Older runners-what would you have done differently?

I would not have changed anything. Its all a learning process and when it comes down to it times don't really mean anything as you get older. Embrace the experience and give running like everything else in life your all and you will be satisfied.

No runner ever thinks his or her time is fastest enough. Keep that in mind.

More miles.

More miles, easier ... recovery days would be much easier.

Back then "core" had no meaning, at best it was situps. But fewer weights and more core.

More protein, and less crap food.

Also, I would have only drank good beer. Beer and mileage are not the same, there may be no junk miles, but there is certainly junk beer - or crappy beer.

ASiemers wrote:

I would not have changed anything. Its all a learning process and when it comes down to it times don't really mean anything as you get older. Embrace the experience and give running like everything else in life your all and you will be satisfied.

No runner ever thinks his or her time is fastest enough. Keep that in mind.

Very wise advice!

While I could think of things--starting running sooner (didn't start until my 30s and ran my fastest times in my early 40s... ask myself what would have happened if I'd started in my teens or 20s. True, there were not as many opportunities for girls in sports until Title IX which passed after I finished college, but things were beginning to gear up for girls/women.

That aside, though, I wonder if I'd have had the sense to join a track/xc team in h.s. or college if one were available to me. I had to "grow into" running, and I found it when I was ready for it.

so many things:

1. run everyday

2. train on the track

3. not drink as much

4. not stay out so late

5. not skip classes

6. have a goal(s) and stick to it...

7. associate with positive people

At 18, with a sub-10 minute 2-mile run under my belt, I hung up my track spikes after graduating high school. Not a great time by letsrun standards, but it was a school record in my upstate NY farm town at the time.

I went to college, studied, partied, and earned scratch money in a slew of part-time jobs. I didn't run. Many times over the years I wondered what I could have done with proper coaching and training. Actually, I didn't do any exercise at all for another 20 years. At the urging of my wife, though, I started (gulp) jogging at 38 YO. Soon, I was hooked at rediscovering my love for running again. By age 40, I was running my first marathon.

Thirty years after leaving HS, I was in my college town on business and my trip went into the weekend. I visited some of the old haunts and I did something I never did in my undergraduate years - I ran a mile on the college track.

A flood of old feelings came upon me and I was shocked at what I felt. I hadn't thought about it in a lot of years, but college was a tough time for me. With a poor family background and no gift money, I was basically broke all the time. My choice of major, education, was not the best one for me but with youthful stubborness, I stuck with it and dealt with only fair grades and plenty of career-choice anxiety.

That run helped me to shed some of the old dark feelings and made me realize that everything in the past, good and bad, brought me to a much better place in the present.

Done anything different? Nah. It's all good now.

'Ol Blue Eyes sang it best - "Regrets, I've had a few. But then, again, too few to mention."

Peace, all.

I wish I had taken care of myself more in high school. When you're young you think you're invincible, so for me minor injuries became big problems later on.

I managed to make my college team as a walk on, but I really wish I had made the most of that opportunity. My work ethic and commitment were terrible and I'm surprised the coach even allowed me to stay on the team. With a reasonable amount of effort and dedication I could have been a scholarship athlete. I look back on those days and cringe quite frequently.

Harry Kooter wrote:

I tried to be a sprinter all through high school and if I could go back and do it all again, I'd start as a distance runner from the beginning. I was an okay 400 runner, but not good enough to make it on the teams of any of the colleges that I was looking at. I can't say for sure that I would have been a good enough distance runner to make the team, but I would have had a better shot at it.

Agree I had the mistaken belief that a sub 50 440 made you a sprinter, now I know that is 5K guy speed... Or Rift Valley marathoning pace :0

Was not the chasing tail that did me in it was the catching part. That made my running commitment weak- pull up the covers and stay in bed for a morning quicky or face snow and sleet on a morning workout.

Years ago, in a different setting, the question was asked what would I have changed about how I grew up. I thought for far longer than any other in the room and had the shortest response: I wouldn't change anything. The temptation is to come up w/things that would make your life better, easier, etc. But, you really don't know if anything else would make life better.

We're products of all we come in contact with...and some we don't. We need to be held accountable for our decisions and accept the things we do AND those things we have no control over. Do I wish some things happened differently? Yes, but that doesn't make it so and I have to deal w/took place.

The OP post indirectly asks for advice: there are no secrets in running. Be consistent, push the edge, rest when needed, run lots. Outside of the actual running, hopefully you can surround yourself w/good people- supportive, helpful, knowledgable, fun & serious about the sport. Enjoy what you're doing, get to know your teammates, opponents, other coaches. Learn.

Good thread with mostly serious replies. I think much depends upon how good you are or have potential to be. The best advice I have given many younger athletes over the years is to decide how important your sport is to you, and if it is, then give it one or two years of full effort. When you are 22 and just finished school, there is a sense of urgency about getting a job, or getting married etc.Well, the world can wait for a year or two and will still be there when you are 24-25. I trained at about 80% committment level for a couple of years and do regret the missing 20%

I didn't understand the importance of building base before each season. I competed in 200-400-400IH-800 and I would show up to each season ill-prepared. Over the summer I basically ran less intensive interval reps than we would do as a team following the token 2-3 week base phase you run in HS and college. I probably never surpassed 30 miles in a week.

My lifetime PRs show this lack of base as my times fell off quickly as the distance increased.

200: 21.9

400: 49.4

400 IH: 54.7

800: 1:55.3

Mile: 4:26

Now I am in my mid-40s. My best 200 is almost 33% slower than my 21.9, but my 800 is only 14% slower than the 1:55.

I've discovered 'speed through strength' well after my basic speed has left me. Now I am going to go off and wallow in 'what ifs'...

wow, some people really take this thread way too serious! I mean, a question is asked "What would you have done differently" - and you can honestly say there is absolutely nothing you would change? You never skipped one morning run, ran less of a long run than you should have, never bagged a workout, never put partying over running, never once?

I find it hard to believe that anyone could say there is not one thing that they would change.

I would have trained harder in high school to get into a better school. Like someone else pointed out I would have rather been a small fish in a big pond than the big fish in a small pond. I improved so much right after college that I think with proper training partners and coaching I could have been a lot better in college.

I would have ran XC in high school. Might have beat Pre? ( I was a pole valter in track) I actually saw my old HS track coach a few years ago and he said "I wished you had ran XC too" I have been running for 30 years now and love it. Cross training has definitely helped keep me healthy. XC

another canuck: Did you run in college? If so, would you say where?

I don't think any of this is original but the more people who repeat it, the more of an impression it will make with the young

1. Run more miles. A lot more miles, especially in high school

2. Run easy on easy days (usually 4 or 5 out of 7 days a week)

3. Do more tempo runs instead of short, intense speed work

4. Not allowed any of the negative or simply dysfunctional personalities I met in college running (mostly coaches) to get me down or sour me on running. I went into college loving running and came out hating it. Took me years to fix that.

For the first 3 items above... well if only we'd had the internet... For all the downside of places like this, if you are willing to wade through the muck you can learn so much.

Seriously, when I was in high school and college, I'd heard of Lydiard and all that but to me tha was something that only marathoners did and in my, uneducated head, marathoners were just slow runners).

It wasn't until I discovered the wealth of knowledge on running on the internet that I truly realized how much high volume does for you at all distances. Actually it wasn't until I was in my 30s and my body could no longer tolerate the 60-80 mpw, all-intensity program I'd always done that I finally decided to give Lydiard-type volume a real try. This was based in no small part off the countless elite training logs and individual testimonials I had never seen until I was online.

Too bad I was mostly too old at that point for it to have made much difference.

I would have run college after high school (at North Central College in Illinois probably)I will never know how good I could have gotten. I was a 16min (decent but not great) 5k guy in CC as senior in high school, running 70-80 mile weeks and loving it. I basically quit when I started college to focus on my "studies" (engineering). I later changed my career and will never know what I could have done at my peak (now at age 42).

Notre Dame

another canuck wrote:

Notre Dame

That's my school as well. What years were you there?

another canuck:

Ok, because I saw you email and it reminded me of a guy on the BG team....

71-75 Joe Piane's first year as an AC was74-75. Still good friends.