Life after running?

In my case, as time goes on I cared less and less. I ran everyday then one day I decided "I don't want to run on Fridays. I'm tired from the week and just want to relax." Ok now down to 6 days a week. Then on Saturdays it became "I don't want to run on Saturday because I might hang out with friends later. Want to have all my energy for that." 5 days a week. Mondays sucked because I always went to bed too late on Sunday nights. Would rather take a nap after work/school. 4 days a week. You can see where this is going.

Even though running is great, remember there are many positives to not running. I look much better physically. Broader shoulders, bigger arms, bigger chest, all that good stuff. I don't feel as "enslaved" like you said to run everyday. I can enjoy other things without feeling guilty.

If running is really that important to you ditch the 60 hour/week job. Don't let a job make you miserable and stop you from doing what you love.

My $.02

Smarter Not Harder wrote:

Millenial wrote: I'm now working a demanding job that occupies about 60 hours a week of my time.

This is your biggest problem right here. If you're working a "real job" that requires more than 36 hours a week, then you are in a very bad situation. Your work environment is either understaffed, poorly managed, has bad processes, or you simply aren't good at your job. Don't let anyone fool you by saying that long work hours means you're ambitious or dedicated. Anyone who tries to justify working ridiculous hours is simply too scared to admit that their situation sucks.

Now, solve you're excessive work problem and you'll have plenty of time to remain fairly competitive. You're welcome.

This. Plus you're setting yourself for high blood pressure, heart attack and other stress related diseases, speaking from personal experience. Transfer to another job or stop putting so much pressure on yourself.

You should keep running. These are the hardest years you'll ever experience with the exception of maybe having kids. This is hopefully one of the rare times in your life where you'll feel like you are powerless in your job to structure it differently, but when you're older you might find you command more control of your time. Almost everyone is going to get slower as they age. Soon you are only going to get beaten by guys younger than you or world class athletes.

I'm on board with ramping down to something like 70 miles per week. You'll do fine for maybe a year if you're disciplined. You'll still be benefiting from the shape you're already in. If you stay at

You don't have to stop competing. You may just need to adjust your standards a bit to your current work schedule and lifestyle. If you want to run, run. If you want to keep racing, go right ahead. Just don't expect to post the same #s you did when you were 20, running and going to school, and running some more. It will never be like that again and that's ok. That's life. Running will always be there though, whether it be something you are doing presently or looking back on or forward to. Cheers.

I think you have to choose which is more important to you: running, or your 60 hour/week job. You're not going to improve working that much.

You're not wrong for choosing one or the other. And either way you'll still feel a little regret. But if you can live with that regret and uncertainty of what may have been, then the right choice was made.

Smarter Not Harder wrote:

Millenial wrote: I'm now working a demanding job that occupies about 60 hours a week of my time.

This is your biggest problem right here. If you're working a "real job" that requires more than 36 hours a week, then you are in a very bad situation. Your work environment is either understaffed, poorly managed, has bad processes, or you simply aren't good at your job. Don't let anyone fool you by saying that long work hours means you're ambitious or dedicated. Anyone who tries to justify working ridiculous hours is simply too scared to admit that their situation sucks.

Now, solve you're excessive work problem and you'll have plenty of time to remain fairly competitive. You're welcome.

I think you're working too much. It isn't too hard to find a less-demanding job.

Ca$hclay wrote:

You don't have to stop competing. You may just need to adjust your standards a bit to your current work schedule and lifestyle. If you want to run, run. If you want to keep racing, go right ahead. Just don't expect to post the same #s you did when you were 20, running and going to school, and running some more. It will never be like that again and that's ok. That's life. Running will always be there though, whether it be something you are doing presently or looking back on or forward to. Cheers.

This ^ Let's face it. We all strive to get to that next level, but, at some point, usually after we don't quite "make it" in college, most of us come to terms with the fact that we'll never be elite. So, why do the 99.999% of us non-elites bother to run and compete? And, why do people bother to compete beyond their late 20s/early 30s or after they've surpassed their peak running years? It has to be for love of the sport! So, if you do it, love it, but if you don't love it, don't do it.

I really struggled after college. I missed the team, the college lifestyle, the training room. I ran a 5k 5 months out of college and ran 3.5 minutes slower than my last track race. And then I said, "do I want to do this anymore?" For a while I just ran to run. I came to really value the stress-relief of running. Then, a few years later, I was able to get back to college shape (and ultimately did really well at half-marathons). The nice thing about racing after college (unless you're an Olympic hopeful) is that every road race is just another race, and there aren't "seasons" per say. So, you can peak when you want to and race as often or as infrequently as you want. You can run big races for the competition or find a small local race that you know you'll probably win.

Now, I can no longer run, and I miss it like crazy. I would love to even jog for 20 minutes at this point. Unfortunately, my body won't permit that (at least not without hell to pay at some point). The sad thing is that, for many of us, there comes a day when we can't run at all. That day came prematurely for me at age 29.

So, if you love running keep doing it, and if you keep doing it, make sure to love it. That said, if you're starting to not "feel it" anymore, it might be good to pick up some other sports or activities easier on the body.

"While running was once the centre of my universe, it's started to feel more like a chore a lot of the time and a limitation on my ability to do other things."

You answered your own question. Make it a social thing that you enjoy, not a chore that you have to do. Join a club and enjoy running with your mates. Once you're out of university it is no longer something you HAVE to do. It is now something that you want to do and something that you should love to do. That means as little or as much mileage as you want. Transitions are hard but new opportunities and enjoyable experiences await you. Don't be afraid of them. I'm speaking from experience.

RE: Life after running?

I've always lived by the following slogan: a runner wins all his races but one, and in that one, he dies.

There is no finishline.

ALL YOU F&CKERS ARE GETTING SOFT B1TCHES....

THE EMASCULATION OF AMERICA CONTINUES...

HAMMER THE ROADS, HAMMER YOUR JOB, HAMMER YOUR WIVES....

TURN TO A B1TCH MAKES NO DIFFERENCE TO ME

Take up cycling. Of course that will require that you work a few less hours, but if you're as good a runner as you say, you might be the next Mike Woods after a few years.

YOULL ALL BE WEARING DRESSES IN 20 YEARS WHILE YOURE WIVES AND DAUGHTERS RUN YOUR PATHETIC LIVES.....

THIS COUNTRY IS NOTHING BUT A BUNCH OF CAITLYNS

I can relate to basically everything you said. I made the difficult decision to stop competing about 16 months ago. I had plateaued over 3 years post-collegiately and was no longer having fun with the sport. It had become a chore and I was putting too much pressure on myself. It wasn't the same without the team atmosphere and camaraderie and my best friends were no longer training partners. It didn't feel worth it to me to continue to dedicate my life to something that I wasn't enjoying and I wasn't having success in (in my mind).

At first it was hard but as time has gone on I now look back in amazement at how invested/brainwashed I was into letting running define my life. It was my entire identity, not a good thing. I've found a happy medium of running when I feel like, which is usually 2-4 times per week including an occasional long run with friends for fun. I have no desire to race anytime soon, I just won't be able to handle being slower than I used to be. However, I still have thoughts of training hard again during runs from time to time but in the end I don't think it's worth it because I feel like it will just become a chore again. I'm also a little worried about the long term impact of high mileage so I don't want to sacrifice my body if my heart isn't in it 100%.

With all that said, I still haven't found a true replacement in my life for running and I often wish I could find something new to care about that much.

As other people said, you can run quite well (within 5% of your best) with less than half the mileage you did before.

I started lifting weights, and just going hill sprints and intervals and the occasional hard tempo run. Still could run 3-4 miles at 5:15 pace, what used to be my half marathon pace, on very little training-maybe 20 miles per week. Gained 12kg my first year of that, from 68kg to 80kg.

The second year I lifted weights more, lots of squats, bench pressing, deadlifting, overhead pressing, etc. Less tempo running. Gained 8kg more pounds of mostly muscle, up to 88kg, around 9-10% bf. I look completely different...friends that haven't seen me during the 2 years are shocked. It's awesome.

People treat you better with muscle. Life is better with muscle. Even 20kg+ heavier now, I can still run 200-400m intervals just as fast as before.

Anyway, it doesn't have to be lifting, but find something to keep healthy and active.

Focusing more on your friends, family and work can also fill the void.

I graduated college a little over 2 years ago, still obsessed with running, training hard and improving.

I've briefly contemplated what it would be like to give up running, and to be totally honest it scares me. Running is the most intense, most rewarding thing I do and if I walked away now my life would feel gray and boring.

Don't get me wrong, I have other stuff going on too. Great, rewarding job (40 hours per week btw), great girl, great friends. I just can't imagine living a normal civilian life right now. I know at some point in the future, my body or my mind will lose that fire, but right now I couldn't quit even if I wanted to.

Guys, training and racing the way that a lot of us on these boards do (or did) is an amazing gift. It's all pain and stress and splashes of color. Elation and disappointment. The achingly deep satisfaction of a long run, the feeling of absolutely Nailing a session of repeat miles. There's nothing else quite like it.

If the fire's not there, then you should walk away.

If it still burns, hold on with both hands.

Took me about 3 years to make this transition and it wasn't easy. I'd always trained very hard and been very competitive. however, there came a time where my performances started getting worse and work demands were high. Initially I tried to compensate by training harder. This was disastrous and I spent a long period of time feeling exhausted and mildly depressed. In the end I took a 4 month break from running out of necessity. It actually felt a relief to have 'retired ' but after a while I started feeling the urge to go for a run again which was surprising given how much I had come to hate it. Now I just run when I want to (typically 4 days per week) for about 40 minutes at a time, and it nearly always feels good. I've also started a bit of strength training / yoga and some occasional biking and feel my fitness is more rounded than previously. In the back of my mind I think that I might compete again at some point, but I've no real goals for now other than to be healthy and have fun. I kind of fear that if I do get competitive I'll end up making the old mistakes and getting myself in a rut again.