This is for anyone that's made the difficult decision to stop competing.
Cole's notes version of my question: how did you manage the transition from being a runner to no longer being one?
Extended question:
I graduated from school three years ago and like many student athletes didn't know what was going to happen with my running "career" outside of the collegiate bubble. Leaving school and moving back with my parents was a tough transition and I liked having running as the one consistent component of my life. I ran very well that year by my own standards, got a modest shoe deal and was handed some racing opportunities that I never expected would come my way. Running was very important to me.
But as the other parts of my life started filling up, it became challenging. I'm now working a demanding job that occupies about 60 hours a week of my time. Combining that with 100 mile weeks is possible, but very difficult and requires a disciplined, generally reclusive lifestyle, at least from Monday to Friday.
I've always said I will compete as long as it's fun and take things one season at a time. But the past couple seasons have begun to feel like I've hit a plateau and might even be regressing a bit. I've heard the lectures many times that lots of athletes have extended periods where they're not improving only to get a breakthrough later, but my current plateauing isn't really the point. While running was once the centre of my universe, it's started to feel more like a chore a lot of the time and a limitation on my ability to do other things. The lack of improvement of late only exacerbates the problem.
So I've thought about giving it up. Not cold turkey. I'm sure I would run when I feel like running (like most people), but I'd like to not feel so enslaved to it. But any time I start imagining that, the new lifestyle scares me.
So much of my self worth over the past years has been based on my ability to cover ground quickly. Any time I get an injury, it only takes a few days to start feeling restless, fat and lazy. So I guess I would like to get past this and enjoy being a hobby jogger/fan of the sport for a while. But more or less every day of the last ten years has been largely planned around fitting my run(s) in. What's living differently like?
Has anyone else felt this sort of dependency on running and did you get past it?
Any input is welcome.