Masters 40 plus : what’s harder on body. Marathon training or 800 meter training?

Only 39 here, but I can say running lots of easy miles and uptempo is much, MUCH easier on my muscles and tendons than the short, fast stuff.

Even if I do strides too many times a week I can feel it in my achilles, hamstrings, knees, etc. But moderate 60 minute runs, no problem.

Interesting question. Both were the first to obviously need to go from my safety range. But training full effort for anything , is high risk. It's so hard to give up the patterns of younger years and not slip back into them with the poorest of timing. Training errors are super easy to commit when we should be smarter. is what I am trying to say I guess.

Like Pete Magil has said , we don't bend we break.

Which is longer, a piece of string or a piece of rope?

YMMV wrote:

Which is longer, a piece of string or a piece of rope?

How many snakes does it take to make an extremely large utility running belt?

YMMV wrote:

Which is longer, a piece of string or a piece of rope?

I hate this expression. A piece of string IS a piece of rope.

I don't think so. It's just twine.

strung out wrote:

YMMV wrote:

Which is longer, a piece of string or a piece of rope?

I hate this expression. A piece of string IS a piece of rope.

Other way around. A piece of rope is made from pieces of string wound together.

I just checked a real piece of rope and it was made from three strings. But each of the three strings was itself made of at least 6 smaller strings. So a rope is at least 3 x 6 = 18 times as long as a string.

If I had a magnifying glass, I could find out if those little strings are made of even smaller ones.

im 38 now.

ive trained for one marathon, at 35. Only did 50 to 55 per week during the cycle. That is high mileage for me. Though not higher than I had gone before. It wasn't a drastic step up. Mileage beats me up. I felt like crap the entire time and could not wait for my taper. And then i quit running for 6 months.

Last year, i started doing some 800/1500 style training. 20 to 25 miles per week. Faster than I had done since high school. I never felt better. And the kicker was that I ended running a better 5k than I had on previous years with higher mileage.

I'm making a comeback and have worked up to 60 min easy runs. Also did 1 mile and 1k repeats on the track, so I joined a running club. On my 2nd club track session with them, 10 x 400, I pulled a hamstring.

With marathon training, the main risk is overuse injuries. With middle distance training, the main risk is traumatic injuries. Choose your poison.

Most old distance runners lack the range of motion to drop down to 800m training without injuries. Thus, older runners who drop down to the 800 need to add a significant amount of lifting and dynamic stretching to their routines to avoid injuries. I race the 800 and I routinely lift 3-4x/week and do 15 minutes of drills before every interval workout. I even do an abbreviated version of these drills before easy runs.

Specifically, I identified my most common interval-related injuries... right hip flexor, right ankle, right plantar fascia, right adductor, left Morton's neuroma, left and right turf toe, upper hamstring pulls... and then added strengthening to my lifting routines and dynamic stretching to my warmups to prevent those injuries.

Distance training, on the other hand, can lead to chronically high cortisol levels that *might* weaken the immune system in some people, which has been linked to cancer, heart disease, COPD, and other major diseases of aging.

Been lucky enough to avoid injuries but I find speed work is just harder. Can generally achieve the same workouts but the perceived effort is noticeably more difficult. On the flip side, I handle mileage and longer efforts better than I did when I was 35, presumably because I have continued to develop aerobically. I lift and do core 3-4x per week which has helped me fix some hamstring issues. Has not helped my speed any. The upshot is all this is my 5k time has gotten slightly worse but my half marathon time has gotten better. As an 800 runner in my prime, I’d like to say I could go back to that training, but the reality is the necessary speed goes away starting at about age 30.

Over 60 and in the middle of marathon training now. The hardest thing for me is 6 or 8 X 1K Interval days. Other paces - Easy, Marathon Pace and Tempo miles are no problem for me even with 70 mile weeks - so my vote is that marathon training is easier.

runnerthevill wrote:

May sound like a stupid ? But my body doesn’tt handle speed well. I get hamstring easily.

Not a stupid question by any means. Here is something to think about:

1) Nature of the training

800m: Lower overall volume, much faster workouts and hill work.

Marathon: ~2x the volume, longer workouts.

2) Injury probability:

800m: High probability of sudden injury, if you don't do any ancillary strength and conditioning work. You need to lift 3-4x/week and heavy + religiously do drills and mobility work. You see warning signs when you hammer those intervals, especially when you form is consistently falling apart. Achilles, calf, hamstring and anterior tendon issues are common. You have to pay due homage to your age.

Marathon: Lower probability of sudden injury, simply because you can see an overuse injury coming a mile away, if you are paying attention. Hip flexor and glute injuries are common. You can overtrain fairly easily.

Recovery:

800m Can take longer to recover from quality sessions. It beats you up. Every sinew will scream at you. No way around it. This is the biggest difference I've noticed between distance and mid-d as a masters athlete. Respect what your body is telling you and take that extra day off, cross-train or go easy. You won't lose fitness. The gym is what makes you able to tolerate high stress.

Marathon: It does not take as much to recover from MP sessions, but things can go horribly wrong if you overtrain unlike mid-d, where you can bounce back from a bad week fairly easily.

These are a few limited thoughts based on my own experience, as a masters athlete, in both worlds. I have switched from distance to mid-D. It is a wholly different experience, but equally rewarding. I spend almost the same amount of time training, only that the gym+mobility work has taken the place of more volume.

Good luck and follow your dreams!

Used to get hurt driving by a track so would do nothing fast. Got my miles up to 80mpw training for marathon and this cycle back to track for first time in forever and so far I think the mileage has helped keep me healthy on the track.

The message here is, regardless of the event you choose, a masters athlete has very little room for error. Protocols and support work that were a mere afterthought in your younger days become essential. You have no room for training mistakes and have to be cognizant of this at all times.

I guess any distance is pretty stressful if you perform at 85% a.g. or better.

A length of rope.

800.

When I passed 50, I pretty much have up any track work. Only speed I did after that was in fartleck and road intervals. In fact gradually my runs became a matter of avoiding injuries.

Depends on the type of injuries you're predisposed to and struggle with.

E.g. you say you struggle with speed.

So I'd imagine 800 training is more difficult for you than marathon.

Someone else might be opposite.

Depends on your weaknesses and strengths.