Can you get back into college pr shape after 3 years off?

It’s harder.

you no longer have the training structure and resources you had in college. Have a minor injury? Gotta schedule an expensive appointment with a local sports doctor after work. No indoor track to train on when the weather is bad. No teammates for workouts, usually. No structure built for you (eg planned races, workouts - everything is basically on you to manage) List goes on.

also I think most people try to ramp too quickly after a several year break. Their egos won’t let them do a few weeks of 3-5 mile runs at basically jogging pace. They start working out too hard and immediately get into an injury cycle that is much harder to fix when they don’t have a team of athletic trainers at their disposal.

I tried, a few times and was never able to come close.

good luck

I was able to do it. Trained until age 24 since I felt I could go faster than I finished up college. Then I took 2-2.5 years off of really running. I had a stint of lifting, and would do a few runs here and there, but was pretty out of running shape.

Eventually found a group of runners that I would meet up with and that helped me get my mileage back in. Didn't focus on workouts right away, but I would get harder efforts in with the group I was running with via their workouts. Eventually I had put together weeks of good mileage and started running progressions and tempos. It felt like every week I was getting fitter and fitter, and that momentum carried me. Started doing 2 workouts a week. 1 during the week and 1 during long run. Long run workout was mostly progression or tempos still.

Eventually I entered a race with no race specific training and ran much faster than I was hoping. At that point I had all the motivation to start doing more specific workouts, and then eventually got back into mile shape.

Advice:

Be consistent with your mileage and strides/Start back with easier workouts so you can have fun running faster again, and fully recover from the.

You’ll never know unless you try. I don’t know why you idiots come on here and post these long, whiny diatribes.

STFU and go run and get back in shape and see what happens.

We don’t have a crystal ball to tell you what’s possible.

Or just keep sitting on the couch with your extra 30 lbs watching Netflix.

You can get back. You're still plenty young. 3 years off isn't that bad. It might be that you don't PR from the 800-3k but everything 5k & up should still be in play within a couple of years. 29-flat is plenty fast to shoot for an OTQ down the road. But it's up to you what you want to train for. Maybe you want to try trail/ultra running. Maybe you like the shorter distances. There are plenty of big road races 5k & up in the US to target.

Yes. It’ll be harder than it once was but 100% doable.

Lol I don’t think the dude is just sitting around being lazy and watching TV. He literally said that he was working full time and going to school full time. He also said he was underweight in college. A lot of runners could stand to gain 20-30 pounds to reach a healthy weight. Maybe some people have to prioritize work/school over running 20 miles a day. Also, I didn’t catch the whiny tone that you heard. He was asking a simple question. Jeez. Tough crowd.

To answer your question, no one really knows as there are so many variables. I did it and I know many others who have. Just be slow with it and don’t expect to be hammering workouts after a few months. Trying to get back too soon will lead to an injury cycle. 29 minutes for a 10k means you’ve got some talent and definitely could have a chance of hitting the OTQ if you have a couple years of healthy, consistent training. Good luck!

If you are dedicated enough, I think you could get there. However, I think it is definitely tougher. I never took an extended time off after college running (most was about 3 weeks when the world shut down during covid) but I was running less structured for a lot of the year. I would put together decent training blocks but I have struggled to execute the fitness I gained from them in a race. I was a 1:52 800 and 4:10 miler in college but I spent most of my time post collegiately racing different distances that I did not get to really race or excel at as a mid-distance specialist. For 4 years now I have been able to get back to the shape I was in the summer BEFORE running my lifetime bests in my main events (think 1:55 and 4:20 shape), but then I usually get stuck as real life gets in the way.

Lots of people have stated some of the obvious challenges of post college running but here are some often overlooked ones that I struggle with:

Timing of peaks: When you're in college you have an NCAA season, the races are planned, and you know exactly where and when you will attempt to PR and run fast. Post college the racing schedule is on you. One mistake I have made twice now is I started to finish a training block in late May and when I looked for a competitive race, they were pretty much all over since most major colleges are races NCAAs and Conference meets. The only remaining races I could find were road races where a sub 17 would win by over a minute or all comers meets with little to no competition.

Life In General: I did not get to study abroad in college due to being a 3-season athlete. Post college and post pandemic I want to take trips with my friends. The last thing I want to think about during a trip is where I am going to find a track to workout on or how am I going to get my miles in. I remember once my friends invited to a trip to Las Vegas. I was really fit and coming off a good training block, but I still wanted to go on the trip. I went and although I still trained in the Am it was significantly less running then what I needed to do for that week. 4 years post Ncaa I am at the point where I no longer want to say no to trips because I want to get my miles in. (I did enough of that in college!)

Unexpected burnout: With no structured season I often just run 30-50 miles a week with 1-2 workout days a week. When I was in the Ncaa I was running a lot more but my season would be about 4-5 months of training and then I would take a 1-2 week break. With no structured season I tend to forget to take that time off since I haven't been racing, but then I'll randomly feel exhausted and wonder why and I'll look at my calendar and realize I have been running for 10 months straight with no break.

It is definitely doable but it is dependent on how much time and how hard you have to train. 3 years off isn't a super long time. I wasn't as fast as you but then again stopped running at 18 after high school for over 15 years. In 1973 my 10K road PR was 35:15 minutes and my track two mile best was 10:38.

I got back into running in my mid 30s and within a couple of years of running seriously again had gotten my 10K under 34 and was able to run 10:15 for the two miles on the track without much specific training, mainly just distance and tempo runs.

Now obviously these times are slower than yours but you are talking about someone who never ran more than 30 to 35 miles per week in high school and stopped running for almost two decades. I am pretty sure if you were to get back to 75 mpw you could definitely be faster at the longer distances as most 5K and 10K guys don't are usually in their prime from 23-27 and most don't see a huge drop-off in performance until they are past 30. Of course you have folks like Lagat who focused on middle distance before switching to the 5K and 10K and destroyed a ton of master's records at those distances.

In that regard the fact you took some time off might be an advantage in terms of lengthening the time you can remain competitive.

32 years old, 3:47 1500m PR from 2011... have run on and off since college, a lot more off than on, not completely sedentary though. Just ran my first 1500m since college after building up slowly for the past 6 months, 4:10. Long ways to go but I think if I can stay injury free I can get back close to PRs. We shall see.

Get out there and run!

I did it after 7 years off. Took 2 years though.

Ask Keira DAmato

Probably not

I ran a 2:27 bike path marathon in April 2020 during the pandemic. Then I took a full 12 months off from June 2020 to May 2021. Got back into serious training again. Ran a 2:25:55 in January 2022, then 2:17 in December 2022. It can be done, but my guess it will take you a full year to run times you’re happy with and 2 years to get back to PR shape.

I also set PRs at the mile, 5K, 10K, and half after those 12 months off at the age of 32. Ran 14:42 in college for 5K. My training has been better than at any other point in my life. I definitely underperformed in college.

Its possible, but you will have to make time. I find the key to running as a working adult is squeezing in time to run. After work, I go to wherever I'm going to run, not home. If something needs doing, I do it after running or on the weekend if I can. If you're running in the morning, you have to go to bed early enough to get sleep - and you may have to get by with only 5 or 6 hours of sleep a lot.

Its going to suck and you're going to be slow at first, for quite a while. The key is sticking to it anyways. If you're working long hours its going to be even tougher, its hard enough at 40 hours a week.

If you can lose most of that 30 pounds and get back to running the same mileage you were in college, there's no reason why you can't run PRs again.

25 is still relatively young for a distance runner. You've got plenty more years at your peak. As others have said, you just need to be patient (don't ramp up too quickly), and hang tough during the inevitable setbacks.

P.S. I took 5 years off and was able to surpass my old best.

No, it’s okay. He’s 100% right. I feel kind of stupid now for posting that question. I saw a group of guys doing a workout on my town’s track the other day and I guess I just started to miss the feeling and started to wonder if I could ever do something like that again. But yeah I should see for myself instead of just posting a question.

Thank you to everyone else who responded. A lot of you have really great stories that have definitely motivated me to get out there again. Really appreciate it

Whether you think you can, or you cannot, you’re right!