If you are still running competitively post collegiately, what is your occupation?

Most of the best runners either teach/coach or work in a running store.

It's the same with any sport. When I bowled competitively, most either worked in a bowling alley or a pro shop drilling bowling balls.

Bowling competitively? Is that really a thing?

a lot of what? if you enjoy running/competing and want to continue & get better, how is doing something you enjoy outside of work 'sacrifice'?

realworldtime wrote:

Are you sacrificing a lot to fit in your training, and if so how?

I didn't know we were joking wrote:

Bowling competitively? Is that really a thing?

Pretty much the same as running.

There is a PBA

Like running it is very hard to make good money doing it.

Every large city has tournaments you can enter. Unlike roadraces, not every hobby bowler will plunk down 50-100 bucks to bowl. Only the best bowlers will so the scratch tournaments are very competitive. If you don't average over 200, you are generally wasting your money.

They also have handicap tourneys that the hobby bowlers will enter because they get extra pins added to their total based on their average from a recreational league. That allows them a chance to win if they bowl a lot higher than they usually do.

I have been running post collegiatley for a few years now with pbs of 1:07. and 2:26. I work 9-6 in the sales department of a company who specializes in making pipes.

I usually run 100 to 110 mpw when i'm trainin. hard and i do enjoy the training, but you do make sacrifices. On weeknights I usually am unable to go get drinks with my co-workers since I need to get in a 15 miler. However I do have plenty of time to go out on weekends , so you can have a life outside of running.

2:26 marathon, and still improving. i work at a running store though, not the best job money wise

2:26 marathon, and still improving. i work at a running store though, not the best job money wise

Neat documentary about a bowler.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSnK-fysLN8

Focus on your career first and fit your running around that

Career Adviser wrote:

Focus on your career first and fit your running around that

Just to elaborate on this...

You can fit running around pretty much any career and have relative success if you have enough passion and discipline. But it is very likely that running will not be your main priority in life in the not too distant future and other ambitions will come to the fore. If you spend a few years as a running bum in a low skilled job then you may find it more difficult to establish yourself in a competitive job market once those other ambitions take over.

Job is surety bond underwriter. 40-45 hours a week. Training is usually just 12 miles every day after work with a couple workouts a week. Typically around 80 miles/week all in singles. Ran 14:52 in college and so far have run 14:46 post-collegiately. I think I'm still improving and I'm pretty confident I can run in the 14:30s this year.

You may find yourself cutting out the "extras", like core, weights, icing religiously, etc... I've seen a few people actually BENEFIT from this, but that's the exception, not the rule.

Whether you'll be OK with that is a separate question. You're 5000 PR is about a minute faster than mine, so you may have a greater desire to push for further PR's. Personally, although I do miss college, I think I'm happier with a more well-rounded life. I make decent money, I run faster than most but probably not to my "potential" (haven't broken any college PR's), I'm less afraid to go on easy runs with much slower people, and who knows, maybe if I cut out some wasted time I COULD fit in those "extras" and set some PR's. We'll see.

Good luck.

Software engineer. I majored in math and CS. I have gotten significantly faster (80 seconds in the 5K) since graduating college a year and a half ago, but I am still not very fast (18:40, female).

I train a lot. I think I still have a lot of potential, too. I find it easier to structure my training around a full-time job than around schoolwork which is hectic and unpredictable. I do not have much of a social life outside of my club and had to hire a cleaning lady to do some of my every-day tasks. I'm OK with that.

My club is amazing and has essentially become family away from home to me.

I work in legal administration at a large law firm. It's 40 hours a week every week, Monday to Friday, regular 8-4pm hours. I run before and after work putting in 100 miles a week currently. I'm pretty introverted, so hanging out with friends every couple of weeks plus my running club practices 2-3 times a week gets me all of the social interaction I want. I'm pretty strict with my schedule, so I end up with time to do weights and core in the gym a few afternoons a week, get my run in, and have a few extra hours some evenings if I want to watch a movie or read a book or hang out with a friend. And weekends are free for me to do whatever else I want when I'm not racing.

I didn't train much or improve at all in college, so I'm only now getting close to breaking 16:00 for 5k. Most would ask why I bother, but I enjoy the training and the process and like trying to run faster than I have before. Plus, since I'm still running and they aren't, I'm now faster than most of the guys who were good when I was in college. I fully expect to keep improving for years to come.

I'm currently just getting back into competition. I took a few years off (more than I truthfully wanted) but I got really busy with Grad school, finding my first teaching position, and getting married.

I was a mid distance guy (3:54 1500) and am getting back into some 5ks and training for my first marathon in May. My training kind of sucks at this point, getting back into the ability to actually run 5-7 days a week has been a pain. But like others have said you'll just have to make sacrifices. I know I either have to go to bed early to run in the AM or don't go out on weeknights with co-workers to make sure I get my mileage in.

And like I've eluded to, I'm a high school teacher but unfortunately don't coach XC and have other obligations during the Fall and Winter. So its a balancing act, but if you love it and enjoy it you make time to run!

Ran 14:13 for the 5k in college. Graduated in 2007. Last spring I ran 1:04:57 and 2:15:44. I work a desk job 7:00-3:30, 40 hours per week. I also have 2 kids. I've got enought time for family, work, 100-120 miles per week and absolutely nothing else. No social life beyond family and once in a while some company on run. My club has a pretty soild group that meets once or twice a week and a great coach.

I did spent my 1st 2 years out of college working a job that required 50-60 hours per week plus a 40 minute commute and the running sucked the whole time. I was very temped to give it up.

Stick with it, your best running is still a head of you.

I work 8-430 m-f. I think this is in some ways better for training than working at a shoe store, etc because you can plan your schedule out and know that work won't suddenly call you in, etc. When I leave my job, I can mentally leave everything behind and focus on my running. My workouts are planned out each week in advance, I find this is key so you don't get to Thursday or Friday and say "oh crap, I should have done a speed day on Tuesday."

If you are looking for advice, I would say planning out your week like that in advance is key. While you were in college, you didn't have to do that because your coaches did that for you. Also plan out specific races to peak for so you can plan a season out and equally important, plan out your couple of weeks of rest between seasons. Training yourself makes it very easy to forget to include enough rest, which even if it doesn't lead to injury, will lead to mental burnout.

My girlfriend and I live together so i'll give both our backgrounds and how we train;

Age: 25

Jobs: Finance (me) Healthcare (Mrs. Grimes-in a lab)

Both took relevant majors in college.

I was a 15:30/32:30 5K/10K guy, GF ran 17:00ish in college.

Currently weve run 1:16/1:22 in the half.

We live within a 1/2 mile of our jobs so the short commute helps free up some time.

Typical day:

5:30- Wake up, dress, drink coffee for 5-10 mins

6:00- Out the door, run 7-8 miles, home by 7:00.

7:00-7:45, shower, eat, out the door.

Both our jobs hours are basically 8-4:30/5:00

I have the luxury of running at lunch so will often get in another 3-5 miles with coworkers. GF does another run after work. We'll prepare dinner, watch some TV and are often in bed at 8:45.

As you can see we don't do much else during the week but we live in a pretty quiet area so it's not a big deal. It can be hard to imagine when you're in college to think that you may not spend every night drinking, going out or playing Xbox with your bros but if you run a lot and are putting in the hours at work youre usually pretty cool with going to bed early most nights.

It doesn't take that much time to train if you disregard popular fallacies about the need to put in a certain arbitrary about of mileage. You can train effectively for mid-distance by training less than two hours a week.