At age 31, I just started running. Do I hold the potential to become a pro?

Dont set your sights too high. It sets you up for a fall. The best thing to do is keep training and just see where your body takes you. You start to push and push and have expectations of improvement at some rate and you are likely to get hurt.

I was in a similar place a few years back, although a little older and female. Random cross country 5k off no training (smoker, heavy drinker) came in 2nd place 21:00, 2 years later running under 17 for 5k. I trained, but not terribly hard and I enjoyed nearly all my training. Then I decided maybe I could get *really* good and I started to train really hard. Was injured 3 months later and went through a 3-year cycle of injury where I could never put together more than a few months of training (though I'd train my ass off for those few months) without getting hurt. And I really started to hate running, which was the worst.

Chilling out is the key to running enjoyably and to your best potential, for most people. If you love running, don't make lofty goals like that - just see where your body takes you and remember to enjoy it.

flampis wrote:

Hi guys,

Here is a bit of background.

Although, I never was a runner, I played handball at professional level for 2 years, 12 years ago. I only occasionally spent time at the gym after that, mainly lifting weight and trying to stay fit.

I ran my first HM 9 months ago without any cardio training. I ran in 1:29:30.

This led me enjoy running. I therefore started to train more regularly to get to a volume of 130km a week in July this year.

A month ago, I ran a 10k in 33:20.

Yesterday, I ran a second HM in 1:13:55.

Would like to have your opinion on whether or not, if I dedicate the right time/nutrition to it, I could get to 65mins HM level, say within the next 2 years, and whether or not, this could eventually lead me to a pro level? Like self-supporting level.

Cheers!

How were these courses measured? You obviously weren't in a race.

Grassrunner wrote:

How were these courses measured? You obviously weren't in a race.

The first HM was an official race organized here in Beijing last year (Beijing Tongzhou Canal Half Marathon).

The second HM was organized this week by the running club I just joined as a test. It wasn't an entirely flat course, but I went all out, so I do believe it represents the current level I am at.

As for the 10k, I measured it myself on a flat course.

shinner wrote:

Raysism wrote:

Give me one example of a pro runner who took up running at 31 years of age. And by pro, we're referring to a "self-sustaining" profession, as the OP inquired about. And don't give me someone from the 1960s -- I'm talking about during the modern professional era.

Sinéad Diver

She has represented Australia at World Champs but doesn't make a living from running. She works. However she is a good example of starting late and improving to running at the highest level.

I think you have a lot of potentials. You need a trainer who has a good philosophy. I would suggest somebody like Tom Schwartz. You can experiment with his critical velocity approach. It takes some time to get really good and discipline. Keep trying and in a few years get back to me and let me know how you doing.

I won $100 racing my car once, I don’t care what anyone says, I’m now and will always be a pro or at least semi pro race car driver.

I don’t care that I came in 3rd and there were only 2 other people racing in my class.

Op your fast enough to become a pro Instagram runner.

That’s where the real money is anyone.

You need a good teacher. Couch Tom Schartz would be worth looking into.

You have a very good chance to win prize money, get shoe sponsors, etc. The likelihood of being fully supported by running is incredibly low. But you never know until you try.

Perhaps the best way to monetize it is to start a YouTube channel to document your progress. If you are funny and charismatic, with a lot of work and some luck it could be reasonably popular.

If you can run a 1:13:55 HM, and let's say 55.5 on the 400, then your current abilities must be something like :

200 0:26.52

400 0:55.5

800 2:00.66

1000 2:34.74

1500 4:02.88

1-mile 4:22.54

3000 8:42.98

2-mile 9:25.06

5000 15:17.93

10000 32:43.08

half-mara 73:55.0

marathon 157:03.22

But it doesn't really mean much since none of your recent times were run in optimal or comparable conditions.

Shoe sponsor? Not happening.

No

Raysism wrote:

Jan Stensson , Coach JS wrote:

Well.....you are of course wrong. There are many exmples of pro runners that took up running late . It`s just a question about if the necessary talent is there and if the runner know how to best reach maximum capacity. Needs a pro coach, and only one of the best! :)

Give me one example of a pro runner who took up running at 31 years of age. And by pro, we're referring to a "self-sustaining" profession, as the OP inquired about. And don't give me someone from the 1960s -- I'm talking about during the modern professional era.

Sinead Diver

Another giver of +1 wrote:

shinner wrote:

Sinéad Diver

She has represented Australia at World Champs but doesn't make a living from running. She works. However she is a good example of starting late and improving to running at the highest level.

She could make a living if she wanted to. But she also has kids and probably is concerned about her career post running, plus has the time to work so why not? I’m pretty sure she works around 30 hours per week at the moment.

Melbourne marathon she won $40k (20 for winning 20 for 20 for course record). London and New York she was around 5th place (not sure of the exact place), which with appearance fees would probably be getting her 20-30k for each of them. Add in a couple of halves, 10kms, her Nike contract + Nike bonuses, and the 14k she gets per year from athletics Australia and I think she would be easily clearing $100,000 per year

flampis wrote:

Hi guys,

Here is a bit of background.

Although, I never was a runner, I played handball at professional level for 2 years, 12 years ago. I only occasionally spent time at the gym after that, mainly lifting weight and trying to stay fit.

I ran my first HM 9 months ago without any cardio training. I ran in 1:29:30.

This led me enjoy running. I therefore started to train more regularly to get to a volume of 130km a week in July this year.

A month ago, I ran a 10k in 33:20.

Yesterday, I ran a second HM in 1:13:55.

Would like to have your opinion on whether or not, if I dedicate the right time/nutrition to it, I could get to 65mins HM level, say within the next 2 years, and whether or not, this could eventually lead me to a pro level? Like self-supporting level.

Cheers!

If you are female, you could probably go pro right now! These times are legit. Ranks you around the top 50 women in the USA for longer distances.

If you are male, it's extremely unlikely, but I wouldn't say it's 100% certain that you could never go pro. If you took the speed at which you run 10km, you wouldn't even be top 300 in the USA if you held it for a full marathon (42.2km).

The reason why I think you do have some chance of getting to the professional level is that you've only been running seriously for 9 months, and your rate of improvement is massive. Your half marathon PB is right where it should be for a 33:20 10km guy, and that's impressive if you've only started running 9-months ago. You should target the marathon, and your short term goal should be to break 2:20 in your marathon debut within a year. The reason you should target the marathon is that you are not going to make it to the pros within the next year or two, and by age 34 - 35 when you could just maybe conceivably have trained enough to be running professional-level times, you will be too old for the track distances, but near the end of prime marathon age. Note this will be a tough goal to achieve, it requires you running your current 10km race pace for a full 42.2km.

130km a week is a ton of mileage for only training for 9-months, which is great. It's a good sign that you can run that kind of mileage and not get injured off of no running background. You will gradually need to ramp that up to 180km/wk within the next 9-months most likely to even think about a sub 2:20 marathon. Once you are sub 2:20 you are sub-elite, and with consistent training, the 2:13 or so you need to be able to run to become pro will be ridiculously hard to achieve, but not impossible over 3 more years of training.

@MatthewXCountry, thanks, man, that's helpful.

I have a 10k race planned for next month, I'll start with targeting a sub 33, and I will keep working on increasing speed in the next months to achieve 72mins on a half by end of the year.

Cheers to you all!

No.

You can become an ok age group runner though. Nothing wrong with that. Plus it can prolong your life by being healthy.

flampis wrote:

@MatthewXCountry, thanks, man, that's helpful.

I have a 10k race planned for next month, I'll start with targeting a sub 33, and I will keep working on increasing speed in the next months to achieve 72mins on a half by end of the year.

Cheers to you all!

You have good talent. If you want pro coaching to help you improve faster, just contact me .

email : magic @ coachjs . se