How An Older Guy Ran 30 Miles Yesterday On A Whim

This thread will die out with none of the promised updates, and websites, etc., guaranteed.

The stats are behind you on that call. No guarantees of the outcome or even delivery on the basics. But for once I feel I can have a single place to discuss these issues without scattergunning all over the board on diet, training, supplements, cross-training ad nauseum.Certainly I cannot aspire to match the all-time LRC "reach my goal" thread:http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=2270504However I am earnest in my pursuit to find out what an old body can accomplish.

Taker of things to the bank wrote:

This thread will die out with none of the promised updates, and websites, etc., guaranteed.

I once did a 30 mile run on New Years day because I was running my mouth while drunk on New Years Eve to my buddies and didn't want to swallow my pride the next day.

I was pleasantly surprised to not have any significant soreness or tightness from the speed session on Monday. Granted I ran it in my trainers, about half on soft surfaces, with a 3 mile jog cooldown, but I am used to a certain level of "damage" in the following 36 hours of such an intense change-of-pace training session. This time...nothing significant. I do the triangle pose religiously and it usually reveals tightness, but it felt normal. It is almost weird to run on legs that aren't wonky or niggly in some way. I honestly think this is where the new diet is really coming through. For once my inflammation level seems low and my regenerative capability is up.

Today is a medium fartlek touching on 1500-3K race pace, with hills. Still in trainers. Next month I will transition into racing flats, then spikes.

Last night I got my fingertip dead hang to 91 seconds. I started at 20 seconds in January. I'm also working on slow-reps for various pull-ups, which is pretty intense. Last month I took a nasty flying fall on a trail and messed up my ribs on one side, and it still is painful for certain movements. My previous experience with this injury (third time-same side!) is that it takes a month or so at least to subside.

I am finding that by wrapping a sardine in ham it goes down pretty well. Still adjusting to the taste of oily fish. Makes me feel a little Scandinavian lol.

At least we know what The World's Most Interesting Man is up to now that he's retired.

Stay thirsty my friends.

Everyone gets lost once in a while, carry on...

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=4064465

DosXX wrote:

At least we know what The World's Most Interesting Man is up to now that he's retired.

Stay thirsty my friends.

Writing fiction?

YMMV wrote:Last night I got my fingertip dead hang to 91 seconds. I started at 20 seconds in January. I'm also working on slow-reps for various pull-ups, which is pretty intense. Last month I took a nasty flying fall on a trail and messed up my ribs on one side, and it still is painful for certain movements. My previous experience with this injury (third time-same side!) is that it takes a month or so at least to subside.

What size crimp do you use for your dead hang comparisons? I've been training weighted hangs on 18mm edges, following Eva Lopez's studies about hangboard and how maximal gains are found with higher weight and larger cirmps.

Interesting Stuff wrote:

YMMV wrote:Last night I got my fingertip dead hang to 91 seconds. I started at 20 seconds in January. I'm also working on slow-reps for various pull-ups, which is pretty intense. Last month I took a nasty flying fall on a trail and messed up my ribs on one side, and it still is painful for certain movements. My previous experience with this injury (third time-same side!) is that it takes a month or so at least to subside.

What size crimp do you use for your dead hang comparisons? I've been training weighted hangs on 18mm edges, following Eva Lopez's studies about hangboard and how maximal gains are found with higher weight and larger cirmps.

Hold on. Let me look up who that is so I can give a (mostly) accurate reply.

I have been using a simple 1.5" steel pipe pullup bar (same at both my gym and home). I chose instead of a hangboard because:1) The fully-radiused surface makes it virtually injury-proof2) The grip is sufficiently specific to climbing holds often encountered, yet generic enough to cover everything from slopers to sharper crimps. 3) Easy to standardize with any similar pullup bar.I use two positions: First position with the first knuckle at the apex of the bar (12 o'clock looking at a cross-section view) and second position with the second knuckle at the apex (full wrap grip of fingers over bar). Both using three fingers each hand. I normally do max pull reps and hang time about once/week, alternating weeks for grips, sets of three to failure, so six total, although lately I've dialed it back on the sets as I'm starting to boulder and campus more as well.I haven't used weights a lot yet, but went from doing three reps in first position, no weight, to three reps with 45# added.I haven't climbed anything very hard outside yet, but I do have a "test" problem, a V5-6 traverse which usually takes at least three tries (and maybe two days) to get at this early point in the season, and I was able to do it clean (no falls) first go. I felt super-solid on the open-crimp holds a the crux. Usually if I am this strong on this problem I am ready to work mid-5.13's pretty efficiently.

Interesting Stuff wrote:

YMMV wrote:Last night I got my fingertip dead hang to 91 seconds. I started at 20 seconds in January. I'm also working on slow-reps for various pull-ups, which is pretty intense. Last month I took a nasty flying fall on a trail and messed up my ribs on one side, and it still is painful for certain movements. My previous experience with this injury (third time-same side!) is that it takes a month or so at least to subside.

What size crimp do you use for your dead hang comparisons? I've been training weighted hangs on 18mm edges, following Eva Lopez's studies about hangboard and how maximal gains are found with higher weight and larger cirmps.

I should add one very interesting (to me) finding: My initial assumption on this type of training back in January was that it might plateau after 8-10 weeks, as the "free ride" of neuromuscular facilitation and the limited capability of the lactate-adaptations kicked in. To my pleasant surprise, I have continued to progress steadily (at age 59!) and I'm 21 weeks along. I feel that this is because most of the strength gains relate to strengthening of tendons, ligaments and even bone, all of which have a time course of months or even years in terms of strength adaptation. If a plateau had happened, I would have transitioned to more route-focused training, but as it is I will continue through the year, only pausing during my peak redpoint season (Sept-Nov). By next spring, gods willing, I might have a whole new set of paws with which to hit the road and do some actual crushing on other people's routes.

So yesterday I finished up what turned out to be a 10-day training block which tagged most of the bases and paces that are relevant to me going forward. Last night's session was another fartlek in the park, the core of which was roughly two sets of intervals, the first 4x500 uphill, the second 4x700 on a an undulating paved loop. I also did about 10x100 at a faster rhythm, just short of sprinting on a few.

So in the last 10 days: 1) 7+ mile mountain run fartlek, gaining a little over 1000' elevation with a tempo type-effort going up and some fartlek "cruiser" 600m segments coming down. 2) 3x 10 miles at easy pace 3) speed fartlek at roughly 400-1500 race cadence on flats and hills, softer surfaces, 30x100 roughly. 4) Last night's farltek at 3k-20k race rhythm. Basically I am running every other day, and total mileage for the 10 days was 60 miles. On alternating days I am climbing at the crag or gym, or doing some sort of gymnastic or resistance training. Overall this is the best training block relative to previous training that I have had in perhaps 20 years.

The salient, unusual aspect of this has been the quick recovery and lack of stiffness and soreness compared to the last 10-15 years. The two things I have been doing different are with a) sleep- getting 7-8 hours each night on a regular schedule plus a 20-30 minute nap after work. Also I have been successfully sleeping on my back, face-up, instead of my old ways of belly/side positions. I feel like this has helped keep my hips and back aligned better, and allowed better running posture and biomechanics. b) diet: as explained before, I have been on a LCHF whole foods diet, eating in a 12-hour window with limited carbs (fruit in a 3-4 hour window in the evening). I feel like my blood sugar is much more stable and energy is always close at hand. The somewhat higher protein is probably helping with repair and recovery of this old carcass ;)

Going forward I am now entering a 6-week heavy cimbing/route-development period, so my focus running-wise will have to go to the back-burner a bit. If all goes well I might spike up for the track by the beginning of July. I have a talented guy I am coaching who will be running his first season of track, and just being around that will likely infect me with the racing virus again :)

I will also be venturing among the peaks, lakes and ridgelines for longer trail runs in preparation for my big, double-top-secret-running project later this summer.

There isn't a Mrs. YMMV is there?

No.

Free soloer wrote:

There isn't a Mrs. YMMV is there?

Jesus F'n Cheeerist!!

OP, write a book about yourself. Wow!!! You are really impressed with yourself , aren't you??

Thanks!

ME5 wrote:

Jesus F'n Cheeerist!!

OP, write a book about yourself. Wow!!! You are really impressed with yourself , aren't you??

You had me until you said:

YMMV wrote:

high-fiving a couple of cute women who were on the track.

0/10.

Thanks!

Seriously mate? wrote:

You had me until you said:

YMMV wrote:

high-fiving a couple of cute women who were on the track.

0/10.

Just a quick update. Hardly ran a step last week but did a ton of hiking. Then ran a few time trials; 400 in 71 after a 600 in 2:01. First time with a stopwatch on the track in ages. The 400 felt much better than the 600. Haven't really started any track work, this was just for a baseline. I figure that with competition, fresh, in spikes I could be maybe 67-68, at least by the end of the month. A long way from low-60's to be sure but that's what this summer is for.

Once again no soreness, despite all the new paces, surfaces, etc.. My hiking partner is almost half my age and she was sore after the hike. I'm pretty sure the new diet is a big factor with this. The least aches and pains overall I've had in decades.

New PR for open-crimp pullups: 15+