When women triathletes and cross country skiers can run faster 5K times than you, it's time to hang them up and pursue being a fully formed adult.
Move somewhere more in line with your values, buy a house with a monthly payment that is half of what you waste on your Seattle rent, put the savings into your retirement investments, and get some counseling plus some real friends.
Have We Done This Before wrote:
is this a self-pity thread or something?
I mean at first I wanted to be helpful, but the responses from OP later in the thread seem to clarify that he isn't interested in help, rather burned out, and doesn't care about the process of improvement.
OK, awesome I guess.
happens to literally every single one of us. eventually we stop getting faster, we start growing old, and the dates on our PRs are ever further in the rear view.
Yawn
I think you nailed Jamin`s problem! He isn't really interested of help, just to keep up his endless crap threads.To stay visible here at LRC.
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jamin wrote:
I don't think people here understand my point. I think it's possible to "level up" my fitness. My point is that it feels increasingly pointless or at best a Faustian Bargain.
Say you go run a 10-mile tempo, your best ever, close to your 10k PR pace. Feels great physically and mentally. But that's only part because of the workout itself, another part because of the workout in the context of your larger fitness plan to set a PR. There's a depressing side of it, too. It's depressing to think that by reaching a new level of fitness you've actually created MORE work for yourself, just to MAINTAIN that level (I know someone will argue with this and say you need LESS work to maintain, but this is only true in the short term). Great, now you created some new 10-mile time by which you will measure how you live up to your own standards.
Come race day. Most serious runners who've been doing their thing for years will say that on days they believed they could PR, it only panned out 10-20% of the time, the other 80-90% it didn't because of wind, sickness, temperature, some mishap (tripped during race or forgot to bring spikes), improper pacing or competition, just plain feeling flat that day, or your fitness wasn't as good as you thought. If you're lucky, there's some other good race in 2 weeks and you can consider your bad race a workout and get in 1 other good workout the next week and try to stay fresh and make another attempt at your PR in the next race. Usually, however, another good racing opportunity is months away, making your current fitness and all the work building up to it a practical waste.
I don't think the problem is your running, I think it's that you're over-thinking things.
Say if I ran a 10 mile tempo PR. I'd be happy with it, overjoyed, if it's something I'd been aiming for. I wouldn't start thinking about all of the other stuff (any downsides). It's all conjecture. Like, oh no, now I have to do more training to stay at this pace, etc. I'd just focus on 'great, I've run a PR'. That's it. Then aim for the next one.
There are downsides to everything if you look hard enough.
As one other poster wrote, they talked of getting injured. Any race to me would be a joy.
This is not about me but I've not been able to run since 2008. And not been able to walk without pain since 2012. For some years, I was pretty much housebound, able to walk 1-2 minutes, enough to do a small basic food shop for a few days.
If you are able bodied, able to walk, hike, run, take advantage of that. You can go out into the mountains, the desert, the woods, the coast, you can plan a trip, walk.
Honestly though, I feel like... so say my problem is physical. Maybe your problem is about how you think about things - so one is not easier than the other, they're just different. You don't seem happy but I think you should get credit for looking for solutions and trying to change things, as it's very clear you're doing both of those things.
Banana Bread wrote:
Find something else that you can excel in. I'm starting to think that I could be the next Elon Musk or Freddie Mercury, because lets face it, my best days are always going to be like Bekele's recovery days
Also...
!!!!!!! BB!!
hamsters wrote:
jamin wrote:
I don't think people here understand my point. I think it's possible to "level up" my fitness. My point is that it feels increasingly pointless or at best a Faustian Bargain.
Say you go run a 10-mile tempo, your best ever, close to your 10k PR pace. Feels great physically and mentally. But that's only part because of the workout itself, another part because of the workout in the context of your larger fitness plan to set a PR. There's a depressing side of it, too. It's depressing to think that by reaching a new level of fitness you've actually created MORE work for yourself, just to MAINTAIN that level (I know someone will argue with this and say you need LESS work to maintain, but this is only true in the short term). Great, now you created some new 10-mile time by which you will measure how you live up to your own standards.
Come race day. Most serious runners who've been doing their thing for years will say that on days they believed they could PR, it only panned out 10-20% of the time, the other 80-90% it didn't because of wind, sickness, temperature, some mishap (tripped during race or forgot to bring spikes), improper pacing or competition, just plain feeling flat that day, or your fitness wasn't as good as you thought. If you're lucky, there's some other good race in 2 weeks and you can consider your bad race a workout and get in 1 other good workout the next week and try to stay fresh and make another attempt at your PR in the next race. Usually, however, another good racing opportunity is months away, making your current fitness and all the work building up to it a practical waste.
I don't think the problem is your running, I think it's that you're over-thinking things.
Say if I ran a 10 mile tempo PR. I'd be happy with it, overjoyed, if it's something I'd been aiming for. I wouldn't start thinking about all of the other stuff (any downsides). It's all conjecture. Like, oh no, now I have to do more training to stay at this pace, etc. I'd just focus on 'great, I've run a PR'. That's it. Then aim for the next one.
There are downsides to everything if you look hard enough.
As one other poster wrote, they talked of getting injured. Any race to me would be a joy.
This is not about me but I've not been able to run since 2008. And not been able to walk without pain since 2012. For some years, I was pretty much housebound, able to walk 1-2 minutes, enough to do a small basic food shop for a few days.
If you are able bodied, able to walk, hike, run, take advantage of that. You can go out into the mountains, the desert, the woods, the coast, you can plan a trip, walk.
Honestly though, I feel like... so say my problem is physical. Maybe your problem is about how you think about things - so one is not easier than the other, they're just different. You don't seem happy but I think you should get credit for looking for solutions and trying to change things, as it's very clear you're doing both of those things.
You gave many good words there! But Jamin's real problem is that he doesn't take advice from anyone, Yet he asks for advice. Psychological problem.
Have you gotten back down to Arizona recently? You said this about a year ago. Maybe Flagstaff is the place for you to rediscover your zest for life and running.
"Need to get back to AZ. No rain there and still light out at 6:30ish p.m. Also has more civil liberties than WA at the present time."
If you have trained seriously for 5 plus years and are over 25 you are probably within 95 percent of your genetic potential unless you
1) Start doping, or,
2) Drastically change your lifestyle to revolve around running with goals set on a 2 to 3 year timeline.
Option 1 is much more likely to work than Option 2 even if Option 2 is seriously pursued.
If you want to seriously pursue running as a sub sub elite I think it's best to have long training cycles with moderate workout sessions and no races punctuated by a race month. In the race month you can schedule 2 to 3 races in a short timespan to allow you to get sharp and have a chance for weather to even out. Once the race month is up you go back to "base" trading and let yourself relax for a while.
jamin wrote:
Just so sick of it! I believe I am physically capable of breaking existing PRs, but I'm just sick of always repeating the process of getting in the right training at the right time to target the right race. It's just annoying to structure life around tentative calendar dates. You do 2 workouts every week and that's over 100 workouts per year and all but a couple are just trying to rebuild to your previous PR fitness and you have the stress of fitting this around life obligations such as family vacations where you can't get in your coffee-stretch-warmup-workout-cooldown routine. Nothing else in life is as "inefficient" from a work-results perspective. There's just so much preparation involved in getting to a start line feeling fitter than ever and light and with some bounce in the legs. It's the best feeling in the world when you do. On the other hand, it can mentally wreck you if you can't run your target race or if you have a poor race. I have a race I'm thinking of running on my birthday next month and might not because if I run bad (because of illness or whatever) then I'll ruin any positive vibes I had. I might just quit trying to race at least for the remainder of the year and see if I can find some inspiration to restart next year. Quite honestly, I have trouble taking time off to relax because all I can think about is how I'm "wasting" my fitness I built or how I'm "falling behind" my compatriots. I know I'm not the only one.
Hi Jamin!
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