Where do people do their mileage when they have full time jobs?

Doing it like Bill Rodgers at the Y.

I am for sure switching to sprinting/ 400/800 training when I get out of college.

Quick interval type sessions and lifting everyday, with some nice runs in there, and no high mileage.

Sounds great to me

Only advice is to get plenty of reflective gear, but this is more of a thank you post for starting this thread. I'm in a similar boat, started a job about a month ago where three days a week I've had to run at 5am before work and then 6pm once I get home on suburban sidewalks trying to find lit up streets, doing the same routes over and over and I've hated it. Basically took this last week off cuz I was just sick of it. But this thread has helped get me motivated again, especially after seeing so many people getting out so much earlier than I do.

Look around. Just a couple miles outside my neighborhood there is a big church with exactly a quarter mile loop parking lot. Always lit (and empty except for Sunday) and great for "track" workouts. If there are nearby baseball fields or soccer fields that is good for softer surface. Any schools- even elementary or middle schools nearby usually have some type of "track" or open field you can run on outside of school hours.

I work 45-60hr/week I run 90-115 miles a week. The winter is the best time for running where I am cause it's too hot the other 9 months of the year. There is plenty of paved trails, and dirt levees around where I live and by the office that have good enough ambient lighting to run in the dark. Just have to watch out for skunks in the winter. I typically do my main run in the morning because habit from the summer but sometimes in the winter I will move it to the evening. so I start to run at like 5 or 6 am and start 5-7:30 PM for my afternoon/evening run. If there is an event at work I may run during lunch so I can grab a few cold ones. really it's just if you are committed or not. Location where you live is key too. I moved to be close to trails and not a busy city area.

Britlady wrote:

I am a lady 34 work full-time run 50 miles/week in the winter and live in the middle of nowhere all trails, no shops, streetlights for 5 miles. Starts getting dark at 4ish now. I have just started going out after work with a headlight and have had many discussions about the dangers of this with friends etc.

Personally running in the dark I feel more alert and safer than on summer evenings - odd. Could be a false sense of security of not being able to see anyone/anything...I do wear high vis, headlight and tell my husband route as a precaution.

Pics?

IndianaJeff wrote:

I work at a big law firm, 60-70 hours a week, and have two young kids. I wake up at 4 to run and run in the dark. I'm fortunate to be able to hit the door and be on a bike/running trail within four blocks. I cross a single intersection, near my house, with no traffic except occasionally the newspaper delivery lady making her stops.

I used to do exactly this when I worked a big law job. I felt like my running and home life were suffering. After 8 years in big law, I was passed over for partner and decided to go In-house.

It was the best thing that ever happened to me. Suddenly I had so much time for running and time with the family. It wasn't as glamorous as the big law life, but it was worth it for the kids, the family and the running (not to mention that stock option).

... is why I always tell the youngsters, run now while you are able to run at the peak of your athletic ability... don't waste it... you get to work the rest of your life but you won't be fast the rest of your life!

As for what to do if you work full time and want to run... sorry to say you've just to got buck up and run in the a.m. even if it's dark... if you are still doing doubles then get the tough one in in the morning if you can... it sucks, but if you're a true distance runner you can do it!

Now, get out there and train!!!

I did a range of things as a young man working in San Francisco and NYC in the early 80s.

--in SF, change out of my Brook Brothers suit in the men's room during lunch, run for 45 minutes, towel off in the men's room when I got back, change, and eat lunch at my desk.

--in NYC, change into my running clothes in the men's room immediately after work, stuff everything into a daypack, jog 4 miles slowly home, mostly through Central Park (59th and Madison to 123rd and Amsterdam), drop off the daypack, then go back out and run another 6, much faster, down and back to 72nd through Riverside Park

Cities, with all their lighting, make it easier to run at night. I've run on the sides of dark deserted highways (Rt. 303, the three miles north of my hometown of Congers, NY) and that can be fun; you feel like you're moving more quickly when you lose peripheral vision.

But I don't particularly enjoy running on trails with a headlamp at night, although I've done that here in Oxford, MS. It freaks me out when I see the eyes by the side of the trail, off in the bushes. (Deer).

My preference is to run in the evenings, so I usually know what run I'll do, what I'll wear and how long I'll be out before I get home from work. Then it's a case of changing and getting out of the door as quickly as possible, so I'm home in time for a sensible dinner.

2 days a week I train at my club, so these evenings I stay late at work and go straight to the track - these extra couple of hours a week give me the ability to get out of the door dead on 5.

On double days (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday atm), I wake up early and drive straight to work (get to work around 6:30), and run from the carpark. Fortunately there are shower facilities at work, so I can run for an hour, have a quick shower and be at my desk with breakfast for 8am.

I'm lazy and don't like running in unlit areas with a headtorch, so I do these runs on lit roads with high vis clothing on. 2 work outs a week are on a lit track/road/field and the weekends are when I get to run in daylight.

Jim Walmsley wore two flashlights on his R2R2R run...

Also, sidewalks suck, but there's gotta be something like a park or a trail or dirt road or an alley that is dirt that you can incorporate into your run. Find these and connect them and minimize your concrete running.

Ah, yeah I understand where you are coming from. I felt similar when I finished college but, for me that was nearly 15 years ago.

I work 60-70 hrs/week and have been doing so for a while. I typically run around 50 mpw but go up to 80 mpw when training for marathons or a big goal race. For the past 8 years or so I've been getting up at 4 AM (3:30 on occasion if I am doing a longer run--like 12-15 miles). I have never used a head lamp running but I do where reflective gear (vest, hat) and little flashing lights (Nathan) to insure I am visible to cars, etc. Currently I live in a medium sized city very close (less than a quarter mile) to nice dirt / gravel trails--which is really quite convenient. It is hard to do tempos and intervals early in the AM but if you ran competitively then you probably have the constitution to pull it off. You definitely get use to it, or at least I have.

I lived in big cities in the years just after college and always found time / places to run. Right after college I ran in the evenings but now with kids and more work responsibilities early AM actually works the best for me. I get some alone time, get my workouts in, but am still around for my family--which is important to me.

You'll figure this out. If you want to keep running you'll have to make it a priority and likely make some sacrifices. As one poster already said, choose where you live at least partially based on your running (I don't mean which city you live in but where in that city you live). I think this is especially important if you are doing AM runs. It's really nice to be close to trails that are realatively safe (car free) and well maintained.

I try to get in half of my weekly mileage on the weekends. On Saturday and Sunday I run just after sunrise and just before sunset, doubling at least once and sometimes on both days. In winter I do weekday runs in the evening from my office downtown where there are good street lights. During the long days of summer, the concrete jungle downtown is very hot so I move my weekday runs to the suburbs where there is more shade. I do my weekday workout after work on a track that has decent lighting and that will sometimes be completely lit if there is a team practicing on the field. I will occasionally run before work if I have people to run with, but generally I hate running before work. I find that running after work chills me out and let's me clear my head before I get home.

angryjohnny wrote:

I find that running after work chills me out and let's me clear my head before I get home.

Let's? Let us me?

Stop abusing the apostrophe! Just because a word ends in s does not mean it needs an apostrophe!

This is out of control. Take an English class.

I didn't even start running 100+ mile weeks until out of college. I routinely ran 100+ upwards of 120-140 a week while working 40hrs a week (9 hour days, 8 hours plus an hour lunch).

Schedule was either 6-3 or 11-8. I was a personal trainer and fitness coordinator at a corporate gym. It was a downtown job. I ran a lot of 10/5 or 13/5 days. The main run was easy to get in. The second run was always harder. Some days I would run in the afternoon and again in the evenings. I had many, many late night runs around 9-10pm just getting in the miles. During the summer this was great.

The majority of my workouts were on a measured path along the river that was used for a local race and measured in miles. Anything shorter than a mile was done at a track on Saturdays or just done by effort. 1:00 on/1:00 off was a favorite short workout.

Ran my PRs for everything 5k and longer after college.

Alan

try finding someone to meet with for at least 2 runs a week. This will help to get you out of bed and in a rhythm during that 5 days of work.

I changed my hours to start at 6:00 and leave by 4:00 PM 5 years ago. As we get closer to solstice I do end up finishing my runs in the dark, but for the most part I can get all my runs in while there is daylight. It sucks waking up early but it's worth it.

Since I live where it is cold af, I often choose whenever the warmest part of the day is regardless of sunlight. I sometimes run during lunch and just stay late at work if there is going to be a significant difference or if I am going to have to stay late for a meeting anyway.

During the winter since I am short on sunlight I often just run from my house, which is all residential. The street has it's pros and cons - I prefer the mindlessness of taking a sidewalk up Woodward and turning at X mile road to the loop planning that is involved with staying in neighbourhoods. But it's whatever.

If I am running at night anyway or if it's summer and I have the time, I will drive up to a rail to rail trail, a metro/state park, or even some single track. It's easy to find great running places with Garmin explore, Strava heatmaps, mtbproject, and good old fashioned Google maps. Additionally there are always group runs that I can tag along with, literally every night of the week. Check with your local running shop and meetup.com.

Good luck

apostrophe abuse wrote:

angryjohnny wrote:

I find that running after work chills me out and let's me clear my head before I get home.

Let's? Let us me?

Stop abusing the apostrophe! Just because a word ends in s does not mean it needs an apostrophe!

This is out of control. Take an English class.

Stop abusing exclamation points and being a dick. Thank's.

Thanks again everyone.

I've never been an early morning person. Getting up at 6am is hard for me, so getting up even earlier, 4am etc, sounds like a nightmare. Follow up questions:

1. What time do the very earlier runners go to bed at night?

2. Has anyone else who was not a good morning person made the transition to a early morning runner? If so, how long did it take before if felt good/natural to be getting up so early? (I'm worrried I'll be tired all day and suck at my job for a month or so and never really get used to it where I'd enjoy it like my afternoon runs felt. Yes I got up early and ran this morning and it just felt like a zombie for most of it.)