Unpopular opinion for hobby joggers

But a 50 year old can’t run 130 miles a week. Elites all fall within an age range that is “young”. Generally, someone who is younger is stronger, and can recover quickly.

The earlier post referring to the female jogger running Boston, was Paula Radcliffe, the fastest female ever, pre super shoes. She now can’t run 130 miles per week. The hobby jogger needs a bit more direction than just run a lot, with some a bit faster. We are in a technological age where everything is measured. The old system, that I grew up with 50 years ago, where I went out for a run, not sure of the distance or pace ( and had no interest in the exact distance or pace) is dead.

How do you want to define tempo runs? We didn't really have the term but did a lot of that sort of running. You didn't really know you were doing a tempo run when you did one because while you knew what you were doing you just called it a run and now decades later I still don't know exactly how to answer. We had at least three guys in my club that I know of who qualified for OT Marathons doing daily runs around 6:00-6:30 pace. That's more than three times a week and I don't really know if you'll count that as tempo running. I knew of a few people who did similar stuff but at faster paces. I think lot of out of school runners who were done with the track pretty much did the same thing most every day and I think a lot of it was in that gray zone you're supposed to avoid now. I don't know if that's what you're looking for or not.

There is nothing wrong with any runner, hobby joggers/4+ hour marathoners/ beginners/etc. taking running seriously.

Ultimately one of the best things about running is the process, the training, the trials of miles. The results do not mean as much if you do not enjoy the actions that got you there.

Running can (and should) be an end in itself, and does not always have to be a means to an end.

Nothing wrong with researching and implementing detailed and complicated training plans, getting the latest max % benefit supershoes, or committing to a 20 min core routine each day if that is what you enjoy.

But people dont inherently know how to train approximately right. Strava exists and weve all seen the horror shows of how some folks train.

Besides this, we all like to pretend 'times dont matter', 'no one cares'. But we all know thats rubbish. Being an olympian will make you famous at a national level (perhaps), and being good at a local level does get you some recognition locally. Yes its only sport and its silly but runners talk about other runners, more so the good ones.

I think many people on this board would rather running died a death and all races cancelled rather than the masses get involved.

Yes, we want people to run, but they must run "properly".

I agree that running is actually really simple and that a lot of training is complicated when it shouldn't be but everyone is different and people want to do things their own way. As long as they aren't an influencer trying to sell coaching when they don't have a clue then I don't care what they do.

Why do so many on these boards why upset about the masses/hobby joggers? Gate keeping at its finest

ha ha but then you would need the marathon if you are a man to be faster than 2:10 and women 2:30 otherwise you can’t enter abc if you run slower than those paces to be DQ’ed as we don’t want hobby joggers taking part….

I agree with the premise of the thread to an extent. The big but being, what if you had a system in place that was so relatively simple it let you control how how much more you need to do, to keep improving?

This is where essentially the sirpoc method in the Norwegian Singles theasiis genius.

Sirpoc himself is a hobby jogger who has still just kept improving, by using basic data to control efforts and make sure he's recovered. For the most part, I don't trust runners to handle this process themselves. Following something like what sirpoc has laid out is basically just the "run more" philosophy laid out by the OP here, but in a very clever, measured and controlled way - that as I have been doing it has kept me way healthier than just going out and guessing how much to run make etc.

So I think you can keep it basic but still have a sensible plan. I think most people who have jumped in head first to that thread and actually trained like it for a while, would probably mostly agree.

Totally agree.

The elitism shown on this board by many is laughable. Especially when you consider that their attempts to demonstrate their superiority/ authority via their PB’s, race placings etc only matter to themselves and others of their ilk on here, but mean nothing to anyone in the real world. It is their only place to project dominance, hence their demeaning attitude towards those they deem as being “hobbyjoggers”.

This thread seems to assume that you've got unlimited time. Most post college hobbyjogging adults have commutes, jobs, families and responsibilities and thus significant time constraints. Typically an hour a day to exercise if you're lucky. Doing 7 hours of easy running a week is not going to bring you closer to your potential than 5hrs easy, 2 sessions and some strides. I actually once tried moving everything to MAF/z2 and slowly got slower and slower.

So, OP is right. He’s just not “clever, measured and controlled” right? 😂😂😂

As far as the elitism on his board, most of the elitists don’t even run in races. They are has been never was’s who ran back in the day and now are bitter towards people who do it for fun and exercise.

At the end of 2023, someone started a thread asking people to name the races they ran that year. It got about 20 responses, mine being one. OP correctly concluded the board is filled with Al Bundy types.

There is nothing elite or elitism about understanding that you do need to just run more, but that controlling how you do that is the key. That's just smart and as the sirpoc thread mentioned points out, isn't that hard. Majority of the people in that thread have shared race times, so I don't know where you are going with this. LRC drivel really, your post.

Yeah, let’s all strive for mediocrity and never seek the best from ourselves. If we’re not scoring points and dollars, it’s not worth the struggle and effort.

Your opinion is unpopular for a reason. We live in the lives we create, and how we run reflects how we live our lives.

There’s a way to loosely follow a plan, and a way to understand how a basic structure helps you find your personal best, while also managing and balancing the other parts of your life. I might not prioritize running in the same way an elite does (and I should not), but damnit, if I didn’t love the pursuit - the striving towards a goal, finding the best of myself and having a direction to focus. Maybe you’ll laugh at that effort, but I’ll know it’s made me a better person along the way.

Unless you make a living solely from running then you are a hobby jogger. Strange that this fact is unwelcome.

They have their identities tied to a metric that has no market value and that no one cares about, and it hurts. Thus, the lashing out.

I’ve just had to reply to the other thread about why people are just jogging round at conversational pace as it pointless, guess they forgot to read this thread, the idiots.

don’t they know jogging round is all which is needed to make them world class?

I've seen someone run 8:47 steeplechase off 40 mpw but doing intervals etc. Numerous other club runners doing good times off limited mileage with intervals etc

If he just jogged that mileage no way would he be running close to that time and running 80 mpw takes a lot more time. Obvs to reach full potential you need to do both, but your advice is not good

Bit off-topic. I got a viral infection two weeks ago and it didn't hit me that hard. I could actually run. I could hit half my mileage and 60-70% of my pace.

Other times when this happens I completely stop to help my body recover as fast as possible. This time I didn't feel that bad and decided to just do short, recovery pace runs on most days and the remaining days - lots of strides to just maintain turnover.

I did this because I've got a 5K race scheduled this sunday and I didn't want to have 2 weeks of no training at all. Now I'm OK. I can definitely feel my legs are peppy, but my endurance suffered.

Have anybody maintained his fitness when ill in similar way? Share some thoughts. Thanks.

I think everyone knows you should try to add volume. I think it's also easy to laugh at how precise people have become with our data overload nowadays.

But "serious" runners spend years building up to their potential (if they ever actually get there, which is probably unlikely) and it's ridiculous to think that they shouldn't have structure on that journey. The entire sport is built around this principle.

And then there are "hobbyjoggers," who with a proper approach can probably do better on 30 mpw than 40. Yeah you can tell them to run 50 instead but that might be the end of it for their body that sits at work all day. Is that the biological limit? For all kinds of reasons ranging from personal history to work, they're never going to reach Lydiard's 100-120 magic number

But then we get people on here saying it only matters in your own mind if you run a little faster in the hobby world--and then proceed to invent a completely arbitrary "real" goal of _trying out_ for the Olympics as when it really matters to shave some time off. Ok yeah sure that's when the universe cares...

The truth of this sport is that in America we struggle putting seats in the stands to watch some of the fastest humans ever. A few people can actually get materially rewarded for being fast. Other than that, running is largely a self-defined journey of people trying to push themselves a little harder because they want to.

You can follow a plan, simple, complicated, or something in between, and still be settling for mediocrity if your plan has only a small amount of running. And that's fine if that's what someone wants to do. The OP's point is that you're not going to get huge improvements if you're following such a plan but limiting how much you run. You'd get bigger improvements by doing a lot more running which would not mean you couldn't keep doing all these precise things he mentions. Steve Magness wrote an article saying this exact thing. I can't find it anymore but if I do I'll post it here.