Things You Wish You Knew Before Your First Year of Post-Collegiate running

In my first year after college, I wish I could have found a way to appreciate the simple act of running. My collegiate running experience was grueling physically and all-consuming emotionally, and when I graduated I wanted nothing more than to be done it.

After 8 years of not running, I started casually heading out on runs in the evening while living in the Bay Area. These runs were hard, because I was terrible and I couldn't help but compare myself to the runner I used to be. Eventually I stopped thinking about the past and began appreciating the present: the small improvements from week to week, and the sensory experience that drew me into the sport in the first place (the sound of my feet hitting the pavement in quiet neighborhood, the meditative silence of the trails, the cleansing pain of the whole endeavor).

That was about 2 years ago. I've been running consistently since then and enjoying the simple pleasure that every run affords. I'm as fit as I've been since graduating, and I'm finally putting some races on the schedule. Thankfully, I never raced anything longer than a 20K in college, so there are plenty of PRs left yet to be set.

If you're transitioning to a full time job after college, running will be terrible for a while. It took me 6 months after graduating and working full time to get the training routine down.

Expect the first races you do to be terrible. I got girled at a 5k in one of my first races after moving and starting work (it was like a 16 flat girl, but still). That was horrible. My PR was over 90 seconds faster than I ran that race. It was a disaster. For some reason I expected to just be as good as I was despite being on my own for the first time and having my first full time "real" job. I wasn't eating right, I wasn't sleeping right, I wasn't training right and my head was really in it.

It took until the following spring for things to turn around. I was finally comfortable in the job and my routine, so running started to feel good again. Ended up running a bunch of PRs (from 5k-marathon) and becoming a local 5k hero over the next 8 years.

So relax, and don't be afraid to take time to adjust to your new situation. Don't be hard on yourself if the transition takes longer and is harder than you expect. It'll get better.

Anyone that keeps competing after college that's not a pro for anything but their own satisfaction is doing it for the wrong reasons. I've been out of school for a year and a half now. I've got a long term girlfriend I live with, I just got a new job that's way better than my old one. I run 80-90 miles a week and have PR'd in everything from the mile up to a 10 miler. You don't have to put off a career so you can train hard. No one should think I do this for another reason than meet my own goals....we've all got a limited timeframe to see what we can do physically why waste it.

2022, Marathon trials or bust

"No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable"

-Socrates

"Undergrad I was putting in 60-70 hours a week and similar for my PhD. Now in industry I average 45 hours per week."

In school you were wasting time and not working efficiently, you could have done the same thing with 8 hours per day 7 days per week. The first 3 years of grad school I would have said what you did. Then a 40 year old idiot, with kids, joined our lab. For my last 2 years, he worked 45 hours per week and kept up with the rest of us. I'm sure I learned more in grad school than he did but very little of it helped me do better work.

Now you aren't counting the hours you spend thinking about what you are going to do at work or answering email/texts at night or on weekends, at least 7 hours per week. My guess is that in school your "commute" was 5 min each way at most and now it is more like 50 min putting you over 60 hour per week.

I think he knew what I meant, but he was trying to poke holes - which is fine, I guess. Point I was making is that college life is nowhere near as cluttered as post college life and people don't realize that while they're in it. I also had a "hard" major and studied a ton and would give a lot to have what I perceived to be a hectic life back (at least the time back).

architecture takes way more time than MDi pulled an all-nighter about once a week for 3 years. probably spent 100+ hours in studio a week my last year of college. usually went to bed around 4-5am and woke up at 8:30am consistently the last six months of my thesis.i'm not saying you have to do it this way, but all the best students were working hours like this

You've got to run right away after work or it gets hard to fit everything in. That house or apartment you live in, takes a lot longer to clean than your dorm room. Meals, before you were probably eating out or going to the dining hall, well guess what, they take like an hour to make sometimes. As a teacher, the amount of work I have to do outside work seems like it will take a couple hours but often takes 4-5 times that long. I've just given up on free time outside of running most days.

Big pr's don't come, even with radical changes that you think are a vast improvement on your college training. You train like a madman for a year and end up dropping 21 secs in the half. The next spring or fall you might drop 2 mins or you might not pr at all.

College campuses are usually the perfect place to run, esp in the early mornings before class. Well lit and no one is out. Suburban roads aren't exactly the same.

In college you'll be running in the light just about every day, afterwards not so much.

Got a track workout planned? Good luck getting on a hs track. Unless you live near a major university or its the summer (and even then if summer school is in session), its going to be an issue. Practices go for 2-3 hours after school and games last even longer, because they start later. Even if the softball team is practicing on the other side of the athletic fields from the track, they might not let you use it. Sometimes they might lock it up for no reason at all.

Ran on the golf course on campus at school? That local country club near you is going to throw a hissy fit even if no one is out golfing yet or there are no golfers due to the rain.

PPL to run with? This might not be so bad depending on where you live, but in some areas of the country, good luck.

Other athletes at college might care how xc and track are doing. Your coworkers don't care about your race results.

All this said, I love running.

Agreed RuppBuster. I would classify myself as a 'local elite'. I expect to run somewhere in the 1:06s for a half this fall. I train harder than I did in college, sometimes to the detriment of my social life. But more often than not I make time for my friends and don't sweat going out for a few beers the night before a workout. My non-runner girlfriend is tolerant. I don't worry about missing a run to take advantage of a spontaneous social opportunity. Running is a priority, but not the only priority.

That said I love the opportunities running can provide - some occasional petty cash, social aspects, travel- even if the dream of an Olympic team isn't a reality for me.

Post collegiate running for the majority of us is about balance and happiness. Training and racing competitively is fulfilling to me. That said, I'm not willing to ride the emotional roller coaster of it being my singular focus.

No one much cares about how fast I run anymore. But chasing and accomplishing a running goal brings me the same satisfaction as achieving a non-running goal. An hour or two a day is a small price to pay for something you love.

If you enjoy training and can manage your normal responsibilities as a human, there's not compelling reason to stop.

Agreed RuppBuster. I would classify myself as a 'local elite'. I expect to run somewhere in the 1:06s for a half this fall. I train harder than I did in college, sometimes to the detriment of my social life. But more often than not I make time for my friends and don't sweat going out for a few beers the night before a workout. My non-runner girlfriend is tolerant. I don't worry about missing a run to take advantage of a spontaneous social opportunity. Running is a priority, but not the only priority.

That said I love the opportunities running can provide - some occasional petty cash, social aspects, travel- even if the dream of an Olympic team isn't a reality for me.

Post collegiate running for the majority of us is about balance and happiness. Training and racing competitively is fulfilling to me. That said, I'm not willing to ride the emotional roller coaster of it being my singular focus.

No one much cares about how fast I run anymore. But chasing and accomplishing a running goal brings me the same satisfaction as achieving a non-running goal. An hour or two a day is a small price to pay for something you love.

If you enjoy training and can manage your normal responsibilities as a human, there's not compelling reason to stop.

I would classify you at least as a regional elite if you can run 1:06 for the half.

Also, I enjoyed reading your thoughts about post-collegiate running, very insightful.

I agree with Rojo that this is a little more depressing than I would put it but I completely agree with the point.

I ran division 1 for my freshman/sophomore years but then my coach and I mutually decided it was best if I wasnt on the team anymore because I kept getting injured.... They had to cut a person so I volunteered to quit when he brought it up to me because I couldnt stay healthy so it was pointless.

My junior/senior year I still ran and did workouts but my training was something that was just for fun and if I didnt want to do a certain run then I didnt. Ironically, I started racing better and never got injured after not caring about my times anymore.

My social life was also a million times better. I drank while on the team but I started going out much more after not being on the team and had the best 2 years of my life. I think runners often neglect the party aspect of college. You can drink in college and go out without killing your running career. Allowing myself to enjoy the college experience gave me times that I will always remember and friendships that are much closer than they would have been otherwise.

A few that ultimately costed me big time:

(A background: I was good enough to be considered for top-7 in my first year, but come my fifth year these very same times would have only earned me a redshirt spot on the team)

- First year was not the year to push for a top-7 spot, especially after a track season of major PR's. Was injured for the first of many times not long after.

- Communicate with the college/university coach. Arguably my biggest regret during my university days was not communicating well enough.

- DO NOT train with your HS coach during the summers, especially if he is notorious for hammering every workout. highway 101 route to the doctors office. The only exceptions are if you can get the two coaches communicating well so that you improve by the year, or if your university coach is extremely incompetent to the point where he/she can actually hinder your running.

- If either you can afford it OR S&C is provided by the team, look into a proper S&C program geared towards Runners. Make sure that core work is essential. Besides the above, a big mistake I made going from HS to College running was dropping S&C out of time restraints. HS runners, college running brings out the biggest weaknesses in your kinetic chain. LOTS of runners who were never injured in HS have consistent problems in college only to see why they keep getting injured.

- Consistent Sleeping becomes very important.

- Make sure you are living with people that either A) are runners themselves, or B) people that are good with their habits at night.

- One for most of you on here: Grades - you can't run post collegiate without this.

- Finally, for the drinkers - have a rough guide of your BAC. IF you wake up with a hangover, you just went through one night without actually sleeping. For every hour you have alcohol in your system, your BAC goes down by 0.01%. One bottle of beer is between 0.02-0.04% depending on your weight.

No you are just a loser! Sorry bro, lots of people have dedicated their life to running, still have relationships... actually get married and had kids, held down good jobs + running. You are just a turd!

You didn't make it in running because you are simply a "DUD", you have never been nor will be great at anything.

You are not a very nice person.

I've noticed how running will most likely consume my out of work life when I did an internship at a Fortune 10 company.

Myself and the other interns all lived in hotels around our company's home office. I was training for XC at the time and was putting in 60-70 miles each week.

After working from 7:30 to 5 every day I would get food, let it digest, then head out on my run when it got a little cooler out This would be around 8pm. I'd get back by 10 and then suddenly it was time for bed at 10. I tried running in the mornings but it was always too dark to see decently enough to make it safe. I'd run on bike paths because the roads were always dangerous and I had a commute to make.

Every night, I got offers from other interns to go out and do things and I would always say I had to run. I'd go out Friday nights because I could sleep in on Saturday morning, but by the end of the summer I started becoming more concerned with my training and stopped going out all together.

In the end, I did not make the types of strong connections with coworkers and other interns that I could have made. I felt like a square the whole summer, nobody cared that I was a fast miler, literally nobody gave a shit they just thought I was kind of lame. I realize now that this is not what I want my life to be like when I graduate and am willing to hang up my spikes at the end of June and call it a career. I still plan on going to the gym and jogging for health but thats it.

"After working from 7:30 to 5 every day I would get food, let it digest, then head out on my run when it got a little cooler out This would be around 8pm."

I'd counter saying you could possibly have managed your time better. Eating a late lunch or snack in the afternoon and you could be fueled for a 5pm run. Sure it may be hot, but head for the shade or treadmill if need be.

Shower, eat, and you're drunk grinding on some chick by 9PM easy.

Got a coach. I self coached and while I got a sponsor and had mild success (84 OTQ, some regional wins and sponsorship), I think I could have done much better with a coach.

I've only been out of college for less than a year, but I'm still getting used to some things.

It's weird not doing things like going to races with a team. Now it's come to me driving by myself to these things sometimes. Maybe I'll see a few faces I know, maybe my girlfriend (still in college) will come to watch, but that's about it.

I have enjoyed racing more because I don't necessarily expect to run fast times. I am focusing more on just having fun while racing. I still think I could PR in the 5k and 10k in my lifetime, but I'm just going with the flow for now. Running and racing still makes me happy, and that's what keeps me going. It takes a precious hour or two out of my day, but that's time that I'm not wasting watching TV or doing some other mindless business.

Running changed my life for the better, and it makes me feel good on a day in-day out basis.

Bob Sacamano wrote:

That it's just a frigging hobby, so relax and enjoy it rather than thinking your stupid race results say something significant about your self worth.

this exactly. Getting from point a to b in a certain time... Just a number. Meaningless to most of society who would be equally impressed with a 15 min and 30 min 5k, but honestly wouldn't give a shit about either.

so, just be grateful to be able to run and enjoy setting your own goals and training.

Also, accept that you may be slower for awhile: without the luxury of a college student's schedule, set workouts, people to train with, and trainers to patch you up. You will find out pretty quickly if it's worth it for you to try to run fast after college.

for me, post-college running for the first few years was about starting back to jogging on a semi-regular basis (after initially thinking I wanted to quit altogether), abandoning the stopwatch, and using running to cope with a difficult life transition.

4-5 years post-college I was running my best ever. I had to be patient though.