50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

So I asked Kid Coach if he’d help me hit my goal of 10-10-10 (6:10 pace in the 10K on 11/10), and he said sure. His ideas are similar to mine but I like having my speed and LR workouts scripted by someone who knows me and does this for a living. Second week of 60mpw was notable for today’s 14-miler with tempo. I ran with the running store kids and got a group that went fast out of the gate. Because we were mostly downhilling I didn’t realize how fast until it was too late. By mile 4 I was dying. Eased up, caught my wind, then at mile 7.5 took off on a 10+10 tempo. I have to say it felt great to be that spent after an hour of running and not have my tempo run blow up. But I might wait until 6pm tomorrow to do my shakeout ... 60.00mi thusly: Mo - 8.7 Tu - 7.8 We - double with 12x400 @87s (75s recovery) 11.3 Th - 6.6 Fr - 6.4 Sa - 5.2 (I stopped the moment it hit 5.2) Su - 14.0 with 10’ + 3’ + 10’ T

Cavorty wrote:

I'm about 5' 8 1/2 and ran my fastest times at about 148 lb (which I am after a run at the moment). I maybe can get to 145-146 given some muscle loss.

I hope that’s a joke! We’re exactly the same height but I’m slighter and I know I would covet that extra muscle.

This week’s scheduled mirrored last week’s - including another B2B - with a tad more volume. Got it up to 17+ actual jogging miles. I removed the calf sleeve and reduced the heat therapy. Sticking with the medium heels for a while longer. No problems other than a couple of niggles in the 4th mile twice this week. When those happened I would use my mental mantra “slow down” to remind me to play it safe. Good stuff.

Sunday: off

Monday: 45’ CR, body wt ex

Tues: walk w/ the bride

Wed: 47’ CR, body wt ex

Thu: 39’ total

Fri: off

Sat: 50’ CR, body wt ex

Best to most!

Sorry, I meant that I figure my racing weight at 62 should be lighter than at 28, given age related muscle loss, not that I was so muscular that I needed to lose some!

I'm definitely on the heavy side for a distance runner, and 3000m is probably my best distant, but I did manage a state age record for 10k at 53 and again at 54. When they did the awards - quite a big money race - they had the first six overall (all African), first three 40+, and first 50+ (me) and I looked like a middle-weight boxer compared to the other nine!

I'm probably a slow sprinter with a big V02 max - I used be able to break 12:00 for the last 100m of 150m acceleration runs - so get to be moderate over a wide-range of distances!

I will be looking to drop 2 to3 kgs in October leading up to 4 Peaks. Last time I ran well there was at 54 (2013) 3d O50 and my best time for 5 years. I was weighing 74 to 75 kg (163 to 165) at 177 cm. Currently 76 to 77 kg. Bodyfat is over 15 % at the moment 73 to 74 would have the washboard abs going again. Happy to carry the extra 3 kg of muscle mass that I have added since my more serious running days of the 1980s. Just want to get rid of a few % of body fat.

happy end of September. Still Summer-like in DC

M 1:10 incl. 4 X 6:00 (4:00 jog) at 5k effort [bike path with half-mile marks. Coming up well short of goal of full mile on each rep, averaged 3:12 thru first half. uphill direction and hot (94 degrees) so not too worried about pace. Effort felt right

Tu 1:30 double

W 1:15

Th 50:00 with 6k track tempo 24:24

F 1:00 + 1:00 x-t cycle class

Sa 30:00 + 1:00 x-t

Su 3:27:00 marathon (1st OA of 52 finishers)

Sunday was fun--before leaving for the race I watched the last half-hour or so of Bekele's amazing Berlin win. At that point in DC it was 73F with 80% relative humidity, dewpoint 67. Got much warmer as the sun came up. The course was back and forth on canal towpath -- covering a 3.28 mile stretch 8x.

Doing it as a training run in ultra prep enabled me to run i'm pretty sure my first negative split marathon (1:46:43/1:40:17). My best ones have always been small positive splits of a minute or so.

Per the results I won by 12 minutes but at no time was aware of being in first. I started at around 9:30 pace, and at least a dozen runners broke out in front. After that, with all the back and forth, plus accompanying half-marathon [2 waves], plus 3 other races on overlapping segments of the towpath [20-miler, another half-marathon, 5k], it was quite confusing.

have a great week,

Dave

Impressive.

That’s hilarious to have no idea you’re winning a marathon! Great splits.

Are you one of those runners I seem to keep bumping into who ultra because it is great marathon prep? It makes sense but wow.

I have not posted in two weeks. Since the last time I posted, I think I have had a Metatarsalgia injury on the ball of my foot. I think that was the reason my long run 2 weeks ago broke down around the 7 mile mark.

I took 2 days off two weeks ago, and I blew up my planned training regimen. After my 2 days of rest, I biked 12.2 miles at 12.4 mph. The temperature was nice in the low 70s. My AHR was 133, and I felt pretty good afterwards. The next day I tried to jog/walk. I walked a half mile, jogged a half mile. Repeated that, and then did 3/4’s of mile jog, 3/4’s walk, did it twice. I ended up doing 8 miles in 1:45. I didn’t feel any foot pain while jogging, but felt some tenderness while walking. The temperatures were even better than the day before in the mid 60’s. I finished up the week with another 12 mile bike ride at 12.5 mph.

Saturday I had to fly, and the following Sunday I did a 12 mile long “run.” I did similar to my Thursday workout, where l walked a half mile then jogged a half mile and repeated it. Then I jogged 0.75 miles, and walked a 1/2 mile, repeat. I did this routine until I reached 1.25 miles of jogging. I did the 12 miles in 2:56, for 14’39” mile pace. I took some pictures and wasn’t really familiar with the route.

Tuesday, I got a late start and the temperatures were in the 90s, so I worked out on a treadmill. I did 6.5 miles in 1:26. Wednesday I rode a stationary bike for 65 minutes and supposedly did 19.33 miles. Thursday, I got back outside and did 6 miles in 1:20, temperatures were in the mid 80s. Friday back on the stationary bike and did 16 miles in 65 minutes.

Sunday, I did 16.47 miles in 3:44, for 13’37” mile pace. I was able to jog 2.25 miles continuously. My fastest mile was mile 7 at 9’57” and my last two miles were 11’32” and 11’39.” Temperature was in the 80s and a bit muggy.

It is the day after, and I feel relatively fine. I still have some pain in my foot and soreness in my thighs, but not too bad. I have no idea what type of pace to strive for in my marathon. A sub 5 hour marathon doesn’t seem feasible at this point.

I am supposed to do a 4 mile pace run on Tuesday. I am going to try and jog at least 3 miles, and see if i can jog the whole 4 miles. If I can only do 3 miles, I am going for around 32 minutes. If able to do 4 miles, around 45 minutes.

9 miles running this week, and 24.5 walking. The most I am running non-stop was yesterday with 3 x 0.75 miles each. Lower back is much less sore, but still a stiff spot near the spine on both sides. At least am able to do some cautious lifting, stretching and core work, so progressing. Cannot believe that this 68 year old body is behaving like a 68, when the rest of me feels 20 or 40 years younger. My pace was about 10:36 mile pace, in 88 degrees and humid, but fairly flat and shaded course. Was quite fatigue causing for my wife, but we did later get to the gym for weights.

Cannot wait to watch today's WC with the women's steeple, men's 5000 and women's 800. Hoping for USA sweeps throughout and sending fast thoughts to all. I cannot imagine running a race at this point in our fitness, but sure do feel good about being able to get out and be moving. Actually have been able to do a few low-15 minute walking miles of late, without having to do race walking technique. Would that be my new sport?! Look out World Masters!

ha! thanks. no, i can't say I ultra to prep for marathons. i've run one ultra before, and it was a numerological thing in 2011 [turned 50, so i should run 50 miles -- made sense at the time]. This second one is more a combo of (a) JFK has been on my bucket list [i grew up running a lot on canal towpath, and my late mother was an enormous JFK [the president, not the race] fan] and (b) v. disappointed in marathon time last Fall and thought i'd shake things up by trying something different before taking another whack at competitive marathon

--dave

dhaaga, how cool to win a marathon you were doing as a training run, and with a huge negative split! The course sounds mind-numbingly boring, but I guess with all the different races going on you at least had plenty of company and plenty to look at the whole time.

Today the wheels may have come off for me following my 22-miler on Saturday. I went out for an easy 10 miles this morning and about 6 miles into it something suddenly went "boing!" in my upper calf. I probably should have stopped and walked in but walking 4 miles takes a really long time, my husband would get worried, and we would both be late for work. So I kept jogging and it smoothed out somewhat after a mile or two, but it's now pretty sore and I've obviously injured a calf muscle. I had a similar injury a year ago in May and it took me out for most of the summer. I'll take several days off from any running and see how it feels.

Olde Farte, I'm glad to hear your calf injury is coming along...

The diet conundrum lives on:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/30/health/red-meat-heart-cancer.html

amkelley wrote:

Olde Farte, I'm glad to hear your calf injury is coming along...

Appreciate it. My thanks go out to you and the others here who have offered support and advice. It has really helped.

Best to most.

Happy for Donovan Brazier. He's a really good guy too. Got to know him side by side on treadmills a year ago when he was rehabbing somewhat. He was also impressed with us masters folk.

Got my "Hay_In_The_Barn" workout in yesterday. 11 days out from San Diego 5k XC Nats with 4x 1000m (3min rest) in 3:44-3:40-3:37-3:35 (10min recovery) 1x 2000m in 7:21. Time to taper, rest, hydrate, try try try to avoid RhinoVirus going around, and just enjoy being as fit as I can be at age 59.

See some of y'all there.

KP

Well, the Salazar news has broken. What is most shocking to me is how dirty Nike is looking in this whole sordid tale. I've heard tons of self-righteous posting/tweeting from various masters athletes and coaches whenever the PEDs question comes up. Time to walk your talk and throw away all your Swoosh gear. Go ahead! Have some integrity!

If a person needs to purge the demons by burning Nike gear by all means do it. I see the Salazar story as a personal tragedy driven by it “never being enough.” For whatever reason, pushing the limits of what is proper and perhaps fair. Another type of demon I suppose, and a far to common human tragedy. A ruined reputation he will never get back. Another sports asterisk, like Lance Armstrong.

I guess you would know.

.....as you hide behind your handle.....

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

The diet conundrum lives on:

It’s not a conundrum. The sourcing on that is pretty shady. As usual, Mic the Vegan takes apart the bad science methodologically ... and methodically .... AND logically!

Bottom line, don’t eat any more meat than you have to. Which for me is zero, YMMV.