After College

well, thats nice.

... And apparently, my writing, spelling and command of the English language suffer immensely...

Doesn't have to be that way, and certainly isn't for everyone.

Yeah I can't see that happening. I graduated in May of last year and I'm running 90 mpw, and I'm not even good!

If running is that important to you, you'll find the time, the energy, and the motivation.

If you don't run, it just means you don't care enough.

totally agree with you. i used to be a 14:30 5k/ 30:05 10k in college 2 years ago. I was good, but not good enough to continue running full time. Now I work 45-50 hours a week, weigh 175 lbs (150 in college) and only run 10-15 miles a week, although i lift a lot. I'm 25 and still think about going back to running all the time but deceide I'm too heavy and it would be bad for my job. Those of you still in college cherish it. Drink hard on the weekends after the race and train harder during the week.

Thanks for depressing the living s**t out of me. it is true though, those days are coming. i don't want to think about them though, imma enjoy every day of college running i got left in me. Luckily i have a copy of RWTB handy so i can quote Adam Batliner. A few days before Nationals he wrote this in his journal entry. "These are some of the best moments of our lives. We may not see it yet, we may not even know it, but I think that we will look back as withered elderly men upon these times as some of the most profound of our lives. And if I don't, that's even better, because it would take a hell of a life to cloud over the shining, glistening days of collegiate cross country." I'm in a much better mood now

It is VERY difficult for most competitive runners post college. I know guys that were fast, dang fast, and they barely lace up their shoes now. Because we were always motivated to race competitively we never concentrated on the "Zen" aspects of running or the health benefits, so its the "if I'm not fast- I'm done" syndrome. The idea of running an 18 min. 5k makes us want to puke or register under an assumed name.

For those of you still in school, regardless of whether you run for CO, OR, or some Div III school- go to practice every day and be d@mn glad you are there and you have the chance to run and run fast.

Often it is not the desire, but pure time constraints that limit the amount and quality of the training you can do. I know there are people that run 140 miles a week, have a full time job and 3 kids blah blah blah ... well that it anecdotal at best.

I still run, and I still can usually get up to 40-70mpw, but it's in singles and I have to eliminate the little things, the drills, the extra time in the weight room, a long cool down or warm up... not because I don't want to do them, not because I don't know they help, but there are only 24 hrs in a day.

My advice is to college runners: run your tail off and do your best to bang as many XC chicks you can. (You'll be glad you did both when you are older.)

I would agree that life after college isn't so great. Depending on what job you have, Work can take a LOT more hours than school ever did.

Personally, I run a lot less (though due to injury as much as working), I am getting fatter, though I will never weigh more than 150 or I will quit my job just to lose weight (I made a pact with myself after I graduated), and I generally Hate life a lot more than I used to. But weekends aren't about drinking and football for me. Working has made me appreciate the free time I have more and I do things that I want to do more now. And this doesn't neccessarily mean I don't do the same things I used to for fun, like play video games and watch tv or whatever, but I enjoy it a lot more than I used to.

you don't have to get heavier. learn how to eat right. you can be very thin even with little running. you can have hot chicks even as a 40 year old man. why have such a looser's attitude? no life after college? what a joke. and why do you have to drink?

Yes. You can let your life go in that direction. But you also can not let your life go in that direction. I think that I was very lucky to have graduated in the "amateur" era when all of us who wanted to run seriously after college had to think about how to do that while still supporting ourselves.

We didn't have guys in programs who had the whole day to work two runs in around naps and massages so we didn't feel like we were unusually put upon by needing to work. We figured out that we could run on that lunch hour and again after work and that breaking the day's miles into two sessions like that kept either session from appearing too imposing. we knew that guys like Ron Hill got in 120-130 mpw mostly by running back and forth to work. Some of us did that. Some of us figured out that there are no municipal ordinances that prohibit running at 9 or 10 pm. Others made very conscious choices about the sorts of jobs that we would or wouldn't take and how those jobs would inhibit or facilitate our running was often the deciding factor on whether we'd do that job or not.

I suspect that if you take up a career which totally consumes you it will be difficult to run seriously. It's still possible, but difficult. I have always kept in mind that jobs are means to ends; you have one so that you're able to do the things in life that you want or need to do like eat, live inside, travel, run and so on. I've never made huge piles of money that way, but I've never lost a run to my job.