happy with the race effort. I averaged 6:49/mi for a 6K fairly flat and fast course with the first mile in 6:29 and all the miles under 7:00. At this point I am 4th in the 60+ division with the three guys in front of me aged 60, 61, and 60, and I turn 68 in a little more than a month from now.

I am using the euphemism "conservative" for my training week which really was just laziness I took Monday, Thursday and Friday off because I didn't feel like I wanted to make the effort to run. Tuesday and Wednesday I ran 4 miles at about 8:30 pace with one of my sons who was in town for work. With yesterday's warm up, race and warm down and today's easy 7, I will be at 25 for the week. Now it's time for me to get my act back together and put in a good 2 weeks and the XC championship race.

Good running to all!

Mon. 22 km of mostly mountain bike but including a bit of a hike up to a summit. Heavily overgrown and rocky. All up 1 hr 40 mins inc hiking and 680 metrrs of elevation gain.

Tue. 38 min. kayak on the river then 2 km easy golf course run and another 3 brisk walking. Planned an easy 5 km as my legs were still tight from Sunday's mountain run but decided to cut it short.

Wed. I left the car a few kms from work and did a 24 km mountain bike ride into work in 1.09. Back to the car at 10.30pm after work for an uphill 3.5 km ride.

Thu. Easy km jog to the base of Mt Ida's Hard Way Track. 2 x up in about 9 min 30 secs. for the 560 metre climb (158 metres elevation gain) walking back down between. Ran down the fire tower road and a service track to the start for an extra 5 kms.

Fri. Cruisy 26 km forest trail ride in 1 hr 29 min.

Sat. 8.5 km easy run on the railtrail. 42 mins. Significantly faster 2d half.

34 min kayak.

Sun. The Mt Stirling /Clear Hills/Craig's Hut run. We did this back in June in quite heavy snow. Only a 100 metre long patch left now. Struggled to keep up early on but ended up leading the group all the way back. 23 kms of rugged trails, 1080 metres of elevation gain. Mostly between 1400 and 1700 metres altitude. 2 hr 57 min.

Managed 1500 metres of elevation gain in my 40 kms of running. A few extra kms on the bike for the week.

Thanks for kicking this week's discussion up again LucKY2b--nice job on the XC OGII.

Cut back week of 43 miles this week in prep for the USATF 15K. It was cold (32 at the start) and blustery. The course is fairly hilly. Met my goals for this race and maybe then some. Ran sub 6 minute mile pace, got top 3 in age group, and scored a high overall age grade ranking. So that part could hardly have gone better. Major kudos to the organizers of this race--they really put on a good event. Saw SoCal Cush and had a chance to say hi after I'd crossed the line--he was several minutes up. Weather must have been a shocker to the California kids!

Also, now ranked on that sub 3 marathon list and hope to have a shot at a couple more.