50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

KP posted, to paraphrase the thought, the mile is perhaps the best test of overall endurance. I would have to agree. It is also a mental challenge, especially 1,000 meters out.

Love the mile. Probably my favorite event. Never came around to the 1500.

But best test of overall endurance? A middle distance race? I don’t think so. Now if you want to talk about the best combination of speed and endurance, I’m ready to listen.

Kpdx: Very cool story. To say you get out more than me is an understatement.

Allen1959: Thanks for the advice. I probably won't have time to squeeze in a 1200 before the 19th. I did run the 3-2-1 ladder this morning on the treadmill. Hit 5:30 pace on all three. I'm not sure how far I made it on the 3 minutes... Maybe close to 900?

Dave

Interesting session. Might have been OK with the 1200m parts, but couldn't have kept up with those sub-90 last 400s.

Planned a 4 mile tempo/lt run on the road, guessing that it would be about 7:10 per mile. However, that went by the board with a 7:09 warm-up mile. Next four were 7:00, 6:53, 6:50, 6:42, so pretty much ended up with a 5 mile tempo at 6:57.

I did push the last half mile or so, and got down to 6:30ish, but the rest was pretty comfortable.

Don't know how much under that I can go with a full effort, but at least the sub-maximal paces are coming back nearer where they should be.

oId guy wrote:

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

KP posted, to paraphrase the thought, the mile is perhaps the best test of overall endurance. I would have to agree. It is also a mental challenge, especially 1,000 meters out.

Love the mile. Probably my favorite event. Never came around to the 1500.

But best test of overall endurance? A middle distance race? I don’t think so. Now if you want to talk about the best combination of speed and endurance, I’m ready to listen.

Couldn’t have guessed you would disagree. You made my day. ?

*Week 464*

Greeetings, 50+ers!

I've been out of the loop this week. Finals week, end of semester bureaucratic shtuff, oh, end then on Thursday morning, I'm sent a spreadsheet to review changing all of the classes for natural sciences in the fall to hybrid mode....and they wanted it updated and reviewed by Friday, noon. While everyone is giving and grading finals...ooof!

But guess what? I still (more for my sanity's sake) got my walks (and a little running) in! Got out 6 times (I just couldn't Friday afternoon....poured myself a drink, instead) and managed to add 21.4 miles of mostly walking, but with two decent 4+ mile run/walk sessions. The knee tolerated the first run/walk fine, the second one was a little dicier, but seemed to be OK after I got home and did some roller action.

I'll go back and read everyone's posts from last week and catch up (I did read about amk, really sorry to hear this; hope you can find some good treatment, which has been frustrating, so far.)

In the mean time, I hope everyone is able to acknowledge kindly the mothers (of all varieties) in their lives, and props to you moms that do read through these messages.

All the Best!

Happy Mother’s Day to everyone.

Solo Time Trials, especially on roads, are challenging to say the least. My first attempt at a 5k for my club was successful if measured by hands on thighs after finally hitting 3.1 miles on the out and back course. Could Ah Should Ah Would Ah factor was a classic masters event when I didn’t look at any watch until 1-mile watch-Ching and it read a way too fast 6:05. Struggled home for a 20:03 before stopping my watch a few ticks later. A few other excuses were the unusual heat and wind. I don’t regret a thing for the attempt. Helps to realize where I stand and what is left to get after for better endurance base and strength for a Mile when I turn 60 late July or a Club Nats 10k in December.

lucKY: It seems like the fall semester is going to be wankered up too? Crazy. Until we get a vaccine, all bets are off for EVERYTHING!

KP: 20:03 is still good in my book. Congrats! Sounds like conditions were not ideal.

Mike L: Congrats on that mile!

Speaking of the mile: Today marks the 66th anniversary of Roger Bannister’s sub 4 mile. Still remarkable after all these years.

Mon = 23 minutes elliptical

Tue = 4 miles parking lot w 3@8:23 pace, (8:24, 8:22, 8:20)

Wed = 24 minutes elliptical

Thr = 4 miles easy cemetery

Fri = 25 minutes elliptical

Sat = 4 miles with a 1-mile time trial (6:35).

Sun = 4 miles easy rails-to-trails gravel

Another good week despite the frigid weather. We set 2 all-time record lows this week. I continue to be sore from the elliptical. Even though I was sore Sat I knocked 3 seconds off a mile time trial on an identical course with the same conditions.

Each of us marks time with our own yardstick. I’m happy with this because it’s a good general measure of my fitness. I have not done any mile-specific training. If I compare to my 53-year-old self it seems slow. I went 5:08 in the 1500 and 5:30 for the mile then. But I paid for it with injuries. In the cost verses benefit analysis, at least right now, the cost is too high.

With all that said, we DO have a semi-famous mile race in August in my area…each year I have figure if it’s worth it to prep. Considering the virus, I’m not sure it’s worth it if they cancel at the last minute.

“You there! You know who you are! Get your hands off your face right now!”

Rtype M61.30

Oops, May 6th was the sub 4 for Bannister. Bad news feed....

Kenneth Cooper’s 12 minute run test was the standard test of aerobic fitness for decades.

I started the week with the goal of walking and running 50 miles for the week. By the fifth day my joints were shot. Made no sense to just pound my legs for the goal. I took the rest of the week off, and hit 38 miles, about a third running. This next week I will focus more on quality runs for a couple of sessions, and easier rest days.

Have a good week.

Igy

Makes me feel even better about my own 1 mile TT (with my wife's help for pacing duties) that I postponed it a day, from my birthday on May 5 to the May 6 anniversary of Bannister. No wonder I felt so good and was able to go "sub-whatever" (my time only double what his was! Ha

Still tempted to try a sub 10 for 2000 meters soon, before hot weather hits, maybe this Tuesday, depend, rain is forecast, though.

Oh, by the way 21 month oncology check-up was good. My blood work was good even at the time of diagnosis, so for my disease the CT scan is critical. In August I will have another scan, and if clean the chemo port will get yanked, and the monitoring interval will increase. The oncologist advised I continue to limit my interaction with the general population. My office is in one of the larger office buildings in town, and I am hopeful I can continue to remote until I retire at the end of September.

Igy

great news on checkup! fingers crossed for more of the same.

enjoyable week of training for me in surprisingly cool (actually Saturday was cold and very windy) weather for May:

M 5 miles

Tu 8

W 7 with 8 X 60 sec (60 recovery) at 10k pace + drills

Th 7

F 10

Sa 9

Su 14 with 10 X 30 sec hills hard (90 sec recovery).

Ran saturday at a new [to me] park that until recently was a city-owned golf course. There are signs everywhere saying "no hitting golf balls", and I didn't see any rule violators but still had my head on a swivel, as it just felt as though someone were going to brain me if I daydreamed.

Happy Mothers' Day,

Dave

Igy, great to hear about the clean check up. We had a very nice early Mother's Day dinner yesterday with our son, daughter-in-law and 8 month old granddaughter. We played with my granddaughter in their hot tub (only about 92F temp) for about 45 minutes after a late afternoon dinner. We should have her largely water safe by her 1st birthday.

I'm probably staying away from time trials until July at the earliest and trying to stick to my base work plan. This week was nearly identical to last week, 61 miles total -

M- 7mi walk with strides

T- 10mi hills 9:14 /mi ave

W- 7mi walk with strides

Th- 10mi hills 8:40 /mi ave

F- 7mi walk with strides

S- 10mi hills 8:59/mi ave

Su- 10mi trails 9:02 /mi ave

Happy Mother's Day all!

Still working from home, with final exams next week. Still no projected timetable for being able to get back into the research lab. All of the roads leading to the wilderness trails in the Sierras are also closed and barricaded, so I can’t even go hiking or backpacking. I fail to see how public health requires prohibiting backpacking in a wilderness area where you might see ten other people over the course of an entire day. Very frustrating.

The muscles throughout my neck, back, shoulders, and hips are still at war with me. I do have an appointment with a real M.D. in three weeks. I looked into seeing a rheumatologist but the ones who sound like anyone I’d want to see are not accepting new patients and are at least a 1.5 hour drive away. Living in a backward place with almost no health care starts to suck when you get old.

I managed to slog-jog through 63 miles last week but it was pretty pathetic. (I'm sticking to the least populated roads I can in the hope that no one will see me.) If I can ever get over this polymyalgia rheumatica (assuming that’s what it is), it will take me a long time to regain my fitness. Maybe I’m not so sad that there are no races on the calendar for the foreseeable future.

Mike Lundgren, nice job with the mile time trial!

Allen1959, good to hear from you. How are you doing?

LucKY2b, congratulations on making it through the semester and best of luck for fall. Our administrators still haven’t decided what we are doing for fall semester except that they are committed to offering a full slate of courses. There’s no possibility that we’ll be back to business as usual—no way are there going to be 300 kids crammed into a lecture hall for general chemistry—but we don’t yet know whether any instruction will be in person, and if so, which courses. Once they tell us, I’ll leap into action as department chair to try to figure out how to make it all work.

KPdx, I’ll bet a solo time trial is tough. I’ve never tried to do one and probably never will. Good job toughing it out.

Igy, I’m so happy to hear that your health continues to be good. And yes, it makes a lot of sense to back off before you injure something.

dhaaga, good week! Central California is suffering through a May heat wave—97 degrees yesterday. But it may rain by Tuesday.

Happy Mother’s Day! (Or maybe that’s Mothers’ Day. It’s always seemed ambiguous.)

Good luck going forward amk. It is amazing you are still logging those miles through this very rough patch. You are made of tough stuff.

The mile, I lived for it in high school. Jim Ryun and Marty Liquori were the heroes. One interesting thing... I'd usually win dual meets, most of the time I knew I would win before the race started. I'd mull over my opponents, their strength and weaknesses before the race, and plan a strategy.

The headset of a racer. By the time I was a college lad it was on to other concerns, the obsessive fun of it was gone, placed with my ascending career as a cartoonist...

This week, 44 miles.

Took a bad spill on Tuesday in the woods. Right knee, hip, elbow and shoulder bloodied. I was worried about Mountain Lions after the park re-opened, and caught a toe on a big rock. I thought maybe they would have roamed from their usual territories with the park closed for 6 weeks prior, I was watching the low tree limbs. It is a giant, dense park. Full of deer and wild turkey.

Later in the week, a 10-miler in 1:19:18, after splitting 41:18 at halfway. A nice fitness check.

Happy Mother's Day all around!

amkelley,

Thanks and wish you the best in seeking a solution. Fortunately my issue is not uncommon, and I lucked into physicians that were competent and good communicators. As you are doing, a lot can be said for being your own advocate. I educated myself and always had questions prepared in advance.

Igy

Big Red,

In the fall of 1970 I was running for Oklahoma State and we traveled to Kansas University for a six mile cross country race. Jim Ryun ran the race unattached, and so did our coach Ton Von Ruden. Tom, like Jim, was one of the premier milers at the time. Ryun and Von Ruden were teammates for the 1500 meter team for the 1968 Olympics (2nd and 9th I believe). They remained friends over the years. That following spring our group of middle distance and distance runners got the pleasure to warm-up with the two prior to their duel at the Kansas Relays. Mike Manke, at the time a freshman (4th Oly Trials, 3:35 1980 1500m), questioned Ryun’s head roll and awkward jogging style. Tom remarked “he looks pretty smooth when he passes you running a 55 the last quarter of a mile.” The next day about 10,000 plus people came to see the two race, we Tom leading with 150 meters to go. I was on the infield warming up for the three mile as Jim took the lead. The crowd roar was so loud it felt like the field shook.

Igy

Hi everybody,

the week which was:

Mo 10x100m walk back

Tu 7.5 miles with 5x200m with jog back

We 1h jumps and strength at hill

Th 7 miles easy

Fr 6 miles with 3x800m with 400 m jog

Sat. 90 min easy

Su after 13 days training in a row I called it a micro cycle and went with my smallest for searching a cave in the forest (and we found an open ore mining entry, which we did not enter of course for safety reasons ... but I would like...)

Stay healthy and have fun!

Greetings all, I'm back from the IR for another go at fitness. I've been lurking from the sidelines while rehabbing from by glute min and TFL injuries. They aren't totally gone but they're tolerable and have been slowly responding to PT and massage so I'm out pounding the pavement once again. I'm gradually increasing my mileage and will attempt my first fartlek in a few months next week.

I turned my grades in a week ago Friday and on Monday, we took off for our cabin in the North Woods. We finally gave in and got internet here so it's not very isolated anymore but we're planning on staying for a while so we appreciate having Netflix. I'm on sabbatical in the fall so it will allow me to get work done while we're here.

We've had snow almost every day and it's been crazy windy so I've had to stick to protected runs. I should have brought my Hot Hands with me but who would expect to need winter running gear in May? Here's my cutback week:

Mon Drive

Tue Drive

Weds 6.3 Easy

Thu 6.0 Easy, 1:09 bike trainer

Fri 1:17 bike trainer, 1:19 strength/core/PT, blizzard

Sat 7.0 Easy, :52 flexibility/PT

Sun 6.0 Easy, 1:50 bike trainer

Igy: Glad to hear your checkup was good.

amkelley: Good luck on getting your aches and pains figured out. It's so frustrating to know something is wrong but to not get any help.

LucKY: Good job on staying active despite a busy week. I waved as we drove by Lexington heading north.

Have a great week everyone!