50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Those goals are impressive and congrats for reaching them. Impressive!

M64, 5'11", 188 lbs

5K and Marathon history:
Age 23: 16:05, 2:40:30
Age 43: 17:10, 2:56:03
Age 58: 18:58, 3:07:23
May 2022, age 62: 3:44:06

MAY 6-13, 2024
M: 3.0 miles (9:45, 8:56, 8:19)
Tu: Bike 23.8 miles @ 18.3 mph
W: 3.0 miles (10:15, 9:40, 9:25)
Th: Bike 18.3 miles @ 18.5 mph
F: 4.0 miles (10:48, 10:33, 10:14, 9:48)
Sa: Bike 18.3 miles @ 18.1 mph
Su: 4.0 miles (10:47, 10:07, 9:29, 8:36)
TOTAL: 14.0 MILES

Reboot Week Four. I managed to get out every day for at least a little something.

Until a month ago, it had been a year since I stopped running, and more than two years since I raced. But in August I will enter a new age group, so out of curiosity, I looked at some local race results.

To be competitive locally in the 65-69 age group, I would need to run at 7-flat mile pace for a 5K. That's not likely to happen within the next ten weeks, but perhaps if and when I can lose the 20 extra pounds I'm lugging around!

Run well.

69yo…prostate cancer, colectomy, 4 miniscus surgeries, 6-8 cortisone shots in knees feet and back. 100,000 miles since 1977.

Mon: 6 miles ( hobbling)

Tue: 4 miles

Wed: 5 miles, 5 sets pull ups

Thu: 7 miles

Fri: off

Sat: 7 miles, 5 sets curls, pull downs and bench press

Sun: 7 miles ( 24 miles running)

I I won’t be able to race. I can only describe my running as choppy hobbling. Very painful and my legs don’t ever seem to recover. I want to start going to races again but it’s very painful. I think if you are running with this sort of pain, that is the 47 year wear and tear type pain, just trying to get the workout in is mentally fatiguing. Only hobby I ever enjoyed so I won’t quit. Just try and figure out how to alleviate the problem. As I said before I feel like my knees and hips have connections with screws and the screws are loose when I run. When I walk it’s not so bad. I don’t see showing up for races ever again, but it’ll always be a goal.

617.3 miles for the year although I wouldnt exactly call it running ha

I had grand plans of posting here regularly after I turned 50 last year but didn't keep it up. However, I read every post and am in awe of this thread every week. Thanks to all of you for putting in the work and inspiring the "next generation" of 50+ runners!

I can get that, having been at it for 52 years, it is tough arranging lot of your life around a hard, tiring activity.

That said, I've been trying to get back fit enough to race for the last 18 months!

It's just my mentality, that I don't think I love exercise enough for it's own sake without the carrot of competition (even though I only race 3 or 4 times year), and I do probably tend towards liking structure and routine.

If I wasn't aiming for races, I might spend the entire day in front of the computer!

I was planning to run a 10K race today but it didn't happen. Right after signing up for the race 9 days ago, a very mild pain in my left knee that I'd felt in my last few runs suddenly became more severe. I tried running on Saturday, Monday, and Friday, and each time I made it half a dozen steps before giving up. So I'm now waiting for this most recent injury to settle down so that I can start over again for the nth time. Very frustrating.

I had also already entered my local Memorial Day 5K, which is in 13 days. Will I be able to run by then? Who knows?

At least cycling, swimming, and walking are still available to me.

I have been doing a lot of cross training instead of running to keep a small injury from becoming a problem, but going back to more running than cross training. I did 2 races recently on mostly cross training, and they went pretty well. In December of 2022 I had a heart attack and had one stent put in. At that time they found an aortic root aneurysm that was fixed with open heart surgery in February of last year. I did a lot of walking until I got the ok to run again, so running a little over a year now. My heart doctor said I could run, but take it easy and don't worry about my times. So even in my first couple of races I made it a point to take it easy and keep my heart rate down. I'm now at the point where I think I'm fully healed, time to push a little harder, so just started doing some harder training. I thought after a heart attack and surgery I would have a damaged heart and never be very fast again. But after my last race I ran my results through an age adjustment calculator, and allowing for the age difference I was down about 16 seconds per mile from the last time I did that race. But after doing very little speed work so far maybe I didn't lose much at all? It will be interesting to see what can be accomplished.

saw your facebook post, figured it was close enough to april that it could have been april fools ;). having been around more than a few pete magill "retirements", i would simply say at our age we've earned the right to make official proclamations and then rescind them at will. if jordan, brady, ali, and phil collins--heck, even jesus, at least for a few days--can retire and unretire, racerdb has earned that right as well after 90,000 miles. my guess is running is like your "rachel" from "friends": enjoy your break, however long, do what you want, do what you will, be happy, and don't worry: it won't count as cheating because you'll be "on a break"; however, in the end, we know whom you'll end up with...

...because life is suffering, so sayeth the buddha.

that's my story and i'm sticking to it.

carpe crepusculum, and hope to see some of you next week in danville,

cush

Greetings!

My week was a recovery one after I caught cold in the mountains early this month. 7-8 days
on antibiotics obviously made me weaker, though I did not feel it in the “everyday life”. But a weekly interval training on Wed. showed that I was considerably slower. It was disappointing because today there was a regional running festival with tens of thousands running various distances (and I had signed for 10K long ago). The weather was perfect: some 55-57F at the start time, moderate wind. The course was not hilly, just two bridges over a river and one tunnel.

Nevertheless, I preferred not to gamble with my own health and decided not to press hard. Noticed 20:10 at 5K that was only 12-13 sec slower than a month ago, but the second half differed dramatically. Instead of the 35-sec negative split as at the previous race, this time it turned into the 25-sec positive one. Something like a controlled slow-down because, first, it seemed impossible on this day for me to break 40 min and, second, it was clear that I will anyway win my category since the fastest M65+ guy in my region did not attend. And indeed, the others were way behind. My time was 40:45.

So, feel not destroyed after the race and now will start training for a hard 17 km trail on June 9.

Happy and injury-free running to all!

nice going! very impressive race, particularly when bouncing back from being ill.

Fun week on my end with hill repeats Monday and 5k-effort intervals Weds (4 X 5:00 [2:00 jog recoveries). Ran a cross-country race listed as 5k today in 24:58 (24th OA, 1st AG) but packing multiple excuses:

1. Pretty sure the course is long -- they changed it a couple years ago, and everyone's times are now much slower. To be sure, it might have been short before.

2. Rained nearly every day this week, and course was a mud pit.

3. Shoe came untied about halfway, and I had to stop to re-tie it.

Three is a magic number when it comes to excuses, so I'm not going to concern myself with the time. I AM concerned about my ability to remember to name all the male grandmasters finalists for a running club award I'm presenting this afternoon. It used to be easy for me to do without notes, but those days seem to be drawing to a close.

have a great week,

Dave

I'm a few weeks into training for a late August marathon. Building volume gradually.
This week:

Mon 4.11 miles, 9:19 pace
Tue 8.34 miles, 9:44 pace
Thurs. 7.27 miles, 9:14 pace
Fri 8.11 miles, 9:33 pace
Sunday 12.5 miles, 9:18 pace (mile 6 uphill)
Squeaked out a 40+ mile week.

Feeling a bit off this week, but today was nice, started working the uphill mile 6, then dug in the rest of the run at low to mid 8:00 range.
Looking for a race to test fitness, might just get to the Junior College track and grind out a 10K in racing shoes. We'll see. I'll be in Oaxaca soon for some mountain runs between 5-6000 ft. elevations.

Reading through a few posts... haven't looked for a couple weeks.
Orient – nice work on the 10K!
Dave, nice run in the mud. I like the 3 excuses... and, you did recently break 40 minutes for 10K!

A few years back I ran an unfamiliar low-key 10K and ran off the course 3
times! I had to laugh.

I enjoyed the recent discussion of running the 800 in this thread. the 800 is brutal. I was a miler, but as a senior in high school I foolishly expressed interest in the half mile. I found myself running backwards over the last 100 in several 880 races. Got outkicked consistently.
I figured out, if I kicked with 300 to go, things work out better.

I'd read in a dated track and field training manual in the school library that the key to success in the 880 was to run the 3rd 220 really hard. WRONG!

Ran it in college a few times too. Glutton for punishment! The mile was more to my taste, but every middle distance runner should give the 800 a try. It is hard as heck.

Congrats to all for putting up the good fight and wish you the best! So many great stories in this thread. Many sad endings but I guess that is life. At 57, I'm one of the youngest runners on the this thread and hope to be running into my 60+++ years like many of you.

Haven't posted much this past year because I'm not racing much. Just solo training in the middle of nowhere Thailand. Debating a USA trip to visit family and thinking I might jump in a Marathon. Love to do Boston but not even sure how to go about it. My friend here won his age(55+) group easily in 2023 and this gave me motivation. Being 58 would put me at a slight disadvantage but that would be the same age as my friend when he won. The real challenge would be being healthy. I find it harder each year to focus on events and now just races when I feel good. I never race when not healthy.

Raced a couple marathons and a few 10ks since my last post. Marathons were around 2:49 and the 10k times were all over the place. Been extremely hot this year and stopped racing couple months back after a brutal 10k with temps above 110K.

I feel as fit as I was 5 years ago but my running form is not close to where I was then. Cross training is what keeps me fit but my running is suffering a little. No serious injuries and at this stage of my life, is what is important. I can dream and convince myself that if I wanted to.... I know I'm full of it but still tenuously hold on to the dream of beating times of the semi recent past.

Off to the Tread with a couple bricks under the front end to raise it to 20%. Hard to get injured walking at 20% and watching stage 15 of the Giro. Life is good!

47 years. 100,000 miles, cancer, 3 ( or 4) miniscus surgeries, 8/10 cortisone shots, colectomy…that runner.

28 miles. Some of it, maybe 10 miles walking. 3 weight lifting sessions.

I skipped another race and now the question is whether I will make it to the starting line in a small race back home. I haven’t been back home since 2014, that’s when I took my wife back home to bury her. She had what’s called Glioblastoma. 8 below zero last time I was there.

After the race, my old house we lived in is nearby. I’m gonna drive by after the race , slow down at the bottom of the hill and look…11 years and 11 months of wonderful life followed by 4.5 years of indescribable hell.

I had a running life there. Dedicated my life to the sport. Ran, coached , RD’d, club president and wrote a column about running in a paper in the same town Indiana University is…I’m gonna look bad in front of some people that know me ha

Ive got a few weeks to try and insure I won’t look bad ha…

Almost 700 hobbled miles this year.

A bit of redemption yesterday. Ran my "big" (400+ participants) Memorial Day 5K and managed to slip under the magic 10 min/mile barrier in a race for the first time since pre-pandemic. Officially, 30:51 for 5K, good for 2nd out of 15 in my age group and top quarter of all women (pretty sorry stuff). The niggle in my left knee that had kept me out of my planned 10K was gone and everything felt mechanically OK, but my goodness that felt hard!

The course was new this year and not certified, but the race director is very experienced and was a serious runner in her day, and I have reasonable confidence that her course is pretty close to the advertised distance. The weather was perfect and the course was dead flat. It was on a pedestrian path that was way too narrow for 400+ people, but there was chip timing at both start and finish so the 35 seconds it took me to cross the starting line didn't matter, and I wasn't seriously slowed down by crowding out on the course. In other words, this is really about the best I can do with my current level of fitness, so the only way I can keep improving is to get fitter.

That capped off a week with 18 miles of running, and although I felt great when I got up this morning I exercised great restraint and didn't run today, but just walked 4 miles with a loaded backpack and then cycled 30 miles. Tomorrow I hope to hit the road again and keep working at it.

Happy Memorial Day!

69 yr old runner. 47 years of solid training. 100,000 miles. Raced…. Everywhere. Many surgeries, cortisone shots and cancer. Going back home for the first time since I buried my wife on a below zero morning in 2014.

I was a runner, club president, volunteer high school coach, race director and running columnist ( who did misspell some names .. you don’t forget those things.. I wasn’t paid though ha) for the Bloomington Herald-Tribune and I’m going back to run one more race. If I can patch, paste, bandage myself up enough to make it through.

I’ve scrolled down and clicked on “ participants” so far signed up, it’s only 36 so far, and I don’t recognize a name… thankfully.

The race site is real near the place my wife and I lived at the time of her glioblastoma diagnosis so I plan on a real slow drive by after the race.

Mon: 4 miles plus 1 mile walk

Tue: 2 miles plus 3.2 mile walk , 3 sets of curls, pull downs and bench press.

wed: 2 miles. Terrible pain. 2 mile walk felt better.

Thur: 7 miles.. incredible improvement in joint pain maybe because I took 3 aleve 3 hours before the workout. Very satisfied. Plus 1 mile walk.

Fri: 1 mile walk, stopped, went to grocery store, got back, went back out ran 1 mile, walked another mile did 6 sets of curls, pull downs and bench press and did all that before 10 am!!!

sat: Ran 4 miles. Uptempo 2 of them in 10:58-10:13, was so happy that nothing snapped that I stopped at two, then did 5x200 meter pitiful strides. Then walked 2 more miles.

Today: 1 mile walk.. gonna try and not run, hobble or even walk anymore today because I want to try and repeat the Saturday workout tomorrow. My biggest fear nowadays is dying of a heart attack at an ole home race or breaking down and having to hobble back on the plane.

Sad story, but one of love, for many things. Best wishes on your journey, Robert.

Congrats! glad to hear you were able to do this race and come out none the worse for wear.

good week of training for me as I try to get used to our predictably warm/humid early-summer weather

M 1:00

Tu 1:20

W 2:15 with total 15:00 moderately hard hills

Th 1:40 double with drills/strides + 30:00 x-t

F 1:30 + 30:00 x-t

Sa 1:40 with 2 sets of 6 X 200 (200 jog), 3:00 between sets. Intended 5k pace first set and 3k pace second. Probably more like 3k and then mile (averages about 46 and 44 sec)

Su 1:20 + 1:00 x-t

Volunteering at a race tomorrow morning, and I'm in charge of the turnaround for the kids' fun run portion of the festivities. I expect 100% adherence to my request to "turn around," or else a note will go home to their parents.

Have a great week,

Dave

I was still feeling somewhat beaten up this week from my trip to Detroit three weeks ago, where I missed a week of running. 35 slow miles for this week with my Garmin showing heart rates that indicated I was very fatigued. Finally, this morning's run felt better and my heart rate was down to normal levels for the effort. I don't plan on racing until our local July 4th10k, so plenty of time to sharpen up.

Good running to all!

38.7 miles for the week, with some cross training and the most speed training since my heart issues. It's been over a year without any problems after my heart surgery, so not really trying to keep it easy anymore. I can't find a marathon that I like in a new state for me until fall, so signed up for a couple of shorter races. The plan is to keep the miles down a little, with some cross training, and focus more on speed the next couple months, then start adding miles again for a couple of fall marathons.