Change my workout to avoid looking creepy or no?

He is overthinking, but I get it. People draw conclusions and are often wrong.

I would keep running and if we both stopped at the same place I'd engage her in conversation.

IF in fact, this is really happening (and I doubt it) she's choosing to do that for a reason.

Have a friendly conversation.

Hey, one time this REALLY HOTTTT bank (as it turns out loan manager) came up to the teller I was about to ask a question from and put up her closed sign and said- I can help you down here, sir.

I went to her new window and asked about transferring a loan to that bank.

She said- I can help you, come to my office.

Turns out, 6 years later, we're very close friends and have dated a few times AND she "confessed" that she did that on purpose because she wanted to meet me!

You REALLY never know.

I'm not fat- I'm very fit, have been told that I'm very good looking and I AM about 25 years older than she is.

If I'm going back and forth past someone because I'm doing a workout and am concerned about how it looks, I'll make a big show of splitting my watch when I change paces so that it is obvious what I'm doing. Same thing if it's time to make a U-turn and someone happens to come along at the same time - I hold my watch arm up and stare at my watch for a few seconds to make it obvious that I'm turning around there anyway and not following whoever ran by. But other than that, I see no need to change your own run just to accommodate someone else's paranoia.

Agreed. To the OP, who cares if she thinks you are creepy? There's nothing you can do about that. Just enjoy your workout and stop letting other people's judgments hold you back from doing what you want to do.

And lots of people are judging you for your assessment of her physical features, but I don't think your assessment is coming from a malicious place. Instead, your tone of judging yourself as old and out of shape while she is attractive shows that you might subconsciously think she is better than you. It is this exact mindset and the catastrophizing accompanying it that lead to creepiness - not running behind her on a trail.

Before everyone else piles on, too, about me not understanding the threats women face - you're wrong. I do. But, just because you view most guys as threats does not mean guys are obligated to walk on eggshells every time they leave the house. Your anxiety is not so important that you get to force others to share it. When you are pissed that people exist in your presence, the problem is not them - it is you.

Yeah, dude, that's my point. I was doing a structured workout & didn't know I would be yo-yoing with her. I didn't pass her & slow to have her pass me back. I had no idea what pace she was running. She increased the pace because she thought I was messing with her, which means stuff like that has probably happened to her before. It hit me afterwards what was going on & why it would've made her feel uncomfortable. I was dialed into my workout. I'll try to be more aware of stuff like this.

What you're doing is commenting on looks & putting your ego into it. I tried to give a helpful example because the situation sounded similar enough. There wasn't any ill-intent but that doesn't change making somebody uncomfortable without meaning to. I haven't even commented on your situation & then you went off. My whole point is that we don't know what will make a female runner uncomfortable but we can try to not add to it in situations like these. Running a step behind her will make her uncomfortable since she passed you. Change directions or take a few minute jog break/do a broken tempo. One day like this doesn't make/break training.

Any woman who can average close to 6min pace should know what an interval workout is

First an opportunity to brag for me.

For about 40 years, except in team situations, I never once got passed on paths or roads when I was out running. I was a decent runner and lived in small cities. During that time if someone tried to pass me I would not allow it, and I had the ability to avoid people doing it. Man does that make people angry! Once on a track when I was past my prime, someone from the XC team tried to pass me. He literally could not do it. He made a loud exclamation after several laps and gave up! Looking back, I probably should have slowed and friended him. If you are out running and someone passes you, hey that's okay. And if you pass them back multiple times that is also okay. It's all explainable isn't it. There is really no "polite" in those situations, it's whether you feel like competing that day or not.

Now as an older person, I would have to let even people with squarish, round, or rectangular physiques pass me.

Even as a female, I've sometimes ended up in awkward situations like this where you end up basically running right along with another stranger due to them passing you and slowing or you doing a workout or whatever organic circumstances. Even though it's less creepy to have a small female running along with you if something like this happens, I still feel weird if I end up looking like I'm following someone like this and usually just end up stopping for a minute to let them get ahead or will surge for long enough to get well ahead of them. Even if it was my own fault, I might feel kinda uncomfortable if an older man ended up following me like that, so if that happens again, I'd consider just adjusting your pace to get a gap between you and here or just stopping or turning around for a minute just to spread out. But also runners should just know this happens sometimes if you're gonna pass people and slow down, so I wouldn't be overly worried about this if it happens and you decide not to adjust. It just feels so awkward, I almost always will do something to adjust so I am not running right along with another random person.

wow are you kidding me? look if she was uncomfortable shed probably do something about it (stop running, turn around, punch him in the face)

Think it would be creepy?

Try this thread. WAY more creepier!!!

I would've changed directions in the OP's scenario.

Last year I had an unusual encounter running an easy run on my regular bike path. There was a woman in front of me who was clearly overweight by runners' standards and was running way slower than me because I gained on her rather quickly. I moved over wide left to pass her and suddenly she picks up the pace dramatically and stays in front of me.

This totally caught me off guard but I continued running near her for a bit thinking she was going to slow down, but she didn't. At this point we were under 7 minute pace and I was thinking there was no way this woman will be able to keep up. But then I reminded myself that this was an easy run for me (and I'm old), so there's no point in me altering my gameplan. So I turned around.

I have no idea what this woman was thinking. Either she was looking for some motivation to run faster or she erroneously believed I was a threat. Either way I was glad I turned around.

Definitely. I have run on a lot of bike paths in a lot of cities, and I have never observed a woman holding anything close to 6:15 pace, outside of a race. I get that it happens, but just pointing out she is a high level runner - elite or sub-elite. Also, most any dudes who are averaging that pace would likely be doing some kind of "workout" as well. Not saying it wasn't awkward or should have happened, just saying that she's a high level runner who made the choice to compete with this guy.

If this woman thought you were a threat she probably would have put more distance between the two of you.

You've a got a split personality going here. You start by asking whether you should have turned around briefly or altered your workout... someone says yes... and you chew them out like it's the craziest and most offensive idea you've ever heard. Were you willing to consider changing, or weren't you? If not, why did you bother asking?

My take: of course you have the right to do your own thing. You didn't "start" it (assuming you didn't unconsciously speed up after she passed you, which is definitely easy to do without realizing it).

That said, if you shift the frame from "what am I entitled to do?" to "what might make this other person in the world comfortable or uncomfortable?", I'd opt for a minor change, e.g. running in the other direction for 1-2 minutes. Are you obliged to do this? Heck no. Would it be a nice thing to do, in case this other person is the type to be uncomfortable about your persistent presence? Sure. Given that the cost to you (other than violating your "contrarian streak," which frankly seems like a good thing to practice doing anyway) is so small, I'd go ahead and do it even though the chance that the other person cares is also small.

One other point of context. My wife was a pretty high-end runner (All American, etc.) who liked (and still likes) to grind in training, so she has rolled up a lot of guys on her runs over the years.

For the guys, it's presumably a rare anecdote to tell: "You'll never believe what happened, I was running a tempo, and this woman came up behind and tried to pass me! Would you believe it? So I kicked it up a few gears and showed her..." etc. etc.

For her, it was pretty much every fricking run, every fricking day. When we first met, I found it puzzling that she got so annoyed at guys racing her or trying to keep up with her. After all, I'd had similar experiences. We've all had them. What's the big deal? But for her, it was every day of the week, and the novelty had worn off years earlier. So it's worth remembering that other people may be more sensitive to a given situation than you are, even if it's not your fault.

That reminded me, there's a female runner in my area who is definitely faster than me and two weeks in a row last year I saw her in the opposite direction on the path just as I was starting my tempo workout and right as she was turning around. Talk about timing. I figured I would get passed, but I didn't. It was probably an easy run for her or she utilized some of the tactics mentioned previously. So I could see where a faster female would also have these same types of scenarios.

There was one workout in particular where I was doing mile repeats at tempo effort with a minute recovery. I peeked behind me at the end of the last rep and she was not far behind. I hoped that she was savvy enough to figure out what I was doing.

This is why you old 35+ guys should train speed and quickness, too. You can’t hammer an 8 second boost at 16+ mph? Come on

She would keep a wide berth if you if as you say, you took a wide berth.

I think you’re either getting punked by a fiesty heavyset woman, or you’re being suspicious with body language and are actually running on a narrow trail directly at her back, prompting her to make a dash for it