50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

30km into the 12/11/22 Rocket City Marathon, an invisible force (misaligned hips) forced me to run in the gutter on the right hand side of the road. After falling sideways (to the right) into the thorny holly bushes - twice - and with superficial wounds oozing blood, I called it a day and walked to the 20-mile aid station, gathered my things and my ego, showered, had a cheeseburger and a beer, and headed home.
Two weeks and several PT sessions removed from that event, the running remains good and strong. Just part of turning 64 soon: loss of balance, weak flutes, weak hips, and overworked hamstrings. Won’t know if I’ve overcome the invisible force until my next marathon in five months.
The running is fun, the PT exercises are working, and next comes more of each.

Merry Christmas 🎁🎄

Done for the year. Going to take a 6 day break and try to heal up a little.

Was injured 11/10/22. Tried to run on the injury. It got worse. Had my 3rd knee surgery on 3/23/22. So, it ended up being a 44 week training year.

Miles Run: 1344.1…

Races run: 5.. one age group win ( because they’re weren’t many my age there)

Volunteer: 6 races. I set up the registration area and set up aid stations then cleaned up afterwards.

Goal for next year. I think my bones and joints at this point are basically a bag of jagged glass ( Saturday Night Live ), so for the first time since 1977, no goals but it would be nice to get 1500 miles, 5 races and volunteer for 6 again.

REL..age 67, 3 knee surgeries, 5 cortisone shots in back, prostate cancer and colectomy. Unbelievable how I’ve slowed down.

oh yeah one goal.. if I go to any races next year, No Glory Day stories to runners who most of the time politely listen.

sorry to hear that one didn't work out. Good idea to get on the PT right away.

Hope everyone afflicted by the huge Winter storm in most of US is ok, has power, etc. I've been almost entirely on indoor cross-training (1-mile jog yesterday was not a disaster but not perfect either) as part of calf recovery, so I've sort of missed out on it. Our younger daughter made it home, and we've had power the whole time, so very lucky on this one.

Wishing everyone a happy and restful conclusion to 2022,

Dave

A belated Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all. I cruised through another week of my semi-break in serious training. 30 miles for the week -

M- 3mi walk

T- 4mi with 12 x 200 walk/ 200 easy run

W- 4mi walk

Th- 4mi with 12 x 200 walk/ 200 easy run

F- 5mi easy run 11:04/mi

S- 5mi with 16 x 250 walk/ 250 easy run

Su- 5mi trails with my son 8:48/mi

Happy healthy New Year to everyone!

Love this thread! It’s very inspiring. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Following and upvoting every post! Appreciate being able to read about and occasionally talk about our running lives, somewhere.

Running is still going very well in my world. In spite of the crappy cold that everyone is dealing with! I've just taken my runs inside. I have no problem running everyday on my treadmill. I upgraded my workout room a few months ago with a 55" smart TV so I'm able to stream concerts during my runs. Though yesterday I watched Painting with Bob Ross... :>)

Looks like I'll end up with about 2340 actual running miles this year. Which is a big improvement over my achilles year 2020 (487) and restart year 2021 (1775). I'll back off a bit this week since we'll be driving to Greenville SC tomorrow, to visit our son and family. I've had a good December so I only need 25 miles this week to hit my monthly goal of 200 miles!

I'm thinking about a 1/2 marathon in February. But the weather could be really iffy in Michigan in February so I'll wait a bit to enter.

That's it from here. Excited to be going into the New Year 100% healthy, painfree, mostly fit, and somewhat motivated. Hope you are too!

Dave

Thanks Dave, I can use the up votes. 😹

You had a great year.

Igy

all upvoted.

I’m inspired by the posts from all of you who are still running, and in many cases very well.

It’s now been nearly two years since I’ve been able to run, between hip pain from my
rheumatoid arthritis and the crazy runner’s dystonia that followed. I have almost gotten over the dystonia when walking; my walking gait is still not quite right, and I occasionally scrape the ball of my left foot against the ground while pulling my leg forward, but I’m
regularly walking 7-8 miles at slightly better than 15 min/mile. Every few weeks I attempt some jogging and some days I can do several intervals of 100-300 meters at a time, but usually either my hips go into spasm or I start dragging my bad foot enough that I stop
for fear of falling.

Meanwhile I’m trying to maintain some fitness but not having much success. Although it doesn’t snow where I live, it’s been consistently cold and often foggy for the past month and I hate riding a bike when it’s much below 50 degrees, and indoor cycling is just too boring to do for very long. I’m now swimming about twice a week in the heated outdoor pool at my gym. The water feels great but it a COLD sprint from the pool back to the locker room at the end! My aerobic fitness is so bad that I have to rest briefly after each lap, but I’ve worked up to 900 m of swimming at a session.

On Christmas Day my husband and I drove 40 minutes and 2000 vertical feet east, getting out of the 43 degree fog and into the 60 degree sunshine to ride our bikes. I hadn’t ridden in the hills for over a year and my lack of aerobic fitness was stunning. I rode very short and didn’t do any really difficult climbs, and even the “easy” climbs required 2 gears lower than they used to. It was great to get out of the cold and murk and into the sunshine for a while, but it sure brought home how badly out of shape I am.

For the week that ended yesterday: 38 miles of fast walking, 1750 meters of swimming, 23
miles of cycling on hills, 1.5 hours on bike trainer.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all

amkelley,

Good to hear from you. That is quite a bit of work. I have found swimming with US Diver fins to be of benefit. I can generate enough speed to improve my technique and the action of the appliance improves the flexibility of the foot. And because the activity is more comfortable and efficient I stay in the pool longer.

Best wishes in the new year.

Igy

600m outdoor race planned on 1/14 - I'll aim for a pedestrian 1:42 to kick off the year.

I should have 270 miles over 18 weeks by then. - post injury. Avg. just 15 miles per week, but I hope to build up to 20.

Anyone run 2:12 800 or so at my age? What type of workouts did you do? My plan is to do 1 longer run, 2 maintenance, 2 speed sessions (longer intervals and speed intervals), 1 cross training day and 1 complete recovery day per week.

About 89% on AG - new 2023 calculator - would be nationally competitive.

emlsports.com

Masters Athletics Age Grading Calculator

EML Sports

An age grading calculator for Masters Athletics based on the 2023 WMA Age Grading Tables

Link:emlsports.com/tools/masters-athletics-...

I'm 75 years old. Kidding, but if you use the calculator you can figure it out. I'm just interested in type of workouts you did to run 2:12 or faster after age 50.

Thanks

How many of you are doing regular plyometric drills, and what is your routine?

Welcome

I ran a 2:28 age 64 an 85 percent using the new factors. Focused on my weak area which was 400 speed got that down to sub 70. Helpful stuff was a few 800 time trials as well as 2x400 at 70 or 4x200 at 35. But I am a newbie to the 800 so take this with a grain of salt.

BTW 2:12 would be in the top group of U.S. Male 50 most of the time check out mastersrankings dot com to get a real good idea what kind of time it takes to podium at nats.

As far as the ag percent I think you might have mistaken WMA Factor for AG %. Still 85 is really good 89 at M50 800 using latest factors is more like 2:07.

One piece of advice that helped me was HOW to race/TT the 800 from a coach who trained with Joaquim Cruz. Divide into 4x200

1st 200 go out hard

2nd keep going hard

3rd Relax

4th accelerate then try not to slow down/maintain.

Male 50 800:
Performance 2:12.00

Age Graded Performance 1:57.73

Age Graded % 85.71

WMA Factor 0.8919

Standard 1:40.91

I have not done any plyometric drills in years. I think there is value to them, I'm just not interested in spending any of my workout time doing them. Most days before running I do a relatively short routine of stretching and some core exercises focused mainly on maintaining my leg range of motion and on core strength, particularly my lower back area, where I've had some problems the last few years. I do a fair amount of hill running (Strava says I'm at 109,000 ft of climbing for 2022). My New Year's training resolutions are to get back on my bike regularly and to consistently 2-3 times/week do some leg strength work, e.g. squats, lunges, etc. to improve my leg strength.

Twiggy,

M52 here. hobby md fun runner ~ no races. One day peer week, I am doing "poor man plyometrics". First 30 min I am doing all kind of drills and jumps about 60-70m uphill with walk down. Second 30 min are for 6x60m uphill and 2x150m uphill. If nerval exhausted (work), then I am skipping the 150m runs.

BR

kinda like the Lucky character (Harry Dean Stanton). Just kidding?

Glutes Glutes Glutes functional ie running strength. Good ladder securely leaning against a building/wall bottom step/rung to ground ramp / board with a trapeze . This setup lets me do assisted explosive and regular speed squats toes on board hands on ladder higher to lower squat away throw in a sissy pushup hang by the trapeze bar for a few minutes using the ladder to adjust weight/assist . use ladder to lower raise up or down good stuff . Also have a NICE massage table for Nordic curls laying down on my belly butt kicks glutes and hamstrings tons of other stuff what ever feels good when ever I feel like it both are quick and easy. For pf I use a firm 8inch diameter roller hold on to something for balance and rock/roll each foot fore and aft found out my left ankle was totally effed up now much better. Probably average an hour per day of this stuff;)

Good point. I did shy away from those in 2022. I can perhaps incorporate every week and a half. Power skips, bounding, single leg, frog jumps, tuck jumps etc. Tough, but effective.