"Training like a pro" in running is really easy. That's actually one of the things I love about it. There's basically no other sport where you can do roughly the same training as Olympians while still holding down a real job. Maybe the strength training is a little more limited, and there's less sleep per night, but the core isn't that hard.
Now, if you asked the same question about amateur adults who are trying to train like pros in golf, tennis, or cycling, then that'd be a fair question. Training at that level, if you could even pull it off, would require insane sacrifices. But running? Please. Americans watch way more minutes of TV per week than the average Olympian spends running.
All that training is very time consuming and takes a lot of energy.
Time consuming? No its not, its like 1-1,5 hours running every day. Just stop being on instagram, tiktok, even letsrun and make run for running. Run to/from work/school whatever.
All that training is very time consuming and takes a lot of energy.
Time consuming? No its not, its like 1-1,5 hours running every day. Just stop being on instagram, tiktok, even letsrun and make run for running. Run to/from work/school whatever.
I believe we’ve reached a point in this thread where someone needs to point out that nobody cares about your (or my) running.
If you want to run 3x times a week, fine.
If you want to run 1.5 hours a day every day, fine.
Nobody cares!
This post was edited 2 minutes after it was posted.
I would argue it's not "some", almost all of them are training like pros to achieve that. If you don't and still run 15min 5K than you are special.
Personally I'm high 18 guy, but I still train "like a pro". One, because, as another poster said, I would be 21 min guy if I don't and other reason is that this soaks up time and energy which I would otherwise spend in decaying on my coach scrolling social media and eating to death. I know myself well enough and I know that if I don't occupy my free time with training I will do stupid stuff.
I really don't think "almost all" 15-min, 16-min, and especially18-min guys train like pros. I didn't when I was a 15:xx guy in my 40s, or 29-min guy in my 20s. I did a ton of mileage because I like running/moving through scenery (on a bike or skis is fine too) for 2-hours a day, but otherwise either raced into shape or did something like one tempo run a week in race season/no hard workouts at all not in race season. (Yes, I don't think I came anywhere near my full potential, never willing to push things after two years with chronic fatigue in my early 20s.) I never got a sense that most 14-, 15-min guys in my local trained anything like real pros like Jakob, Cole, Kessler, etc. Maybe a handful who also coached and worked at the local running store maybe, not most. Similarly, my GF was winning tons of local races off of basically just a lot of hours/mileage with the dogs/no hard workouts.
It sounds like your g/f is super-fast as well and a high-mileage runner. Running with dogs on a leash sounds hard too.
All that training is very time consuming and takes a lot of energy.
I stopped training really really hard when I realized that I was as fast as I was ever going to get in most races, and that was far from elite. Plus life outside my sport got a lot more interesting. I started coaching for instance. My kids got older. I train probably 6 hours a week now, stay in great shape, occasionally compete, and generally have a good “relationship” with my sport.
I also have time to put my energy into other things that I am much better at, or are important to the people around me.
I am always a little suspicious of middle-aged people who pour all their energy into some sort of athletic or training activity. It makes me wonder what they have eliminated from their lives to be able to spend so much time on a self-gratifying pursuit. I knew a man once in his 40s and 50s who lived for a few years off an inheritance, just so he could train. He was very good, but there was absolutely no chance of him earning a living or even real glory.
Some people can do it if they choose to have no kids and have an ok job with a flexible schedule! Some just want to push themselves as the clock winds down. There is no reason to be suspicious--they are not harming others with their actions!
Why do you want to play make believe into thinking that being alive is actually worth anything? Seriously, why do you even bother being alive when we are in a simulation?
I really don't think "almost all" 15-min, 16-min, and especially18-min guys train like pros. I didn't when I was a 15:xx guy in my 40s, or 29-min guy in my 20s. I did a ton of mileage because I like running/moving through scenery (on a bike or skis is fine too) for 2-hours a day, but otherwise either raced into shape or did something like one tempo run a week in race season/no hard workouts at all not in race season. (Yes, I don't think I came anywhere near my full potential, never willing to push things after two years with chronic fatigue in my early 20s.) I never got a sense that most 14-, 15-min guys in my local trained anything like real pros like Jakob, Cole, Kessler, etc. Maybe a handful who also coached and worked at the local running store maybe, not most. Similarly, my GF was winning tons of local races off of basically just a lot of hours/mileage with the dogs/no hard workouts.
It sounds like your g/f is super-fast as well and a high-mileage runner. Running with dogs on a leash sounds hard too.
What leash? Ha, ha. . . she moved to a rural/mountain area and is on trails mostly on her property plus her mostly absent vacation home neighbors, while I'm in a place where e-collar is considered under ordinance to be "control by leash" and most all trail dogs that are regulars with their runners/mountain bikers are off leash (and actually well behaved) for that reason. Yes, high mileage or hours (since we are mostly on trails/mountains) was the only similarity of our training to pros. I don't even consider what we did training really. It's more a lifestyle of outdoor activity, and when I felt reasonably fit to contend in local races, I'd jump into them (but stopped a decade ago in my later 40s).
Anyway, my GF's friends, who were most of the other top women in the area, also trained nothing at all like pros. They get in their daily runs, but don't have planned out training programs. They had talent/were local stars in high school/maybe college though. Similar for most of the guys.
I'd say only a small proportion of the top local runners train like pros. They are the handful that also have sponsors as trail/mountain runners. Also, the local cross country skiers, who do hop into the local mountain races, are actually training like pros because they are Olympians/World team members, and they show it by kicking the local runners' (who don't train like pros) butts by sometimes large margins in the mountain races.
I guess I have a much, much higher standard for "pro training" than what my GF did as a college runner/skier for example, while some of you would consider typical high school or college training like pro training. I mean look at the jumps for people like Jessica Hull going from college to pro training. She wasn't training like a pro in college, and she was doing more in college or even high school than the 15-, 16-, 18-min 5K guys.
All that training is very time consuming and takes a lot of energy.
The answer is a lot of men, yes men, on here are demented and deluded.
There's a guy on another thread arguing he will race in any weather including extreme heat and if you are not prepared to do that then you are not a true hobby jogger.
"Training like a pro" in running is really easy. That's actually one of the things I love about it. There's basically no other sport where you can do roughly the same training as Olympians while still holding down a real job. Maybe the strength training is a little more limited, and there's less sleep per night, but the core isn't that hard.
Now, if you asked the same question about amateur adults who are trying to train like pros in golf, tennis, or cycling, then that'd be a fair question. Training at that level, if you could even pull it off, would require insane sacrifices. But running? Please. Americans watch way more minutes of TV per week than the average Olympian spends running.
I would challenge the assumption that there has to be less sleep per night or that strength training has to be more limited. We all have the same 24 hours in a day. Some might de-prioritize sleep and choose to spend 6 hours on their phone per day and drink alcohol or go out at night, while others might prioritize 10 hours of sleep per night and a 30-minute nap and not have children and only meet business and running friends in the mornings and Sunday brunch which is the great equalizer between people who prioritize nightlife and people who prioritize sunrise life.
Why do Nick Bare and David Goggins do it, they'll never bee world class in any singular event, but they are overall fitness monsters. Working out just makes a person feel better, and anyone asking that question probably doesn't work out. I'm old and will never be a pro , but it feels really good after a 15 mile run or hill intervals, and knowing other people my age are having a hard time leaving the couch or walking up stairs.
Why do Nick Bare and David Goggins do it, they'll never bee world class in any singular event, but they are overall fitness monsters. Working out just makes a person feel better, and anyone asking that question probably doesn't work out. I'm old and will never be a pro , but it feels really good after a 15 mile run or hill intervals, and knowing other people my age are having a hard time leaving the couch or walking up stairs.
I derived a lot of enjoyment and fitness despite being "only" a 1:58 guy for 800 m, a 3:57 guy for 1500 m, and a 15:30 guy for 5K. I'm in my 60s now and began running training at age 15. It's one of the best things I chose to do in life. If I could re-live my life, sure, there are many things I would try to do differently, including how I ran. As far as running, I would double down, only starting earlier and with all the training knowledge I've learned since my youth. I never did raw speed development or threshold running until very late in my running career. I didn't start strength training or jump training until college. Never used a foam or similar type of roller until my 20s. Today I eat healthy foods (perhaps "food additives" applies) including flax seeds, chia seeds, baby kale, molasses, turmeric - foods that I heard little about until mid-life. I remember eagerly awaiting the arrival each month of my print issue of Track & Field News. Today I can interact with folks on LetsRun and ask particular questions about training and get answers within minutes, hours, or a few days. Or I can watch a race again and again on YouTube and maybe even glean insights from the comments. We have so much more information, and have it at our disposal so much faster. Yes, some of the information is data smog or worse, but there a gems and jewels, too - the 5x60 m thread and some of the LetsRun threads on double thresholds, for example.
15.00-16:00 -5k is still probably faster than over 90% of the world's population.
There are chess players who would kill to be better than same population statistic, 90% would be worse at chess than him/her.
I was a very average college runner, Division 2, PSAC, 8:57 (3000), 15:12/5000, 32:22/10,000. Back in 1980-83.
I got recruited (to Mansfield State college, Pennsylvania, under coach Ed Window, based on my road racing times, 52:03 (10 miles), 1:50:49 (20 miles, Finchley '20', 1978). All that on 45-60 mins per day. Progressive runs, no track or speed work, ever.
Before going to college, I was running 30-35 mins a day, and achieved 15:41/5000 on that, hardly a blip in a day which has 24 hours.
In Summation you don't have to train like a pro, to be better than average.
Another Englishman here and similar era (now 68 years old). I ran very similar times to you up to 10k, probably had a bit more speed (prd 8:45 3000m with a 60 last 400m) but couldn't have got near your 20 mile time.
I was just a club runner there through to my late 30s, when I can to the US and then mostly 5k road races.
Other than for a marathon, when I was age 38, I rarely ran more than 50 miles a week, less in summer, but rarely run much under 6:00 miling. I'd have been close to your 60 min per day, other than club track sessions.
I trained like a pro for nearly a half century because it was fun… I didn’t care about the racing
You 1. trained "like a pro" and 2. did it even if you didn't care about racing? Jesus people on here are dumber than I though.
I'm 68 and do care about racing, but I only 3-4 times a year in very targeted races. I obviously don't do the same volume as a pro, but I do put in a lot of effort into a structured program as I enjoy the process.
I think it's fine to train as hard as possible to 25 and if you're not going to get anything significant out of it beyond that, you need to focus on the important stuff - career, family. I still run 60-80mpw, but that's only when everything else is going well and is in balance. If work gets stressful, or I am having personal issues at home or with family, then running needs to drop off at least so it becomes a stress reliever not a stress giver.
Running should be the icing on the cake once you're past 25. If you can make it work with a job and family commitments, and you're not cutting corners, then great.
I see too many people who have neglected their spouses, kids, careers to run 31 mins or slower for 10k. At the end of the day it's a tough world out there and most people are going to have to work until they're in their 60s so you need a plan and some skills so you can do something you can tolerate and maybe enjoy for as long as possible.
All that training is very time consuming and takes a lot of energy.
This is an attitude that pretty much capsulizes a general quality of LR. The time fetish dominates any other discussion of the beauty (ok, I said it!) and value of running.