Active Community: Message List - 50 Plus Training and Racing-March 09

Re: 50 Plus Training and Racing-March 09

guest — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 22:18:12 GMT

I ran my 8.9 miles today, and came in at 1:24:52. I would have been a couple minutes faster had I not run into so much traffic (i usually run at noon, but today was at 3:00). Cars caused me to detour and double back twice. A train pulled in to the station in front of me and I said, "Oh no". Then, it pulled forward enough that the crossing gate area was clear! I said, "Oh yes!" I entered the crossing gate area and found that another train was pulling in from the other way!:0 *I said, "Good heavens. What next?!" I turned around and ran clear around the entire railroad station and back to where I came from. Well, like I always say.., "It'll take more than one train to stop me..."*B-)

The weather was a bit nicer today, I ran in base layer, shorts, Coolmax shorty cap and polar-fleece parka liner. Oh, and winter gloves. I don't have a light pair right now.

I need to move to a less-congested part of the country. I am going to make a committment to do that.

Paul

Re: 50 Plus Training and Racing-March 09

guest — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:11:45 GMT

I owe you one Euphie. Did you buy a new bike?

Re: 50 Plus Training and Racing-March 09

guest — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:34:05 GMT

Gotcha!

Re: 50 Plus Training and Racing-March 09

guest — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:16:01 GMT

Euphie - we're waiting on Fred or Ribz to start a new thread and I'm sorry to hear you've gone completely over to the dark side.

Sierra. What you wrote is exactly what I believe. I think too many coaches now days are getting the blame for making their kids all run the same workouts. I wanted to run the varsity workouts when I was younger and couldn't keep up. It's how I knew what the good runners were doing. Too I agree it depends on the athletes drive.

Re: 50 Plus Training and Racing-March 09

guest — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 13:56:42 GMT

I don't run anymore, I only ride my new bike.

PS Check the date!

Re: 50 Plus Training and Racing-March 09

guest — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 03:15:16 GMT

Also, to add: I agree with Fred's comment. I don't think it's good to give the same workout to all runners. It's not a one size fits all. That's why I don't like to see the coaches on the track telling young runners to meet a specific time goal. The ones that have slow twitch fibers aren't going to be able to meet that goal, or will strain to do it, perhaps inviting injury.

Re: 50 Plus Training and Racing-March 09

guest — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 03:09:26 GMT

KS, I don't know how track coaches approach training for their runners but when I swam competitively, our workouts were hard, long, and focused on speed intervals, regardless of the differing talents of the team. I felt that my coach's approach was to bring all of us up to our potential. If some of us were slower than others, we had to work harder to keep up to the other swimmers. I remember swimming as fast as I could to try and keep up with team members who were faster, because I wanted to be faster, and because someone else was right on my tail in my lane and they would slap their hands against my feet if they caught up to me. My coach knew where all the team members stood and how fast she thought we could go but she always made everyone feel that they could reach their own PR if they worked. And, we wanted to work hard because even a second or third place would help the team. But, she also, I think, had the fastest swimmers do extra intervals. I imagine in track that coaches know talent when they see it, and give special coaching or advice to those athletes. But I also think the drive of these athletes has much to do with their success (talent, drive, luck).

Re: 50 Plus Training and Racing-March 09

guest — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:45:37 GMT

Hi all: Spareribs, from your comment a few days ago about runnng partners: the late 20-something two women and sometimes male co-worker that I run with one day a week are considerate with one another about the pace. We usually go more slowly than I feel the group could run, but we enjoy talking while we run so everyone is trying to keep it to a talking pace. One of the women told me she enjoys the run because she doesn't start out as fast as she normally would. She is the one that I can ask to pick up the pace. I'll run whatever pace everyone else is running with this group, and it's fine. The two men that I ran with years ago were geared toward racing and so I trained hard with them, which helped me lower my times. I like running with faster partners as well. But when I began running in 1974, my ex-husband and I jogged very slowly around a track with an older man who ran there every day, much slower than I could have run, to talk with him---I've always felt that those long, slow miles helped my conditioning and prevented injuries later on.

I ran 5.3 miles on my camping trip while two friends hiked. It was over rolling hills and was a good run in beautiful, green, oak woodlands. On Sunday I hiked with them about 3 miles or so and then drove the four hours back home. So, it made 35 running miles for the week. I felt a cold coming on yesterday, so I didn't run, and stayed home from work. Today, I still feel under the weather but I may try running and see how I feel. I haven't been sick all winter (very unusual for me).

KS, glad that the pain you were experiencing is gone. Imgellin, sounds like your 8.9 mile runs are going well. Your times on those runs are naturally bound to vary, some days slower, some days faster. I think you were thinking about going for lighter runs in between your longer run. Have you tried that? I think that's a good idea, instead of giving yourself a complete rest day every other day.

Some folks mentioned here they have problems logging in. Just a tip that might help. From the main page, I go to this discussion group and go to "Login to Reply." The board remembers my name and password and then I'm in. I've not tried logging in from the site's main page, but I've never had problems logging in in the way I've described.

Re: 50 Plus Training and Racing-March 09

guest — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:28:50 GMT

Fred - I agree with your post. Trying to start a discusion; is there never a point a coach pushes his athlete 1 more or 2 more because it will make him/her stronger physically and mentally? Most athletes and especially the new ones have no idea what they are capable of running. The answer must rely in the coaches understanding of his athletes? I remember in h.s. and early college. All the varsity ran identical workouts but not the identical times for each workout. The best athlete normally always ran the best times and on down the list it went. The "B" team ran almost as much and were given the option of running the same workout as the varsity.

Re: 50 Plus Training and Racing-March 09

guest — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:53:27 GMT

He asked once, "How does

a coach know if he sends a whole team out to do 12 x 800 that 12 is the

exact right number for each person?"

Exactly. If I was a coach, I would ask each athlete how they felt that day and would watch their warmup to see

where their body was at before the workout. And if an athlete's form started breaking down on the 5th rep, there would be

no point to continue.