How to be an old-school tough runner

the kids aren't alright wrote:

Bullet_Proof wrote:

The OP is the ultimate judge of which comments have contributed positively, not you.

There's nothing heroic about training on strava either.

PS the masturbation diss, I already used that in the strava thread. Since I used it first, (correctly I might add), you are not allowed to use it, as it shows intellectual laziness on your part

I didn't read the Strava thread and you didn't coin the phrase, nor do you have exclusive rights to it.

Tell us more about how tough old guys are and how dumb it is for runners to market their brand - it's captivating.

Would love to.

Evert Silva is a tool. And a fool.

Steve Prefontaine has statues made in honor of him. Movies made about him. Its inspiring to watch his races where you can feel the nerves of intense pressure and elite competition. You could say the same about Bill Rodgers and Frank Shorter.

With the youtubers, its always a time trial or an exhibition. And cringeworthy. Definitely not a source to learn how to be a tough runner. Again, the OP clearly stated that they are primadonnas.

"Are you not entertained?"

WTF are you even talking about? 140 miles a week?.... A little over 2 hours a day?.... That's nothing? I'm guessing you've NEVER run 140 miles a week, are married, have kids, and work part or full-time.

Seriously, why are you posting on this thread?

"Go Run One".............if you can.

should be studying 102 wrote:

I am a young 20's runner growing up in an interesting time for running. The most obvious role models are guys like Tinman elite, the Athlete special, any number of instagram workout heros. the only problem is I think these guys are kinda running prima donnas. In contrast to these guys, I read about runners like Bill Rodgers and Dick Beardsley who ran FAST while working jobs, training in sub-par conditions etc.

Give me some tips of how to be a tough old school runner. You older guys who have been in the sport for a while, how do you do it while working full time, supporting a family, etc?

Any tough bad a$$ stories of the golden era of running would be appreciated

This is a great post.

First, one doesn't "Become" an old school tough runner, you're "Born" being an old school tough runner, and the level at which you develop your "toughness" is tempered over many years of consistent hard training and racing. Also, don't mistake "toughness" with stupidity and or being hard-headed. I know many "Old School" tough runners who would gladly appreciate some of the modern-day improvements with regard to training philosophies and equipment. Suffering is not enjoyable, yet it is necessary in order to achieve success in our sport. Two key phrases I truly believe are relevant to the success of an elite runner are to train hard and to train smart, and always give a "Perfect Effort".

Running doesn't become "Easier", it becomes "Tolerable", and when you can transform "Tolerable" into a positive experience you've succeeded.

"Go Run One"

Bullet_Proof wrote:

the kids aren't alright wrote:

I didn't read the Strava thread and you didn't coin the phrase, nor do you have exclusive rights to it.

Tell us more about how tough old guys are and how dumb it is for runners to market their brand - it's captivating.

Would love to.

Evert Silva is a tool. And a fool.

Steve Prefontaine has statues made in honor of him. Movies made about him. Its inspiring to watch his races where you can feel the nerves of intense pressure and elite competition. You could say the same about Bill Rodgers and Frank Shorter.

With the youtubers, its always a time trial or an exhibition. And cringeworthy. Definitely not a source to learn how to be a tough runner. Again, the OP clearly stated that they are primadonnas.

"Are you not entertained?"

You just mentioned a 13:47 guy in the same post as Pre, Shorter and Rodgers. And of all the 13:47 guys, you mentioned one that promotes running.

I rest my case, boomer.

Here is old school: my junior year in college we had a dual meet with another local college. I ran the 6 mile, mile and 3 mile. Won the 6 mile, placed 3 in the mile, something went CRUNCH in my ankle two laps into the 3 and limped to the finish as a non-scorer. I got on the bus to leave and the coach said fairies and pansies weren't allowed on the bus and made me run the 10 miles back to campus. Ankle was all swollen the next day and went to the campus medical center. Turns out I broke 3 bones in my ankle. Heck, it didn't keep me from racing the NeXT week.

These days, they would make a movie' about you if you did that. Back then, it was just expected.

JackRabbit Jones wrote:

Here is old school: my junior year in college we had a dual meet with another local college. I ran the 6 mile, mile and 3 mile. Won the 6 mile, placed 3 in the mile, something went CRUNCH in my ankle two laps into the 3 and limped to the finish as a non-scorer. I got on the bus to leave and the coach said fairies and pansies weren't allowed on the bus and made me run the 10 miles back to campus. Ankle was all swollen the next day and went to the campus medical center. Turns out I broke 3 bones in my ankle. Heck, it didn't keep me from racing the NeXT week.

These days, they would make a movie' about you if you did that. Back then, it was just expected.

You just sound like an idiot to be honest.

The reason he did 60x400 sometimes is that he was restricted to his army base and there was no place but the army track. Those were his long runs.

I guess he wore the boots because he got them for free, and decent running shoes were to be saved for races.

Really, a 6 mile in a dual meet? When was this and why? I've never heard of a 6 mile being run in a dual meet.

That70sRunner wrote:

-cotton tshirt

-shorty shorts

-cotton sweats

-ringer gym socks

-nike waffle racers

-Casio chronograph

-no garmin

-no Strava

-NO HRM

run A LOT of miles

run most of those miles REALLY HARD

Race more weekends than you don't

never refer to vo2mx, threshold, tempos, and any of that science jargon.. just talk in terms of pace- mile pace, 5k pace, 10k pace, marathon pace

Pretty much THIS! Did you throw up after a hard workout? No? Then you probably didn't go as hard as you could have. You go outside and run in any weather. Never worry about the wind chill or the heat index. You don't have gels, or carry water bottles with you.

CrispyChicken wrote:

"The really old school runners did not have chronograph wrist watches."

Amen and Awomen!

I still have my mechanical stopwatch that I held in one hand while running intervals on my own.

A mechanical stopwatch is luxury. You were lucky. In the old days we lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We had to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, run fifteen miles to work down the mill, fourteen hours a day, for sixpence a week, run fifteen miles back home, and when we got there our dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt.

Sometime in the next week, look for episode 9 of The Marathon Running Podcast. I'm interviewing someone who is doing exactly what you're talking about - female performing at a high level (top 30 marathon olympic trials), has a demanding full time job, and has kids. But very low key in terms of social media, self promoting, etc. The interview is scheduled for Saturday, so I want to wait until it's done to release more info. If all goes well the episode should be out by Monday Feb 1,.

We all claim to hate the social media darlings, those that post constantly about this workout or that meal, this or that recovery aid, but...

THAT is what these companies expect and want in return for sponsoring these runners. Most pro runners are very camera shy, they do not like posting this stuff or having to invent "reasons" to post, but it's expected.. they are supposed to grow their social media following, so they go along with the game.

It's not like before where they could do a photo shoot for a Nike ad and be done, now it's daily updates on IG, FB, twitter, tik tock... so basically a photo shoot every day.

Bullet_Proof wrote:

the kids aren't alright wrote:

I didn't read the Strava thread and you didn't coin the phrase, nor do you have exclusive rights to it.

Tell us more about how tough old guys are and how dumb it is for runners to market their brand - it's captivating.

Would love to.

Evert Silva is a tool. And a fool.

Steve Prefontaine has statues made in honor of him. Movies made about him. Its inspiring to watch his races where you can feel the nerves of intense pressure and elite competition. You could say the same about Bill Rodgers and Frank Shorter.

With the youtubers, its always a time trial or an exhibition. And cringeworthy. Definitely not a source to learn how to be a tough runner. Again, the OP clearly stated that they are primadonnas.

"Are you not entertained?"

The fact that you mention Evert Silva and Pre in the same post means Silva is doing something right. You may not like him but you know who he is. In the 70s you wouldn't.

You sound bitter that there are more avenues for sub elite runners to make a name for themselves these days.

JackAss Jones wrote:

JackRabbit Jones wrote:

Here is old school: my junior year in college we had a dual meet with another local college. I ran the 6 mile, mile and 3 mile. Won the 6 mile, placed 3 in the mile, something went CRUNCH in my ankle two laps into the 3 and limped to the finish as a non-scorer. I got on the bus to leave and the coach said fairies and pansies weren't allowed on the bus and made me run the 10 miles back to campus. Ankle was all swollen the next day and went to the campus medical center. Turns out I broke 3 bones in my ankle. Heck, it didn't keep me from racing the NeXT week.

These days, they would make a movie' about you if you did that. Back then, it was just expected.

You just sound like an idiot to be honest.

You forgot to mention that the 10 mile run home was in 5ft of snow and uphill. Your fairytale was ok until the "CRUNCH" part, and then it went to Sh*t.

Sorry..nice try....No "Old School" status for you!

"Go Run One".......for real.

Letsrun love to romanticize the old school high mileage guys. My understanding is that many of them didn't actually run as much as they claimed. Perhaps they had the odd week around 100+ here and there. People are running much faster now and running smarter/less. You'll see way more people in the 75-95 range for the track and running much faster than those of the 70's, 80's, and 90's. There are certainly things to take away from the old school but you can be a tough runner in your own way. You don't have to run 100 miles per week to be tough. You don't have to be stupid and train poorly to be tough.

Look at your schedule & your physical capacity & figure out what you can withstand. Having a full time job & maintaining a challenging training/racing schedule is a tight balance. Eight hours a day at the job, Eight hours of sleep, commuting time. ... then you get ready to run. Get dressed, do stretching, run, do more stretching, shower.... Not a lot of time for social life. Most of the runners you mention left that life style as soon as they got some success. Sure Bill & Frank had stores & a clothing life but most of Bill's day to day business operations fell to his brother Charlie. Listen to your body. Jobs can be stressful, in different ways depending on what you do, Without proper time to relax, sleep & eat you run into injuries. That said, my first year after college, was what you talk about. I was an okay runner but I really went for it that year. I loved it. If you can find a group/friend/club to train with, then training becomes your social life. It helps.

ergebetbteg wrote:

Letsrun love to romanticize the old school high mileage guys. My understanding is that many of them didn't actually run as much as they claimed.

I didn't know anyone who claimed they were running farther than they actually did.

People ran as much mileage as they thought could give them the best times.

There was a guy at a small HS in the state who was running 5 miles to school, 6 miles at lunch, and 5 miles home. This was 80 miles for just 5 days of each week. He ran a good 2-mile (around 9:05), but a few others ran faster and with less mileage.

just win wrote:

ergebetbteg wrote:

Letsrun love to romanticize the old school high mileage guys. My understanding is that many of them didn't actually run as much as they claimed.

I didn't know anyone who claimed they were running farther than they actually did.

gerry lindgren

HOW TO BE AN OLD-SCHOOL TOUGH RUNNER

STEP ONE:

wesfly athletics. know this brand like the back of your hand. go to their strava, check out their followers, analyze the way they speak, the way they act, everything. take in as much information as possible. watch their youtube videos, take note of their clothes, their accessories, their shoes. wesfly wesfly wesfly.

STEP TWO:

from the deepest part of your body, reject everything wefly athletics. literally do the opposite of what they do. only by doing this will you truly achieve tough runner status.