50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Good job Charlie.

Well Done Charlie!

I cannot think of a better way to join a new age-group than toeing the line SOLO for a Maximum V02 Mile.

Happy M65!

Charlie wrote:Splits : 84,87,89, 85, 2.09

closed last 200 in 41 (semi hard)

1600 5:46.36 Mile 05:48.45

Well done! Impressive, especially for solo TT.

Charlie: Congrats on the sub VI @ LXV!!

My week:

7 runs, 21 miles, 92 streak days. I had a good race on Labor Day. The goal was to keep it under 8 min pace and was successful in hitting 7:56 pace (8:01, 7:54, 7:53). I felt really solid, which, to me, was as important as cracking 8 min. I was 14th of 67 OA and 2nd of 6 in 60-64 ag. Actually, I was 30 seconds behind first but he took a wrong turn on a confusing course and basically kind of gave up in frustration. They gave me 1st but it was not fair to him. I congratulated him as the “real” winner of the AG and helped him to figure out his real time. I know how upsetting that can be.

On Friday I had my second shingles shot. Wow, what a surprise; I had an actual fever of 100, body aches, headache, and sore arm until my fever finally broke Saturday night. Glad I don’t have to do that again!

Have a good ‘ern!

Labor Day: 30:00 LT tempo on my favorite loop

Tues: 10 hilly miles @ 75% HR

Wed: 5.5 @ 70% HR

Thurs: 7 @ 80% HR trying to zero in on new levels

Fri: 5.5 @ 70% HR

Sat: 12 hilly miles on Letter A loop @ sustained pace

enjoy the week upcoming

Nice work Charlie.

My week. Sticking with the plan of shorter but more frequent sessions.

Mon. Steep single track 5 km run with 210 m elev. gain 42 mins the last dh km in 5.00.

Kayak 33 mins.

Tue. Steeper single track 5 km run 220 m elev. 42 min.

Mixed bag 21 km mtn bike ride in 60 mins.

Wed. 33 min kayak.

5 km out and back hill run 130 m elev. gain 29.30. Technical stuff from 2 to 3 kms the rest is not too rough underfoot. Solid effort up, worked solid on dh 4th (4.45) km. Rolled through last km in 4.20 the last 400 in 50s.

Thu. Mixed bag mtn bike 22 km in 66 mins, clocking a pb 4.05 (tailwind) on a strava segment, 2d on the all time behind a top club gravel man and ahead of a bunch of good gravel boys who would've been 1/2 way through a 100 km ride. I hope they don't notice.

9 km steep single track run with 300 m elev. gain 60 mins. Knocked over the last dh km in 4.25.

Fri. Harvey duty. I drove the 100 km the previous night and spent my day looking after my 18 month old grandson. I did manage 6 kms of pram pushing.

Headed home around 5.30 and stopped at Pyalong Golf Course for a hilly 4 kms/24 mins run in the dark but on freshly mown grass, 100 m elev. gain.

Sat. 34 min kayak, yesterday's missed session.

Hilly and windy 24 km mtn bike ride in 78 mins.

Hilly 8 km run but on smooth surfaces. 46 mins Some surges at 4.05 to 30 km pace enroute

Sun. Lawn mowing and timber clearing then a 23 km mtn bike ride in 67 mins, clocked 4.13 for the strava segment.

6.6 km fartlek running in the forest 36 mins.

A good week. Still a bit tight in left hammy and hip but able to run at decent pace ok.

Once I get that right I might have to go after the sub 6 goal.

Charlie, my congratulations! Always love your videos and detailed comments, They are very useful and inspiring.

I took a 2-week vacation and together with my wife we are now at the Black Sea shore. As I hate to lie on the beach like a log (while my wife loves), specially booked a hotel near a wonderful park with various slopes. Defined a loop this morning with elevation gain some 200-220 m, which took me about 50 min to complete. Will see how to vary the training. Looking forward for uphill intervals if my right knee allows (sinovitis has not disappeared yet).

Signed for mud treatment every second day. Many research say it helps with various rheumatologic diseases. Not sure that my case falls exactly into this category, but at least these procedures and not long and not painful and may help with other yet hidden problems.

amkelley, I recalled your case with regard to this mud therapy. Did not you try something like this? I assume Dead Sea treatments (that are recognised as beneficial in several rheumatologic diseases) are available in the US. This "my local mud" is stronger but with the Dead Sea stuff it may just take not 8-10, but 15-20 procedures...

Good and injury-free running to all!

great job! Congrats on taking new age group by storm.

good week for me incl. short taper and alternate goal race in case half-marathon goes poorly in 2 weeks (is it Plan B if you do it before Plan A?)

M 1:30 with 5 X 6:00 (4:00) at 5k effort (dk distance covered -- couldn't get on track due to HS football practice on Labor Day morning)

Tu 2:10 double

W 1:50 double

Th 55:00

F 40:00 + 30:00 x-t

Sa 30:00

Su 1:30 with cherry blossom 10-mile in 63:15 for 247th of 6,019 finishers

Race this morning went well. As of now they have me first in M60-64, but that's preliminary, and in past years I have seen some shuffling in age group results. Very evenly paced -- my watch sed 31:44 at 5 miles, i think probably 31:35 or so net, so roughly 31:35/31:40. It's almost perfectly flat, so you can definitely get in rhythmn. Only slower mile (6:30 instead of 6:20's) was #7 going into the wind down toward Hains Point. It's always windy there -- was a blessing to turn in mile 8 and head back toward Washington Monument with wind at our backs.

I ran 63:32 last November in a time trial on a slightly harder course, so either competition isn't worth much to me, or I'm getting slower, but I was happy with the effort and will definitely take the result.

have a great week,

Dave

Greetings, fellow 50+ers! And well deserved congratulations to Charlie for his impressive performance.

No traveling this week, or significant weather challenges for that matter (though I did cut short one hot weather run when my heart rate started suggesting I might be getting a bit too dehydrated). Rather the visitors came to us! The grandkids are here and I have set aside some running in favor of walking them to the playground, or other nearby attraction. And I’m loving every minute of it, as I’m sure some of you will readily understand.

Still I was able to get in almost 15 miles of actual running over three runs. Even touched on a little “speed”, got in a few nice swims, and of course several miles of walking. Life is good!

Sun: off

Mon: 53’ CR w/ utility pole fartlek (6 x 2 on/off); swim; body wt ex + med ball routine

Tues: off

Wed: 47’ CR; swim; body wt ex + med ball routine

Thu: off

Fri: 54’ CR; body wt ex + med ball routine

Sat: off

Best to most!

Charlie, great time and great splits. It's always tough to keep that 3rd 400 from slowing too much, especially in a solo TT. dhaaga, impressive 10 mile time. I managed 60 miles for the week focusing mainly on staying healthy. After last weekend's 4mi XC race and Sunday long run I woke up Monday with some sciatica pain in my upper glute. I tried to warm up with a couple of miles of easy walking and then started on a planned 6 mile easy run. After a mile and a half I turned around and headed home. From trying to run I was pretty sure that I had gotten my piriformis slightly inflamed and it was pressing against the sciatic nerve. With aspirin and massage it felt noticeably better by Tuesday and almost gone on Wednesday.

M - 5mi of 2 mi walk, 3mi at 9:43/mi

T- 10mi walk

W- 8mi walk hills

Th- 9mi walk with easy strides every half mile

F- 9mi of 400m walk/400m easy run

S- 9mi trails with my son 8:05/mi

Su- 10mi trails 9:14/mi

Good running all!

Nice racing Rtype and dhaga.

Last week reinforced what I should have already known. The competitive distance runner personality can have a self-destructive side. I can’t seem to sustain and balance my desire to improve against my physical limitations. Anyway, it was clear by mid-week the current volume focused program was not going to work even for a couple of weeks. My FAI acted up to the point where I had a hard time sleeping, and Aleve didn't cut the pain. So back to what has worked best in recent years, a modified FIRST Program or Igy miles routine of three days a week running (rotating intervals, repetitions, tempos, and long run) with easy days of spin biking and swimming, two days of weight training and core exercises.

Sunday: 3 miles easy/walk @ 12:27/mile

Monday: 8 miles easy/walk @ 13:09/mile

Tuesday: AM- 5 miles easy/walk @ 13:11/mile; PM- 2 mile walk

Wednesday: Off

Thursday: Off

Friday: 1,000 yard swim

Saturday: 2 miles easy/walk; 4 x 400m interval pace @ 2:00 / 200m walk; 800m easy/walk

Have a good week.

Igy

Charlie, great job on the sub-6!

dhaaga, congrats on the Cherry Blossom win, which hopefully will hold up.

Rtype, congrats on the race and on your sportsmanship to the “real winner” of your AG. We’ve probably all been on both sides of such a situation at some time. I’m a bit dismayed by your reaction to the second shingles shot. I haven’t had a shingles vax and my rheumatologist is telling me I should get it, but based on my experience with the COVID vaccine (below) I’m rather hesitant.

Orient, I’ve never heard of “mud therapy” for rheumatic diseases. There are a semi-infinite number of non-traditional treatments for things like RA and I’m sure most of them are bunk, and I don’t know how to identify the fraction that aren’t bunk. The article that Charlie linked about “leaky gut” syndrome and RA is interesting but not clearly actionable at this time. There are dozens of diets that are supposed to help RA and I’ve been tempted to try something, but I have no idea which one to try and I’m sure most of them are bunk…

This was another “how much worse can it get” week for me. I decided to get a COVID booster at the recommendation of my rheumatologist and it knocked me out worse than the second dose did. Fatigue, severe muscle aches, fever up to 102.5. I needed two days completely off to get over it. On my first day back I went out for a jog, was feeling quite good for half a mile, then suddenly heard a pop and felt like I’d been hit in the calf by a high-speed projectile. I stopped in my tracks and looked around in confusion trying to figure out what had hit me, until I realized that the “pop” had been something snapping in my calf. I shuffled home, tried to get on the bike but only succeeded in running my other leg into the sharp edge of the pedal and tearing a flap of skin off it, sat down and cried. The next day I figured out how to get on and ride the bike in a way that doesn’t aggravate the calf.

Mon: 1.5 mile jog, 31 mile bike, gym

Tues: 1.7 mile jog, 18 mile bike, gym

Weds: zero day, sick with COVID booster

Thurs: still sick, gym workout only

Fri: 0.5 mile jog before pulling calf muscle, gym

Sat: 32 mile bike ride, gym

Sun: 31 mile bike ride, will go to gym later

Onward...

Charlie,

Nice job. I'm sure you're already looking forward to 2022. Lots of opportunities for you coming up. Enjoy the journey. I have taken two weeks off from running to recover physically and mentally. Lots of walking/hiking up here in Juneau. Sad to say it's time for me to head back home to where the smoke is.

Great Race Dave! So good to see your strength is back. And we all know you earned it through your well known worth ethic.

I got smoked by two M50s in a Road Mile today. I just couldn’t get my arms and body to dig in for the last 300 and lost by 3 secs to both of these fine guys. I guess 5:27 should be good for this here M61 guy for 4th overall. What was definitely great was the three stellar brews afterwards at The Monday Night Garage brewery at West End ATL.

Thanks for the props much appreaciated!

Igy The good thing is you are smart enough to reboot when something is not working. Beleive me that is not a common trait amongst runners. We often repeat the same mistakes

KPdx Sixty One all of a sudden sounds young. Nice post Nats mile race. Sure hope Hayward 2022 happens.

Allen How are you doing?

Rtype you def get the sportsmanship award! I missed a turn once adding a mile and was on a relay team felt really bad about that maybe that is why I was never that big on team sports. I really do not like it when my screwups hurt others.

Mopac sub 6...Go for it! hamy/hip Maybe try eccentric part of nordic curls I swear by them.

Orient at the risk of over hyping eccentric part of nordic curls totally fixed a chronic upper hs hip issue. I always do a few before any hard workout for immediate effect specifically range of motion in my hips as well as glute activation.

dhaaga nice cherry blossom I doubt I could break 70 in fact I am sure I would just break

Olde Farte Left Austin Tx. too hot humid. Returned to my cooler roots in the pacific northwest in 1998.

OGII hope the glute sciatica issue resolves . Must sound like a broken record but eccentric part of Nordic Curls cured me. Do them as part of my hard stuff race warmup.

amkelley Thanks , have you tried aqua jogging?

CDB I am sure you will be in top form come XC season!

51.5 miles

DNS a race. That’s alright. It’s going to take a lot to get me to race anymore although I miss the comraderie of racing.

Besides, my goals anymore at 66 years old are training goals.

2000 miles and as many 50 mile weeks as I can do.

This morning was number 10 and I went over 1400 miles several days ago.

I did make 7 races this year but that’s because I also offered to volunteer

I felt an obligation to be there.

The racing at this stage of my career is very unsatisfying.

If I can just make seven races a year I’ll be satisfied

I read some mention of Cherry Blossom

I ran that in... I think...1993.

35 mile winds that day ha!

Charlie - 65+ 5:48.45! Doubt I’ll be doing that at 60- congrats!

Dhaaga - Great 10 mile pace regardless of the past. Amazed with the 60+ Crowd here.

Rtype - Congrats on the 1st or 2nd depending on how you look at it. I’m known in the area as the guy that always takes the wrong turn so I can relate. Racing is in part about staying focused and there has to be a reason I constantly error in judgement. The volunteers freeze-up when they see me because they don’t speak English and me trying to explain to the organizers that a simple gesture would suffice goes nowhere.

===============================================

My Week: 35 running and 25 treadmill 20% incline walks. Feeling great and very fit. Think with 4 weeks of more structured training I could be 35ish 10k shape. All races are cancelled through the end of year I think so plan on just rambling on with this unstructured training.

Only one real workout, excluding a steep up and down roller coaster 15 min tempo at 5:59 pace which was unplanned.

12 x 400 - avg 77 with a 4 min break after 6 for water and recalibrate my pace. I wanted to slow it down but my legs were set on the prior pace. Zero flat running in the area so have a hard time with accurate paces at the moment. This was on top of a dam I found near my hotel.

( 74, 78, 75, 75, 75, 76, 79, 78, 76, 80, 74, 77 ) + about a mile (across dam 2x) after the ints and 5 min rest - at 5.53 pace.

Not even a slight niggle at the moment which is odd. I know it is more luck than anything else but grateful to not always have that fear messing with my mind which in reality might be the cause of my constant monir issues. The mind is a powerful tool. In my case, it has big ambitions yet to be realized.

A truly inspiring post Charlie! Well Done.

Three months until I turn 65 and a sub 6:00 goal firmly in my sights.

Part of my master plan is to back off my mileage - I think figured out I can run harder and smarter if I am bit more rested. I am pretty sure I can still race this Fall's XCs and even up to a 10K on a 'smart' 40 mpw.

So....just 41 miles for the week - running 10 fewer miles a week I think (hope) could be a game changer.

-Started with the previously reported 5k on a slightly rolling course last Monday. Not super happy, but not disappointed either. 6:24 first mile and finished well.

- Wednesday evening with a 50y/o friend: A little step ladder workout on the local dirt 440yd track (in lane two - so about 408m to the lap) We did a little step ladder workout 200-400-600-800-600-400-200 with 200 recoveries. After the 800 jogged a full 400. Finished with a 00:40 which is a good turnover for me.

-Friday p.m. at the local HS track - still 78 degrees but was worse earlier. Solo 9x300 with a 100m recovery. Okay

-Saturday evening: pretty easy 5 miler with 6x150 80% strides within the last mile.

-Sunday: Back to the dirt track just at sundown: 6x400 with a 200 recovery jog. Not bad,but not great. Had a pretty long day.

So the total miles at 1500 to 5k race pace was at 20%. Right on target.

Still doing my daily planks and have worked up to 4:00 - although to be honest that last 00:30 is a struggle. Started on January 1st at 1:30 and am aiming for 5:00 by NYE 2021. Definitely see some abdominal definition developing so am thinking it is likely helping my posture as I fatigue in harder workouts or the latter stages of racing.

Until next week, be safe everyone...

amkelley,

Your concerns about non-traditional therapy are more than understandable. As an engineer/scientist I am always sceptical about various "pseudo/patha-physical science", but mud- and balneo-therapy is something that proved to be at least taken into account since times of the Roman Empire.

Just to mention some venues I have been to (except for Russia): Bormio in Italy, Dead Sea in Israel (and it's next to impossible to make those folks buy some crap), Rotorua in New Zealand.

BTW, there is this kind of therapy in Napa Valley (Calistoga), CA. Could be found in a couple of clicks.

My weeks is yet not satisfactory (still concerned with the right knee), but hopes for the better do exist.

Mon-Wed: 4 miles per day

Thu: 55 min elliptical trainer

Fri: 5 miles including 3х4:40-4:50 intervals on a trail loop in the forest

Sat: 40 min on the hills, incl. 2x6 min hard uphill. Total elevation gain about 250 m (800 ft).

Sun: 50 min on the hills, incl. 12:30 single uphill (hard effort, 92-93% of max HR). Elevation gain about 800 ft.