How to Succeed at Running as a Master

Masters runners are just like open runners. Except when they’re not.

Before we dig into this article, let’s start by saying that everyone is an experiment of one. Your mileage may vary. Rules are made to be broken. You get the picture.

But there are still more folks than not for whom following a few simple guidelines after you’ve crossed the 40 mark will make running more pleasant.

Unfortunately:

When it comes to running as a masters, rule breaking often times leads to injury.

As we’ve said in the past, masters running allows for less margin of error.

Whether it comes to racing, strength training or nutrition, masters runners need to be fairly squeaky clean to stay ahead of break down. Here then are some common guidelines masters runners can follow to continue running healthy.

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Strength Training

I can remember training in my 30s.

Sure, I’d strength train twice a week in the off season, but come full on competitive season, I’d put strength training on the shelf for a couple of months. At most, I’d do a little “maintenance” work once every 10 days or so.

Sound familiar?

Flash forward to today at the age of 50 and I’m as dedicated to strength training as I am to running. I religiously spend three days each week pushing my limits with workouts like boot camp, HIIT, or barre class.

I can both see and feel a difference in my body. And knock wood, I’ve experienced no injuries since upping my strength game.

Studies show that as we age, we lose muscle mass if are sedentary. These losses can be offset, however, with dedication to movement and strength training, as revealed in this study of masters athletes.

How you get that strength training in is up to you and opinions vary on how much/how intense you should be with it. Studies show, however, that distance runners can expect up to an 8 percent boost in running economy after a dedicated resistance training program. For masters runners, this is not a benefit to be missed.

Masters sensation and running coach Pete Magill recommends that masters runners who haven’t started a strength routine begin with simple bodyweight exercises two to three times a week.

“Start with maybe 6 to 8 sets of bodyweight exercises, like air squats, step-ups, single-leg deadlifts, side leg lifts, calf raises, and maybe a couple core exercises, such as planks and leg lifts,” he recommends. “After a few weeks, you can add exercises and weights.”

What’s the bottom line?

You can’t afford to not strength train.

Speedwork

Bear with me as I wax nostalgic to those days when I could race a half Ironman on a Sunday and be back at my normal track workout on a Tuesday.

Those were the good ‘ole days. But I digress.

Today if I race, there is no speedwork in the week following.

Instead, I focus on easy, shorter runs to let my legs properly recover. And when I am not racing, I still keep my speedwork to one day a week, plus strides on a couple of other easy days.

As a masters runner, you cannot afford to neglect rest and recovery.

Our muscles aren’t as elastic as our younger days and our levels of hormones—in particular human growth hormone—are lower than in our younger days. Remember you can increase levels by keeping up with your strength training!

Repair just doesn’t occur as quickly.

Easy days need to be easy, too, says Magill.

“The first thing masters runners need to do before cutting back on the frequency or intensity of hard workouts is to cut back on the intensity of non-hard workout days,” he says.

“Too many masters runners try to maintain an effort level on their regular distance runs that is simply counterproductive.

You don’t have to breathe hard and feel fatigued in order for a distance run to have been beneficial.”

When it comes to speedwork, you can still do it but you need to remember that your gut-busting speed sessions from earlier days might be more than you can handle today.

Instead, follow Magill’s recommendations to “never train harder or longer than is necessary to trigger the desired adaption.”

I’ve personally adopted a “leave the timed intervals at home” approach to speedwork.

Now:

Instead of assigning specific paces to my speedwork, I let my body be the guide. I’ll do ladders on the road, for instance, by time, not pace. Or I’ll run a 30-minute tempo with no specific pace in mind. I find that I race better with this approach, too, and my race results aren’t suffering for it.

So how do you make up for the reduced speedwork and increased recovery time? Back to the strength training—it can go a long way to make up for the deficit.
What’s the bottom line?

Continue speedwork, but modify it.

Racing

When you’re an open runner, your body can handle a decent amount of racing, all within limits.

Say you have a couple of “A” races per year, you can schedule in two or three build-up races as well, based on a 21-week cycle, twice per year. This allows for adequate recovery, training and racing.

Here’s the deal:

For a masters runner, however, you may need to cut back on the frequency of that schedule, especially when it comes to longer distances.

Consider choosing a few important races per year, focus on those, and resist running others unless you can truly check your ego at the door and run them at training pace.

Racing breaks us down like nothing else we do, longer distances in particular. In no other setting do we go as hard for as long as when we race.

That’s a hard hit for our muscular and cardiovascular systems to absorb and as masters runners, we need to respect that and properly space out our efforts.

“The biggest problem masters runners have with racing isn’t the race itself, it’s recovering afterward,” says Magill. “Both studies and anecdotal evidence have come to the same conclusion: We masters runners take longer to recover than younger runners.”

How much space between races is appropriate?

Again, this is an individual, experiment-of-one kind of factor.

But if you handled two or three 5ks per month in your younger days, consider cutting back to one or two. A half marathon every other month? Maybe two per spring season/two per fall season. Two or three marathons per year—try one.

The most important component, again, is that you allow for adequate recovery.

Listen to your body: If it’s not feeling recovered three weeks after a marathon, even though you think it should be, keep things easy and short.

This is where having space between races comes in. If you have a race on your schedule too soon after a hard racing effort, you might be tempted to run and run hard before your body is ready. That’s when the niggles show up.

“As a general guideline, it can’t hurt to take a least a week off from high-intensity training following any race. Instead, stick to easy distance and maybe one day of 5-10 minute tempo repetitions or some controlled hill repeats,” says Magill.

“If you’re racing a half marathon or a marathon, you’ll want to be exceptionally cautious. No hard training for 3-4 weeks after a half marathon, and twice that for a marathon.

In other words, throw out the old “one day of recovery for every mile raced” guideline.

It simply isn’t appropriate for masters runners.”

What’s the bottom line?

Pick and choose your races wisely.

Running as a masters is far from gloom and doom—it just requires some adjusting, physically as well as mentally.

Once you make those adjustments, you can expect to run and race healthy and with joy well into your retirement years.

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