50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

If your team is behind don’t hit anyone with a hockey stick. If you do, get the puck outta there. 🤡

Thought I’d represent three great running “clubs” today at Coach O’s Meet at Life University. Bowerman TC, Wire2Wire, Rome HS. Still too fat and out of shape to my liking. But a no-speedwork 2:27.50 Outdoor Cold Breezy 40F 800m ain’t a horrible start for this M60 old fool. Time for 4 weeks of magic workouts before the masters 800 at Crossplex Birmingham.

---

KPdx wrote:
Thought I’d represent three great running “clubs” today at Coach O’s Meet at Life University. Bowerman TC, Wire2Wire, Rome HS. Still too fat and out of shape to my liking. But a no-speedwork 2:27.50 Outdoor Cold Breezy 40F 800m ain’t a horrible start for this M60 old fool. Time for 4 weeks of magic workouts before the masters 800 at Crossplex Birmingham.

---

Back in 2019, I posted about my challenge to finish a marathon in under 5 hours. In hindsight it was a ridiculous premise. I would walk and run my way into shape. It didn’t happen.

The last time I posted in early October of that year, I was still thinking I could do it. Then a few days later, I injured my hip. It was so bad I made an appointment with my physician hoping she would put me out of my misery and advise me not to attempt the marathon. I was diagnosed with an IT band injury. She told me, “I know how much you have trained for this, so I am not going to talk you out of it.” In my head I was screaming, “No!! I made this appointment hoping very much I would have a medical excuse to abandon this foolish odyssey!” No such luck, she told me to take it easy, limit any walking to a mile or less and no jogging or running until the race.

I have no idea what I was thinking. I was hoping for a miracle I suppose. I came up with this game plan to walk to the starting line (I knew it would take over 10 minutes, it took almost 20) and then jog for 2 miles. Repeat the process and add a quarter mile to each jogging period. Somehow I would get stronger and faster as the race progressed. I was able to jog that first two miles, but every running unit forward was a quarter mile shorter than the previous one. By the 16th mile, I couldn’t really jog anymore, and ended up walking the rest of the race until the last 150-200 yards. There were a couple of cut off points that runners had to meet to continue the race. I was able to beat those times and finish the race, so at least I accomplished that minor goal. I ended up with a time a little below 6 hours and 30 minutes. This was the end of October 2019.

In September of that year, I had signed up for a half marathon scheduled for February when I was in the euphoria of my progress of the previous 6 weeks or so. Now I had to deal with the fact that my body was in worse shape than when I started in many respects, although I was 15-20 pounds lighter and stronger in some aspects. In November, one of my parents had a serious illness that required hospitalization. I helped my other parent take care of the hospitalized one. I would walk around the hospital late at night and around the parking lot during the day, to keep up some of my fitness. That lasted about 5 weeks, and I was able to get some light jogging of a quarter mile to a third of a mile in from time to time.

In December, I had hoped to start training again for the half marathon, but caught a really bad cold/flu in the middle of the month, which wiped me out for two weeks. I was still under the weather for another two weeks after that period. Now it was MLK weekend, and I had 4 weeks until the half. A rational person would have admitted defeat and accepted the half was out of reach. I’m an idiot.

I was able to get my running up to a mile at a time. My new game plan was to walk a half mile, jog a mile, and repeat the process until the halfway point. Then walk for 5 minutes, jog a mile until I crossed the finish line. It “worked.” I finished with a time just short of 2 hours and 45 minutes. Every mile after the 5th was faster than my any of my first 4 miles. My 11th mile was my fastest and my last half mile 30 seconds faster than that pace. The best part was I felt great the next day and next week. I was jogging lightly by the next weekend.

I was then going to signup for a 15k or a 10 miler in late March or early April. Most people progress from 5k to a marathon, I would do it in the reverse order. It was not to be. With the Covid lockdown, I did not feel comfortable exercising outside. I had tried to bicycle on my favorite path early in the lockdown period. A 70 something cyclist channeling his inner Lance Armstrong just doused me in his sweat when he passed me on the path. I turned around and raced home to take a 20 minute scalding shower. I would not go out of the house until masks were promoted as a protective device. I tried to run some in May, but the mask was too much for my limited fitness. If I was smart, I would have run a little less and easier, until my body adapted. I may have just been a little depressed not having any race to look forward.

By September, I had put back on all the weight I had lost and perhaps another extra pound or two. This was getting ridiculous. My wife had been walking around the neighborhood for a few weeks, when I asked if I could join her. After a few weeks, I was ready to start adding some jogging.

At first I just added a minute of jogging to 10 minutes of walking. I did that a week or two, then progressed to one minute of jogging and 6 minutes of walking. Every week or two I would adjust the ratio from 1/5, 1/4, until I got to 1/3. Then the second week of that specific ratio, I kept the ratio but added another minute and did 2 minutes of jogging and 6 minutes of walking. This week I switched to 2 minutes of jogging and 5 minutes of walking. I try to add 1 minute of jogging every week, and I am currently at 19 minutes of jogging. I do this two times a week and one day I do a lighter day and work on longer running but at a third or half the total. For example, this week I did a 3 minute jog but for only 6 total minutes. I walk with my wife whenever she wants. I wear a mask at all times.

1/10 Sunday- 5.54 miles 2/6 13’52”
Tuesday- Lighter jog 1.74 miles 3/5 13’18” walk 2.06 miles
Wednesday- Walk 1.58miles
Thursday- 5.29 miles 2/5 13’04” walk 1.15 miles
Saturday-5.6 miles 2/5 13’13” walk 1.31 miles
Sunday-Walk 4 miles

I have no grand plans, other than adjusting the ratio every other week to include a little more running in terms of percentage and total. I don’t feel comfortable running a race this year under the current conditions. I would like to be able to get to a level of fitness to jog 5 miles twice a week and a long run of 7-10 miles on the weekend. I feel like that is a decent base to train for a 5k or a marathon in 2022, if I choose and the conditions allow. If not, I would like to find out if I trained long enough, if I can still run 8-9 minute miles for a sustained length.

Good job. Hang in there.

---

Ghost of Igloi wrote:
If your team is behind don’t hit anyone with a hockey stick. If you do, get the puck outta there. 🤡

---

Hi KPdx,

Thanks for reporting. Great to hear about an "old fool" running 800m. Solving the 800m puzzle seems extremely difficult at "higher" age. Good success for your workouts.

Take care

Good you are back to outdoor training. I like the idea to set a goal for training, such as running x minutes miles for y minutes. Then next goal, which is achievable in a couple of weeks or limited time. This keeps the joy about the process.

Echoing KP's fat and out of shape statement! Damn nice 800!

I'm at day 94 post Tenex achilles op. Got in my planned 17 miles last week. Felt good on my runs though I had a scare Thurs with a bit of achilles pain. Not bad maybe a 1.5-2. I don't know the cause (running, work, biking, other???) but it was back to nearly 100% on this mornings easy run. More of the same this week, shooting for 19 relaxed miles with a planned 7 mile run. I had to check my log to see the last time ran 6 miles. May 1, 2020. Geeezz...

M: 3 Miles in 27:06 [9:02 per mile] Good run, still happy. 934,901,831 HR133
T: 14.5 Mile bike @ 19.3mph
W: 4 Miles in 35:52 [8:58 per mile] 926, 909, 846, 831
Th: 10.42 Miles bike @ 20.8mph w/5x60 sec hard on the 5s
F: 4 Miles easy no watch, no time
S: 6 Miles in 53:50 [8:58 per mile] 944,917,903,846,834,827 HR136
S: Off

Have a good run,

Dave

Interesting training year for me. Spent late 2019 and the first half of 2020 doing pretty well. Increased mileage and really focused on weights. Ended up with lift time bests in workouts for bench and deadlift. Got long runs up to 90 minutes. Lost 20 lbs.

Unfortunately in June I was doing some strides pretending I was 24 and followed it up the next day trying to crack 300 on deadlift. Instead I spent the next 4 months dealing with Achillies tendon pain and gaining back the 20 lbs.

Back up to 30-60 min runs but lifting is back to minimal weight and honestly it really took a toll mentally when it got heavy (for me).

At 54 with lots of college miles on my legs, have any of you tried the 3-4 day/week masters programs? Something like:
M - weights
T - 30-45:00 quicker tempo
W - off or bike
T - 45 - 60:00 easy
F - weights
S - off or bike
S - 60-90:00
Was it enough to get you into shape to at least survive a 10k/10 miler? Was it too much for aging body? Anything quicker than threshold seems to really cause issues with tight calf and hamstring.

I thought I had this all figured out when I was 25-35. Haven't been very successful merging work, aging and running.

Uncle,

The Run Less, Run Faster program is a three key workouts a week training plan. I do believe the closer you can model a traditional training plan the faster you will run. I would consider you fairly young.

Igy

---

Uncle Pervy wrote:
At 54 with lots of college miles on my legs, have any of you tried the 3-4 day/week masters programs? Something like:
M - weights
T - 30-45:00 quicker tempo
W - off or bike
T - 45 - 60:00 easy
F - weights
S - off or bike
S - 60-90:00
Was it enough to get you into shape to at least survive a 10k/10 miler? Was it too much for aging body?

---

---

Uncle Pervy wrote:
Unfortunately in June I was doing some strides pretending I was 24 and followed it up the next day trying to crack 300 on deadlift.

---

Thanks Igy and Allen.
Igy I'd tend to agree. My challenge has been spending 14 years trying to build a base only to get injured repeatedly doing strides before I get out of base phase. Then starting from zero again. I worry about the run less run faster model just being a quicker ticket to injury given my history.

Allen I'd be thrilled to survive a marathon injury free. Heck I'd be happy to be able to bike as fast as my old 10 mile race pace. :-) I think that's a challenge getting older too. My easy run pace has dropped from 6:30-7:00 to 12:00-13:00.

Maybe I shouldn't even be thinking about faster running until I lose 20-40 lbs and get the easy run pace down a bit lower.

Thanks again.
UP

I found the 5x5 StrongLifts app to be helpful as I had never really done anything other than the standard 3x8 for a few weeks here and there.
I did hire a Starting Strength coach for a few months to ensure my form was good. I feel like that was money well spent.

---

Uncle Pervy wrote:I thought I had this all figured out when I was 25-35. Haven't been very successful merging work, aging and running.

---

---

Uncle Pervy wrote: Heck I'd be happy to be able to bike as fast as my old 10 mile race pace. :-) I think that's a challenge getting older too.

---

---

Uncle Pervy wrote:
Thanks Igy and Allen.
Igy I'd tend to agree. My challenge has been spending 14 years trying to build a base only to get injured repeatedly doing strides before I get out of base phase. Then starting from zero again. I worry about the run less run faster model just being a quicker ticket to injury given my history.

Allen I'd be thrilled to survive a marathon injury free. Heck I'd be happy to be able to bike as fast as my old 10 mile race pace. :-) I think that's a challenge getting older too. My easy run pace has dropped from 6:30-7:00 to 12:00-13:00.

Maybe I shouldn't even be thinking about faster running until I lose 20-40 lbs and get the easy run pace down a bit lower.

Thanks again.
UP

---

Hi all—

To Igy’s point, I’m making up for my poor judgment regarding strength conditioning by doing some every day. Today, plantar fasciitis exercises, single leg squat stepdowns, heel dips, three sets of push-ups (I’m up to 11-11-12). Tomorrow, three sets of plank rotations. And the bike, 70 minutes a day.

Chiropractor saw me and pronounced me fine. So I hope to eeeeease into running on Wednesday when the thermometer tops 50 again.

I would say if you can run without pain, do it at least 5 days a week, and make one of those high intensity (but fun). Focus on strength so you can run without pain. I put on 10+ lbs over the holidays, who cares. I’m still 30 lbs lighter than when I started jogging. The point is I’ve got my core back, so I’ll enjoy the run again.