Is it possible to train at an elite level while working 40+ hours/week?

joiwef wrote:

Really? I had about 15-20 hours of work a week in college, and that included classes to go to.

I know you're just trolling, but most people average 16 hours of class to graduate in four years. I suppose different majors require different amounts of work, and you can do less work if you don't care about the results.

Melbourne > better than US corporate labor

i tried big4 public accounting (auditor) but didnt work too well for the running.

WeJo had some good comments, and he has walked the walk.

As another poster said, try to get a job in your field with regular hours at 40 hours per week and limited travel. This is a good question to ask at an interview, but I wouldn't volunteer that you were planning to devote a substantial amount of your time outside of work to training. You don't want to miss the opportunity to get some practical work experience in your field after graduating.

I would avoid the temptation to coach yourself and train alone. Find a club to train with and a coach to work with that will fit into your work schedule. That will help you set goals and stay motivated with people who will share your interest in running.

If you have a physical job it helps.

I worked as a baggage handler for many years and although my running is mediocre some of the guys I worked with were

reasonably accomplished runners.

Continuous lifting of weights up to 30kg(about 65lbs) is perfect cross training for running.

The fact that much of the lifting we did was on our knees

added considerably to building core strength without bulking up.

Knee issues were never a problem.

We did most of our training runs at work but that was in the good old days of long breaks between flights and a world that was not ruled by fear and excess security.

6:00 - wake up

6:15 - out the door to run 45 minutes

7:00 - stretch, shower, dress

7:30 - prepare and eat breakfast

8:00 - out the door for work

8:30 - arrive at work

5:30 - leave work (I'm assuming an 8 hour work day, with an hour lunch break)

6:00 - begin 2nd run, be it workout or whatever

7:30 - stretch, shower, etc.

8:00 - prepare dinner

8:30 - eat dinner

9:00 - relax for an hour

10:00 - in bed by 10, getting 8 hours of sleep

It's far from ideal, and demands some pretty precise time management, and you only get 8 hours of sleep on a week night, but your weekends remain pretty open, so you can sleep in two days out of seven.

HRE wrote:

Of course it's possible. When the sport was "amateur" everyone had to work and run once they were done with school.

Go to Bob Hodge's website and check Bill Rodgers' logs from 1974-76. He was working as a hospital orderly or a teacher while doing all that. The real issue that we struggled with was getting time off to go to out of town races.

What years, specifically, was he working as an orderly and then as a teacher? I'm just curious.

over the summer i had a taste of training (only singles) during full-time working. i would wake up around 5:45. long commute to the city. get to work around 7:30. work until 5:30 at the earliest but more commonly 6:30. then either run in the city, treadmill at the office gym (super convenient), or commute home. get home around 7-8. run, eat, sleep, repeat. weekends were free. very taxing. running got a lot better once i stopped working. sleeping is terrible. 6-8 hours of wasted time. working/dating/training would be so much easier if sleep wasnt necessary.

I can't give an answer for distance events, as I was a multi-guy.

It all depends what you mean by a "high level".

If you mean "elite", the answer is "no". To be elite, your life has to be dedicated.

If you mean "respectable", then I would say that it should be possible for distance events, as success seems to be predicated largely on mileage, which I think is possible to achieve even when half asleep.

For highly technical stuff like multi's, the answer is definitively "no". You need tons of time, tape, coaching, massage, weights, and specific drills.

For sprinting, well, "respectable" sprinters are born and not made, no matter what anybody tells you. You can absolutely work and still be "respectable".

Now, if you have to work AND you have a family or a demanding wife, you can FORGET about respectability entirely!

But seriously, good luck.

If you can, the most important thing, IMHO, is to find an excellent training partner, just to have someone around who is interested in the same thing, with a similar goal.

I had an easier time training while working full time than at school. School might only be 40 hours/week, but your sleep schedule is always getting screwed up. It's easy enough to get 8 hours of sleep consistently while working, provided your commute isn't too bad.

It definitely CAN be done, but it is challenging. I guess the question is more: Is it worth it?

When you get into the work world the reality is that most jobs are not 40 hours per week, except in theory. Rarely, do I work 40 hours a week. Usually, it's closer to 50.

Of course, even if you work 10-12 hour days that still leaves time to run, just not a lot of time for much else. So it's really more a matter of Motivation Issues (it's cold/dark/I'm exhausted) than actually not having TIME to run.

I have met several sub-elite runners who are devoted enough to running that they make it a priority and GET IT DONE and have improved from their college times and moved to the "elite" ranks. I am not one of them, but I'm sure that if I had been near-elite or elite potential in college, I would be willing to make training a priority in hopes of getting to the next level.

The way I see it there are 5 days a week when running is challenging (though still do-able), but with most normal jobs there are weekends. That helps a lot!! When I do get more serious about training I make sure that I maximize my weekend running. Sometimes this means running 2-3 times a day on Sat/Sun to make up for runs I missed on Mon - Friday. Always, I make sure to get in long runs on the weekend.

If running is a major priority for you, I would seriously consider this in jobs you seek. Fitting runs into the normal work schedule, while totally do-able, can be draining. If you are able to find jobs that allow you to work outside of the 8-5 or 9-6 schedule it makes the running part easier/more ejoyable. That way you don't have to get up at 6 am to run in the dark/cold, then work a 10 hour day or have to go running after work when you're exhausted/it's dark outside. Also having training partners and/or set workout times/routines can really help. For a lot of people not having a coach/team/schedule is really the toughest part of post-college running.

But, yeah. I think it's totally do-able if you're willing to make the sacrifices.

Good Luck!

I worked full time (40+ hours/week) and competed professionally on the roads for 10 years. I wasn't a particularly high mileage runner, but made the best use of my two-a-days by running very early in the am and after work. If you really want to do it, and don't mind training by yourself (most of the running pros don't work outside of running, so you are on your own when you do intervals at 6am!), you will do fine. good luck!

I'm not sure when he went from orderly to teacher. I know that he was working as an orderly in 1975 when he won Boston.It was a job he had to do to fulfill the "alternative service" requirement as a conscientious objector to the military draft. Coincidentally, Steve Hoag, who got second, worked at a hospital in the Twin Cities, also as an orderly I think and Jon Anderson, who won the race in 1973 was working as a hospital orderly in Eugene to fulfill his alternative service requirement. I recall giving serious thought to getting a job as a hospital orderly for a while but gave the idea up after working as an orderly in a nursing home for a night

Shortly afterward, if I recall, BR was fired for trying to start a union at the hospital (Peter Brent Brigham which I think is now Brigham and Women's but I'm not betting my life on any of this.)

By 1976 he was teaching at the Fernald School in Waltham and did that until he opened his shop around 1978 or so.

Someone else may be better on specifics here.

As others have mentioned: if you can run (or even cycle) to and from work sometimes it's a big help. Travelling time is dead time - much better of you can use it for something.

Some places are better set up for this. Where I live (Cambridge, UK) some 25% of commuter journeys are already by bike, and there are cities in the Netherlands where it's over 50%.

Still, ultimately we all make choices about where we live and work.

Also running in your lunch break is a good option if it's possible.

Ask Nate Jenkins and Max King

Depends on your personality but the training alone is the hard bit. Not for east runs but its good to have teamates for workout etc

Over here its a lot easier because of the running club structure -most towns/cities have a running track with a least 1 running club

I worked full time but never did doubles every day.

However, I did a physical job in a factory for 2 years, the last 6 months doing 6am-5pm

Improved at running a fair bit a few months after leaving for cushy office job as when doing the factory stint was fit and strong just permanantly knackered

Once doing the 9-5 I could have gone to doubles, (well did Saturdays) but didn't think I was good enough make it worthwhile. I trained with a guy who did the same training as I did (or less) but his 3,000m was 30 seconds faster than mine - his with barriers! I didn't however realise at the time how much you could improve doing doubles

If I had the ops talent I would have gone for it you might not get be able to make a living at running but will still be one of the best runners in your region and win good races

Sure you can do it. Case and point Tera Moody. I'm 35 years old, work full-time, and I'm a father of 3 with a fourth on the way. I'm working towards elite status and I'm faster now than in my high school track days. However to maintain a good training plan with such a tight schedule requires LOTS of sacrifice.

You can do it in New York City (and still have a great social life). Join a track club.

adsfsdf wrote:

joiwef wrote:

Really? I had about 15-20 hours of work a week in college, and that included classes to go to.

I know you're just trolling, but most people average 16 hours of class to graduate in four years. I suppose different majors require different amounts of work, and you can do less work if you don't care about the results.

Most colleges require 120 hours to graduate, which is 15 hours a semester.

Undergraduate is pretty easy for the most part. I definitely did less than 5 hours a week of studying outside of class in undergrad and did very well. It does partially depend on your major- classes that require a lot of memorization might require more studying, for instance.

And obviously, it mostly depends on the person. Some people have to study more. But others can get by without doing anything at the undergraduate level (I didn't buy any books for any of my classes my last two years).