When did you realize you were done racing competitively?

You don't quit competing because you get old.

You get old because you quit competing.

At least, that is what I keep telling myself.

That might be your best post on this board, theJeff. Thanks for that.

theJeff wrote:

You don't quit competing because you get old.

You get old because you quit competing.

At least, that is what I keep telling myself.

I fully agree with this.

Jim Ryun still does a few workouts a week. Saw him doing hill repeats about a year ago.

There are more important things in life than running fast. If you want to move on, do so. If you want to give it your all for another year or two and chase those PRs, go for it. Just don’t get fat and unhealthy.

If you look at most race results the 30-39 group is usually pretty soft, and it's that way for a reason. Guys that were fast are now having kids, careers, etc.. it's hard to have the time and passion to really get after it with all those more important distractions.

What you do see is around 40 the times start to drop again. The kids are older, the job more established, things slow down on the home front, so guys can dedicate some time to lacing up the racing shoes again. Often the Masters winner is pretty high up in the overall finish as well.

As far as PRs go.. well I'm 50 and I don't even talk about my PRs any more. What I ran at 22 has little to no bearing on what I can do now. I kinda have my "recent best" and that's about as deep as I go with that. Occasionally I'll target some milestone distance or race or time to see if I can do it, but it's completely arbitrary. I wanted to break 60:00 for 10M and worked toward that, I wanted to run a quality marathon and eventually did that. What I'm trying to say is that racing can still be fun and challenging, you just adjust those goals and challenges.

I'm in a unique situation because I have a career that allows the time for training, and my wife and I do not have kids, so there is no family time constraint either. I turn 37 next week, and my desire to train and race well is as strong as when I was in college, maybe stronger. My concern is that I'm being foolish chasing PRs at my age.

I overtrained horribly in college and in my 20s. I ran tons of great workouts, but was always burned out by the time I raced. Too many miles too fast. I wised up in my 30s, slowed down my runs, got a coach, and started eating better as well. I ran my 5K and 10K PRs at 30 and 34 respectively, but I still feel like they are both soft and I can get faster.

EZ10Miler wrote:

As far as PRs go.. well I'm 50 and I don't even talk about my PRs any more. I kinda have my "recent best" and that's about as deep as I go with that. Occasionally I'll target some milestone distance or race or time to see if I can do it, but it's completely arbitrary. What I'm trying to say is that racing can still be fun and challenging, you just adjust those goals and challenges.

EZ10 puts it well, and fits my hobbyjogger career. Between using up a lot of "spousal credits" and the impacts of injuries and aging, training and racing hard weren't getting yielding similar performance results. I had to re-adjust what to expect out of running / racing.

One race in particular, when in my early 50s, put that into stark relief-- what felt like normal, comfortable race pace was 23 sec/mi slower than expected. Different training and rest regimens didn't turn things around. So it's either do what I can and accept the results (an occasional age-group placement if in a thin field, with a time I'm mildly ashamed of), or do-- as one day I promised I might-- run just for fitness. (Started telling myself that 7 years ago, and still haven't acquiesced.)

Assess how you feel and how it fits into your non-running life and relationships. Regardless of what you think of your performances, the sport of running still needs its old lions/lionesses as supporters and good examples.

I turned 25 a few days ago so I can't quite relate to the growing career and family yet but I can still physically remember my college running years. What keeps me going is that I know this year is my final year of my athletic prime, and also that the hardest part of running is just getting out the door. As long as I'm out the door by 7am, everything is comparatively icing on the cake. I can still remember what it was like in college having to drag myself out of bed at 6am for 7am workouts. And the feeling is amazing after getting that workout in. I continue to hold myself to that discipline for the mere fact that I was capable of doing it before.

Whether I still have the passion or not is no longer a question for me because, while I'm also chasing PR's, running has helped my mental health tremendously and it is more of a necessity now. Its necessity in my life forces me to organize my sleep, and my nutrition so that I can run to my best ability. Of course, there are days or weeks or months where running must take a backseat to my career but still I maintain consistency and ensure I am at least maintaining fitness until the days come that I'm able to put in more work. I am grateful for every day that I am able to run.

Training used to be very stressful for me in college, because I put so much pressure on myself to get championships and PRs. Now, I feel much less pressure because I know I'm no longer in a rush to squeeze in champs and PRs in 4 years. Nowadays, If the PR's happen, then that's great. All I am merely doing is focusing on the process rather than the goal, and that means every day I'm completely dialed in on my own body during Warmup, workout, cooldown. This philosophy was partly influenced by reading about kipchoge, and his moderate effort training with relentless consistency over an extremely long period of time.

I think there is a difference in running competitively and training to run as fast as you can and improve your PRs.

You can't be in PR shape forever.

You can try to always be in the best shape for your age, but that is unlikely.

At some point you make a determination that you stop training all out for races.

For a competitive college runner that usually happens right after college.

Or you may keep racing all out for a few more years but at some point you end it.

Once you stop going for PR fitness there is a dramatic drop in your training because it doesn't make sense to work just as hard to run slower.

still at it wrote:

theJeff wrote:

You don't quit competing because you get old.

You get old because you quit competing.

At least, that is what I keep telling myself.

I fully agree with this.

Jim Ryun still does a few workouts a week. Saw him doing hill repeats about a year ago.

Look at O'Hanlan from that Irish thread. The dude started running again at 38 and is running a 2:18 marathon now. I have no idea what OP's PR is, but 2:18 is not bad for 43.

Subelite dreamer wrote:

I'm not that old (30) and I know I could still get a nice PR in a marathon. I just wanted to get the board thoughts.

I'm the exact opposite of you. I didn't begin seriously training until I turned 31. In my opinion, you can still run some very respectable times during the 30 to 45 age range. I went from a 20:30 in my first 5K to a 17:20 in little over a year on a 45 mpw average and ran a 4:57 mile the next year. I have very little innate ability, I just worked hard.

Rupp won Chicago at age 31. Not the best example...but he's older than you.

There are still dudes running the 800m at an advanced age. Kip Janvrin ran 1:53.89 at the 2007 Drake Relays in a Masters (40+) only race. A 50+ year old athlete ran 2:00.28 in 2012. Dave Nash has ran sub-2:00 in 28 consecutive years and 200 times in all.

Just get out there and do it.

Once you are 40, you can start setting and breaking "old man PRs" from the 40+ part of your career.

TMC wrote:

I'm the exact opposite of you. I didn't begin seriously training until I turned 31.

Just get out there and do it.

I see what you are saying and glad that you are having improvements. That said, you began training hard at 31 it's much easier to be excited about the sport at 31 when you are new to it and PR's are relatively easier to come by.

Someone who is 30 who has been running 65+/- halfs or Marathon equivalent has probably been training very hard for 12-14 years and is also realizing the PR's from their mid to late 20s are hard to come by when you have family, career, more money, better quality of life, and other fun hobbies to pursue.

They also realize at that point that they've been to some USA Road Championships, been invited to cool races, won some prize money and had their share of local fame.

At this point, you are still working hard putting in 0,90,100,100+ mile weeks, hard workouts but instead of hitting a great race 3 out of every 4 its more like you have a good race, then a few shitty ones in a row even with the same work because you can't recover like you used to because you don't slack off at work or take lunch time naps or are a spry 25 year old. It can be hard to stay motivated.

I think that is more what the OP is going through. I myself am going through something similar. Was an All American in College, did the post collegiate thing team thing. Did the I have a real job, train by myself and have a shoe sponsor thing race well thing. You've worked hard at the sport your whole life, you have talent, used it well, but are realizing the first signs of burnout - especially if you never had a break. You still love the sport but the energy it takes to compete at that level is sinking in for the first time..

I had this happy recently recently. My current decision, and advice to you OP is this. Take a small break. 3-4 weeks. Run when you want, stick to the trails do what you like. Maybe ride your bike, lift weights, hike, whatever. At the end of the short break ask why you like running and start running if there is pleasure in it for you. If you find the spark, great. If not, well stay fit and be at peace with departing but move onto a new chapter of your life with the same intensity. Good Luck!

I am at a cross roads too wrote:

I had this happy recently recently. My current decision....

** Should have said, "I had this happen recently. My current decision..."

When I realized I could no longer recover from hard workouts and sufficient mileage

dirtbag runner wrote:

When I realized I could no longer recover from hard workouts and sufficient mileage

That's where it starts.

The moment I crossed the line in my last college race.

I still run and race but I have much more important priorities.

Most of my PRs were probably set before the OP was born. I'm still not done with racing competitively because I still love it. I can't see anything other than permanent injury changing that.

I have noticed that virtually none of my old running buddies and race competitors from 20+ years ago are still in the game. I'm now competing with masters who were adult onset runners; they started (or re-started) in their late 30s or 40s.

old man shuffle wrote:

Most of my PRs were probably set before the OP was born. I'm still not done with racing competitively because I still love it. I can't see anything other than permanent injury changing that.

I have noticed that virtually none of my old running buddies and race competitors from 20+ years ago are still in the game. I'm now competing with masters who were adult onset runners; they started (or re-started) in their late 30s or 40s.

Just to add another thought: I believe my lack of success in my "PR years" kept the desire going strong. I was a walk on to a bad college team, and never felt like I achieved much as a college runner, although I competed all four years. After college, I set several stretch goals that I ultimately fell short of. I think that kept the fire burning, so to speak.

If I'd ever achieve a level of success that satisfied me, I might have been more inclined to hang it up.