50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Perhaps join that Masters Hall of Fame wife of yours in the pool.

old guy II wrote:

The troll posting under a variety of unregistered names and criticizing almost any post of Igy's is the one cluttering up this thread.

"Seconded."

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Perhaps join that Masters Hall of Fame wife of yours in the pool.

I swam with her the first 5 years after we were married. After a couple of years of her coaching I was barely faster than her in 50s, about dead even at 100, and about 10 seconds back in a 200 and it got uglier as the distance increased. These days I'd rather take my beating in the ocean rather than the pool. I am planning on adding more time on my surfboard to my activities for 2020. I also have cleaned up and rebuilt both my road and mountain bikes and intend to get on them more regularly as well.

Lived by the ocean in Santa Monica growing up, but gravitated to body surfing. Probably why I feel more comfortable pool swimming in fins.

Thx. Looks like Kid Coach is doing a good job.

The most amazing thing about Joe to me is how much he relishes racing xc. I swear he was completely happy while running.

As for my race, it was pretty okay. I did almost everything I could to be ready for the race -- I followed Pfitzinger's 5k plan (adapted for masters me by dropping the LT - which I love - and some of the speed sessions to allow more rest), bumped my mileage from just under 40 to 55 (in 6 days), ate responsibly, tried to get enough sleep, did my strength/PT exercises once a week. I should have tried to diet to drop some weight, but I did feel fairly fit. And I mostly achieved my fall goal of not falling and breaking anything -- I didn't fall, although I did stub my toe about a month ago and did break it.

My two tune-up races weren't very good and I ran alone for the bulk of them, which led to very disappointing times. It was clear I'd be our 3rd and final scorer - but I was determined to be the *best* final scorer in the field and in that, I succeeded.

The Lehigh course is awesome - challenging, but fair and pretty fast. The course was soft and muddy in spots, so a little caution and spikes were necessary. Thankfully, the rain held off for our race (nearly 300 women in the masters field) and temps were moderate.

I was afraid I'd be near the back from the start and the gun took me by surprise, so I had to work to move up the first k. I couldn't see my teammates out front, so I looked for the 60s ahead of me and just steadily worked on moving up. By the end, I felt pretty confident that no other team had more than one runner ahead of me. Our team took 2nd, 3rd and 6th in the 60s team scoring to take the win. While my time was pretty slow, I was happy with the result. I was in the top 25% of my age group and 66th in the age-grade, which isn't fantastic, but it's an improvement over last year.

IMO, Club xc is by far the best USATF race on the circuit because it attracts so many runners and not just the stars. There were 12 teams in my division and more than 25 in the 40s and 50s. It was fun to have some many other runners to compete with. My club sent 46 runners, including 10 masters women, and I am so grateful to be a part of the group.

I missed some of the "regulars" and I'm hoping I'll see them next year in SF.

Well done MuddyGirl. As well as an inspiring write-up. I'm looking forward to joining your M60 world in SFO Club Nats.

KP

Great to see the XC reports from OGII, scCush and MG. MG congrats on your amazing streak. I remember meeting at CIM 20 years ago, and you've done Clubs almost every year since. Those years in AK it was too late in the season/mid ski season already and so far away that I wasn't able to go but always enjoyed the reports. So in 2013 I went to Bend because that was almost the closest possible venue, and even though some others were complaining about the weather seeing some sunshine in December and feeling 35-40 degree temps was an epiphany and I started looking for new jobs that following spring. I can't make it every year, but have done four now and look forward to it in the future.

re: Joe he's got a special gear for XC. last year in Spokane he took it out faster than we did for 5K road a few months earlier. I can hold on okay on the roads, but XC is different. I still love it, and probably like it the best of all running. The snow, rain, mud, cold, and hopefully a gnarly course. What's not to like? (plus no vaporshoes on the turf and mud as of yet! I like that).

Thanks, CM. It was my 18th consecutive USATF club xc championship. (2002-2019). I also did 5 as an open runner, - 1982?, and 1984-87. I did 10 consecutive USA xc championships (the winter ones) from 2001-2010, and have done a total of maybe 12-13 of them. Those tend to be more individually oriented, so I gave them up.

OGII nice XC season Toronto

Surfing good fluf for body and brain;) Never did surf but the strength agility is amazing.

I found profound effect of intense Mtn biking in my youth(50s) but wrecks suck

Weights and Rowing oh yeah also HIIT on the bike quads of steel

Want your mind blown?

Presentation by Horvath:

https://youtu.be/x0gZHzSTdhg?t=2117

Charlie comment to my question on another thread “if in 16:00 2 mile shape, how much faster will I be in Vaporfly 4%.”

“Hey Igy please do post your experience/results maybe on the fifty plus thread

IMO there is a great deal of variability as to the amount of benefit.

Runners with faster turn overs benefit more as the shoe is supposed to increase stride length so more strides per minutes less time on the ground with a longer "float" .”

Another poster guessed 15:29, which was close since I ran 7:50 + 7:43 = 15:33 gps. The official time was 15:50 but 184’ long.

My impression of the shoe and my result:

*I have a marathoners stride, low knee drive, but efficient quiet foot placement; these shoes slap the ground and are noticeably louder at plant

*Shoe was comfortable to walk, jog, and run faster

*Finished strong and had my best result of the year; 3:29 faster than last year for same course and race that I struggled in last year (recovery from illness that goes unnamed)

*I rested for this race, and I have been very consistent in training. However, I have not run anything longer than 900 meters at this pace in months.

*As a young man I had custom made Nike Moonshoes and Nike Waffle Racers. I ran my best times in these shoes, which in my view were an improvement to existing road racing shoes in the early 1970s.

*Today I was focused and wanted to push myself.

***Summary thought is the Vaporfly 4% is a good shoe that helped motivate me to race hard. So the edge today was perhaps -10 seconds shoe and -10 seconds focused effort. Wearing the same shoe for a fairly mediocre race last month would likely not have moved the needle significantly.

Igy

^Doug Lewis M67 from North Powder, OR ran 13:31 and looked to be in the same shoe.

Would the shoes have increased benefits for heavier runners?

Mopac wrote:

Would the shoes have increased benefits for heavier runners?

Good question. I am about 172 lbs right now, with 155 lbs a good racing weight. The shoes seemed to give plenty of support yet very lite.

Great report, MG. I see someone from our local club KC Smoke finished 12th at clubs, and Smoke wasn’t in the team results that I could see. So I guess he entered as an open runner? I’m still learning all this, but if it’s even gnarlier than nationals, I’m in.

60 miles this week, including 8x600s that wound up taking more out of me than I bargained. I don’t plan anything on Wednesday nights anymore, all I want to do is go to bed!

*Week 444*

Seasons Greetings, 50+ers! Winter Break has finally come, Solstice has past, so the days only get longer for the next while (except down under, where Mopac has been dealing with some brutal heat!) Hope the holiday season finds you all well and may any who are traveling get safely to and from their destinations (and find some good running routes.)

I swear that I'll get this thing jump started; plan on making that a focus over this winter break; try to recommit to getting back in shape with making it more a priority. This is all in the way of saying that I haven't yet started the assault...but I'm feeling as hopeful as ever. The left knee will ultimately be the deciding factor, but it's feeling better than ever, even though it still does tend to tighten up (but not painful) during my long walks.

Thanks for the inspiring reports from Club XC. Impressive! That's all I have for this week. Hope yours has been a good one!

All the Best!

PS-Enjoy your well-deserved sabbatical, Dave!

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Another poster guessed 15:29, which was close since I ran 7:50 + 7:43 = 15:33 gps. The official time was 15:50 but 184’ long.

Are you basing the extra 184’ on your GPS? If so, I hope you realize they don’t measure distances all that precisely.

NICE and inspiring reports from Club Nationals XC...stoked to see Muddy Girl back in the mix ?

Hoping to see many of you on December 12th next year here in NorCal...Golden Gate Park is a great host site for Club XCs.

My week was not spectacular...couple of 100s, a few 200s...nothing fancy...just staying in touch (barely) with some semblance of speed...sneaking in a hint of neuro-muscular reminders every few days...and trying not to tweak anything in the process.

Managed 27 miles this week...surpassed 1300 miles year to date yesterday, 357 ‘streak’ days, 111,330 lifetime...but hey, who’s counting.

Looking forward to being a total bum today...swilling an IPA and closely watching a ton of NFL.

Wishing you a swell week of geezer training and racing...and Merry Everything.

Your pal,

MF

This was a rest and rehab week after last week’s slip on the ice. What initially seemed to be confined to the posterior knee ligaments eventually surfaced as more of a calf issue. As reported earlier, Sunday’s attempt was short lived and I shut it down for a few days. By Friday I felt well enough to try a slow short jog. Things went well and today I added a bit more volume to conclude with a whopping total of 4.1 actual jogging miles (no fluff) for the week. The plan is to gradually add more volume in the coming days, though holiday travel may affect that. Meanwhile the old groin injury has healed to the point where I am comfortable doing lunges again. Life is good.

Sun: 8’ CR shut down due to injury

Mon-Thu: off

Fri: 19’ CR; body wt ex

Sat: walk w/ the bride

Sun: 26’ CR; body wt ex

Merry Christmas to most!