Yeah, my PRs are 36:33 and 17:44 and I was roughly 35 miles per week. I also rarely ran 5/10K races. I never really saw the point in paying to run a mediocre time in a distance I can do at any time. I would run the annual Turkey Trot, where I set both of those PRs.
Having done 18:30 and 38:25 at age 20 around 20 to 25 miles a week, yes. If I had known how easy the bump to 40 miles would’ve felt and what I could’ve gotten in return, solid yes.
Would I have preferred going a step or two further and knowing what I could’ve actually run? Sure, but It would never have been impressive.
This is my goal right now. Reached 17 in the 5K but 10K endurance is not there. Can last 4 miles at 5:45-5:50 before falling off the pace badly.
Totally. I'm 50 now but at any age in my life I would be happy with that. Getting any faster than that would require a large step down in quality of life IMO. A 36 minute 10K will win or put you in the top 5 for most local races. So some little string bean dude can beat you in a national race, big deal. Look guys like that have nothing else going on in life. Give them their due. If they're good running 80mpw and a few minutes faster I'm all for it.