The DEFINITIVE thread imparting WISDOM to you young bucks

OP pretty much starts and ends the thread with his sage advice. I can only add:

1. Run on soft surfaces as much as possible. Your feet, knees, and low back will thank you in 30 years.

2. Lift weights, strengthen your core, and work on your hip mobility. This will eliminate 90% of running injuries.

Get consistent sleep. That means going to bed around the same time and waking up around the same time *every* day, weekends and holidays included.

And get away from screens (computer, TV, phone) at least a half-hour before bedtime.

Vitamin D and Milk, lots.

There likely will be a time when you will feel that what you're doing is meaningless.

You will want to quit running or whatever you're doing and it will make you sad and depressed.

Don't. Have several long term goals that would serve as a carrot dangling in front of you.

Ultimately you will understand that these goals are as meaningless as the whole life, but it will help making this life more manageable and even perhaps fuller and happier.

I’m not actually a seasoned vet but I’m somewhere in the middle.

My best advice is that the most important key to training is consistency over an extremely long period of time. Don’t be discouraged if 70mpw isn’t huge. If you string together 52 weeks that average out to 70mpw you’ll be in damn good shape. Let the solid weeks stack up for many many months and you will see the performances that you’d never dreamt of.

Also, don’t avoid any one type of training for TOO long, cause getting it back can be tough. Keep the strides year round and even some 200s. Similarly, keep a legitimately long run even deep into a training cycle, and throw in a tempo every other week or so, even when getting race sharp.

FOCUS ON RAW RED MEAT!

Seriously guys! Vegetables/soy are scientifically proven to cause cancer and gynecomastia. Red meat was created by God to be the optimal human food, and it is freshest and easiest to digest when raw. I always carry a small baggie of raw ground beef to keep me fueled on longer runs.

MAGAKAGA

Carry loo paper in your pocket. Four squares, neatly folded.

You don't need it, until you do (do).

Also, take it out before you wash your shorts.

On the subject... are YOU sick of washing running tops? Sick of running out of clean ones? Running laundry is the pits.

Do what I do, and thoroughly rinse your running top while having your post-run shower. Wring it out and hang it up and it's ready for tomorrow. This way you get two or three acceptable wears because hey, it's not a fashion parade and you're only gonna soak it with sweat again anyway.

Do weighted eccentric heel drops after every run. Just pushing against a wall on an angle is good enough to add extra resistance. They're the gold standard treatment for Achilles tendinitis and I'll take an ounce of prevention over a pound of cure

When I was young I asked "will this make me a better runner?" I should have asked " will this keep me healthy?"

Yoga and other mobility exercises, diet, some form of strength training, and recovery might not seem important when you're in your teens and early twenties but 40 years later you'll be glad you did them (or regret you didn't).

Lots of great advice. Most of which will be ignored because of the inherent hubris of youth.

God bless them, good for them.

My advice is in a different vein: enjoy it. Enjoy the fact that you’re in your prime or getting better. Try to appreciate it in the moment. You’re full of piss and vinegar and your arrogant and your cocky and a good number if you even have a right to be all of those things. Even if you don’t have that right, enjoy the moment while hats there.

That won’t prevent you from also enjoying it when you look back some day; it will just enhance it.

Brasil wrote:

Carry loo paper in your pocket. Four squares, neatly folded.

You don't need it, until you do (do).

Also, take it out before you wash your shorts.

On the subject... are YOU sick of washing running tops? Sick of running out of clean ones? Running laundry is the pits.

Do what I do, and thoroughly rinse your running top while having your post-run shower. Wring it out and hang it up and it's ready for tomorrow. This way you get two or three acceptable wears because hey, it's not a fashion parade and you're only gonna soak it with sweat again anyway.

Do weighted eccentric heel drops after every run. Just pushing against a wall on an angle is good enough to add extra resistance. They're the gold standard treatment for Achilles tendinitis and I'll take an ounce of prevention over a pound of cure

I am a doctor of Naturopathic Medicine (ND). You actually do not need to stretch or do any exercises outside of running if you follow the raw red meat diet :-)

Red meat contains the ideal amount of hormones to create the ideal muscle mass and tendon conditions. Furthermore, it is PACKED with anti-inflammatory compounds! The effect is like taking 1200 mg of ibuprophen!

The reason this knowledge is not more widespread is because the pharma industry and other "doctors" are making the big bucks off of these poisons.

When it comes to life

- don’t take anything for granted, especially your health.

-Practice gratitude

-Live as if time is not on your side

- Everything happens for a reason

- Pray, have faith, and most importantly try to be a good person and a good steward of what you are given.

When it comes to running:

-Build an aerobic base over several years

parkerjohn wrote:

try to be....a good steward of what you are given.

One other thing related to the point above. Figure out what you are good at or what compels you and own that thing. Strive to be your best in that one thing even if the scope and promise of reward appears narrow.

Do less speedwork, you don't need as much as you think you do.

From a 2 time OTQ.

The run slow thing is mediocre advice. You should not run your easy days to hard, that is true. But over 7 min for guys is not required. I did my easy days around 6:30 when I was in my early to mid 20's and since then have slowed to around 6:45. That is fine for me to recover. Some top guys go slower. But some top pros like Hall, Rupp, Meb all ran their easy days much faster. So yes, recover, but this slower running narrative is not necessarily true.

Definitely run farther. No D1 5k/10K guy should be under 80MPW. In fact, I prefer higher. Over summers in college, I was low hundreds then 90s in season. Post collegiately moving up to the marathon I was in the 120mpw and above range.

Get sleep is a very important one. This is how you recover and stay healthy. Get however much sleep you need and keep your sleep schedule consistent. When I performed best I am sleeping my best.

A lot of good ground has been covered in very short time here. I also ran in college in the mid 90s and would manage to run my best races in October and April instead of November and May.

Advice summery

Not racing workouts

Not hammering easy days

Slow down and go longer

Sleep more

Less speedwork (although, I'd make sure to caveat that one with "less vo2 max type intervals and more threshold intervals instead".

I'd like to add to the list

Less alcohol. I'm not saying don't drink anything. We were kind of under the impression that as long as you could get up and do the workout, it was ok to have a mild case of cocktail flu. I've since learned that both muscle enzyme activity and testosterone / gh production are inhibited by alcohol consumption

Better nutrition: The Quenton Cassidy quote that "if the furnace is hot enough, even big macs will burn" may be true when only looking at weight management, but when it comes to actually providing the body the nutrients it needs to recover and build healthy tissue, you need more than Taco Bell (which was one of my personal weaknesses BITD). You don't need to spend a lot of money, nor take a lot of time cooking to eat well either. I was over at a teammates apartment one evening and he had just prepared a large baked potato in the microwave topped with 2 scrambled eggs and some grated cheese and washed it down with a glass of milk. I remember thinking that was a pretty odd meal at the time but looking back, that was pretty nutritionally solid.

As an elite runner, how has the Raw Red Meat Diet (RRMD) improved your performance? How has cutting out carcinogous and inflammatory vegetables improved your recovery and mental status? Finally, how has accepting Christ into your life as your Lord and Savior improved your motivation and depression?

Thanks!

MAGAKAGA

You have a cell phone - use it. You don't want to be caught 2 miles away from home, needing to walk home on a sprained ankle.

This is a great thread with a lot of good wisdom. It reminded me of a blog post of mine from years ago. It is a little long and covers some of the same suggestions of others, but with a few differences.

I have had a lot of coaches with lots of different philosophies. Here are a few of the gold nuggets I picked up over the years.

“Fast as you can easy” – My HS coach used to use this phrase all the time. Over the years I have come to understand it better. Run hard, but not all out in your workouts so you can stack more workouts together. 3 workouts a week at 80-85% is better than 1 at 95%. It’s not how fast you go, but how much you go fast.

There are 2 ways to become a faster distance runner: run more and run faster. Nuff said.

Do strides year round, several times a week. It is a low energy cost for a big speed and efficiency gain. Do full sprint workouts when peaking, like finishing a workout with 4x150 near all out. Raw speed will affect your VO2Max and Aerobic Threshold and that equals faster race times. Many distance runners neglect real speed work.

The magic number is 90. 90min runs will start to take you into depletion. This is where big endurance gains are made and physiological efficiency is gained in a big way. Do as many runs of 90+ minutes as possible. “You’d be surprised how quickly a 90min run can go by.” – A teammate of mine who was putting in 120mi weeks and consequently ran 14:02 for 5k.

Long term development – you will not become a great distance runner in 16 weeks despite how you may interpret some reputable literature out there. It takes years of consistency. Lydiard suggested 3 or more years of his cycle of Base, Hills, Speed, and Peak training before reaching potential – each phase and cycle building on the previous gains. Each year of HS, my 2mi track time would become the next years 2mi split in 5k Cross Country. My HS 2mi was my 10K pace by the end of college.

If you run fast enough, you don’t need a kick. But develop one anyway.

The 3 week rule – you can do anything for 3 weeks before it catches up to you. That is when breakdown starts and when our coach could tell who ran enough over the summer.

Body rhythms – everybody has days and weeks that they feel good and bad. Try to cycle your training to coincide with these feelings. Push more when you feel good, less when you feel bad. However part of training is to make sure that your body is ready on race day whatever your body cycle is. So stick to a schedule that prepares you, but be somewhat flexible in the intensity. The training cycle can actually force they body rhythm where you need it.

Peaking is as much mental as physical. Focus on the goal race and allow other races to have less importance. Race tired until it matters, then make sure you are fresh in your body and mind. Getting fresh may mean very easy running for weeks outside of a few key workouts. It also means preparing the mind by being ready to HURT and WANTING to do it.

Be there or stay there – One coach would announce at practice that the bus would leave at some oddball time like 7:04am, then announce the time on his watch. As soon as his watch said 7:04am, the bus cranked up and pulled out. Didn’t matter if you were an All American or third string, if you were not there, you got left. Races and life don’t wait for you. The first step to success is showing up.

A great runner does not necessarily make a great coach. I have found that the lesser runner usually studies the sport and training techniques in great detail to improve himself and therefore makes the better coach. The great runner runs great without any real thought and has a hard time understanding why others don’t run as fast as them. There are always exceptions, but this has been my experience.

Enjoy the running experience. It is fun to be fit and full of life. It is fun to compete. It is also fun to enjoy your own successes and celebrate the successes of others. Try not to be discouraged or frustrated with the accomplishments of others. Some of my best memories are of my running are of the team doing well or having a great race battle with a friend where we were both elevated, win or lose. Sometimes teammates would pace each other to a big PR. There was real satisfaction in it.

Also:

Listen to the pain your body gives you as feedback. Run through discomfort, but not pain. It is better to take a week easy or off than to lose months to an injury because you refused to slow down. Your fitness will be minimally affected by 1 week off (or even 2-3).