Why did you quit running?

randomcoach wrote:

My father, a retired lawyer, averaged at least 75hrs/week when I was a teenager. I remember one time I called him on working too much, and when he added up the hours of the previous week, it was slightly over 100.

He sleeps less than anyone I know of, so when he woke up at 2 or 3am, he would and just go in to start his day because he was bored.

He wasn't working that many hours. He was having an affair. Did you ever meet his second family?

superstud wrote:

He wasn't working that many hours. He was having an affair. Did you ever meet his second family?

Hate to say it, but THIS.

Didn't even start til I was 36, having a blast!

wat? wrote:

You probably don't work 75 hours a week. You mean, you worked 75 hours a week once and usually work 50? The only guys I know that consistently rock that many hours are medical residents.

You need to get out more. A lot of professions require that many hours. Any finance job, for instance. Hell, when I was a waiter I worked that much. 10a-12a sometimes, though we got a break between 2p and 4p. Made hella cash. The worst was Mother's Day weekend.. Worked Friday till midnight or 1am, come back Saturday and work from 8a-11p, then Sunday from 8a-10p. For the love of God, people: Tip your waiters on Mother's Day. And Valentine's Day. Bunch of amateurs making reservations without cancelling them, demanding good service and spending next to nothing. Tipping nothing. Worst day of the year BY FAR.

1. Injuries. I could actually still run, but it took too much time and effort to manage the lingering injuries.

2. I found a sport I was actually better at than running - racquetball. Plus, as I have gotten less fit with age, I have actually gotten BETTER at racquetball. I have not gotten better because I am less fit, but the skills and knowledge and decision making that come with training in this sport are skills which accumulate without really declining IMMEDIATELY if you take a little time off.

Have had three or four major layoffs, mostly injury induced, over several decades of running. However, included among those twice I intentionally backed away from running with disasterous consequences.

In my mid 30s I came to that point where I knew PRs and near-PR fitness wasn't going to happen, while getting busy with other aspects of life (career mostly), I cut back on running only to get injured while doing some workouts that just a year or two before would have been cake. It took four years of nagging injury before that got turned around.

Similar thing happened a few years later after several good masters seasons. Decided I'd done what I'd wanted to do, and then some, and backed down for about 6 months. Jumped into a race underprepared and that set off close to three years of recurring injury.

Qutting sucks! Running for age group but at times that would be so-so workout times in your heyday is far better than sitting on the sidelines out of shape thinking about your glory days.

I work two jobs, one which is shift work. That job involves four 12 hour days, and then I get 5 days off from that job. I work another job on my 5 "days off" in which I work anywhere from 5-8 hours per day. Even at the minimum 5 hours per day, that makes:

4x12+5x5=73 hours.

At this point I think just losing the weight and quitting smoking is going to be a hard enough start.

How much, and what do your training plans entail?

P.S. just registered my domain name, this is me from now on.

Err there are only 7 days in a week, not 9....

Arthritis in my knees and I kept getting slower and slower until I was barely running 11 minutes a mile!

I just started putting more time into coaching and get my runner highs off of my team's successes.

My knees feel better now after a year of no running and my orthopedist has said I could run a little.

Just don't want to lose what little cartilage I have left.

I work every day, so does it really matter how many days are in a week? You obviously have never worked shift work, days of the week become irrelevant, it simply becomes "what days do I work and what days do I have off."

No, I've gotten out enough. Most people GREATLY embellish how much they work. Its just like how people say, "I run 90 miles per week" when that is their max and they usually average 60 miles per week.

Counting Sheep wrote:

You need to get out more. A lot of professions require that many hours. Any finance job, for instance. Hell, when I was a waiter I worked that much. 10a-12a sometimes, though we got a break between 2p and 4p. Made hella cash. The worst was Mother's Day weekend.. Worked Friday till midnight or 1am, come back Saturday and work from 8a-11p, then Sunday from 8a-10p. For the love of God, people: Tip your waiters on Mother's Day. And Valentine's Day. Bunch of amateurs making reservations without cancelling them, demanding good service and spending next to nothing. Tipping nothing. Worst day of the year BY FAR.

You're a f*cking waiter, a trained monkey could do your job. I wouldn't complain and I'd take what you can get.

Tell me, sir, what do you do? Just curious, really, as to what you do that requires you to sit on your throne and chirp about other peoples jobs.

I didn't quit as much as I stopped caring about competing and times. I stopped wearing a watch, not just for running but all the time. Getting rid of a watch did wonders for my psyche. I had no clue how fast, or slow, I ran.

Stress was lower. Finish times were slower. Eventually, I cared more about simply running and not about trying to beat the guy right in front of me. My running world became a much happier place.

Osteo-Chondritis Dissecans of left knee, right ankle. I really miss running.

Never really stopped for more than 8 months at a . time.... I am now 43 , run 34 flat on some of the toughest courses and hottest humid weather here in hong kong as an expat. I used to run 30:50/14;56 at my peak almost 20 years ago, but never really ran the big mileage (60- 70 mpw)

timelessness matters wrote:

I didn't quit as much as I stopped caring about competing and times. I stopped wearing a watch, not just for running but all the time. Getting rid of a watch did wonders for my psyche. I had no clue how fast, or slow, I ran.

Stress was lower. Finish times were slower. Eventually, I cared more about simply running and not about trying to beat the guy right in front of me. My running world became a much happier place.

This.

I have not quit running. I just stopped racing. From time to time I will run a time trial and feel pretty happy about the results.

My life changed a lot when I had my second child. At that point I decided that racing wasn't worth the effort and frustration. And the cost in time and money. I wasn't getting any better and I was years from a PR. I felt like a failure when racing and it just wasn't worth it.

I still run and am in good shape. But I run on my own terms.

I also got way more into weight lifting, no longer concerned with getting too muscular to be fast in a 5k or 10k, and I have never been stronger. Right now I weigh 191 at about 8% body fat. I will take that over being the 162 that I was when I was running my PRs.....

timelessness matters wrote:

I didn't quit as much as I stopped caring about competing and times. I stopped wearing a watch, not just for running but all the time. Getting rid of a watch did wonders for my psyche. I had no clue how fast, or slow, I ran.

Stress was lower. Finish times were slower. Eventually, I cared more about simply running and not about trying to beat the guy right in front of me. My running world became a much happier place.

This is TOTALLY the same thing I could write about my running, I haven't quit, I don't think any of us "quit" running, quitting is a much harsher term than just saying we've stopped running.

It's taken me a few years now to accept the fact that I am never gonna run anywhere close to what I ran in my 20s and 30s. I've come to the point where I am more concerned about being able to simply run vs. being able to race. I rarely wear a watch and know that my pace is slow, but it's still great to be able to get out and run a few days each week