50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Cdb,

Keep the faith in truth - runners like you - those who put one foot in front of the other and know they can look in the mirror, and their family and friends in the eye, and say I am an honest person; one who works hard and is clean as a whistle.

Sadly, I have zero trust in USATF or IAAF or any organization controlling cheaters. Maybe one day they'll realize "one strike and you are out forever" might just work.

Meanwhile, I am still a fanatic of T&F and Cross-Country.

My younger son (24) bought this new thing called the "Party Box," which looks like a 30-inch high speaker. The Party Box can connect to your laptop with a plug, or wirelessly to your laptop or phone or other bluetooth device.

Tonight we connected the Party Box to a Youtube stream of '70s and '80s hits on my laptop and we both worked out on the back porch.

life's the same i'm moving in stereo

life's the same except for my shoes

life's the same you're shaking like tremolo

life's the same it's all inside you

My workout:

Regular stretches (11 stretches)

Back stretches (9 stretches)

Upper Body strength (6 exercises, 1 set each)

Lower Body strength (5 exercises, 3 sets each)

Knee strength (2 exercises).

she shadows me in the mirror

she never leaves on the light

some things that i say to her

they just don't seem to bite

it's all mixed up

The Party Box also provides a light show along with the music.

It's kind of like working out in a club or a disco.

RDB glad to see you are making progress as we all eventually find out aging is not linear

Bikes new tech

Lots of Bucks but man is this sweet or what?

https://youtu.be/su-a8bpq4Nw

Bikes Old School

bikes riding and building up can be fun . Extra effort really pays off yeah you can get light , durable at a reasonable cost.

12 years ago I went off the deep end on bikes for about 6 years.

Here is what I learned:

Bikes are just parts: frame, wheels, drive train, brakes, tires,seat, seat post, fork,bars,stem , etc

Best bang for buck performance wise are wheels and tires.

Used is a good way to go. Bought many parts of of Ebay only returned one item and it was easy.

Except for used carbon fiber which can be tricky. A great way to go framewise is Ti or steel. Good quality Ti is not cheap but can be snagged on Ebay for a good price. Wheels def ebay look for highly rated non carbon wheels. .

New or slightly used

Good old Ebay and craigslist as well as posting wanted ad at local high end bike shops.

Key is many bike geeks will buy high end new every year and sell last years for more than half off.

One exception used carbon stuff I stayed away from except for a few forks and on min max lemond frame . back then the chinese carbon stuff was crap not sure now but high quality carbon is the bomb.

Steel/Ti are good used choices but there are issues with older stuff like head tube diameter .

I built up some nice rides for less than 1500 bucks vs 3500-4000 if I went retail new.

Example using my current daily rider:

Frame Ridley X-Fire carbon cross frame/fork 450 msrp 1600 from Ridley on sale

Wheels Dura Ace whxxxx tubelss 500 bucks msrp 1000 in new condition off Ebay

600 or so for the rest some new some used

Ultegra Triple(only use big ring but like the chain line)

SRAM drive train x9 mtn bike stuff I like big ring with big cassette

Thompson seat post

carbon flat bar lots of good cheap stuff

dura ace linear pull mtn bike brakes

about 1600 bucks

road bike

Frame/Fork Lemond buenes aires min / max frame 350 bucks used carbon but from a cat 1 friend who was upgrading

Wheels Easton EA90s fast wheels 450 bucks on sale new from rivercity bikes in pdx msrp 900 seen these at performance for similiar price

dura ace drive train brifters, cranks,deraileurs,brakes 600 bucks Ebay new well over 1000

bars easton carbon good ones about 100 bucks new on sale

so again about 1500 bucks

*Week 477*

Greetings 50+ers! Nice to see so much discussion, once again; BM58, Igy, Allen59, and Charlie are really keeping the conversation going....and cool blog, Big Red!

My week came to a screeching halt. Was doing OK Sun-Wed, with a mix of runs and run/walks. On Wednesday, I was doing some yard work and pulling a large wild grape vine that had overgrown a bunch a large bush in the hinterlands of my "urban wildlife renewal project" (my euphemism for the less cultivated part of my property.) What I hadn't noticed was that entangled with it was another vine with leaves that should have been familiar to me: poison ivy. Normally, I have eagle eyes for that stuff, but this vine had been growing back there unhindered and had leaves that were 8" long, so it no longer looked familiar to me until well after the fact.....when the rashes started (which start showing up over a 2-day period afterwards.) I first noticed it on my forearms, thinking maybe that was the extent of it and went along doing some more run run/walk Wed. night and Thursday, but by Friday I woke up with a rash on both legs ankle up to mid-thigh, both arms mid-bicep down to the backs of my hands, and across the left side of my face; very itchy, some blistering, and swelling. WIth the heat and humidity, I just am choosing to lay low for a few days and let it subside. Oral histamines and cortisone cream help some, but this stuff always gets me bad. If I were truly in shape and training for something, I would probably find a way to power through this, but that's not where I'm at right now, so a few days off isn't going to matter much. Such is life....is 2020 ever going to end? Funny it should happen right when Garmin gets hacked, I have nothing to upload anyways.

OK. Hope you all have had better weeks and as always, look forward to reading your reports, adventures, races (real or virtual), insights, and general feelings about where you're at in running and life. Stay safe out there!

All the Best!

Ouch, lucKY! I, too, can get severely affected by poison ivy. Sorry that you have to go through that.

Not a bad week for me with about 18 actual running miles in the book. The calf/Achilles still displays some occasional mild tightness, but it has not stopped me from running. Hopefully the continued massages will ultimately help eradicate the lingering remnants of that injury. The heat and humidity continue and I have been adjusting my routine to compensate. The life adjustments made in response to Covid continue to help with weight reduction as I am now down about 10 lbs since this thing started. All in all, life is good!

Sun: off

Mon: 52’ CR; swim; body wt ex + med ball routine

Tues: off

Wed: 43’ running; swim; body wt ex + med ball routine

Thu: 44’ running

Fri: off

Sat: 52’ CR; swim; body wt ex + med ball routine

Best to most!

Oh LucKY, I feel your pain!

A couple of springs ago, I noticed some poison ivy in our yard. I'm VERY allergic to it so my husband said he'd remove it. He did, but he didn't tell me that he put it in a garbage bag I was using for other yard waste. Every time I added weeds to the bag, the poison ivy rubbed against my arms. The next day I raced in a triathlon and then we drove from SC to Richmond for our son's college graduation. On the way, I noticed I felt itchy but I chalked it up to wearing my wetsuit. That evening the rash broke out and by morning, my arms were an oozing blistered mess. I ended up attending graduation with napkins wrapped around both my arms. What a fashion trend. The following day my husband and had to fly to England where I was teaching a course. I wore gauze wrappings topped with ace bandages so I wouldn't drip pus all over the plane. Ugh!

Luckily, my doctor knows how bad I am so I was able to get cortisone and steroids. I couldn't train for two weeks until the raw skin began to heal. The doctor also told my husband that we should get a yard service because it could be life threatening if I got poison ivy again. We haven't done that yet but I'm careful to wear long sleeves and long pants when I work in the yard.

Hope you heal quickly!

M60, 5'11", 182 lbs

Goals: After long layoff, return to a basic level of aerobic fitness, get back to my "normal" weight of 170 lbs (160-165 was my competitive weight).

JULY 19-24, 2020

Sun - Off

Mon - 4.0 miles (13:30, 9:53, 9:03, 8:05)

Tues - Off

Wed - 4.0 miles (10:48, 10:03, 10:28, 8:33)

Thu - Off

Fri - Off

Sat - 6.0 miles (10:04, 9:10, 8:52, 8:56, 8:33, 7:51)

TOTAL: 14.0 MILES

No progress this week with weight loss -- culprits were my wife's baking (blueberry season here), beer (four bottles), and morning cereal overdose.

But fitness is improving after several weeks of double-digit mileage. Yesterday's closing mile was my first sub-8 since last autumn, except for a one-mile all-out time trial a few weeks ago.

Re: Poison ivy, it's taking over many acres of our property, and there's really no way of irradicating it. My wife is extremely sensitive, so all but the few acres we maintain as yard/lawn is off-limits and to her.

The best I can do is keep a few trails mown and spot-kill encroaching poison ivy. It's really disheartening. 25 years ago, I had all the back acreage seeded as "pasture," planted a few hundred trees as hedgerows, and dreamed of establishing a 1-mile running loop.

Now it's more forest than pasture, with a few open meadows, infested with poison ivy.

lucKY - Ouch! I think SCgal has the right idea, a steroid will clear that up. My wife had a truly nasty case of Poison Oak, the doc gave her Prednisone and it cleared right up in a couple days. Good luck!

I ran three times this week:

3.3 miles @ 10:00 pace

3 miles barefoot on grass @ 9:00 pace

1.25 miles on dirt @ 11:00 pace

My stupid left Achilles is still moderately inflamed.

The barefoot run was good, the Achilles ache subsided and I felt an "adjustment" slowly work it's way up my left leg. So I'll do more barefoot as I slowly ease back into running.

As an experiment, I'm going vegan (raw fruits and veggies, lots of beans, seeds and nuts) for a few days to see if this helps the inflammation. Well, I might throw in some BBQ Salmon... what the heck.

Best to all for good health and fitness.

lucKY2b, tough luck! I guess the bright side is that it isn’t running-related and shouldn’t be aggravated by running once you feel otherwise good enough to start again. As far as I know I’ve never encountered either poison ivy or poison oak; three times in my life I have broken out in terrible hives for unknown reasons, but I don’t think poisonous plants were the reason.

Allen1959, you certainly seem to be making progress on fitness. Keep it up!

I was supposed to be backpacking Thursday through Saturday but we postponed it again because the weather wouldn’t cooperate. We did get out for a good day hike on Saturday, getting off the trail about two hours before the sky fell. I didn’t run that day and I also took Tuesday off from running, bothered by a flareup of my bad Achilles and a slight tweak to one hamstring. I hated to lose Tuesday because it was the coolest morning of the past several weeks, but I figured I needed to listen to my body. I ended up with 54 miles of running for the week, plus 20 miles of very easy cycling and 10 miles of hiking at elevation.

We’re still hoping to do the backpacking trip this coming week, as the weather forecast suggests that the pattern of strong afternoon thunderstorms is about to break. It seems like a good time to get out in the wilderness away from other people, as all the COVID-19 indicators—numbers of new cases, positive test rates, hospitalizations, deaths—in my county continue to go in the wrong direction.

Stay healthy!

condolences on the poison ivy. Moving to condo in a high-rise a few years ago has pluses/minuses, but keeping me away from that stuff is a major plus.

Good week for me finishing off 13-week 5k training bloc:

M 8 miles with 10 X 400 (200 jog) at 5k pace (87.8 sec average)

Tu 8

W 5 with 10 X 20 sec (40 sec jog) at mile pace

Th 5

F 2

Sa 6 with 5000m time trial in 18:22 to mark 59th birthday

Su off [ending 95-day streak]

Time trial was scored as a win -- my goal at the outset of training was 18:59 [had done a 19:10 in March during marathon training cycle]. After running 18:38 in the prelims two weeks ago, i adjusted goal to the round number of 18:32.5 (89/lap).

Looked at watch every 800 hoping for 2:58's. Actual:

2:55

2:55

2:56

2:59

2:57

2:56

44 final 200

My fastest 5k since Sept. 2016 (59 is the new 55!). Age grade 86.21%, whereas my PR (16:37 at age 45) was 85.56% in a real road [certified course, but not very difficult] race with good competition.

I wore my number from our club's low-key 2020 race series to send a message to all track walkers that I meant business. Side benefit that my number is 199, which seemed kind of high for its being my own invitational, so I got a disrespect ("nobody believes in us") morale boost as well.

Conclusion: Pete Magill, author of Fast 5k program I used, is the GOAT coach after all. Some might have already inferred that from his setting multiple American records using these methods, his great writing about training, and his coaching so many national championship teams, but I had to see for myself.

Have a great week,

Dave

@dhaaga

very impressing, indeed. Congratulation!

Congrats to dhaaga for the fine 5K (I like the way you tested Pete Magill and played the disrespect card) and to Allen59 (among others) for the good week of training.

My sympathies to people who are suffering from poison ivy. I get it very bad, too. I like hiking and getting out in nature, but things like poison ivy and mosquitoes are reminders that nature is not always our friend. I appreciate my house as a safe place where I can get away from nature. However, maintaining a house is a continual fight against damage and decay caused by weather, moisture, rodents, and insects…in other words, a fight against nature.

I have a second house in the Adirondacks, on a big property 20 minutes from Saranac Lake. I am afraid to walk alone in the woods on my own property because of the coyotes which range freely and can be heard howling at night. These are not little skinny things like you might see in the Southwest. These coyotes must have bred with wolves, because they are the size of German Shepherds. One of them could take me down easily. I have seen them crossing the road near my house; they show no fear. “Nature, red in tooth and claw,” as Tennyson put it.

I had a high-mileage week, for me. As a result, even though all my running was slow and easy and untimed, my hamstring pain has come back. So my next week of training will probably feature more stretching and strengthening and less running. I will try to get out and run three times, but the runs may be short.

Week of July 20-26, 2020

MONDAY - 5 miles running at the track, slow and untimed.

TUESDAY - 2 miles running at the track, slow and untimed.

WEDNESDAY - 4 miles running at the track, slow and untimed.

THURSDAY - 2 miles running at the track, slow and untimed. Regular stretches (11 stretches), Back stretches (9 stretches), Upper Body strength (6 exercises, 1 set each), Lower Body strength (5 exercises, 3 sets each), Knee strength (2 exercises).

FRIDAY - Nothing.

SATURDAY - 3 miles running at the track, slow and untimed.

SUNDAY - 2 miles walking, Regular stretches (11 stretches), Upper Body strength (6 exercises, 3 sets each).

Totals:

16 miles running, 2 miles walking, stretching, strengthening.

Outstanding 18:22 age graded PR Inspiring !

However many runners, like me for instance, can't do the prescribed training. I would like to see a study where they take 50 or so runners with average tolerance to training and put em thru the 5k program. Wonder percentage would reach the starting line uninjured ?

daily 50 minute slogs

2 days of 4 x 20 " down hill in the sand accelerations with the last 10" at full effort

2 slogs at 60 percent

1 slogs included 12x a 10% uphill sand dune but at 50 percent mhr idea being to engage fast twitch without metabolic stress a promising workout.

Congratulations on the 5k, Dave! It's great to see your improvement and getting it a time trial is amazing! Yay!

Happy Birthday, too. I thought of you yesterday as I remembered we celebrate on the same day. I'm just ahead of you in age ;-)

lucKY: Yikes on the Poison Ivy! Get well soon. I’m one of the lucky one’s that is not affected by it.

dhaaga: WOW! Congrats!

Tue = 4 miles with 3@8:34 pace at beach (97 degrees with 95% humidity)

Thr = 4 miles , slow, super-hot and humid

Sat = 4 miles with 3@7:56 pace, same course as Tue but temp was 82, with 96% humidity

Sun = 4 miles easy, cemetery, home

M/W/F = 3 X (9 exercises X 15 reps) with 15-pound dumbbells

Had a nice vacation at North Myrtle Beach. It was swampy-hot all week. Although it’s a Covid “hot spot”, the entire area is working hard to use masks and social distance. SC has a big ad campaign on being safe. They are more aggressive than we are in Virginia. Fingers crossed, by following protocols and doing the right things we stay safe!

great 5k dave--obviously you'll get a very biased opinion from me on pete magill, but even though he doesn't coach me, he's been an invaluable resource for me on all things masters running, and there aren't many aspects of my training that i haven't bounced off him at some time or another.

spent a week with a few other calcoast club teammates in the higher climes (and climbs) of mammoth mountain in the eastern sierras. while i immodestly confuse myself with superman sometimes, i've encountered multiple forms of kryptonite. i've always struggled with altitude, so roughly 60+ miles in 6 days at ranges of 9k-11k feet humbled me along with two to three thousand feet of elevation gain . this was also my first time running up there not as a coach shepherding 25-30 h.s. kids over well-traveled trails, so i had a blast exploring rougher and more challenging trails and lakes and passes, but again, i was humbled by how poor a trail runner i am. i could generally keep up with teammates on the uphills, but downhills they were putting up to 2 minutes per mile on me--even teammates who i could probably beat by over 4 minutes on a 10k. i've also discovered i am a considerable slower walker when we encountered parts where running was not possible or recommended. glad we were never in a hurry...

anyway, i saw some spectacular scenery between duck lake, lake dorthy, mcgee lake and others. also got a decent view of the neowise comet while up there. looking forward to posting here in another 6800 years when it comes again...

haven't run yet today, but also looking forward the predictable terrain beneath my feet...

carpe crepusculum,

cush

dhaaga, congrats on the excellent 5K!

Brittle Master 1958 wrote:

I am afraid to walk alone in the woods on my own property because of the coyotes which range freely and can be heard howling at night. These are not little skinny things like you might see in the Southwest. These coyotes must have bred with wolves, because they are the size of German Shepherds. One of them could take me down easily. I have seen them crossing the road near my house; they show no fear.

I live on the outskirts of a small city in central California, surrounded by lots of empty space. We hear coyotes yip-yip-yipping away in groups every night, causing our two dogs to race up and down the fence barking furiously. I often see coyotes skulking around in the fields near our house and sauntering across streets in the morning and evening. But even the big ones are skinny things, maybe 35-40 pounds max, and while they don't seem very frightened of me, I've never considered that a lone coyote poses any danger. My large dogs don't run loose but that's more to protect them from the somewhat busy road less than a quarter-mile away. I would worry about a cat, or a small dog...