50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Some great cross country racing: SCgal, Coyote, RB, Cush, old guy II....let them fill in the blanks. Coached two women that did very well...so experincing the thrill vicariously....

Igy

*Week 391*

Salutations, 50+ers!

First off, kudos to some mighty fine racing in Spokane, as Igy already pointed out. Will look forward to reading how it all went down...the M60+ Club Northwest and W50+ Jane's Elite Teams look untouchable! Kudos also to Coyote M for his USATF award; you've had a helluva year, well deserved!

Don't really have many miles to report, but glad that I've gotten my HR up a bit this week. Did 4+ hours of yard work last Sunday with a lot of digging and de-rooting an area for my wife to plant some bulbs; my back and arms didn't take to kindly to that and I was not in a position to run Monday or Tuesday (beside, I had finals to prepare and give.) I did a couple miles worth of run/walk on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday; am feeling like a bloated beginner.....it's gonna take some time. With the semester's end well in sight, I'll look forward to building up some miles and dropping some pounds. We don't have any holiday travel plans, though might swing up to Chicago for a day or two, so I can focus on the task.

That's it from me. How's your December shaping up?

All the Best!

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Some great cross country racing: SCgal, Coyote, RB, Cush, old guy II....let them fill in the blanks. Coached two women that did very well...so experincing the thrill vicariously....

Igy

Hey, en route to home. As always Clubs lived up to a great place to be on the 2nd Saturday of December.

Shared a flight with SCgal and bumped into Cush before the races and at the after party so it was good to catch up with them! Things have changed a bit over the past year as it has transformed from the end of the Grand Prix to the first of the 8 or 9 race series. But to me it still represents the end of the year.

Our field was pretty deep and I figured it'd be my toughest race of the year. That prediction did not disappoint. Joe took off like a bat outta hell and strung us out in the first 300 meters. No pack tactics on Saturday. Had a great battle out there for 2nd through 5th. Joe just ran away with it although JN and 63, now 64, went after him in the early going. I moved into 2nd at about 2 miles and then hung on by gritted teeth with 3 runners inc. 64 on my heels all the way in. Joe finished 30 plus ahead and 3rd and 4th were just 9 or sec back. I didn't feel in the clear until the final 200. It was my first xc podium and gotta be happy with that. Shoutout to Joe and 64 for a great race and fun talking to them at the awards, But was happy to break up what woulda been a CNW age group sweep.

Garmin splits were 5:43, 5:45, 5:47, 5:59, 5:49 and a little more.

Now I get a bit of a break and looking forward to that.

The other races were fun to watch but missed a lot because it was cold and we also had a weird tie breaker in the team race and had to chase down an official to get some answers. Turns out rather than having the non scoring members break a tie, they go by the finish time of the final scoring members.

Good running and congrats on all the medal and Grand Prix trophy haul to SCgal, 64, and Cush.

Great racing all. I really find it hard to comprehend how fast you are.

I had the pleasure to coach the W55 winner and the W50 6th place. Two talented ladies that I really just needed to keep healthy, but inspirational to me and others in our club. Like many of you our club was meeting before, or after work, perhaps somewhere in between. Anyway my friends were happy with their results and it gave me something to focus on.

This week I tried to drop my workout times down on the hard days. In order to prepare myself for the additional stress I had to lighten up on the easy days.

Monday: AM- 3 mile easy/walk; PM- 3 mile walk

Tuesday: 20:00 easy; drills; strides; 1,000m interval pace @ 4:48 / 600m walk/easy; 600m interval pace @ 2:46 / 400m walk/easy; 4 x 200m repetition pace @ 49, 46, 46, 46 / 100m walk; 10:00 easy walk

Wednesday: AM- 4 mile easy/walk; PM- 3 mile walk

Thursday: Off

Friday: 4 mile easy/walk

Saturday: 2 mile easy; 4 x 800m interval pace @ 4:10, 4:10, 4:08, 3:55 / 200m walk; mile easy

Sunday: Off

Igy

Unfortunately my previously-thought mild case of shingles has gotten worse. No longer mild. So no running for me right now. I'm looking forward to reading everyone's posts, especially about the XC championships!

Phoenix,

Best wishes on that. I have heard it can be tough.

Igy

Coyote, congratulations on a terrific race! Like Igy, I have a hard time comprehending how fast you are.

While some of you were off racing against national-class competition, I stayed home and ran my local Christmas-themed hobby-jogger 5K. It’s become a popular event with over 1600 finishers this year, but draws relatively few serious adult runners. I came in at 24:26, exactly one second slower than in this same race a year ago, which was also my last 5K. Given how badly I’ve been slowing down overall during the past year, I was happy to basically match my time from last year and to prove that I can still run under 8-minute miles, at least for a few. I won my age group with 43 finishers by about 3 minutes, and placed 15th out of almost 1000 women overall.

Everything worked OK, but the race felt very hard aerobically. I’ve gotten so accustomed to nothing but long slow distance that I’d sort of forgotten how it feels to run “fast”. It seems clear that doing some faster training would benefit me, but I’m really worried about further aggravating my chronic injuries. This week I managed to run six days out of seven for a total of about 60 miles, and my attempt to run “fast” yesterday didn’t seem to aggravate anything, so perhaps I should stop using that as an excuse. With nothing on my calendar until a half-marathon in March, I’m now browsing the local race calendar for something before then. Perhaps I should try a few shorter races.

Good health and good running to all!

Congrats to SCgal, Cush, Muddy Girl, CM, OG II on Club Nats!

Congrats on the 5K amkelley.

Tue = 4 miles on TM: 1-mile warm-up, 2.5 miles at 7:30 pace, half mile warm down

Thr = 4 miles easy road

Sat = 4 miles on track, with 2 warm-up, 1 at 6:51, and 1 warm down

Sun = 4 miles TM. Planned to run in the snow but waited too long and got too deep. Here in Roanoke, VA we have about 8 inches with it snowing about an inch an hour

It was a good week with fitness continuing to improve incrementally.

Have a good week folks!

Club XC looks like a good time maybe next year. Congrats to all who ran this with an xtra Congrats to RB63 four for winning the Age Graded victory and CM for one hecka of a year a true inspiration what these guys have in common is intelligent training something we can all aspire to.

7 days 7 runs no injuries all easy except last sunday which was 10 x 400 with full rest not too hard averaged about 30 minutes a run . As long as I just focus on time and running as easy as I need to and stay away from pace and/or mileage I will be ok.

This was a pretty solid week for me that even included a return to the links. The hips were functional, though still a little achy, so I balmed them up good for the first runs of the week. Naturally there was some achiness there and elsewhere following only my second golf outing in 6+ months. I had hoped to bump up the quality with some fartlek on Friday, but the abundance of black ice put the kaibosh on that. Hoping to stay healthy and minimize the seemingly annual arrival of the “holiday 15”.

Sun: off

Mon: 60’ jog, body wt ex

Tues: golf (18 holes, 93)

Wed: 52’ jog, body wt ex

Thu: walk+ w/ the bride

Fri: 53’ jog

Sat: off

Congrats to those who raced well.

Best to most.

Week 3

M 2 9:44 pace HR 127

PM 3 x 200 (200 walk) 42 39 39

TU 2 including 3 x 300 (100 walk) 68, 63, 68 HR 152

W 3 9:46 pace HR 131

TH 2 9:35 pace HR 128

PM 3 x hill 14.2, 12.0, 12.1

FR 2 9:32 pace HR 129 last 600 at 6:45 pace HR 155

SA 2 10:05 pace HR 125

SU 4 8:45 pace

M1HR132

M2HR137

M3HR144

M4HR148

Week total 19

Week 3 Observations

1) overall feeling better, responding to training

2) resting pulse improved again, down to 57

3) It appears my Max HR is higher than 160, I am guessing closer to 170. With MHR higher than I thought and RHR coming down, I have a bigger HR reserve and will have to recalculate the paces for various runs.

4) full recovery 200s improved significantly again, already under 40 which is nice. I have not run this fast in so long ( 30 years!) it is kind of scary sensation, have a fear of falling. Also these are the hardest thing I am doing, they really hurt, not like an injury, but very winded after each one.

5) increased the tempo 300s from 2 to 3 reps. running them a little too fast, need to get under control and stick to plan of running them in 70 (6:12 pace).

6) Hills improved greatly to 3 reps and 12.0 on one of them. However, go a scare on the last rep, felt a twinge on outside of right knee, indicating a slight strain to the IT band or lateral ligament. Hurt slight AFTER each run the rest of the week but not during runs. Have been icing it.

7) ala Lydiard I am increasing the longer runs one week, then the shorter one the next week. Increased the medium-long run from 2 to 3 and the combined long run/progression run to 4. The long/progression run went well, felt good.

8) the easy runs feel very uncomfortable. I am running as slow as the HR monitor dictates they should be run but they are so slow they feel awkward and stumbly. Also my times are not coming down (for the same HR effort) on these easy days, but that is not important for now.

Congrats to those great performances this week!

no news isn't ALWAYS good news ;}

been mostly 'gimpy' since September but still chipping away at 100,000 lifetime miles...am now just 46 miles shy...perhaps an early Christmas gift??

impressed with the many here who raced in Spokane yesterday...results are here:

http://www.rtspt.com/events/usatf/clubxc18/

sending good thoughts to your in the training and racing week ahead

your pal,

MF

M59 -- 5'11" 167 lbs

M55-59 PRs -- 18:58 5K, 3:07:23 marathon

Goals

1:26 half marathon April 2019

3:00 marathon Oct. 2019

Current training

Daniels HM Schedule: Phase I Week 2

Dec 3-9, 2018

M - 12.2 miles @ 9:45/mi (road)

T - Off

W - 10.0 miles @ 8:29/mi (trail)

Th - 8.0 miles @ 8:10/mi (treadmill at 2.5%)

F -- 7.7 miles @ 8:45/mi (road)

Sa - 7.4 miles untimed (snowy trail)

Su - 7.7 miles @ 8:45/mi w/6 strides (road)

WEEK TOTAL: 53.0 MILES

Another week of base mileage, but today I introduced a few strides.

Congratulations to Coyote Montane, SCgal, SoCalCush, Muddy Girl, OG II on Club Nats. Thanks, CM, for the race details; looking forward to more stories. Nice 5K amkelley, especially with no 5K-specific training. I'm starting to think that a few miles at 10K or 5K pace each week is healthier than exclusively slogging through long slow miles day after day. Igy, the workouts are progressing very well. Charlie, it's always interesting to follow along with your endeavors.

Thanks Allen@1959. I planned to do 2 x mile @ 8:20 but it was a bridge too far. Racing road 2 mile on 12/22 so trying to pick it up a bit.

My goodness, you certainly have a lot to say. You really do emulate DJT.

perfect idea for a Christmas gift. advance congratulations! IIRC you'd already hit 100k some time ago. is this 110K?

fun week for me of somewhat aimless training in fourth week post-marathon but not yet onto next goal-oriented cycle. about 90 mins/day of some running or x-t including:

1:50 double tues.

1:00 with 20:00 at half-marathon pace + 20:00 x-t thurs

8k hilly road race today to finish out club road series for the year -- 29:50 for 7th OA, 2nd AG. pretty sure it was short -- one of my friends had 4.84 miles on watch.

our daughters are both visiting from out of state, for our niece's wedding last night. Great fun to see them even though I don't have time off work for a real vacation visit.

congrats to everyone on some great racing in Spokane.

have a fun week,

Dave

I am at home now with a glass of Champagne in hand. As always, I am impressed and inspired by the level of competition at Nationals. Back in the middle of the pack where I was the racing, it was no less intense than what Coyote described up at the front of the 60+ race. I spent about the first 3 miles of the race running behind a guy with a 75 on his back, while thinking, "I hope I'm that fast in another 6 years." I figured that if I had a good race, I would end up between 5th and 10th in the age group. I did get 10th and felt like it was my best race of the year. My final official time was 35:27, which is 7:08/mi for 8K. My Garmin had the distance at 5.12 mi. and gave me 6:54/mi. average, which I like the sound of better. What really was good about my race was the even splits. My mile splits were 6:43, 7:02, 6:59, 6:59, 7:02, which is the most evenly paced race I have had this year. I had all the rest of my team mates in the 40+ race and spent my post-race cheering for them, and then was too cold to hang around longer. Once again, I missed on meeting fellow posters after going to dinner early with my wife and skipping the awards and post-race party. I definitely add my congrats to SCgal, Cush, Muddy Girl, CM, and everyone out there. I seemed like everyone ran hard and impressively well.

Before my early old-person bedtime last night I decided to try and look at how this XC season compared with my 2017 season. I ran every race in our local series both years. For 2017 I ran 8 races in 12 weeks for a total of 32.1 race miles with an average pace of 7:10/mi. This year we had one less local race but I ran Nationals, so I had 8 races in 16 weeks for a total of 33.3 race miles with an average pace of 7:08/mi. I am very happy with that consistency another year older.

Now, I am feeling pretty raced out and plan to settle into some proper base-building for at least the first half of next year as I prepare to escape the younger fast guys in the age group when I turn 7o next December.

Good health and good running to all!

old guy II,

Nice running and great season. At this point 9:00/mile for that distance might be impossible for me. Glad you had a good race and rest up for the roads.

Igy

You are just lazy and dumb as a brick.

DJT