50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

wow, I wake up early, but no way i could be running by 3:30am. Creative way to get a jump on the weather.

Relatively speaking not so bad this week in DC, though it has been quite humid most days.

M 1:30 double

Tu 1:00 with drills/strides

W 1:00 + 1:00 x-t

Th 1:30 with 5 X 4:30 (3:00 jog) at 5k effort

F 1:45 double

Sa 1:30 -- fun trail run

Su 2:30

one more week till school starts. Have a great week,

Dave

I have a lot of respect for those of you (RobDragons, dhaaga, Oldscxzy) who can get out to run in heat and humidity. I have always hated running in the heat, and I'm so glad to live in California, where even when the highs are well over 100, the lows usually get down near or below 70. I typically get out about 5 am so I'm running at the coolest part of the day.

I took a backpacking trip Monday through Wednesday, hiking at 7200-8900 feet. Monday, packed in 8 miles to one of our favorite lakes and made camp. Tuesday, did a 12-mile day hike to a lake we'd never been to before, which turned out to be lovely. Wednesday, packed up and hiked out. I emerged unscathed apart from tiny blisters on the tips of two toes, which are inconsequential.

We did have a couple of interesting encounters. On our way in we caught up to a group of three guys about our age, who were taking a break before starting a big climb. We started the climb ahead of them, but the three turned out to span a wide range of hiking ability. The strongest guy caught us early in the climb, but knowing that he'd have to wait for his buddies anyway, he dropped in behind us and we started talking. Turned out he was an ex-runner with a 2:32 marathon PR who had transitioned to adventure racing and Eco-Challenges (remember those!) and later to noncompetitive long-distance cycling. We had lots to talk about and spent the climb regaling each other with stories of our past glories, and hardly noticed the big climb we were doing. The next day we encountered a guy 10 miles from the trailhead, hiking with just a day pack. Day hikers are rare that far out so we asked him where he was going. He told us he was on the way back on a 12-mile loop. He was completely lost! We informed him he was 10 miles from the trailhead, showed him where he was on a map, and gave him directions back. He didn't look tired yet and he still had 6 hours of daylight left, so unless he had a significant physical problem he should have made it back OK. But yikes! Who goes into an unfamiliar wilderness area without a map or GPS??

I hope the backpacking trip was useful cross-training. In the four days back, I rode my bike twice for 47 miles, swam three times for 4050 m, and ran twice for 15 miles. The running felt pretty good considering how much of a calorie deficit I always run while backpacking.

My academic year also starts next week. I plan for this to be my last year.

Looking forward to getting back into some racing now that the extreme summer heat is waning.

Happy running!