Maybe I am an odd ball but I believe in one thing ( jack lalane) use it or you are dam well going to lose it. These threads show up on slowtwitch every once in a while. I just dropped in the 75 old year bracket. 3 halfs and one full planned. My training is very consistent but I listen to my body on days to back off or take off. There always a 100 mile bike solo and 11 mile run in my week and usually they are back to back days. I hit the weights 3 days week with circuit strength training. I will change my workouts in a heartbeat if I think something will work better. You need to run in softer shoes ( thank god for hoakas ) dump the racing flats. It is still about speed but endurance way more important as you age. Consistent 200 mile bike, 20 mile run, 3-5 mile swim week. Forget the weekly planner that does not work. My body tells what is going to happen the day. LOL

 
You mentioned going to zero drop shoes and then in the next posting said Ugh to strength training. Do all the tests in Ready to Run. Work on your weakness until you can do all of the tests perfectly. If you get there most of your nagging injuries will go away. It will take mobility and strength work to get there. You can't simply mobilize to get to a full flat foot butt to heels squat. If you like Ready to Run, I suggest you check out The Happy Body as well. The tools in that book will get you to all the tests in Ready to Run.

I don't think your shoes are going to fix your issue. They rarely do. It's really much harder at 50+ to stay in the game. I'm looking at results all the time in my market research work. The 45-49 age group men for the LA Marathon had 6-10 runners under 3 hours and then a large group under 3:30. The 50-54 had 2 under 3 hours and 6 under 3:30. At 50+ the competition is still there but the numbers just aren't there. This is true in Triathlon too. The reasons are in your post and in the answers. Rest more, Keep the body strong, and Joel Friel in fast over 50 talked about his diet changes at 40 years old, 50 years old and 60 years old.

I'm not an expert just 52 and trying to keep up with my buddies who are 5 years younger. I have to rest more and be picky about which workouts I join in on. I've had some of the best workouts this year and I believe it's all tied to the amount of strength and mobility I've added to my daily, weekly routines, not the amount of training I've done.

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Dave Jewell
Free Run Speed

This thread really strikes a chord.

I'm 54 and have been obsessed re. triathlons off and on since the mid 80's in San Diego. I came to this as a runner and cyclist, and only in the past several years have started to understand how to swim.

Running, and to a lesser extent cycling and lifting weights, has been part of my life for 40yrs. Normal people have a hard time getting themselves to go get some exercise. But those of us that have been doing this for decades, "getting some exercise" is part of daily existence, like breathing. What's hard, hard as a mofo sometimes, is taking a day off.

I used to be obsessed with exercise, but I'm starting to feel now like I'm obsessed by recovery. I try desperately hard, day after day, to calibrate the intensity and duration of workouts such that the "recovery plan" is adequate. And it keeps not being adequate. It aggravates me no end that the planned amount of recovery turns out, almost on a weekly basis, to be not adequate.

So my suggestion is to become obsessed with recovery. Carefully feel your way into workouts. Keep good data on your performance and the HR necessary to get that performance. Keep a good log re. how you feel. With excruciating care, calibrate your training intensity and duration such that your recovery is adequate. Or calibrate your recovery to handle your training. If your not "fresh" in a workout, either dial it way way back, or just cancel the workout. I know that cancelling a workout is a complete bastard, but you have to manage your recovery.

Also, I found that large amounts of multivitamins, and a couple protein pills, helps me recover faster. By "large" I mean 3 multivitamins + a separate A, D, C, B, E, and fish oil spread out thru the day.

My recollection is that when I was young I could train hard all day, day after day, and I didn't really need much down time to recover. The amount of recovery time I need now drives me crazy. Getting old sucks.

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Books @ Amazon
"If only he had used his genius for niceness, instead of Evil." M. Smart

Damn, what a boner-killer! I thought we were immortal; sucks to plan so much about recovery, ugh!

FWIW, trained every day last week but took off Friday. A bunch of us old farts (we call it the 50+ training group) met up in Santa Cruz on Saturday. 3k masters swim followed by 30 mile bike. LOL, on the bike, we had 4 mechanicals (4 flats) and a few pee breaks and a scare with a dog. Riding or touring, not quite sure what we were doing. But some epic climbs, just kicking butt -- felt great!

Followed by a 4 mile run. Me and another guy have "Achilles issues". 8 pace on the way out, 7 on the way back. Mercifully, no Achilles snapped on the way back. It's so tragic how 7 pace feels like 5:30, isn't it?

Beers and rehash later - priceless!

Even better? Hitting the sack at 10 and waking up at 8 on Easter Morning. Despite the creakiness, feels great to get a long night's sleep after a hard effort, doesn't it?

You guys need to race more. Come do USAP Half moon Bay Sunday. I am trying to get Jim to race the Aquathlon with me since we will be taking him to the race.

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

Dave, I am not built like you! I am purposefully not racing HMB b/c I'm signed up for IM 70.3 Santa Rosa. I *know* I would tweak my Achilles doing HMB which would ruin Santa Rosa.

Awesome that you can string the races together, tho, seemingly injury-free.

My "A-race" is a 22 mile run in Tahoe along the flume trail on Father's Day so really trying to be healthy for that.

I am also signed up for IMSR 70.3. I see it has a long workout day for me since I have not gotten in close to enough long outdoor bike rides
with all the rain. We are over 70 inches and growing for rain this season.

I am lucky I have not gotten hurt much. I guess I see my 7 day a week training maybe helping me stay healthy.

Hope to see you at IMSR in a month. Hope your achilles heals quickly, those are tough

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

So many people say that without giving any course of action. Not picking on you at all, its just a frustration when everyone says listen to your body and leaves it wildly open of interpretation.