50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum

Well, I did say "come hell or high water," but I didn't say anything about freezing rain. Their expecting icy roads come tomorrow morning. That might put the kibosh on the start of the semester, I'm guessing it'll mean a delayed start for the first day of classes. One thing's for sure, I won't be running outdoors tomorrow.

Cheers!

Happy New Year All,

My husband and I spent the Holidays in Chicago and the UP of Michigan so we were adjusted to the cold that greeted us when we returned to SC. All the news down here is about what they call "bitter cold" (below 20 at night and 30s during the day). We haven't had any snow/ice so running outside has been great - hardly anyone else is brave enough to face the "life threatening" conditions. Fortunately, it's supposed to be close to 60 by the end of the week so then we'll all be sweating.

My running is coming along pretty well. My ankle is stiff in the morning and gets a little swollen after I exercise but doesn't bother me at all during my runs. The only residual issue I still have is that the muscles/tendons/ligaments are still healing and are weaker than my other leg. I have to focus on keeping my stride even. I'm doing my PT exercises daily as I don't want to cause other problems by being out-of-kilter. Here's what I did last week:

Sun 6.0 E 33:27 biking

Mon 6.0 E 31:22 biking

Tue Driving Home

Wed Driving Home

Thu 6.3 E 40:00 biking Yoga

Fri 6.5 E Strength work

Sat 8.0 E @ 9:05 First "Long Run" since August!

It's back to reality for me tomorrow with classes beginning on Tuesday. I'm going to do my best to keep up with cross training, flexibility, and strength work instead of just focusing on my miles this year. I would much rather just run but I can tell that I've lost strength and flexibility in the past few years. Oh, the challenges of aging!

The weather has moderated here in Idaho, so much so that the most of the runs are closed at our local ski arena. We have yet to use our ski passes. I had a good week of quality but not much volume. Some of that was not planned as I was very fatigued early in the week.

Monday: AM- 2 miles easy; 4 x strides; New Years Day 5k Race- 7:34, 7:29, 7:27 - 23:09 GPS, 24:00 official; finished 7 seconds in front of one of the better 60-64 runners, first AG; 2 miles easy; PM- 2 miles Easy/Walk

Tuesday and Wednesday off

Thursday: BSU Indoor track- 2 miles easy; 2 sets of 4 x 400m with 3 @ Repetition, 1 @ Repetition -3 / 200m Easy and 400m Easy between sets (93, 96, 97, 93 and 92, 94, 89, 90); pacing was erratic as you can see; mile Easy

Friday: 2 miles Easy/Walk

Saturday: 2 miles Easy; 3 x 800m starting slightly slower than race pace, increasing to race pace, finish with what Coaches Igloi and Douglas called “what you can” with 400m easy between ( 3:23, 3:10, 3:04); mile easy *clearly one on my better workouts this go round

Sunday: Off

Have a good week.

Igy

greetings from cold DC. Shouldn't complain, as the bomb cyclone hit much worse in other locations, but man has it been cold/windy this week. I've been doing most of my training by starting out on treadmill and then going outside for final 30-45 mins just so i don't go stir crazy from being inside all the time.

M 1:20

Tu 1:50 double

W 1:00 with 5 X 4:00 hard (approx. 1k) (2:00 recovery) + 30:00 x-t

Th 1:00

F 1:40 double

Sa 2:15 with a few pickups to maybe marathon pace

Su 55:00 + 45:00 x-t

have a great week. warmer days are just around the bend, and I hope the same for you,

Dave

Igy, I did see your post before it disappeared. I realize I am badly spoiled by the San Diego weather as I was running in shorts all this week. I was doing more fun training than smart training this week with my son and his family visiting from New Zealand for the holidays. I ran with my son and his wife on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday and each of those runs were hard tempo pace for me. 33 miles total for the week.

M- 5 mi rolling trails 7:53 pace

T- 7 mi walk

W- 7 mi hills 7:58 pace

Th- off - tired and sore calf

F- off - still tired and sore

S- 7 mi rolling trails 7:47 pace

Su- 7 walk

I hope all of you in more wintry areas see some better weather soon. We could use some of your rain here but not the cold temps.

SCgal, I'm very happy to see that you continuing to make progress after your fracture. Yes, recovery from anything gets harder as you get older. I've been fortunate enough to not have any injuries that prevented me from cross-training on the bike in the past ten years. It's hard enough to get back when I've been able to maintain decent aerobic fitness and general leg strength while not running.

The comparison of my two half-marathons eight weeks apart (first week of November and New Year’s Eve) was interesting. Before the first one, I had gotten up to only 30-40 mpw for 3-4 weeks. During the eight weeks between the two races I had ramped it up to 40-60 mpw. The second half-marathon was only a little better than the first, 45 seconds faster on a course that's probably a little slower. But there was no comparison between the recoveries--I had a lot of generalized muscle soreness 2-3 days after the first race, and almost none after the second.

My week:

Monday, New Year’s Day: 32 mile bike ride while recovering from the New Year's Eve half-marathon.

Tues: 10.2 miles at 9:06/mile pace.

Weds: 10.6 miles at 8:52 pace.

Thurs: 10.5 miles at 8:56 pace.

Friday: Took a sick day off. After my run on Thursday it seemed I was coming down with some upper-respiratory bug: runny nose, throat congestion, sneezing, itchy eyes, a slight cough, and general fatigue. I used to always run when sick unless I had a fever or a severe cough, but lately I’ve started to think that it’s better to take a day or two or three off in the hope of preventing a minor illness from becoming a bad one. So all I did was a brief gym workout.

Sat: Nose still dripping but otherwise felt a little better, so went for a run. 10.3 miles at 9:01 pace in the rain and wind. No one who lives in California has any right to complain about the weather this winter, so I won’t.

Sun: 14.4 miles at 8:49 pace. Nose still dripping, but otherwise not feeling sick. Nice weather, upper 40s and overcast.

56 miles for the week. A solid week coming right after a half-marathon race. I’m considering another half-marathon in five weeks, but won’t commit to it for a while yet.

Week 12 Minutes EZ/LT/VO/LT bike: 00/27/14/50 weight 141.2

Jan 1 21 00/21/00/00 21 minutes LT 5k Florence New Years Day about 6:45 pace

Jan 3 50 LT bike Heceta hill 50 minutes extremely steep

Jan 5 00/6/14/00 minutes on treadmill 6 minutes at 9mph 2 at 10mph then 10mph 3x4 minutes with 3 min walk HR max was 169

So I am hoping to raise my LT pace to 10mph on the treadmill getting to 3x6 with R1 at 169 by the end of February.

Then maintain LT while raising Vo2 as well as efficiency at 12mph. I could run about 4:30 for the mile when my threshold pace was 5:40 average for 5 miles on Amazon trail so 6 on the mill to shoot for sub 5 is at least in the ball park.

Weekly summary

Week 1 42 minutes EZ/LT/VO: 00/32/10

Week 2 56 minutes EZ/LT/VO: 00/36/20

Week 3 52 minutes EZ/LT/VO: 00/36/16

Week 4 08 minutes EZ/LT/VO: 07/04/04

Week 5 60 minutes EZ/LT/VO: 12/44/16

Week 6 25 Minutes EZ/LT/VO: 40/20/05

Week 7 45 Minutes EZ/LT/VO: 00/40/05 weight 144.6

Week 8 57 Minutes EZ/LT/VO: 30/42/15

Week 9 12 Minutes EZ/LT/VO: 52/00/12 weight 143.2

Week 10 29 Minutes EZ/LT/VO/LT bike: 08/17/12/63

Week 11 29 Minutes EZ/LT/VO/LT bike: 00/14/15/70 weight 143.0

Week 12 41 Minutes EZ/LT/VO/LT bike: 00/27/14/50 weight 141.2

Greetings, friends. Another cold day here in the Northeast. Only reached a high of 2°F yesterday (-20 windchill), but warmer temperatures are coming.

I joined the local YMCA this week. My wife is 62, so we qualified for the "senior family" rate -- $22 a month for BOTH of us. That seems like a good deal for a well-equipped facility. At lunch time, I have been the ONLY person there, so my choice of six ellipticals, six treadmills, bikes, stair-steppers, weight machines, free weights, etc. No pool.

My weekly report:

Male, 58, 5'11", 175.6 lbs

Goal: 3:00 marathon Oct 2019

M - off

T - off

W - off

Th - 40 mins elliptical

F - 40 mins elliptical

Sa - off

Su - 25 mins elliptical

Have a great week!

- Allen

Allen1959 wrote:

I joined the local YMCA this week. My wife is 62, so we qualified for the "senior family" rate -- $22 a month for BOTH of us. That seems like a good deal for a well-equipped facility. At lunch time, I have been the ONLY person there, so my choice of six ellipticals, six treadmills, bikes, stair-steppers, weight machines, free weights, etc. No pool.

Wow, that's a really good deal on a gym. My husband and I pay $65/month for a couples membership. He is 64 but our gym offers no special senior rates. Our gym is pretty well equipped and usually not too crowded. It does have a pool but the pool is so hot as to be useless for actual swimming. We both go there probably five days per week, so I feel we get our money's worth. The gym at my university costs more and has lousy hours and no pool at all, so I don't use it. We are supposed to be getting a pool in another year or two, and at that time I'll reconsider.

Our YMCA is $70 for my wife and I. We have facilities downtown and another near my house. The facilities are well appointed, with an Olympic pool near our home. We have been members close to 20 years and have many friends and acquaintances at both. Lastly, the masters programs are strong with a long run each Saturday and use of the BSU Indoor facility select days during winter. All of the add on programs come with additional fees I am glad to pay. Also, the membership and program fees largely support the various community programs sponsored by our Y.

amkelley wrote:

The gym at my university costs more and has lousy hours and no pool at all, so I don't use it.

I am surprised you don't have free access to your university's facilities.

This local Y is quite nice -- clean, spacious, modern equipment. For the next five months, I have work scheduled within a few blocks of the building, so it's gonna work out great for me.

Not so much for my wife, however. She works in a city an hour-plus away -- leaves at 7 a.m. and gets home at 7 p.m. She won't see much use of her membership, but it was only $5 more per month for the two of us versus me solo.

I have been using a few of the leg-strengthening machines, and maybe it's just my imagination, but my knees seem improved already. It's so much easier, mentally, to have dedicated time to work the machines, rather than trying to do static exercises at home.

I ran outside 3 times this week and ran on the roads 3 times. Today was 25 degrees so I got in a longer run of 9+ miles. I belong to a small fitness gym less than a mile from home for $19 per month. I can usually get in a treadmill workout without a problem but they push the fitness training . A good start to the year with 30+ miles.

Mon: 5.5 miles run-walk on treadmill in 60 min

Tue: 4.3 miles with 8 hills in 47 min

Wed: 4 miles run-walk on treadmill in 50 min

Thu: 4.1 mile fartlek in 39 min

Fri: off

Sat: 3.3 miles run-walk on treadmill in 39 min

Sun: 9.2 miles in 92 min

Hope the temps warm for all of you.

Hello. My first LR post in eons.

Still, I hope it's OK to interlope on this thread but wanted to put something on the spring radar.

For what it's worth, I am trying to cobble together an elite 50s-something mile on March 31st at the San Francisco State Distance Carnival. This is the Master's Mile hosted by Mike Fanelli. So masters on up will be incorporated. Normally it is a co-ed mile, but I'll reach out to meet director Tom Lyons and let him know we're interested in a world-record attempt, and so it's likely to be separated by gender.

This year, it is going to be held at Chabot College in Hayward, CA due to reconstruction of the SFSU track. Evidently a root is growing underneath the track and it's now "bulging," so it will be resurfaced.

I coach Reno's club (he is self-coached, might pick up an occasional tidbit from our posted workouts). However I have Tom LeGan who ran 4:32.80 in the mile last September. He is fitter now. Nolan Shaheed's 4:25.04 is in the crosshairs. Stephen Agar is almost 50 also, but in June. He and Tom are coming to Berkeley for our workouts and are now on the club.

Both of them want to break the WR in the mile for 50-somethings (Agar turns 50 in June so he just wants to run fast now and hold it till June-July). This field is spicing up. Todd Straka (4:26) wants to come out from Boulder. Christian Cushing-Murray is a perhaps maybe (family obligations) as is Sean Wade (fighting injuries). I'll have to see what Pete Magill is up to and of course, Reno wants a piece of this action too (age 55-59 group).

Also, we will provide rabbits in the form of our younger runners. Come out if you want to run fast!

Greetings, 50+ group,

Still not running because of calf problems, so my week was entirely riding on the GO. Rode 7 days with a long ride yesterday of 60 miles and 201 total for the week. As of now, I'm leading the ElliptiGO group on Strava, but that probably won't last through the day. Still, it's my first 200 mile week since last April and only second since summer 2015.

Riding gives me lots of time to think since I'm out there for a longer time period than when running. I've decided that this year I will not have any running goals since I can't seem to stay injury free long enough to get into competitive race shape. I'll still try since I turn 55 this summer and hope to get some racing while I'm at the bottom of the age group. But after 6 straight injury plagued years, I'm not going to worry about it, not when I can ride without issue (assuming I don't wreck and break something again).

So this year, assuming I ride more than run, I'm going to go for my longest ride and my highest single climb. Longest ride in the past was The Death Ride in 2015 at 129 miles. Biggest climb was Onion Valley in Sep 2016 at 5,194 feet. Longest ride is rather simple, just get out and GO. Highest climb will take some planning to find a route with a single climb of 5200 feet.

Cheers.

PS. Hi whatever man. Good luck to Tom and Steve in the mile, but as you can probably surmise from my post, I won't be there since I won't be in race shape by then. I don't plan to try another run until Feb.

Well it was another week dominated by the weather. Dangerous wind chills and WS Grayson combined to extend my "recovery". And naturally the golf courses are closed. I did get in one 54' jog on Wednesday when the wind chill moderated to low double digits. Meanwhile it’s been a struggle to keep my typical holiday season weight from getting even higher. The coming week looks stormy, but with more reasonable temps. Hopefully I’ll have something positive to report next Sunday.

Best to all.

Hey, great thread. I’m kind of taking it easy this winter in hopes of being fresh and good to go on the track this spring. For example, I entered the local New Years 5k but only tempoed it in 24:49. That’s well off my typical race pace even in my late 60s. I’ve been lucky to maintain my health and some speed.

Other days not nearly as interesting as they were made up of LDR, fartlek, and hills. The weather here has been good, so the trail running continues. Trying to stay healthy before we go at it again in a couple of months.

Thanks for this forum. I’ll continue to check in, if you don’t mind.

New Year's Greetings 50+ running colleagues,

Looks like some pretty nice training weeks across the board...impressed with those of you fighting horrendous weather conditions...we've got some pretty serious rain on the way here but it absolutely pales in comparison to most of the country.

Surpassed streak day 400 this past Wednesday (2122 miles)...feeling pretty good about that...little wins help keep one 'on track'...pun intended.

Only got 33 miles this week but a couple of decent sessions that included finishing up a 6 mile track run with 8 x 100 meters and a 2 mile time trial yesterday that was 50 seconds faster than a month ago...progress (I hope)

Last year's goal of sub 6:00 mile is back on the table...IF I can get my balky foot to cooperate... ideally at the mile that 'Whatever Man' describes in his comeback post from earlier today...only ranked 20th in USA 60-64 for 2017 (and 8th at 3,000 meters)...like to improve on both AND add a top 20 ranking in both 5,000 and 10,000...gotta dream big.

On the more esoteric side, shooting for 500 consecutive days with a 5+ mile average...got 'just' 97 days to go...just in time for turning age 62. (I told you it was esoteric)

Love to hear about everybody else's goals for 2018 if not already stated.

Many thanks, as always, for helping in the motivation department. Hoping to see you at a track meet a little further on down the road.

Your pal,

MF

Happy Better Year Y'all.

Love your attitude on life at M55 Reno.

This here M57 fool is FEELING aerobically fitter since Lexington AG 78.3%. Hoping this translates into a stronger result in Tallahassee 80+%.

15 miler on New Year's Day @ 7:59pace.

Hollister Trail Session 4 days later 2x 2miles with 2min rest at 12:26 & 12:09 1x 1mile @5:48.

10 miler today.

61 mile week.

KP

Mon. Started the new year with a weary 27 hilly km mountain bike ride in the forests after work. 1 hr 36 mins.

I was on the recieving end of some unfortunate rostering. Home from work NYE at 11.45 pm and leaving for work 5.45 am NYD. The joys of shift work.

The legs were still feeling the 2 mountain runs from Friday and Saturday last week.

Tue. 10 km starting at a brisk hiking effort into 7 hilly kms at moderate pace then walking the last km and a half.

Wed. Short ride of 6 km uphill to a nice little forest loop. Changed shoes then ran a km easy then 7 kms of hard hilly fartlek then jogging and brisk walking to round up 10 kms. 7 km ride home.

Later in the day 43 mins kayak on the lake.

Thu. Joined my wife and her friend to ride 6 km section of the railtrail. They turned back and Itook off at my pace for an extra 1.5 km then turned and chased them down 15 km total.

Later in the evening 11km hiking into a moderate pace 7 kms run in the forest and hiking back home.

Fri. A brisk 33 km on the mountain bike in 1 h 33 m before work.

Sat. While most of you guys were freezing we have been sizzling. A predicted top temp of 112 deg F. I decided to drive up to Mt Stirling 2.5 hours away.

I ran a slow 18 km of rugged trails at elevations up to 1700 metres. Temps a pleasantly cool 90 at the start and a chilly 85 at the summit. All up 2 h 17 m with 640 metres elevation gain.

Sun. Temperature was back into the 90s at home thank goodness. Sydney copped 117 apparently.

All day gardening then out for a gentle 7 kms in 45 mins, hilly, hiking into a 5 km jog and hike back into finish.

My weight is down a little. The body is feeling reasonable. It might be time to pick it up a little more and aim for a few races.