People who are too hold to PR, how do you find motivation?

*too old

Not getting fat.

A massive number of insanely attractive and fit young women are running on the river path in my city at any given moment. I motivate myself by picking my favorite, locking onto the pace, and enjoying the view.

What

As a 50+ runner, age-grading is motivating. I have actually run age-graded times faster than my PRs for several different distances. My lifetime best marathon was only 2:51 but I have run 2:45 on the age-graded scores.

mastersrankings.com

New Age Grades!

One can look at Age Graded Performances to demonstrate the latest version of the factors are more accurate. They are much closer, if not right in line, with what that athlete did, or would be capable of doing, in their prime....

Link:mastersrankings.com/new-age-grades/

You race against people your own age, which, in many ways, is how it always was anyhow. I mean if you're a teenager are you really stoked that you out kicked a 65 year old?

We have no motivation left and are all uniformly just awaiting death sadly. You better finish everything on your plate in the next five years too.

You've got 20+ years of setting PRs to figure it out!

I want to live in your city!

Why stop doing something you love doing just because you aren't as good at it as you once were? There are people who look for best times at age x. There are people who look at age graded tables and figure out what their time at age x are "worth" if they were younger. There are age groups to win or place well.

The only way I can imagine some setting PRs over the age of 45 is if they train way more seriously than they ever have before.

It feels great to be in shape. Also feels great to run fast even if not PRs.

That is a huge problem for many runners. Now, you didn't run in high school or college, so you don't dentify with this, but for many of us, we ran in high school and college and were counted on for points, so as many as 8 or even up to 10 years of competitive running by the time all college eligibility is up. For a good portion of people, they are done at that point and ready to do other things...focus on a career, start a family, etc.

BUT, even for people who started running a little later on, once PRs aren't possible anymore, many of THOSE people also step away from running...some turn to bicycling, some turn to crossfit or just weight lifting or doing nothing for a while. Many of these people often come back to running after some time off and decide that they will do it for health and fitness and maybe some camraderie if they join a running club or run in local races.

I started getting sidlined by nagging injuries beginning at age 37 and over the next 20 years have taken many breaks away from running due to injury. I currently have a chronic injury so I can not run. I did have a torn meniscus that was repaired, but other than that, all of my injuries have been soft tissue (so non-joint) issues.

You just have to re-evaluate where you are in life. Some do the PRs after age 40, PRs after age 50 thing, so do that if you want...or just run because it's fun and healthy (if you don't run too far...perfect training for performance is not necessarily the best for you healthwise, and in fact I will argue that it never is).

Enjoying a good race. Seeing old friends and enemies.

PBs mean nothing

For many of us, we're racing our past selves. I know there will one day come a point when I just can't be as fast as my past self, and I'm wondering how people have stayed motivated when that becomes the case.

I periodize my training and work toward improvement over a season. The gradually getting better from the first to last race of the season feels great. Aging body also like the between season breaks for swimming/cycling and more time with my family. That said I am still in my 30s so have long distance PRs ahead of me hopefully just 5k down is likely unreachable

My PRs are terrible to begin with so they still FEEL attainable. The trick is to lie to yourself.

Running is about fitness and quality of life. It doesn't matter that I'll never hit my PRs from 20 years ago.

I can also set new age based PRs. Don't worry about times and just go have fun.

You just have to find races you want to train for. That's the main reason why people transition to trail and ultra trail running. It gives you something to train for and looking forward too.

PRs is usually just for the younger runners once you past that, you basically run to keep in decent shape.