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Masters athletics at 61

Started 9 December 2024 · 19 replies · 232 hearts · read 2.2k times

ClémenceNantes, FR · 9 December 2024
1.6 years ago

A question rather than an update: Masters athletics at 61

The logistics of this are defeating me more than the medicine is.

The arrangements are the hard bit for me. Nothing medical has been difficult; the organising has been relentless.

Every piece of advice I read appears to have been written for somebody with a completely different week from mine, so I am asking people whose weeks look like this.

I would like to know what other people say when asked, because my current answer is too long and invites more questions.

I will come back and say what I settled on, in case it is useful to the next person asking this.

77

BaySt Ives, UK
#1

Something that helped was eating on a schedule rather than on appetite, because appetite stopped being a reliable signal.

10

RenFacilitatorBristol, UK
#2

Thank you for asking the practical question. This circle is at its best on exactly this and the answers are already better than any guide I could write.

22

HarriSwansea, UK
#3

Just marking that I read this properly rather than skimming it.

6

TabbyMargate, UK
#4

The competition side needed a proper conversation with somebody who understood both, and finding that person took a while.

12me too 1

NadineLyon, FR
#5

What Ren described happened to me too, in a slightly different order.

The recovery side was where I noticed it most. Same session, slower recovery, for about two months.

16me too 6

RinManchester, UK
#6

Something I got wrong was trying to train through a difficult fortnight. It achieved nothing and set me back further.

9

TressaSt Austell, UK
#7

My sessions are shorter and heavier now and that has worked better than the volume I used to do.

14

TacitaRome, IT
#8

Gently disagreeing with Nadine, or rather adding the other half of it.

What I would say is get the protein sorted before anything else. Everything I read agreed and I ignored it for a season.

12

PolaGdańsk, PL
#9

I found the early weeks difficult for training because of the tiredness, and going lighter for a month was the sensible call.

13

PamSouthport, UK
#10

Tacita said something I want to sit with for a second.

My honest report is that my strength has been maintained across two years, and it was not automatic, and lifting was the reason.

11

MaryamBirmingham, UK
#11

I had a period where I was clearly underfuelling without meaning to, and my coach spotted it before I did.

6

ClemmieNorwich, UK
#12

Gently disagreeing with Maryam, or rather adding the other half of it.

What surprised me was how much better my joints felt, which had nothing to do with anything I was aiming at.

8

OndineLausanne, CH
#13

The endurance side was different again. Long sessions needed planning that short sessions did not, and I got that wrong twice.

15me too 3

BramGhent, BE
#14

What helped was working with a coach who took the appetite change seriously rather than treating it as a discipline problem.

12

EdwynNewcastle, UK
#15

That is a kinder way of putting it than I have managed about myself.

14

RufusGuildford, UK
#16

Something practical: I moved my training to the morning because my appetite is more reliable earlier and the fuelling became simple.

9

InêsPorto, PT
#17

My training did not change. My fuelling around it changed enormously and that took about four months to get right.

10

RenFacilitatorBristol, UK
#18

Facilitator note: nothing in this circle is medical advice and the practical arrangements still need agreeing with whoever prescribes for you.

19

RonanBelfast, NI
#19

Picking up Ren’s point rather than starting a new one.

Coming back at two years to say the strength held, the training is unchanged, and the fuelling took a season to get right and then became automatic.

14