50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

i completely agree that it's tough to know when to run through moderate pain and when to give it a rest. generally, i consider it a good sign when there's a MKoP instead of one that settles in deeply and won't budge. for me, that alleviates my fear that it's an impending stress fracture (i.e., a lead-up in the form of a stress reaction). with a MKoP, there's always the hope that it will move out entirely and simply not return.

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Week 9

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Greetings from Kentucky, probably not the hottest spot on the planet, but we've had our fair share of heat and humidity. Almost makes me glad I have an excuse not to be running.

No training, other than a small amount of general conditioning, again this week. The knee issue has been morphing all week. By last Sunday, I had thought that I was on the upswing; pain was subsiding, and I was starting to feel like I would be able to start running soon. Then on Monday, it started tightening up especially in the back, then it started hurting on the inside, and by nightfall it was actually swollen and hard to bend past 90 degrees! Wow, I thought, what have I done? And I really couldn't answer that, but I did go ahead and just ice it and take some NSAID's and try not to put undue stress on it, and by Thursday, the swelling was down, and the pain was mostly gone. So here I am Sunday, about where I was last Sunday....but issues are now in a different spot. I can do now do the vertical step-ups without any pain, but laterally, it's pretty tentative. I'm hoping nls is right, that so long as it keeps moving, I should be OK. I had promised to go see a specialist, but I've just been too busy; better move it up on my docket...I'll set an appointment tomorrow morning before I go teach. Go ahead and needle me for procrastinating on this...please!

As we hit the middle of the summer, it is time to start thinking about the fall and getting ready for fall races (not for me yet). How are your fall plans shaping up? Do you feel your training is where you want it to be? Any big goals for the fall?

Remember, this thread is for everyone. There is no minimum speed requirement (after all, mine is presently down to 0mi/hr); it's all about the shared experience of racing and training (and injury and recovery) past the half-century mark.

Hope you are all in a good place.

PS-heard through the other thread that Pete Magill ran 31:11 for a road 10k this weekend: new 50-54 American age-group road record! Broke Ray Hatton's 29+ year record by 37s!! (I think I've got this right. Anyone with better information?) Also, I would be remiss if I didn't include Ron Robertson in my kudos regarding the WMA meet: three world age-group records and an XC win!

I see quite a few blips for ART people in your state lucKY2b. Umm….the rest is up to you.

However, If I had to guess, sans clinical interview, I’d say it’s highly unlikely you have done anything to you knee that will not improve on its own…given time. How much time do you wish to give?

Me, I spent a week in North Myrtle Beach and did not enjoy the smoke from fires in NC wafting over our condo. I read “The Perfect Mile” by Neal Bascomb while sitting under an umbrella on the beach. That was inspiring.

I hit 20 miles with a few quarters in the sand and a few mile reps by the Surf Club. It was hard running. My goal is to run hard twice a week, run easy the others, and stay healthy. I’m hoping to crack 5:30 in a mile at Potomac Valley later this summer. We’ll see.

Rtype wrote:

I see quite a few blips for ART people in your state lucKY2b. Umm….the rest is up to you.

However, If I had to guess, sans clinical interview, I’d say it’s highly unlikely you have done anything to you knee that will not improve on its own…given time. How much time do you wish to give?.

Thanks Rtype. I guess my thought is to give it what it needs. I do want to go to an ART specialist, but I'll need to go to my re Regular doctor first and have him prescribe it.

Ah, yes! The MKofP (moving knot of pain) has shifted to my left glute, which tugged a bit during my hurdle semi at last weekend's WMA meet in Sacto. Of course I had no time to rest it and continued to run hard which now means a "4 day rest" injury has now turned into a "2-3 week rest" injury. Luckily I have time to rest it, now that I'm officially in the off season. My achilles was a issue as well --it definitely pushed me from gold to silver in one of my events. But not every masters athlete will have the good luck of being 100% for the biggest meet of the year. My best race and memory of this past meet was being a part of the 4x100 relay that set an age group AR, and was only 3 tenths off the WR. It made all the limping worthwhile!

Here's the youtube link. I run 2nd leg--please note 3 excellent handoffs!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts1dveSSYhw

(I'm very proud of my relay-mates)

Spikez, that relay was a thing of beauty - I even showed the video to my 14 year old son, saying "Those are 50 year old ladies running -- see how fast they are!!!" Your hand-offs were just great, which is pretty amazing considering you generally aren't on the same team.

I don't have a MKofP, although I frequently have pain in the left glute! I am tight there and in my left calf particularly, but am always amazed to find out during a massage just how tight my legs are altogether!

Putting in some serious mileage for fall xc. 3rd week at 70 mpw. Virtually none of it fast, which is actually what I prefer. First get strong and fit - then worry about speed.

Bike: 5:35:00 (all on gravel), all this weekend on a bike trip for the kids I'm training: they did 115 miles in 2 days, and as support/driver I got in about 75 miles (roughly 5X 1:00 to 1:15 over two days) on the rugged gravel/hilly Denali Highway.

classic rollerski: 6.2 mi

Run: 33.2 mi

Weights: 2 times (doing 90 to 100 max weight, few reps).

Decent summer mix.

Wow, congrats to SoCal Pete! 31:11 is fast at any age. Beats my best by about 30 sec, and that was at 25 not 50.

AK-53, your boys are very lucky to have you for a coach. Sounds like a great (albeit grueling) trip....where do I sign up? ;-)

Spikez, thanks for posting the link to your race. You ladies were smokin'!! A rest well deserved.

MG, you've really come around these past few weeks. I think you're right, that building up distance at this point is a good investment. Plenty of hills, though, right?

Well, for me, mileage tends to work. A big steady base has always helped me. One of my very talented teammates, however, runs the most of her miles pretty quick with good results. But we are very different runners: different builds, strengths, weaknesses. Eventually, I will have to suck it up and do some faster running, but right now, it's lots of trail miles (none of them flat), grass miles and some roads. I doubled today and the second run with my daughter (6 miles or so) was in a park with quite a few "pointless" hills. On the trails in Forest Park, you are generally going in one direction and the hills on the trail seems to flow along. In this park, there was a lot of sharp ups and downs, with steps, bridges, etc. My legs were tired and this felt ugh. My daughter liked it though (she takes Sundays off! ;-)

Thought I'd share this article that was in our Sunday paper about a cross-disciplinary center formed at the Univ. of Kentucky to study muscle biology from multiple perspectives.

http://www.kentucky.com/2011/07/24/1821970/tom-eblen-university-of-kentucky.html

Hopefully, this will be a fruitful enterprise that will shed more light on the multiple advantages of continued intense exercise throughout the life-cycle.

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Week 10

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Bit of a late bump this week. Been busy both grading exams and installing a dishwasher. The joys of home ownership continue to mount up.

Knee is progressing. Won't be able to see the doc for another week; available times didn't match. Laterally and vertically the knee is much, much better. Still a little funky when I twist it. I've added 2 min wall sits to my repertoire, and I actually got out and ran 3 miles yesterday! First run in about 6 weeks! Knee didn't complain, but the IT bands did. I guess they've not been used to pounding, just low impact stuff. I'm a bit disappointed that the hip issue that I'd had since last fall hasn't completely gone away. I'd figured that laying off the pounding and doing stretching and strength exercises would get it completely back on track. It's about the same it's been. I guess it will be an area that I continue to have to work on and/or live with. I'll talk to the therapist about it when I get referral. At any rate, it's good to be back on the road. I figure I'll run 4 times this week if the knee remains happy. The IT's will just have to get with the program. :-)

Anyone have any burning desires? What's on your mind? I don't want to hog the discussion with my issues every week.

Hope everyone is training/racing (in this heat?) well.

Wish I had someone else to share the joys of home ownership as there is a ton of things to do around here! ;-) I am trying to devote a couple hours per week to the yard before it turns into a jungle of himalayan blackberries.

I did my fourth consecutive 70 mile week, despite only doing 6 miles on Wednesday. At the last minute, a friend agreed to join me for part of my long run which mean a 16+ mile route when I only meant to do 15, so I was well over 70. I will have to evaluate where to go next - add some tempos or keep increasing volume. I hate speed work, so this is actually a question.

For the IT band, I'd check out that stretch on Pete's RT article and the two that are in Competitor magazine. My calves are super-tight lately (my daughter's are too) - probably from the miles and miles of uphill trail running we do (okay, some of it IS down, but when you start up with 2 miles straight up, you can feel it!)

Trying to get sponsorship for our HTC team -- anyone have connections to a beer company -- so that we can have our final (and fast) guy join us, otherwise it's just too expensive (the entry fee alone is $1320). And I need to find another volunteer or I'll have to work a 4 hour volunteer shift just prior to running (not good). I hate having the end of my summer burdened with these relay anxieties.

Just hoping to be strong and fit for the beginning of cross country season!

Only 35 miles, but two good workouts this week. An 18x:30 hard/:30 easy up a 2mi+ hill and a 7mi tempo with one of my sons on the weekend. It's about another month until the start of the Fall XC series here. I'm trying to hit 50mi+ for all of those weeks with 2-3 workouts per week.

Hi old guy II!

For me Im developing strength training from the uppers and quads to strengthen my knees too.For some reason I get sharp pains in both sides of knees in which it causes me to walk with a limp;however, Im still chasing my dreams.I have not hang my running shoes on the wall yet by the way Im planning as I got it right.

Henry

I haven't posted for a few weeks so I'll do a brief update.

Week ending July 10. Not much running done as we took the youngest daughter interstate to check out her university preferance. I got called up to fill out the Region team in the (open) State 16km xc champs.

Sadly all the good local young uns don't seem interested in running against the top guys.

First time in years I've been in a race with more than 50 starters, probably 300plus.

Found myself settling into a battle with my old running "guru" (60+) Chris Wardlaw (dual Olympian) and I even snuck away on the downhills. By 12k though the difference between a fading star and a fading hack became very evident. He left me for dead over the last few kms.

It was my first run at a State xc for 16 years.

The following weekend was a 6.5k club handicap xc on the Campaspe River. A beautiful setting and surprisingly tough course. Ran 2 even laps for a 26 plus time. Also backed up with a 1500m race 10mins later clocking about 6.00.

I had put in a good session of kyakking and running pre race as well. The sunday was a 25km "birthday" run for a mate turning 50. Rolled around our old training loop in 2hrs.

I got some reasonable mileage in the next week. I got a call to run for the Region team in the State 12k xc champs on the thursday. A sorry looking team with 4 of the 6 over 50. The course was perfect. Muddy with a long steep downhill and a long grinding climb on each of the 3 laps. I had great fun terrorising runners on the downhill each lap and probably finished ahead of many normally faster runnners.

This week. 2 x 80 plus min runs (12-13k) on the steep rocky trails around home mon.,tue. A longish mtn bike ride wed. Hilly run on faster trails 14k/70m on thur and an easy 12k fri. Kyak on sat. and a 10k trail race 41m on sun.

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Week 11

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Sorry that I wasn't very interactive last week. Very busy as it is finals week for the summer classes (grading, exam writing, and more grading), we're moving our physics lab, and I'm need to find a few adjuncts to teach some physics classes for us this fall. Good times.

At any rate, continuing to progress. Managed to run 4 days for a whopping total of 14 miles. No major issues with the knee; some very minor swelling (but no pain) after Thursdays 4 mile run, but a little ice managed that. Mobility continues to improve; I can actually bend my knee all the way now! IT bands have also gotten more used to the idea of running, so all-in-all very positive. Just gotta be patient and not try to do too much yet.

Went down and watched the Midsummer Night's Run, and was itching to get in. Good thing my wife joined me and kept me from jumping in. (OK, not really...I wouldn't have jumped in.) Hopefully, I'll be back racing before too long...probably mid to late September.

Quick reminder that the thread gets easily buried among the LR noise, and is more easily found if you go to the training forum. Better yet, you can simply mark it in your favorites, now that it is an ongoing thread.

Question for the week. Where do you get most of your training advice? For me, it's mostly been through a combination of reading Running Times training articles, historical recollections, and bits and pieces from here and other running related websites. I can't say I follow any one plan.

Hope everyone is doing well. Anyone racing?

Nice thread

I will be 51 next month. Been battling four-month fluke hamstring problem that became pirmformis syndrome. I limped my way for much of that time but my leg finally better. I live in very hot/humid climate so won't race til October at earliest, but will be my first race since 1991. I am very confident I will be sub-16 and maybe but a bit.

Fatty

50 here...I ran a 5K tempo alone on the track yesterday in 18:31...I was planning on breaking 30 minutes for a flat road 5 mile race next weekend - but it didn't feel like I had another 2 miles in me at that pace during the 5K tempo.

Oh well...give it a go anyway.

Cut back week, and a lot of running around for xc coaching and a soccer tournament.

40 miles running, with fartlek on Wednesday (1.5 and 2 min at fairly fast pace), and 13.1 mi race on Sat.

1:05 roller ski today

2 circuit training workouts (Monday and Sunday).

1:20:01 for the half marathon - finally, a comeback worthy race!

I've been self-coached since college, but have gained a lot of knowledge from other coaches, experience, and reading. I usually have a goal or series of races in mind, and know the type of work that it takes to get there. As a masters runner I've had to modify a lot. Now it's mostly easy running, with one or two days of threshold-type running a week, and a minimal amount of speed work, like 20 sec pick ups or a few 1 to 1.5 min reps at mile pace.