I work between 40 and 50 hours a week and have no trouble doubling 5 days a week, hitting 110 mpw and averaging in the 80's and 90's year round, and doing all the same core workouts and supplemental training that i'd do if i didn't have a full time job. undoubtedly it is EASIER to train at the elite or sub-elite or just very serious level when running is your only concern or job, but, really, it is not all doom and gloom. this talk about marathoners having to change up their whole schedule, not running certain races anymore just because there is no prize payout, is absurd and annoying. get a job. almost all of you went to college. it will help prevent you from overtraining, if anything (definitely did for me). don't run races for the purpose of making money. because if that's really what this was about, then you'd scour the earth for a 5k every single weekend of the year. you'd stop focusing on how fast you were getting and how much enjoyment you got from training intelligently and as hard as you possibly can, and instead you'd just become a little road leach, never fulfilling your talent, never going anywhere, sadly obsessed with making tiny chunks of cash from cornball road races, feeling sorry for how hard the life of a quenton cassidy-wannabe truly is.
yeah, competitor group sucks. they're a self-interested business that doesn't give a crap about the future of the sport. so stop letting the development of american distnace runners rely on money. you want to bring up the real man thing again? work a full time job and train full time and have a family full time. it is the hardest and the greatest and most rewarding thing i've ever done.