50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Igy!

I thought I heard you call out something just before hitting that huge-for-masters 2nd hill at NXR Coaches Race. My race was a good newsbad news result. Good = I ran faster than last year. 19:33. Always good for us aging folks right? Bad news = my left glute/min/hammy/insertion is so ripped I couldn't cool down and still can hardly walk the dog. Gonna be a challenge to be patient enough to let it be next few days, or a week, in order to continue the goal of Club Nats.

KP

The peroneal tendon soreness that I’d been dealing with for a couple of weeks prior to last Sunday’s half-marathon came roaring back after the race. I took a full five days completely off from running, jogged an easy four miles on Saturday, and took Sunday off again. I did manage to put in about 8.5 hours on the bike trainer and one outdoor ride of 40 miles, so I wasn’t just sitting on the couch. But my one 4-mile jog made the tendon a little worse, so clearly I need more time off.

California is on fire again. Many races scheduled for this weekend have been canceled. I am perhaps 200 miles from the Camp Fire and even here the air is bad. It didn’t seem too bad when I set out on my bike at 9:30 this morning at an official air quality index of “moderate”, but by the time I returned at noon it was “very unhealthy” and I could hardly breathe. I’ll have to reconsider my plans for tomorrow.

lucKY2b, I hope you feel better soon. Even over-the-counter drugs can have some pretty bad side effects.

dhaaga, too bad it didn’t work out the way you had hoped, but congratulations on beating your personal worst. (You have a darn fast PW, by the way.)

Igy, that’s great progress. Keep up the good work.

Good health and good running to all.

KP- you really attacked that last hill. You looked strong. That sand was two times slowing as well. Good run.

amkelley- Thanks. Really coming along. Weight down to 178 lbs from Pednisone high of 195+ lbs. Maybe even tackle a spring half marathon. My high school (Palisades) is an evacuation center for the Southern California fires. I recall the Bel Aire fire in the 1960s but nothing like this.

I'm in San Diego and the air quality for our race was not great. I have been wandering around with the classic 800M hack since finishing the race.

The hip/gluten issue I mentioned last week has improved, but still lingers. The week’s first jog started well, but I shut things down after about 30’ when the injury started to ache. Two days later, I managed to reach my goal of 40’, but had to take a walking break to calm the hip and then was rather sore afterward. Took 3 days off then aimed for a modest 30’ yesterday which went well. I’ll try to add a few minutes tomorrow. Hopefully this won’t deep-six my Turkey trot plans.

Best to most, especially L2B.

old guy II wrote:

I'm in San Diego and the air quality for our race was not great. I have been wandering around with the classic 800M hack since finishing the race.

Looking forward to the race on December 8th. in San Diego. 300 meters.

Today I time trialed a 26.73 200m - used a 3 point stance and one foot in the block. I think it worked out OK.

By the way the air up in Norcal isn't good either. I stuck around and worked out with a friend who was doing some Daniels stuff: sets of-200-200-400. Not fast like 34/73 but at 140ppm it might not have been too healthy.

Hi All,

I've been off the board for a couple of weeks focusing on getting ready for my end of season "A" races but I've been keeping up from the sidelines. I headed to the SE Region NCAA meet on Friday to watch my younger son's last college XC race and then rushed home to catch a flight to Miami for the USA Triathlon Aquathlon Championship race. This has been my goal race all year. I was really looking forward to it since I moved up in AG and had a shot of winning and my older son lives in Miami so I would get to spend time with him. I had just put my bag in the car to head to the airport when I got a text that my flight was delayed until Saturday morning due to a mechanical issue. Unfortunately, there was no way I could make it to the race in time so I decided to stay home and save the airfare. What a bummer!

I'm grateful that I'm finally healthy and in shape but I'm so disappointed that I didn't get to race - especially since I'm tapered and ready to go. To drown my sorrow I broke out a new pair of shoes and headed out for a long run. I've got a 20k race next weekend, the "Toughest Road Race in the Southeast" with the 2500 ft elevation gain and 89 turns, so I'm just going to focus on that and on doing well in Spokane.

LucKY - What a scare. Hope you feel better soon.

dhagga - Congratulations for hanging tough and finishing despite the challenges.

Mo'pak - I'm in awe of your adventures!

Old guy II - I hate the cold too but I'll see you at Club Nationals.

KP - ;-( for the injury.

SCgal wrote:

I had just put my bag in the car to head to the airport when I got a text that my flight was delayed until Saturday morning due to a mechanical issue. Unfortunately, there was no way I could make it to the race in time so I decided to stay home and save the airfare. What a bummer!

What a bummer, indeed. Lots of people in California had their races cancelled this weekend because of smoke. (Fortunately, I ran my race last weekend, before the latest round of fires started.) Of course everyone realizes that not being able to run a race is nothing compared to having to evacuate your home (hundreds of thousands of people) or losing your home (thousands of people) or even losing your life (at least dozens of people). Still, it really hurts to see all that preparation go to waste, whatever the reason for not being able to run. I hope you can now focus on crushing that 20K!

hi,

Quietly following this thread for years.

Seems the group is falling apart due to overuse injuries.

Why is nobody stepping back from mileage and build up with hill jumps on one day per week and 10x100m another day per week?

This helped me a lot to become and stay healthy.

However, it took one year doing so until being capable to hit the track again...

cheers

no radar wrote:

hi,

Quietly following this thread for years.

Seems the group is falling apart due to overuse injuries.

Why is nobody stepping back from mileage and build up with hill jumps on one day per week and 10x100m another day per week?

This helped me a lot to become and stay healthy.

However, it took one year doing so until being capable to hit the track again...

cheers

Well...overuse injuries are a big part of aging for most older athletes unless some people have found the Fountain of Youth or something. And the young bucks experience overuse injuries, it'll be that much worse for older runners.

Every study I've looked at in reference to age-related injury pathologies show degenerative musculoskeletal changes occurring with athletes after age 50. Funny thing, when was a younger fella back in my late 30s running 40+ mpw over 5 days, weekly speed sessions, twice monthly racing, etc., I thought I was invincible and could keep this up for decades to come (too funny...right?). Then 3 months after my 50th birthday, I suffered my first major injury being a grade-2 Achilles strain while trying to outkick some kid 30 yrs younger than me at a local 5k. ?

From that point onward to my late 50s, it's been nothing but injuries (patellar tendon strain, IT band, PF & a completely ruptured PTT of the ankle) and some OA developing now (hip & ankle), which has left this old stiff relegated to 15 mpw over 3 days and very little speed work. In fact, just last week I strained my calf (maybe a grade 2 ☹) trying to do some stupid 50-70m accelerations during my 5 mile old man shuffle run.

So, my fast-twitch muscle fibers are trashed and I can't do that stuff you're talking about (and this despite doing 3 days a week o f strength training at the gym!).

Maybe others here could handle that type of training you're talking about and maybe others can't. One thing is for certain everyone though - everyone here is a veteran runner and knows their body better than anyone else. And I think for many it's a survival game - trying to get as much quality training in as possible without sustaining injuries. That's a fine line to work with because when we get injured we just don't heal as fast as the youngsters, and acute injuries become chronic, and chronic becomes depressing.

Well said, Stiff. My philosophy has always been “listen to your body”. As I’ve aged, my body has had more to say.

SCgal, that's too bad you missed a key race because of an airline glitch and that they couldn't get you there.

get well , lucKY2b; your health sounds better Igy and that's great news.

congrats on the 2nd AG dhaaga, I scanned results on Saturday and saw your name up there

SCgal/KP, oldguy, I'll be at ClubXC. It's smashmouth XC between us and ATC! (we're all friends but gloves are off for the 2019 GP).

I got 60 last week - still running, healthy, normal and not a genetic freak.

oId guy wrote:

Well said, Stiff. My philosophy has always been “listen to your body”. As I’ve aged, my body has had more to say.

Fantastic quote lol!

Just glad I am able to run. The aerobic exercise is helping to purge the therapy poison from my body. The more exercise I can tolerate the stronger I feel. Maybe it is not the perfect exercise for some but it is magical for me.

45 years of competitive running, 18 years of masters competitive running, 8 years of M50+ competitive running, now simply a day by day opportunity to live the life of an aging runner by just lacing 'em up. A personal choice that requires a lot of luck but more of a reality to face-the-music for stiffness, aches & pain, injury-management, and a not-so-fluid 180-184 strides per minute. My motivation is only driven by the next race on the horizon. My benefits are how good it feels to challenge father time. My hope is that all y'all will "Keep On Truckin'".

KP

I get the fact that some folks just can’t do it anymore. My hat goes out for a job well done. Same goes for those that have the motivation to continue slogging out the miles. That takes a lot of preparation and drive to keep going. One of Coach Igloi’s favorite hard training expressions was “Kill Yourself!” Figuratively of course. Carry on my friends.

no radar wrote:

hi,

Quietly following this thread for years.

Seems the group is falling apart due to overuse injuries.

Why is nobody stepping back from mileage and build up with hill jumps on one day per week and 10x100m another day per week?

This helped me a lot to become and stay healthy.

However, it took one year doing so until being capable to hit the track again...

cheers

I am glad you have found a strategy that works for you. I think that we all get more idiosyncratic in our training as we get older because many of us develop different weak links that affect our training. Some of us can better handle more distance at lower intensity, and some of us do better with higher intensity and less volume. If we are, in fact, listening to our bodies, then I think we gravitate towards a training mix that provides the greatest benefits with the least risk of injury, and that mix is different for each of us. We all know the basics, more mileage correlates with better endurance; more strength correlates with more speed; and the best mix of those is a moving target we that try to hit as age takes its progressive toll on us.

no radar wrote:

hi,

Quietly following this thread for years.

Seems the group is falling apart due to overuse injuries.

Why is nobody stepping back from mileage and build up with hill jumps on one day per week and 10x100m another day per week?

This helped me a lot to become and stay healthy.

However, it took one year doing so until being capable to hit the track again...

cheers

This video is the closest metaphor I can find for racing after 50. You can choose to slowly scoot yourself down the hill and be safer (what I’ve done this year). Or you can launch yourself and go for the cheese!

No Radar what are hill jumps?

I noticed a huge agility strength improvement after a month of daily jaunts on the Jetty Rocks . These are uneven boulders with no pattern horizontal or vertical so ya gotta constantly change each step/jump to the next one. Funny thing is my last injury was hitting my foot really hard on a river rock slippery submerged but it healed pretty fast.

This group of 50+ runners share one trait and that is Resilience