Running with a 9-5 job is f*cking impossible

I remember someone I ran with in England getting a scholarship in the US (40 years ago, and he was a 4:03 miler). He was a terrible soccer player by English standards and got offered a chance to switch to soccer in the US.

In English schools back the - regular public school attended by just local kids - it was nothing to have a couple of kids already signed to professional clubs as schoolboys and many another couple that would end up playing semi-professional. The same would apply if you went to the local recreation ground for a pick-up game.

I remember someone I ran with in England getting a scholarship in the US (40 years ago, and he was a 4:03 miler). He was a terrible soccer player by English standards and got offered a chance to switch to soccer in the US.

In English schools back the - regular public school attended by just local kids - it was nothing to have a couple of kids already signed to professional clubs as schoolboys and many another couple that would end up playing semi-professional. The same would apply if you went to the local recreation ground for a pick-up game.

get a job that is low key and relaxing.

you will charge your batteries.

that said, with a stressful job, or professional carear.,forget about it.

no dice.

and get a wife

American dream🗣️

OP everyone in here is trying to one up you by flexing how much worse their schedule is. Don’t listen to them, they’re in the “I suffer so you also have to suffer” mindset.

It is tough and I’m not going to lie and provide a complete solution because there is none. Instead focus on eliminating stuff that does not provide you value in life. Write down things that are important to you (social, career, personal, etc.) and start eliminating anything that does not contribute towards these such as social media, video games, activities you don’t like, friends you don’t like. Use this extra time to prioritize things that make you happy.

I am in this process myself and do think it is helping. I still train a decent amount and have ran close to my respectable college PRs over 6 years later. Some days are worse than others but maybe one day we’ll go to the 4 day work week. In the meantime I am finding ways to increase my work skillset so I can negotiate higher salary (early retirement) and better benefits (remote, more PTO, less hours worked). Until then best of luck. It’s a miserable system but we can make the best of it.

Please explain WTF you’re talking about. Countless runners from Pre to Brian Sell worked full time while training. I truly don’t understand this perspective. There’s only so many hours a day you can train. There’s 24 hours in a day, 8 sleeping, 9 working, 1 eating, 1 boning the lady, leaves 5 hours to run….I work about 50 hours a week and have no trouble training for ultramarathons, 2-3 hours every day after work and 5-6 hour runs on the weekend. For half marathon or less there really is very little time constraint.

It's not difficult if just do 6 sessions per week that is enough to reach your optimum capacity . Then you can alternate with running early in the morning before work or after work. Then of course it depends alot if you have a very physical demanding job or not....I myself ran a 14:20 5 k and 29:51 10 k on just 6 sessions per week and one day off working fulltime 40 hours per week.

Right. And at the start of his career Bill Rodgers worked at a school for developmentally delayed kids. Only once in his professional career run a faster marathon that when he worked at that school.

Know for me personally feel like this a lot. Don't know how you guys with kids manage to run at all. Honestly can understand elites training/working better because making Olympics is a lot better motivation than running 14-19 minute 5k. Obviously there's time if you make it but sometimes feel like as an adult what's the point!

MoVB

Much of it has to do with the overall stress that comes with a family and job. Even when you have the time, your stress pie is maxed. Non running stress (job, family, finance) impacts your running/training without a doubt.

grow up, i ran 125+ mpw and worked 6am-6pm M-R, while getting a masters (online)

My father was a HS XC/track coach, I grew up running till I found soccer. I’m under no illusions about the soccer industrial complex - I went through it, too, in the 90s (I know, it’s NOTHING like it is today). Thankfully, in college I had the movement tools from soccer, and the wherewithal not to become an agro soccer douche, and I slotted into ultimate quite easily - it was just as competitive, actually, with some truly great athletes - and we could only blame ourselves for mistakes, not the referee (this has changed too at ultimate’s competitive levels). Post collegiate, club ultimate was great when you’re early to mid 20s, but once it’s family making time you need to have a very understanding and unresentful partner that allows you to attend practice 3-4 nights a week (times set by 23-5 year olds with less responsibilities) and travel around the country for tournaments.
I miss the insular ultimate tribe, and the ability to move laterally, but running can be shoehorned into so many parts of the day or night. You can still have goals once you reach 30s, and at thiat point, you’re only racing against your former self unless you were already a real pro. You are as accountable as you want to be, and can run free. You get out of it what you put in: can still be competitive, break PBs, win a hundred bucks here and there, see how far you can go, scratch the itch to inflict pain upon yourself and feel alive outdoors, maintain a healthy cardiovascular system…. I could go on and on. Most people will never sprint, even to cross the street, after 30. Just get out there, find the time to jog a half a mile, by then end of the week you’ll have found a quarter of an hour a day to run, and after that you’ll see the daily schedule open up for more running time.

All these 17:00 5k heros coming out of the woodwork with loads of useful suggestions.

100%, Bill Rogers used to talk about the difficulties in his book "Marathoning"; when he tried to train while working fulltime as a teacher. That is why Pre lived on foodstamps and in a trailer after college because he could not work fulltime and expect to get the training and rest he needed to compete at the highest levels, before he was subsidized by Nike.

That among other things is why the Europeans who's government subsidized them and gave the bulls*it show up jobs had an advantage on Americans esp in distance running where training consisted of 80 -100+ weekly miles. People who don't do long serious long distance training underestimate the rest a body needs in the recovery process.

But we still do here from time to time about unknown athletes who have to work a regular job while training, but it is easier today than when Pre and Rogers trained, because of the flexibility in work schedules and the work from home options available in some jobs today.

But if you are a shift worker and have to pull a 9-5 where you are on your feet most of the day, it is almost impossible!

I did it for years working mostly 8-6.

Music in the 80's was great, too!

Calm down, no one cares about your 2:55 marathon.

Are you kidding? you need to grow a pair.

Same. Getting a treadmill changed everything for me. Wish I had done it sooner.