Give me a reason to drop my times from 1:10 half/2:30 full to 1:06/2:20

You might regret not trying someday, so just do it. And if you get to 1:06 and 2:20, you are pretty close to OT qualifying, so then you'll have that extra motivation.

1:06 will win you a lot more races that's for sure. Not the big ones, of course, but you'd run away with some pretty decent-sized half-marathons around the country. And if you've ever won a race, you know what a good feeling that is.

Who knows, you may be even better than 1:06/2:20. You'll never know unless you give it a go. You may want to have a chat with the wife first as it'll be hard to make that commitment if it also causes marital strife. I agree with the other poster. Test yourself while you have the chance rather than 10 years from now when it will be too late.

Obviously you dont have the motivation or desire to reach those goals and test your limits. Understandable, my times are about the same. I'm 38 years old, married, with a full time job and run 60-90 miles per week. I think with a little more dedication (less beer drinking, days off, proper nutrition, etc.) I could bring those times down, but what good would that do? At your age I wasnt even running, and to some extent regret that today (burned out from hs/college/few years of post college competition). It would have been nice to see the line I could push, maybe make the Olympic trials. You never know til you try, and the opportunity is gone fast. But its obvious thats not important to you.

I stopped training at age 22 at the cusp of a breakthrough in my performances to focus on grad school/work etc. Then I didn't get back into it until I was old and fat. I regret not putting in another couple of years of training to see if I could be one of those guys who can break 30min for 10km. A lot of fellas who were right around my performance level when I quit trained hard and ended up with 10kms in the 29s and 1500s in the 3:40s.

Could, woulda, shoulda. Go for it while you can.

1.10/2.30 on 30-50 miles. Unlikely.

There is no point in going to 80-100mpw unless you can make a living off of it. your family is more important.

if you're claiming that you run 1:10/2:30 on that little mileage, then your incentive to run 80 to 100 mpw would be to qualify for the Olympic trials, as you would be likely to improve A LOT, given the right training, as well as to see what you can do before it is too late. It will be too late soon, so you only have several years. It is very doable to train that mileage while working and taking care of your kids. The wife you can handle and two or three years of higher mileage should not be that tough to manage.

Yeah, I have a hard time believeing you run a 2:30 marathon on 30-50 miles a week! With the long run that means your averaging less than 4-5 miles a day.

"There is no point in going to 80-100mpw unless you can make a living off of it. your family is more important."

Completely correct. Who will be on your side in difficult times or injury? Track, treadmill and expensive running shoes can´t transmit emotions or any further help:-(

The knack consists in keeping social contacts AND DOING YOUR BELOVED SPORT. But I agree athletics evoke real luck!

A last very valuable advice:

Try to organize your surrounding to support you in a proper way, enabling you continuing training. (That was the way I went under 30 and 14 in age of 20years)

Westeuropean Hope wrote:

"There is no point in going to 80-100mpw unless you can make a living off of it. your family is more important."

A last very valuable advice:

Try to organize your surrounding to support you in a proper way, enabling you continuing training.

I run 1:12/2:33ish and roughly 50-60mpw, I'm 42. My family is in full support because:

1. The hour or so a day keeps me grounded. It's no different than going to the gym. I support my wife when she gets her time in as well.

2. The races we choose usually have a little bit of prize money, 100, $200. We use this money to pay for the trip. The honey gets dinner out, kids get to play in the pool all night and during the morning of the race and I get to race. It's a win-win for everyone paid for by the weekly milage.

I'm not motivated to spend more time on it because the balance as described above is just right for US. Bumping your miles up from 30-50 to 70-80 can be unintrusive if you add doubles in the morning and a few miles on other runs.

I'd really like to break 2:30 as it means something to ME. If 1:0x or 2:2x doesn't really mean anything, then why chase it?

fff wrote:

1.10/2.30 on 30-50 miles. Unlikely.

There is no point in going to 80-100mpw unless you can make a living off of it. your family is more important.

Yeah, go work 60-70 hours a week instead and see your kids on the weekends.

Go cry to your f***ing boy toy! Just give up!

SalukiAlum wrote:

Yeah, I have a hard time believeing you run a 2:30 marathon on 30-50 miles a week! With the long run that means your averaging less than 4-5 miles a day.

Hard 16 miles

off

Hard 10 miles

off

2 up, 5-one mile repeats, 2 down

12 moderate

off

48 miles.

Most could run pretty good times off of that training. You could even bump up the long run to 20 and run 10 moderate at the end of the week and have 50 miles. If you are doing averages, that would mean you would be averaging 12.5 miles each workout.

You can easily be within 20 seconds a mile of your optimum training so if OP was capable of 2:20, it is very believable he could run 2:30.

I didn't run a step for 6 weeks and ran a half marathon within 20-25 seconds/mle of what I would have run if I was able to continue training.

After that, I raced every weekend for two months and never ran a step during the week and was within 1 minute for a 5k of what I had been running.

I had the same thought as the op. Why kill myself for that extra minute when I had a great time just showing up and racing.

With that sort of training your racing more off talent and obviously dont run beacuse you enjoy running, when you train 4 days a week. Or you're still living off your college ability. Age? I did the same for a few years after college, but it gets harder and harder each year. I cant relate I guess, because like I said before I'm 39 years old running 2:30. I need to work to run that time. I also enjoy running, so 4 days a week isnt in my training schedule when I'm trying to run the best I can. Again how old are you? Over 29? 5K's dont count. We are talking about marathon/ half marathon.

Oh yeah, and that is 48-50 miles. He said 30-50, so get me 40 miles, that would be the average of the numbers he provided.

The whole "I don't train more so I have more time for my faimily" is equivalent to the nonrunners motto of "I don't train so I have more time for my faimily" Both a crock of sh1t.

Here's the real reason you don't train more: You are afraid of failure.

You know the OT qualifying time is 2:19. Yet, you say with your best effort you can only do 2:20. Translation: You are afraid that you'll try and fail, and you believe that its better not to try, than to try and fail.

Some day you can tell your grandchildren that you had a chance to make the OT, but you wasted your talent, didn't train, and have always wondered since then, what might have been.

Chill out Saluki Alum, some people can run faster than you and don't have to work hard to do it. I am not very talented, trained in that 30-50 range (closer to the 40 part) and can run 1:12 for a half. I can see how a more talented runner could run slightly faster than me.

1:12, you better up the miles! That might get you an age group award.

if u need to be given a reason wrote:

I'm 29 years old, married with two kids and a full time job. I have no aspirations of becoming an elite runner, and so I've only been training about 30pmw-50mpw, just for fun and occasional road races.

I was wondering, what incentive does someone like me have to drop my times from my current 1:10 half/2:30 full to what I may be capable of, 1:06/2:20? I would have to increase mileage to 80-100mpw. It would be cool to claim these times, assuming I could.

But outside of personal satisfaction, would there any real difference between 1:10/2:30 and 1:06/2:20? I mean, 1:06/2:20 is by no means elite. This wouldn't even qualify me for the Oly Trials.

So when your children talk to a kid that has 1:07/2:01 father they can say "My dad is faster than your dad"