What do to when running "leaves you?"

Very common, you can either man up and stave it off temporarily, or more likely, succumb now.

I guess my frustration comes from the fact I thought I WAS staving it off but it happened anyways. I try to run every day and manage most weeks at 5 days with a few injuries or illnesses that'll take me out for a week or so but nothing much more than that. I'd thought this was enough maintenance to maintain a level in my 30s that would be respectable to where I was but I seem to have fallen off anyways.

Take a break. Do something else for a while. Enjoy not being very good at a new sport, and (maybe?) the buzz of improving quickly. You might get the itch again, you might not.

Or run, but without worrying about time/distance/pace/heartrate etc. - do it for the joy of running.

Start a family

Currently I'm on a bit of a break, started as just time off but then I got sick and it's turned into a few weeks off. Main problem for me is I'd still like to run at a decent level and any break I take I feel myself getting even further away from it. Can't be helped now but I've sometimes felt a bit stuck between trying to force running and feeling a bit of guilt when I'm not running, knowing once I get back I'm going to pay for every day I took off.

Take two weeks off from running, walking the number of steps you were going to run. You'll lose little fitness.

I am in a similar position. I have been running since I was 11 and competitively since I was about 14 starting out as an 800 runner on the track but doing lots of road and cross country races. I feel mentally and physically worn out by the daily grind of running. I would say I enjoy about 40% of it.
I have had my years in and out of the sport but have had a moderate amount of consistency over the last 4 years and decline really has started to take hold.
In 2022 I set a strong PB over 5k (14.25 at the age of 32) but since then everything has been mediocre, maybe the occasional decent run – sub 15.30 5k / 31.45 10k. However this is with quite a deal of effort 60-90 mpw. What seems to have left me is the ability to be consistent in performances. I have also found that I lack the ability to hold a fast pace and hurt myself in training and in races.
What I am finding hard is the ability to just accept it and maybe just do less training like 40-60 miles a week and just be happy running 32-33 min 10ks. Part of me wants to really smash it and get the 80-100 miles a week blocks in but I don’t know if I have it in me any more.

Time to buy a $12,000 bike and some spandex!

You need hand.

Running isn’t special. It’s something that you did for a reason but that reason is no longer meaningful to you. I see it like a job or a relationship. It was fun, fulfilling, and generated great passion for a time until the fire went out. Do you stay out of obligation or a misguided sense of loyalty? Is it better to move on and find another thrill? Only you can answer that.

It’s alright to quit running. You will eventually do it because of age or infirmity. There are other ways to stay fit and many come with social benefits as well. My personal advice is to explore alternatives. You wouldn’t stay in a boring job with no promotion opportunities nor would you wish to languish in a loveless relationship. It sounds like running has become that in your life.

See what else the world offers!

If you're defining "left you" as merely not being as fast as you used to be, well, duh. No one escapes that fate.

I was just okay in my prime. Nothing noteworthy. Now I'm slower than just okay. But here's the key: I still love running and racing. The actual experience of training and racing is the same as it ever was for me, except that the finish line clock shows slower times and I'm further back in the pack now. Big whoop...my performances were never that impressive anyway. I enjoy the actual process as much as ever.

If you define "leaves you" as no longer enjoying it, then by all means, go do something you do enjoy. Running is a hobby and not a moral obligation. Life is too short to spend your scarce time on a hobby you no longer like.

Would need more details about your training.

For what it's worth I'm in my mid 30 and improved my 5k by over half a minute this year and I'm running 40% less miles.

Just wanted to say that gawd there's been alot of "I'm getting old and slow" threads lately and it's starting to effect me negatively. lol

Walk.

try a new event/distance, try a new sport, try some new hobbies. it will only be a frustrating, al bundy type existence to be trying to compete with Younger You doing exactly what you used to do. it'll be a xerox of a xerox of a xerox.

some of it, to me, is fear, but if you were that talented at the old thing you will probably stand out at the new thing too. and the new task gives you a fresh challenge where you are not competing with old you that was just younger and faster. and if you have beat up legs and such, you can pick any number of sports where you sit, stand, are on the water in something, or run less.

i've sat down with a list of olympic sports, and just been like, ok, what did you want to try but were too busy with soccer and running to do before. i always wanted to try x, y, z. you go find a team, a facility, a coach, those sorts of things, and next thing you know you're representing the US in something else than what you did in college. which is fun and precisely what you're not going to get going back and back and back to the well of the exact same event you ran faster in college -- and will always have done so.

and you can always circle back around to masters running or using running as a more relaxed fitness element, when you are older and more at peace with ageing.

You jest, but that is what I did. It started with some right hip joint issue that I could never get over, so I thought I'd take some time off. It's been 8 years now! I went back to cycling (road, then mountain biking).

One of many things I've learned as I get older, is to not let what you do "define you forever." If you don't like or desire to run, don't. Plenty of stuff to do, life remains fleeting.

You'll notice I still hang around here though. Daily. I like the community even though I don't respond as much as I used to. I follow running and watch all the big races. But running for myself, not right now. But in the future, maybe I'll try again?

For me it isn't just that I'm not as fast/competitive as I was but more that I've fallen off further than where I wanted to. Currently, I'm about 3 minutes+ off my best 5k and seem to be languishing in that area despite bumping up things like mileage and just overall being more consistent with my running. I can accept that I'm not going to match PRs set in my early 20s a decade on but I did figure I could stay within a reasonable distance, especially at 5k+, which I was never a strong runner at in my more competitive days.

But I suppose most are right that if I'm really ready to be done running then I should just up and do it. The problem is I do still find the idea of getting into a good training rhythm and hitting a decent time in the mile/5k to be a very appealing goal. It's just that whenever I actually put that to practice, it inevitably doesn't go as planned and I end up wondering why I'm still doing this.

Do you still enjoy the process? Or do you only enjoy a certain result?

If you like the process, you can enjoy it the rest of your life (or at least as long as you're physically able to do it).

If you only like a particular outcome, running will become increasingly frustrating for you.

Whether you run a 15 minute 5k or an 18 minute 5k makes no difference to anyone but you. It makes absolutely no difference to anyone else. It changes nothing about the world, or even about the rest of your life.

So, do you like running and racing, or do you only like a certain result that no one else cares about and makes no difference in the world?

I pop in and checkout a lot of these threads but honestly most just seem to make me question what I'm doing wrong, as I feel I've fallen off much more than than these other posters. There was one yesterday about the time I started this thread about coming back after 4 years off I looked at. The guy said he was a 17 minute 5ker and took 4 years off, then came back in the last year or so and was now mid 18s. I'm younger and have a faster 5k PB yet I'm well off that level despite taking no significant time off. I've seen a few threads in a similar vein but all seem to point out that running has "left me" as I phrase it in a way that it doesn't for most people who are just getting older or taking time off.

It really is a bit of return on investment with my time running. I enjoyed some of my training this year but I feel like a bit of ass training as much as I did this year (over 1300 miles) just to barely crack 20 minutes in the 5k and run mile time trials over 5 minutes.