You should only run if you find it rewarding and to a degree "fun". Life is way to short to worry about whether you could have run a 250 or a 301 marathon.
You should only run if you find it rewarding and to a degree "fun". Life is way to short to worry about whether you could have run a 250 or a 301 marathon.
Very true, 1 2 3 green. Lower mileage combined with a lack of workouts (competition-oriented workouts) yields a fun, fresh feeling in one's runs. A lot of that mileage will be quick. This is a nice way to train. Too bad we need the punishing stuff in order to see real improvement.
my story of regret wrote:
So, I'll add my story.
In high school, I played soccer in the fall and tennis in the spring. I was one of those dudes who played a lot of sports growing up, and was generally athletic enough to be fairly good at a lot of different ones. Never thought once to join track or cross country, although I ran a 6:58 mile as a 6th grade during one of those Presidential challenges, to which the gym coach thought I could be a good mid guy.
Fast forward to college, nerd school in the East. Join a fraternity, spend most of my time playing beer pong and studying. A couple of my fraternity brothers are on the track team, and are hosting an intramural track meet for the campus to compete. Having played a few different intramural sports with the fraternity, a few of them commented that I was quick and should join the team, as it is typically weak in the sprints.
I show up the intramural meet, and win the 100, 200, 400, and LJ. The only time I remember is the 400, which was 53.3, in flats. The coach is there, tells me that I should join the team when training starts back up in the fall.
I eventually do, mostly to hang out with my friends and pad my resume. Two years later, I hold five school records and are the first All-American sprinter in my school's history. I also continue partying at the same rate, eat like shit, and never lift a single weight. I don't say that to brag, I say that in regret. I took every practice and every race extremely seriously, but had no discipline off the track.
After my final race, I'm burned out. I graduate with a CS degree from the aforementioned nerd school, and I'm eager to start my career and finally get out to Silicon Valley. Years pass, and I never run seriously again.
I regret tremendously because in two years, I went from a complete novice to an All-American, all while doing all of the wrong things off the track, and frankly, as a sprinter being coached by a distance specialist. Do I wonder what could have happened if I had done a few things differently? Yes.
So in regards to your situation, I completely understand that guilt and have in fact started to run again with the idea of maybe running some unattached meets just for kicks. I wish I hadn't stopped all those years back though, and I suspect you'd feel the same.
I know exactly who this is, but I don't want to dox you. I had no idea - great story. Your rivalry with LM was fun to watch.
Thanks for the great replies guys. The most interesting thing for me is why I have these feelings. Obviously it should be easy to quit if I'm not enjoying it, but for some crazy reason I can't do it! Sounds like others have had the same struggle. I guess this is what happens when you are passionate about something for a long time.
Cheers,
OP
The answer is simple - you're an addict. Many competitive runners, including me, are.
My college distance coach is a psych professor at my school, and his wife is a child psychologist. She watched him and the athletes that he coached for years, and ultimately remarked "Running breeds discontent."
It is an interesting insight from an outsider.
Smoove wrote:
The answer is simple - you're an addict. Many competitive runners, including me, are.
My college distance coach is a psych professor at my school, and his wife is a child psychologist. She watched him and the athletes that he coached for years, and ultimately remarked "Running breeds discontent."
It is an interesting insight from an outsider.
Very interesting...it does seem to breed discontent. I think it is because we know how hard we work, and thus we want to see results. And if a lot of training is involved (six months, a year, etc.), we have a lot invested--a lot of sweat, time, and love.
You're in your 20s and can run. THEN DO IT.
Run 50 miles a week, with a 12 mile long day Saturday or Sunday. That means you can put in less than an hour the other six days doing the standard stuff you should be doing, which hardly any of us did.
Then RUN EVERY RACE YOU CAN. Because you can, and because you'll kill it. And no, don't wait until whatever. It will never be easier for you than it is now, you'll never feel this good, you'll never have this chance again. Yes, RUN EVERY RACE YOU CAN. If you end up world class and Olympian, cool. Most likely, you'll be That Guy who wins it all for a few years.
Then you don't have to look back 10-20 years from now, and realize this is when you should have been going at it.
Not you its me wrote:
Hey all, I am a 27 year old male, with a reasonably demanding and successful professional life. Recently I have been having some confusing feelings toward my running.
I have always been a competitive runner, with training being a big focus of my life, and a true source of enjoyment. However recently I just have no will to push myself (frequently DNF workouts when I'm not hurting that much). I feel horrible running hard and performances have deteriorated. I really feel like I am losing the enjoyment of the process after 10+years have hard training. After many of these poor workouts I feel like quitting the sport. When I think of quitting though, I get an overwhelming sense of guilt, which I think stems from feeling as though I will regret quitting later on in life.
I still do enjoy easy running, and could see myself continuing to run 45-60 miles per week just without the competitive focus.
Sorry for the rambling, but does anybody have any experience with feeling like this? Obviously I am not a professional runner so quitting should not be a problem, but I still feel guilty thinking about it.
What exactly do you think you would regret? Your chance to be professional? Your chance to run in the Olympics? Getting a new PR?
Maybe what you would regret when you got older was spending hours pursuing an activity for which you no longer received joy. Life is too short to my friend.
Seriously I don't get it.
I'm in my late 40s and I'm decent but didn't start running until a few yrs ago.
I just regret never taking running up in junior high, high school, college, my 20s and my 30s. I could have had some fast times.
....run while you can. This applies to everyone of every age.