Is 44 to old to be letting running be your life?

After a long break from 22-32 I started back running in Jan and thats all I want to do is Run eat work and run.

its a lot better to be thinking about running all the time than other destructive behaviors i have exhibited from time to time, and its the only thing that works as medicine for my "mild" BiPolar. On zero medication otherwise and feel fan Mfing tastic

"Anything done to excess is bad."

Bill Walsh, HOF former Head Coach of the SF 49ers

As a long time runner approaching 60, I can see where being obsessed has hurt me, and also helped me over the years. Perhaps a long break every year would have been a good idea for me. Now that I'm older, I'm just trying to get out there as I'm very slow at the moment!

You can get decent mileage off of running an hour or less a day. How much time do you spend watching tv? On the phone? There is a way to balance.

Besides is it any worse than a middle aged man with a train collection in his basement?

An interest is good. An interest that has health benefits... even better.

otter wrote:

Your kid was going to do something with friends and that fell through and is free to watch a movie with you but you have to run.

Choosing running or any obsession over family feels pretty real.

What movies are showing at 7am to 9am? And that's sleeping in...

You sound like you did it the right way -- enough that was good for you and your kids without sacrificing meaningful time/energy for things that ultimately are more important.

I think that is what it comes down to -- balancing it so that in the end you have no regrets.

Personally I wish I had used those years to train for the mile (and keep the training under an hour per day like you did) versus the unfortunate time to fall in love with the marathon. Again, it wasn't even so much the actual time running, but it was the reduced energy I had after long runs that impacted the quality of the time I spent with my kids and wife.

It depends on what you want your life to be: I'm 42 and sports—not just track but soccer and basketball are my life. I'm very happy as a coach and sports journalist.

I know plenty of coaches my age who have kids and are very happy and able to balance all they're doing. I don't think you should waste much time being introspective about it, if you're happy, be happy.

Agree with this partially. A few marathons are ok. The key is to get your mileage up so the weekend runs don't put you on the couch. I had my best marathon by reducing long runs, and getting in lots of lunch hour mileage. This didn't interfere with work or family balance. I capped my long runs at 3 hours. If I wanted to do a 20+ miler, it forced me to run faster, which contrary to some training people works to make you faster. You don't need long slow distance runs at 8:00-9:00 min/mile.

Limit marathons to one a year and you are fine.

Hjkk wrote:

Anyone know.Where all you do is run and work and run.

Are you hurting anyone or neglecting things that you need to do because of running? If not,you're fine. My kids are grown now. I ran fairly seriously all through their lives but always at times that allowed me to be with them. I guarantee you that my wife would never say I neglected them for running or for anything else. They both run seriously now and maybe my favorite thing now is going to their races.

Anyone know where Brian Pope is today?

Many other posters have thoughtfully weighed in. I'm 42 years old and came back to running after a 16 year layoff. I try to balance it with other interests but that's me.

Pursue your love of running if it's not interfering with your work and personal life. Our time on earth is precious so you don't want to look back at your life and regret not doing what you really wanted to do. And running is actually a very cost effective passion if you're not a hobby jogger.

Nope - Im 36 and planning to be doing it (semi-seriously) for as long as possible!

Cringe.

Not at all. I've also found that people without hobbies often don't spend that extra time with their families. Unless watching sportsball can be considered a hobby. It's amazing how much time people waste being a sports fan. I think my wife puts up with my running because I don't make her watch sportsball all the time. But somehow that's more acceptable than actually doing a sport because you can force your kids to watch with you. Other people waste time on religion. I cut those two things out of my life and replaced it with running.

Hjkk wrote:

Anyone know.Where all you do is run and work and run.

It's not a problem when you can run, but if you get injured to the point of not being able to run, you are not happy and you start realizing how shallow you've become.

Hjkk wrote:

Anyone know.Where all you do is run and work and run.

Most people...All you do is work and watch TV and work and repeat.

UM.YEAH.UNLESS YOU'RE ONE OF THE BEST MASTERS RUNNERS IN THE UNITED STATESend

Hjkk wrote:

Anyone know.Where all you do is run and work and run.

I'm 33, and I take running seriously as I find it very enjoyable and something that I can give it all. I'm the type of person who gets really passionate about something and that does consume me, but I just learned that's just being me and I love the high that I get from whatever I'm passionate about. Running has been the most time efficient passion that I've ever had. I run twice a day, and I've been able to do anything I want with my family with no issues.

Compared to my other hobbies in the past: tennis, golf, cycling, and lifting, its so much better! I think it's more time efficient than lifting as well because with lifting, you have to pay attention to your diet a lot more and always felt hungry to keep bodyfat low.

I know I have to be careful with what I eat with running, but I don't stress about it as much as when I was lifting.

Pope of the year wrote:

Read about this guy and decide if this is who you want to be.

http://www.pinebeltpacers.org/News/Pope/Pope.html

Whoa, there has to be some component of mental problems there. 40yo living on $10k a year, and staying at a ymca taking meals at a homeless shelter? What in the world, man???

less than ideal wrote:

Whoa, there has to be some component of mental problems there. 40yo living on $10k a year, and staying at a ymca taking meals at a homeless shelter? What in the world, man???

I was thinking that but looking at the times he runs, if he identified as woman he would be made rich from running. It is not right that the sport does not pay its competitors according to their performances; the sexual discrimination is at a way too high a level.