Allen1959, congrats on hitting your time goal, but those falls are very scary. Concussions are not to be taken lightly. I hope you heal quickly.
Meanwhile, I spent Sunday doing an 8-mile hike in the mountains at 7500 feet. The bad leg felt pretty good and I had no falls or bad stumbles, but I was picking my way very slowly through the areas of loose slippery rocks, particularly on downhills. I finished still feeling good and ready for more. It was a gorgeous day for hiking--cool (40s to low 50s), sunny, dry, and breezy. No mosquitoes yet, but I'm sure they're coming soon!
now that is a well-executed race. Congrats! and best of all pain-free. Congrats also Rtype and Allen--speedy recovery to you, Allen. Hope you end up with only a dramatic story of marathon with your son.
My week was fun though less eventful. Thursday was opening day for 12 X 9-day plan to try to do well in sept. half-marathon.
M 1:30 with drills/strides
Tu 50:00
W 1:05
Th 1:45 double with 2 X 10:00 (2:00 jog) at half-marathon effort
F 1:15
Sa 55:00 w/ drills/strides
Su 35:00
M 1:10 w/ 4-mile road race in (I think, results not up yet) 25:10 (about 15th OA, I think 1st AG). 23 sec slower than last time in this race, but that was 3 years ago, so predictable i gues. Felt good and competed well with people I usually finish near.
6:13 mostly downhill
4:54
8:31
6:32 mostly uphill
I suppose it's possible the mile 2 mark was in the wrong spot, hard to tell.
After three good months of training injury-free, I run my first race in many months and surprised myself breaking 5 in the mile. It was my target for the year, but I did not think my fitness was quite there yet and was expecting to hit it in September. In case anybody is interested, training has been between 35 and 50 miles/week in 6 days of running. One track workout each week, starting with longer reps with short rest at 10K pace and gradually moving towards shorter reps and longer rest at mile pace. Other weekly workouts were a fartlek or tempo run based on time and effort (generally 15-30 minutes around 5:50-6:20 pace) and a long run of 9-15 miles. On top of these, in some weeks I run hills or a 8x200 at mile pace. Lift/flexibility/core 2-3 times/week.
3:44:06. M60-64 fifth place. 32 seconds behind 3rd. I ran well through 23 miles, then faded.
I saw 3rd and 4th pass me together near end. Couldn't muster strength to stay with them.
I had hit my foot on a pylon and fell hard at about 9.5. Left me very sore for a couple miles. Then fell again at end. Left me unconscious. No memory of that fall. Woke up briefly in hospital, then back to la la land. Black eye, stiches, various contusions. Fractured facial bones? Hope to go home tomorrow afternoon. Bummer!
More details on Monday. Maybe biking only for a while.
My son ran very conservatively, then slowed some for final miles. A bit over 4 hours.
Run well.
Congratulations. If it is jeopardizing one’s health, at some point running is not necessarily a wise thing to do. Marathon in particular is very stressful at an older age, just from the standpoint of being out there longer.
3:44:06. M60-64 fifth place. 32 seconds behind 3rd. I ran well through 23 miles, then faded.
I saw 3rd and 4th pass me together near end. Couldn't muster strength to stay with them.
I had hit my foot on a pylon and fell hard at about 9.5. Left me very sore for a couple miles. Then fell again at end. Left me unconscious. No memory of that fall. Woke up briefly in hospital, then back to la la land. Black eye, stiches, various contusions. Fractured facial bones? Hope to go home tomorrow afternoon. Bummer!
More details on Monday. Maybe biking only for a while.
My son ran very conservatively, then slowed some for final miles. A bit over 4 hours.
Run well.
Holy Cow! And congratulations at besting the 3:45! Wow, sounds like you'll have some stories to tell and the scars to prove it!
Hi mid D guy, do you mind to post your log? Sub 5 👍
These were my last 6 weeks of training. I do not have a detailed log of previous weeks, but I was starting from ~17:50 5K fitness and ~40M/week average. Gym is usually about one hour working on flexibility, core and calves, ham, quads strength. X-train is playing some other sport, like soccer, tennis or badminton. I often do strides after easy runs, unless I am sore.
Makes sense to me. I could see from being more of a fast-twitch guy, spent most of my career racing 5k or less, trained very much in speed-oriented way, why I'd tend to be happier at the quicker end.
Went out to do a steady hour yesterday, and as soon as I would stop consciously holding back, up would go the speed. End up with 8 miles - 7:30 pace. It's about 5:50 per mile age grade, which in theory is too quick, but I think is fine as long as I'm Ok to do the next hard session on Tuesday.
I think a lot of "keep the easy runs slow" doesn't apply in the same way if you're only doing 35-40 a week, you've been training for 50 years, and you are at an age where Vo2 max pace and LT pace are getting quite close.
Allen, congrats on your success and hitting the time you have hoped for! Saluting the fortitude and courage you've demonstrated!
On the other side, I agree with Igy that such stress (as you experienced at the finish) may results in some damage to the health (hope it will not). Perhaps to consider HM in the future? Still a pretty long distance....Best of luck and wishes for a quick recovery!
amkelley: good to hear you keep recovering and are doing serious hiking! Hope you'll be able to return to running soon!
Allen1959 You gotr done! I see bike/double century in your future!
@Cavorty If it ain't broke don't fix it, keep rolling. Habit plays a major role IMO of course.
Added in 10 minutes(10x1 R1) of daily running on the crete after a 30 minute warmup walk. I gave up on regular hard surface running more times than I can remember but gonna try try try at least one more time. Did a 400 on the road in 83 cruising along probably 2:45 / 800 .
I do each minute run a bit faster say from 10mm down to 7mm . Plan is to slowly buildup to doing 30 minutes a day on hard surface with no aches or pains. Patient adaptation vs chronic overload. One can only try try try!
Keep on trying. a meaning of old is stop trying. your tries are excellent entertainment for running enthusiastics. Last sentence should express my respect for trying, trying, trying. Trying as well btw.😀
You gotr done! I see bike/double century in your future!
Charlie, and all, thanks so much for the kind words. I was finally released from the hospital last night -- I was there from Sunday morning to Thursday evening. Fractured cheek bone, fractured jaw, brain bleeding, facial lacerations. I went down hard at the finish line -- apparently unconscious before face-planting on the pavement. I was likely dehydrated and I passed out with that final effort.
All considered, I'm happy with the 3:44, but sure wish I had remained conscious!
With my prostate cancer and enlarged prostate, it's difficult to drink enough. Even with limited intake, I have a very uncomfortable sense of a full bladder and of "urgency."
Alas, my marathoning days are likely over. This was marathon number 27. It as a challenge, as I was limited to only three runs per week, never on consecutive days. But this was my son's first, and I was excited to take part.
I am still quite groggy -- on powerful anti-seizure meds and forbidden from driving, or even lifting more than five pounds. My wife is home today, enforcing those rules, ugh! Lots of follow-up appointments the next few weeks. Facial stitches come out next week.
When I get the OK, I'll start bicycling. No single-day double-centuries, ha ha, but I hope to plan a two-day ride, visiting family historical sites in central and southern New York State.
Meanwhile, my son enjoyed the marathon so much he immediately signed up for the Wineglass Marathon in October (Corning NY). I'll be spectating that one! An old college teammate is planning to run it, also -- haven't seen him since 1982, ha! Will be fun.
The photo below (if link works) was about the half-way point on Sunday:
I've recovered from the soreness near my achilles that occurred in the last couple miles of the half marathon mid-May, and have been able to run some reasonably hard interval 1/4 miles this last week. Hope it's not too much too late, because Monday night is our KC Corp Challenge track 1 mile (NOT a 1600m! thankfully). Though I have run a couple of quarters under 8;00, it's hard to imagine that unless I feel like a 20 something again! Now if I had KP's wheels...
Hoping to see my wife run it really well and see her go under 7:48. She'll be 65 next month, but she's in the 65-69 age group as everyone's age is determined by their age on Dec. 31. Forecast is not ideal, however.
Allen1959, please don't try to hurry your recovery, brain bleed and broken facial bones are not to be taken lightly. Hope you can get your prostate successfully treated now.
Amkelley, have been hoping you are doing better, your incredible endurance with all things (not just running) will serve you well. When my wife and I had to do more walking we turned to it reluctantly at first, but then realized it would still serve our foundation of needs for fitness and being outdoors, trail hiking might be a good balance and strengthener to compliment it, too, sure hope so.
Igy, great to see your cancer recovery has done so well, and your encouragement of others here shows up well, like your coaching life-story has shown.
KP and any others going to Master's Nationals, we hope to run it some day, but this year we're off to WC, and sure hope to have a great time there. Best wishes to you all and tear up that track!
Thanks MikeL enjoy your posts as well. At this time catching up on some delayed house maintenance. Normal race schedules have only started here in Idaho recently. So I see no reason to be in a hurry.
Greetings fellow 50+ers and happy meteorological summer! It’s good to be back after a few months of down time to deal with nagging calf and knee issues. I’ve been able to stay active with walking and walk/jogs, but only recently have returned to my prior form. Thanks to those of you who offered words of support during this time and congratulations to all of you who have persevered and put up some amazing performances during this time. This is an amazing group!
So put me down for 19.6 miles of actual running for my return week. Fortunately the calf issues have not returned and the knee is about 90% and continuing to improve. Hopefully I’ll be able to add a touch of speed to some of my upcoming runs.
What a crazy marathon story Allen1959...you're a true warrior...heal well. Nice to see Old Farte back...speaking of back, I just read that SoCal Pete ran 18 minutes for 5k this weekend at age 60...very cool.
Here on the homefront, I finally surpassed 114,000 lifetime miles...each 1,000 seems to take practically forever nowadays (about 9 months)...not sure if 120,000 is on my age 70 horizon, but I'll keep tracking such nonsense in order to stay amused.
This most recent week was 31 miles that started with a great (by my current advanced age standards) 8 miler in 1:11, then a buch of slow jogging throughout the week, and concluded with a solid 5 mile progression run yesterday. I'll take it....may even do a local 3K road race in two weeks time.
Heads up if you're a track fan, later today (2:00-4:00 EST) on CNBC, they'll be showing the Diamond League Meet from Rabat...a great way to stay up to date in advance of the impending World T&F Championships...thought that you might like to know.
Sending everybody great healing, training, and racing vibes for the week ahead.