50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Good afternoon. Spring like weather today that was warm enough to wash my wife’s car. Everything gets nasty following a snow storm, especially if we get below freezing temperatures for a spell. That was the early part of the week, with conditions of icy roads and track by Wednesday. I was a little tired from the volume last week, so backed of for the couple of days that coincided with the poor weather. Solid week nonetheless with 59 Igy miles.

Monday: AM- 2 miles easy; 2 x ( 8 x 200m good speed/ 100m easy; 400m easy; 4 x 400m good swing / 200m easy ) 400m between sets; mile easy; PM - 2 mile walk

Tuesday: AM- 40:00 spin

Wednesday: AM- 60:00 spin; PM- 3 mile walk

Thursday: AM: 60:00 spin; core; weights; PM: 1,500 yards swimming

Friday: AM- 5 miles easy; PM- 3 mile walk

Saturday: 8 miles easy in foothills and town

Sunday: 80:00 spin

Igy

Mon. Morning walk of 8 kms that had an easy 2 km jog on hilly trails (14min) in the middle. 1 hour kayak session. 34 min mtn bike spin and a 3 km jog (18 min) late in the evening.

Tue. Afternoon jog of 3.4 kms in 19 mins.

Jogged 1.7 kms to the supermarket in 10 mins.

Evening 98 min mtn bike ride in the forest.

Wed. Squeezed in a hilly 6 km trail run in 41 min bw thunderstorms.

Thu. 40 min lazy mtn bike spin.

Windy and choppy 1 hr kayak on the lake.

Jogged the km from car to work.

Jogged back to the car 7 pm during my meal break. Changed and ran 3 easy kms in 17 mins.

Fri. Hammered out a fairly quick 30+ km mtn bike ride in the forest in 1 hr 25 m.

Sat. 10 km hilly run on soft sandy farm roads. 270 m elevation gain. 59 mins.

Sun. 6 km hilly rocky technical trail run. 220 m elevation gain. 42 min. last km in 4.20.

Nothing impressive but I can feel the fitness coming on. Friday was a ride I would normally struggle to break 90 mins on so the engine is getting bigger.

On Sunday I just stretched out a bit on the smoother downhill last km thinking 4.50 ish so was surprised to run 4.20. I was dipping under 4.00 the last 100 with no effort.

Ran 60 - 61 miles this week.

MON 20.5 miles. Out slow with hills, a bit under 10:00 pace. Picked it up after about 7-8 miles a bit. Threw it down over the last 3, maybe 8:00 or a bit quicker. A rough one, but job done.

TUE 4 slow

WED 10.5 medium uphill first half, and quick coming back downhill medium hard, very relaxed.

THUR tired! rest.

FRI 13.2 easy>medium. Negative split, well not by much

SAT - My wife had a library shift! I had our teenager with disabilities all day. No running, but a great day with my girl.

SUN - 13ish. Started slow, continued slow for the 2nd half with hills, but SLAMMED the last three on a minor downhill, buzzing along effortlessly near 7:00 pace.

Kinda tired. Building marathon fitness. This next week I'll maybe back off a bit, then the following week I will KILL IT.

XC San Diego

socalcush - 2nd in AG is sweet !

My high school buddy Nick was 60th, and I think he came 6th in the 60 & older set.

Goal: 10ks on 03/01 and 03/29.

An OK week, 25-30 miles. Happy just to be running injury and pain-free. The high point was the track session with a huge improvement over the previous effort, which was the 1st time I've done it in 35 years, as I mentioned.

MO Rest

TU AM 60min cross training PM 60min steady on trails

WE 60 min cross training

TH On the track 4 x 1600m on a 10min cycle: 7:09, 7:05, 7:04, 6:58. 10s per mile faster than 2 weeks ago.

FR AM 60min cross training PM 50min steady on trails

SA 50min steady on trails

SU AM 60min cross training PM 60min easy fartlek on technical trails

I backed off a little mileage this week and used Friday as a rest day. Tuesday's run felt great and ran 3 miles a 8/mile pace and ran last mile at 7:45 during Sunday's LR.

Mon - 6 miles easy

Tues - 6 miles with 3 miles at 8

Wed - 4 miles

Thur - 4 miles

Fri - off

Sat - 5 miles easy

Sun - 10 miles with last 3 at 8:30, 8:15, 7:45. First LR that's actually felt good.

35 miles for the week.

Good workout MikeF. Ran some Igloi style intervals with Patti this morning. She sends her regards and plans to join you in Toronto.

Alan55 that's a good 4 @ 1600 workout, nice step on the way to your two 10K races. Repeat miles really bring on the strength.

Igy I like your description of "good swing" in your interval session. I'm assuming this means good rhythm and that strong, confident feeling? How would you qualify the term?

Or maybe it's better to just leave "good swing" where it is and let is speak for itself.

I'm still in my volume (such as it is!) and tempo run/threshold run zone. After my winter marathon I'm thinking of joining my local club's Tuesday interval group. I have not commited to a season of intervals since I was a lad of 50...

Big Red wrote:

Igy I like your description of "good swing" in your interval session. I'm assuming this means good rhythm and that strong, confident feeling? How would you qualify the term?

Or maybe it's better to just leave "good swing" where it is and let is speak for itself.

Big Red,

I ran for the Hungarian coach Mihaly Igloi from 1967-70, and later for his disciples coaches Joe Douglas (1972-74) and Laszlo Tabori (1975-76). They used what I would describe as a cadence aspect to their training along with pace. “Good” is about 5k pace, “speed” is quick cadence with knee and arm drive (short levers). “Swing” on the other hand is less knee and arm drive.

Igy

Demoralized by soleus strain that happened 11 days ago during steady state run. Doesn’t feel bad just walking around but definitely tight when stretching and can’t make it 3/4 mile on an easy jog without it feeling like it’s seizing up. It’s gotta be only a grade 1 strain but it’s taking it’s sweet time. Trying not to fret over lost fitness.

I suspect this will be a 3 week process. Any advice on how to ramp it back up once I’m ready to run again?

I have been doing some elliptical sessions in meantime

Igy - thanks for the info on "swing".

Over my life I've been a student of the history of track and field, in particular the middle and long distances. So I am the perfect audience for this bit of running lore. Igloi was legendary, I recall Sándor Iharos was one of his runners? A world record holder at 1500m? And for sure Jim Beatty. Bob Schul worked with Igloi too? Funny thing, I suppose most of today's fans don't know this stuff...

Scubacane, good luck with the injury. Take as much time off as it needs. In recent years, I've endured three separate injury layoffs of 3 months each. It's challenging to not run when you want to train, but the layoffs allow you to resume training without problems, given enough time.

nice going! 20+ miles at sub-4 pace certainly a good omen.

happy MLK Day to all. good week for me:

M 50:00

Tu 2:15 double

W 1:05 with hill repeats

Th 1:25

F 30:00 + 1:00 x-t

Sa 1:00 incl. 5 X 4:00 at 5k effort (2:00 jog) -- about 1,000 meters each

Su 1:20 + 30:00 x-t

just back from holiday weekend visit to my niece and her husband and 9-month old daughter. Our great-niece has mastered waving, so if that counts as cross-training I should be in good shape now.

have a great week,

Dave

lucKY2b wrote:

Got out for my 3+ of walking and/or running everyday except Wednesday (Wednesday is going to be rough for me as I'm in class 9-11, 3-5,5-7,7-9 and always have plenty of administrative BS to deal with in between.)

If I had a schedule like this, I would make a default assumption that I would not get any workout on Wednesdays, and plan the other six days accordingly. That way, I will not get frustrated by missing a workout, and anytime I could get any workout in, even a short walk, it will feel like blessing. But that is coming from someone who runs only six days a week even when the schedule is not tight. (On a side note. It might be easier to do two 30 min walk or even three 20 min walk than doing a 60 min walk. And if you miss the second or the third walk, at least you got something done.)

My week.

M: off.

T-W: 7 miles.

R: 8 miles.

F-SA: 7 miles.

SU: 14.5 miles. (last mile @7:54)

I was finally able to finish my "long" run @ sub-8 min pace. (8:03 a week ago, and 8:14 two weeks ago.) So at least I am going in the right direction.

Big Red,

In case you missed this:

https://www.runnersworld.com/advanced/a20828157/how-hungarians-launched-americas-greatest-track-era/

Igy

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Good workout MikeF. Ran some Igloi style intervals with Patti this morning. She sends her regards and plans to join you in Toronto.

Saw Patti posted a couple of times today in the New England thread. I really enjoyed watching her when she was at the top of her game back in the day. Didn’t she marry Dillon?

Different Patti.

Dennis Celery wrote:

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Good workout MikeF. Ran some Igloi style intervals with Patti this morning. She sends her regards and plans to join you in Toronto.

Saw Patti posted a couple of times today in the New England thread. I really enjoyed watching her when she was at the top of her game back in the day. Didn’t she marry Dillon?

She married Dan Dillon. I’m not sure if their kids are runners, but they had to get some of the good genes.

Nice running at USA XCs to KC, cush, and OGII! Good long weeks dhaaga and amk.

Was on the road for 6 of the 7 days. Had busy schedule on the two trips, so only did short workouts. Got in five runs of 20-25 minutes, no pain or tightness so that's good news. Mixed in a couple hours of cross training as well.

Scubacane - seems many of us 50+ers get hit with these calf strains outta the blue. I've had it happen every winter since turning 55. You are right about time = ~3 weeks. While you're waiting look up Roy Benson's (or anyone's) story "Heart Attack Of The Calf". Follow this walk/jog/walk plan. Modern Times (no not that great beer brand) suggests adding a rice bag microwave heat before, and yes it still works for inflammation an ice bag afterward. Also, these battery-operated massage 'guns' work well but use it around the sore spot so as not to aggravate where it is injured. Bottom Line - it does take time.

Dan Dillon... watched him beat Al Salazar for the MASS XC title in 1974. Al's dad was running up near the finish smiling and yelling "Alberto Alberto". He stopped smiling when Dan came blasting up that final hill in front of Al at Franklin Park.

Igy, thanks for posting the article about your great coach - no, I had not seen that one. I lurked in my high school library as a kid rooting through old NY Times articles and the Sports Illustrated back issues to ferret out info on Track history...