50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Greetings!

Amkelley, what a great news from you! Your courage and resilience finally yielded the results you (and many here) hoped for!

Newbi, looks like a very solid mileage, bravo!

OGII, congratulations on your good series of races!

My week was nothing special. Logged 5 hours on an elliptical trying to recover from the injury I got a week ago. Cannot run yet, unfortunately....

Happy running and training to all!

fantastic! I hope the positive news keeps coming for you

Since pulling the plug on fall marathon idea about a month ago I've been gradually increasing time spent running and decreasing cross-training, with occasional harder efforts. Best this week was 20:10 parkrun yesterday (5th OA, 2nd AG). I'd intended to go a bit slower, but hamstring and calf felt ok once we were underway, so it turned into a race.

I lost the age group by 5 seconds to my longtime friendly rival Kevin D'Amanda, who pulled away in last 600 meters or so. It was like Ingebrigtsen vs. Nuguse in the mile at Pre Classic, if you imagine guys more than twice as old and moving about 3 mins./mile slower. Otherwise similar.

We were both faster back in the day, so I'm confident it's not a life PR, but I saw in the results it was Kevin's parkrun PB. Next time I see him, I'll ask if I can claim 2% credit for having pushed him to it. Would look good on my annual report for merit pay purposes.

Have a great week,

Dave

I love reading your race reports! And congrats on a nice race. 5th overall is nothing to be sneezed at, even if you did let an old guy beat you.

Haven't had much to report for a bit as have been working through some issues.

Last year, although I was running and racing OK, I started to have right leg issues any time past about 7-8 miles.

I had also noticed that when I was sprinting the right knee didn't come up as far as the left, and it failed completely at one point in April 2022, leading me to fall over (fortunately on the track not road) when running flat out.

I also noticed in the film of the Hayward Classic in 2022, that I was 'lurching' to the right, when I the right leg was the stance leg.

By this spring I was having to stop and stretch between reps and was hurting walking (which I was doing with a marked right lean).

Initially thought it was stuck SI joint, and hip rotation, which were both present. Once we'd fixed those problems, however, I still didn't have much function and a lot of right hip mobility issues.

A couple of session working on the back and then the rib cage have improved things (going back to work on the hip next session). Had two weeks off (weather and work) and started back again yesterday with 2 miles in 14:57.

The hip doesn't hurt in normal life, so I'm hoping that the arthritic changes are limited and with some more mobility work, I can get back to something like actual training.

Greetings, fellow 50+ers! Welcome to October, my favorite running month.

September turned out to be a relatively decent month for me with 50+ actual running miles recorded. That’s a bit less than August, but there’s one less day, right? Anyway the “new normal” seems to working. The legs this week were a bit tired after last Sunday’s race and there have been some days with some slight overall body fatigue (a side effect of the radiation treatments), but I’ve still been able to get some reasonably respectful mileage in. Put me down for 12+ miles of actual running for the week.

Mon: off

Tue: 46’ CR; body wt ex + med ball routine

Wed: off

Thu: 44’ running (3)

Fri-Sat: off

Sun: 47’ CR; body wt ex + med ball routine

I continue to draw inspiration from many of the posts in this thread. Keep up the good work, all!

My year got off to a pretty slow start after a heart attack in December and open heart surgery in February. No running till late March, but I was told I could walk as much as I wanted, so I walked a lot. I think that helped a lot. Before the weekend I had a total of 488 miles with a high of 38.4 one week. Over the weekend I ran my first race of the year, a half marathon. My heart doctor said I could run, but take it easy and don't worry about the time. I feel that for me heart rate above 130 is getting into harder running so I tried to keep it down but it was a warm day, which tends to push it up. I did slow myself down at times when I saw it climbing, and averaged 131. I also get under 2 hours and finished second in my age group, which is better than I expected at this point. Not too far from 70 years old, so if things keep going well there could be a marathon BQ in my future.

Greetings!

It was my second week after the injury that ruined my 10K race at the national masters on Sep. 24. The recovery went better than expected. Could not run but worked on an elliptical every day. Yet early in the week, I was lame in right leg, but could run 10 min on a treadmill on Fri. My son and I, we earlier registered for a local race today (rather regional, not just a parkrun) and I decided to take a risk and avoid DNS.

The weather was terrible. 2-3 days ago, we have got a cold air invasion from the Arctic.
Temperature drops from about 75F to under 40 (today we have 37). Add here a sub-storm wind (with gusts up to 45 mph) and rain (sometimes mix with snow, for about 5 min but exactly during the race). It did not bother me though because I anyway did not target any time and was planning to just complete the race, preferably at a good tempo pace.

And it worked well. Started at 3:57 for the first km though clearly felt certain asymmetry in strides (because of tension in the right leg), tried to accelerate a bit (3:50 the second km) but the muscles threw a “yellow flag” and I returned to 3:57. The 4th km was straight against the wind at 4:15, but the final one was mostly in the forest and could make it again under 4:00.

Finally, the result was 19:47. First in the M50+ category, unexpectedly. The second guy was exactly 15 years younger than me.

Happy and injury-free run to all!

nice going! that weather sounds miserable.

Pleasant week here as we get into Fall with some colorful leaves, cooler temps, etc.

M 1:00

Tu 1:00 with drills/strides

W 55:00 + 1:00 x-t

Th 1:05 + 1:00 x-t

F 1:45 with 2 miles at marathon pace (14:23)

Sa 1:05 + 1:00 x-t

Su 1:30 with 5 X 2:00 hills (3:00 jog down recovery) and back home in time to see last half-hour or so of chicago marathon. I remember being amazed the first time I heard about someone's running a half-marathon under an hour. Don't think I would have expected anyone would be knocking on the door of doing two back-to-back so soon.

have a great week,

Dave

This week in beautiful late summer, early autumn. As nice as it can be.

Mo: 13 km with 10x700m in 2:55-3:00 and 100m walk/jog in 1 min

Tu: 13 km very easy

We: 13 km easy

Th: 14 km with 5x1.6 km in 6:55-7:00 min and 400m jog in 2:30 min

Fr: 13 km easy

Sa: 16 km in the hill easy->steady

Su: off, young kids sprint games

Will be silent for a while and repeat this weekly structure until I am ready to add speed. With speed, I also have to add some strengthening stuff like uphill jumps for injury prevention.

Wish you all a nice autumn and happy/healthy running. BR

Paul Forbes!! 800 WR video

Maybe someone on the thread has achieved these times, not sure.
Open performances of 1:45.66 800m, 3:36.55 1500m, 3:53.7 mile, 13:15.5 5000m are all 1153 IAAF points.
National caliber type times, I think we'd all agree, but not world class. Not making a world champs, Diamond league or Olympic final with those- maybe 40 years ago.
Paul's Forbes PR in the 800m is 1,153 points on IAAF points calculator.
The Age graded calculator is still a bit generous in the older age groups, giving Paul a 97.38% or 1:43.63 equivalent for his 2:13.74. It is about 2 seconds off.
As we get more and more former national class runners into the masters rankings it will provide better data to further adjust the equivalent performances or percentages. I'd bet Paul is running 2:18 @70- he turns 67 next month. There are no world class runners competing competitively in Masters track that I know of. No Coe, Cram, Johnny Gray, Michael Johnson, Kipketer, Lagat, Aouita etc. At least not M45+ If so we'd see new age group records for sure!

After having suddenly rediscovered the ability to "run" a little last week, I tried to keep it going without messing anything up this week. I was sore in the calves and hamstrings after my little jog last Friday so I didn't do anything except walk and cycle until Wednesday. On Weds and Fri I walk/jogged, jogging probably about 3 miles each day, but in intervals of no more than about 1 km at a stretch. So far, so good; the hamstrings are still talking to me a little, but nothing serious.

I still took the weekend off from running and just rode my bike about 32 miles each day, today after watching the Chicago Marathon. What amazing times on a great day for running! I'm currently planning to try walk/jogging on Mon-Weds-Fri of next week, assuming things continue to feel OK.

Wishing everyone happy and healthy running!

Just a random check-in here! Happy to say I'm still alive and kickin'!

After my really good June came my equally bad July. Then things seemed to be on the mend in August. I ran everyday and 206 miles. Surprised myself with a nice 3 mile tempo
643,636,603 (19:22) on Aug 31 to give me a little hope. In Sept I took one day off while running 225 miles. My weeks have consisted of mostly easy (8:15'ish) running, a Saturday 10, Monday strides, and some sort of speedwork (below) which has gone surprisingly well. I've been 100% healthy for about 2 months now.

Sept 7: 5x1000 3:57.9, 3:56.0, 3:56.0, 3:54.1, 3:52.1

Sept 12: 8x400 all around :86

Sept 16: 18:34 5k 5:55, 5:58.5, 5:58.5, 42.6 (.13) (This was a very tired, sleep deprived race which I almost bailed on, right up to the start!!! It was a miracle to run under 6:00 pace when I felt like I couldn't run that pace for 10 seconds on the warmup)

Sept 28: 3x mile 6:03.4, 5:49.9, 5:41.2

Oct 5: 3 mile tempo 6:34.2, 6:24.8, 6:15.9 (19:14.9)

So, I'm not sure how, but I'm thinking I'm in just as good, or better, shape than I was in June. I've got four races this fall to try to prove it. Then it's pretty certain we'll (CHT Elite) have a 60's team for the USATF ClubXC Champs in December. I haven't run an XC race since Club Champs in 2017.

I admit it, I'm a heathen. I had the Chicago Marathon steaming on my phone at church this morning. It was worth it!

Have a good run,

Dave

Greetings, fellow 50+ers! Happy Indigenous Peoples Day!

At the risk of becoming even more boring, I will report that my running situation is essentially unchanged. This was another “new normal” week of 12+ actual running miles with a slight bit of right leg wonkiness and some continuing radiation fatigue. Same old same old. Given what things were like earlier this year, I’ll happily take it.

Mon: off

Tue: 45’ CR; body wt ex + med ball routine

Wed: off

Thu: 45’ running (3); 16 oz curls

Fri-Sat: off

Sun: 46’ CR: body wt ex + free wts

All the best!

fun week in great Fall weather

M 55:00

Tu 1:00 + 1:00 x-t

W 1:00 with 2 miles at half-marathon pace (14:02)

Th 1:10 with drills/strides + 1:00 x-t

F 1:10 + 1:00 x-t

Sa 1:10 trails

Su 2:00 with 3 miles marathon pace (21:52)

off to watch the Commanders get their season turned around with a solid win over Atlanta......I hope

have a great week,

Dave

Pau; Forbes's times were world-class in era.

I know someone who ran 1:46.1 in the same era and that was 11th in Europe that year, and Forbes was quicker. If he ran 13:15, he was only about 15 seconds off the world record in that event.

Forbes did make the final of the Commonwealth Games 800m, finishing fourth, and did win races against international competition. He was also fourth (and on Bronze winning team) in the IAAF World Cross Country Championships to Carlos Lopes, Tony Simmons (fourth Olympic 10000m) and Bernie Ford.

After more physio, including work on one foot/ankle that wasn't working properly, had a run yesterday that felt like I was running more or less normally.

Only 2.5 miles at around 7:30 pace, but no real problems during the run from the things that have been hurting, and only normal type soreness today.

If I can keep feeling the same, I'll probably run every other day for the moment, trying to gradually pick up the distance (I've always liked to get to a decent pace, then go up in distance, rather than plod distance and trying to improve speed).

Our local XC series had a Sunday race (8k) this weekend due to course availability. After 5 races, each 2 weeks apart in the series, I have run 3 races, including this one, at almost exactly the same pace as last year, one race 2 seconds/mile faster, and one 4 seconds per mile faster. I would like to be running a little faster than I have been, but at least I have held Father Time at bay for a year. 7:25/mi pace on a fairly tough course was good enough to win the 70-74 age group. We have one more series race in two weeks, then our local championship 3 weeks after that, and then Club XC a month later. I am planning some hard training the next couple of weeks, and then dial it back a little and just hold form and get a little fresher for Club XC.

Good running and good health to all!

Greetings, fellow 50+ers! I hope you all have a beneficial “National Retirement Security Week”.

This was another “rinse and repeat” week. Put me down for 13 miles of actual running. I did finally make an appointment for next month with the ortho regarding some spinal issues that showed up on the imaging done as part of my cancer diagnosis. I think that has been causing my right leg wonkiness, so it will be good to get some answers from an expert. 🤞

Mon: off

Tue: 51’ CR; body wt ex + med ball routine

Wed: off

Thu: 46’ running (3); body wt ex

Fri: off

Sat: 50’ CR w/ utility pole fartlek (5 x 1 on / 3 off); body wt ex + med ball routine

Sun: off

All the best!

Greetings!

Nothing special on my side, still recovering after the injury. Though the right hamstring and glute are both getting better, decided to keep working on an elliptical, no run as yet. Logger 5 hrs 14 min in total for the week.

Happy and injury-free running to all!