2 1/2 years later still training. At soon to be 72 years old down to three running days, the rest walking, swimming or spin biking.
2 1/2 years later still training. At soon to be 72 years old down to three running days, the rest walking, swimming or spin biking.
Thanks for bumping this. An interesting thread. I'm pushing 59 now. I've actually returned to my speed roots focusing on what competitive races I do between 200m and the mile with an occasional 5K. A month ago, I was running 200m repeats on the track. Pushing off on the 6th 200, my left calf cramped so I pulled up but must have instinctively shifted weight over to my right leg and then my right calf cramped at which point I am not sure what happened, but I apparently pulled/strained my psoas major muscle on my right side. Called it quits for the day. The next day my lower back hurt so bad I couldn't run, but I could walk. So, for a week or so, I walked my usually running routes. One day I walked past an old man (older than me) outside his house, which is about a mile from my house. I don't know the man and never spoke to him before, but we exchanged hellos and then he asked me; "Not running today?" Obviously, over the years he must have become accustomed to me running by his house and found it odd that I was walking for a change. I suppose people we do not know do notice our running patterns about town. Fortunately, by adding core stretching and strengthening exercises, my back is feeling better but not quite 100%.
CrispyChicken wrote:
Thanks for bumping this. An interesting thread. I'm pushing 59 now. I've actually returned to my speed roots focusing on what competitive races I do between 200m and the mile with an occasional 5K. A month ago, I was running 200m repeats on the track. Pushing off on the 6th 200, my left calf cramped so I pulled up but must have instinctively shifted weight over to my right leg and then my right calf cramped at which point I am not sure what happened, but I apparently pulled/strained my psoas major muscle on my right side. Called it quits for the day. The next day my lower back hurt so bad I couldn't run, but I could walk. So, for a week or so, I walked my usually running routes. One day I walked past an old man (older than me) outside his house, which is about a mile from my house. I don't know the man and never spoke to him before, but we exchanged hellos and then he asked me; "Not running today?" Obviously, over the years he must have become accustomed to me running by his house and found it odd that I was walking for a change. I suppose people we do not know do notice our running patterns about town. Fortunately, by adding core stretching and strengthening exercises, my back is feeling better but not quite 100%.
The brittleness and loss of resilience in major running muscles is unmistakable for me and my first thought when reading your post was how sh-tty it is to lose that because it makes burst and acceleration a thing of the past for me. Good on ya for trying to doing sprint workouts but I cannot imagine staying healthy for long trying to do anything more aggressive than accelerations and tempo work. I just started adding 100mg of magnesium to my days because of lingering tightness and edginess in calves and hammies after long runs, so we'll see if that helps.
monotony makes overuse injuries. I like modulation for brain and body.
I’ve enjoyed hearing from others so I thought I would add my two cents. I am 66 and started running in ‘71 when I was in high school. I have been running off and on since then with some periods of not running at all and some periods where I was pretty serious. More recently, I had a stress reaction about three years ago, moved and got really out of shape. Started back up about 21 months ago but was having a lot of trouble getting in decent shape. Finally, I decided I would try the Maffetone method, which is to run below a heart rate equal to 180 minus your age. I have been doing this for a little more than three months. At first it was hard to go so slowly but I kept at it. I more or less run every day and have increased my weekly mileage from 20 something miles a week to 50 miles a week. Right now, my runs are mostly 5 to 8 miles each with maybe one slightly longer run each week. In the last four weeks my pace has started to drop pretty dramatically such that I am now running more than a minute a mile faster - but at the same heart rate. I plan to keep this up until I plateau and also plan to increase my mileage to about 60 or 65 miles a week and get my long run up to 12 or so. When I get to that point, I will reevaluate whether to add some speed, hills, whatever. Also, I hope to get back into racing. Otherwise, I do self message (trigger point) before going out but don’t stretch. I know I should do weight baring exercises and plan to but have not done so consistency. I would agree with the importance of sleep and naps, weight ( I am at the same weight I was when I ran track in high school) and eating healthy.