This is the wrong question. The right question is: at what point in your life did you start taking responsibility for your running by designing your own workouts and race plans, without a coach to guide you or teammates to run with? A lot of talented people never do. Others keep going for a while based on what they remember their coaches telling them to do, but never learn enough about running to really take control of their own training. How many runners have read 1 book about training?
I stopped at 32 after having competed through HS, college and after.
My last race was a 5000m track race at an all-comers meet over the summer. Ran 15:35 (5:10, 5:00, 4:50) as a workout in the middle of the week. That weekend I skipped my workout and long run. The next weekend I skipped a race. Phoned in a few workouts and long runs after that and ended up not racing at all that fall. I'd been backing off the training for a few years prior to that but this was the point I didn't miss the training/racing anymore. Haven't raced since.
I still run 40-50 miles a week and lift a few times a week. On days I feel good I'll hammer, on days I feel bad I run slow. Most of the time I feel pretty good. I was feeling good one day and ran a mile on the track at a reasonable effort and ran 5:20...that was only a little quicker than my marathon pace back in the day. Can't imagine how I ever ran as fast as I did. Seems like a whole lifetime ago.
I stopped doing speed work after my 3rd kid at 40. I stopped running 6 days a week at 45. I now run 3 days a week at 50. I rarely do any speed work. I prefer the pickups with a group. That is enough to get the heart rate up.
I race and do speed work at 53. Most of my friends do. When you age up, it's easier to place in your age group as the competition isn't as deep.
My mother in law races at 76. She doesn't do speedwork, but she runs age graded times in the 80+% range.
When I no longer want to be competitive?
This depends on t he person and the goals.
Yes as you get older, and if you ran seriously when you were young, you will reach a point where its hard to run anywhere close to your pr's.
And you will not be competitive in races anymore (competitive overall) Perhaps not even competitive in your age group.
If you are not close to personal records, and not competitive, you need to find other reasons to race if you still want to race.
Those other reasons can be social, team related, as a goal, travel related or even as a habit. If you can not justify racing don't race.
As far as doing speedwork, I believe everyone should do some faster running no matter what your goals. It feels good, makes the slower running easier and better, helps with form and efficiency, variety, etc. Pickups or slight surges during runs can be labeled as speedwork at some point.
Some people never stop racing and doing speedwork. Others stop at various points.
Seems like the major life points when people usually stop doing these
after high school
after college
after first kid, time consuming job, marriage
after first major injury, especially after 30
after major surgery, cancer
Age 67. I ran mid-D in high school, college and have continued to compete. I run about a dozen races a year now with the majority being XC races between 5K and 10K. I try to so one speed workout (intervals from 100 to 400) per week when I am healthy. I would estimate that since age 60 I probably have minor injuries that limit my speed work a total of 2-3 months out of the year.
41 years old and still doing speed workouts and tempo runs, but never on the track (don't want to know my exact times and distances). PRs are history, and I haven't raced for about the past 8 years. I do them because I want to push myself and hurt. Working and being a father is great, but I feel like life is cushy, and I'm just slowly drifting through it. Running hard gets the juices flowing, makes you feel alive, cures your testosterone needs, and it's great to be out in nature hammering away like you've still got a little bit of the wild single college guy in you. I just don't want to race and realize how far gone the PR days are.
The point where you just do not feel like competing. Gonna vary by age and training age.
40 years of competing/speedwork and still enjoying it. It still feels good to beat people, especially those you have no business beating.
Hey help wrote:
Like 32,40 ,50 ,60.Do you just run and easy 5miles here and there.
When you start getting constant severe chest pain and cramping. When you lose consciouness on yiur runs on a regular basis.
I would never run just to run. If I run I would do it with speedwork/races in mind. Otherwise running is a dumb exercise to do here and there for the cost on your joints for the normal human being, when you can just bike more often and save the ability to run into your 60's and 70's if you can make it that far.
Big Red wrote:
Creeping up on 60. Running hard and racing is still fun. Intervals? Sure, a bit to sharpen up for a half marathon or 10k.
The question is, are you having fun? Do you feel motivated? That's your barometer.
same here.. 60 is just around the corner, but i still enjoy running hard.
don't race nearly as much as i used to
i'll stop when the pain outweighs the pleasure
i'll stop when it stops being fun
Hey help wrote:
Like 32,40 ,50 ,60.Do you just run and easy 5miles here and there.
Never, for the speedwork, at least. I'm 49, running for nearly 40. Like many, I assume, running is more fun when you're in better shape. Can't be in "better" shape without workouts. I haven't raced in decades (mainly because I picked the wrong parents, and being reminded of it at races is just annoying/depressing), but I still regularly do short intervals, long intervals, and tempos. Like folks of every age, it's fun on good days. And you do it on the less-good days so that you're in better shape on the good days. Nothing has really changed in this regard since I was a young kid (...who thought he'd be the next Bill Rodgers). That part didn't work out, but running quicker will always be funner than running slower.
Hey help wrote:
Like 32,40 ,50 ,60.Do you just run and easy 5miles here and there.
At what point in your life do you learn the difference between "and" and "an"?
Mid-Oldish wrote:
Hey help wrote:Like 32,40 ,50 ,60.Do you just run and easy 5miles here and there.
Never, for the speedwork, at least. I'm 49, running for nearly 40. Like many, I assume, running is more fun when you're in better shape. Can't be in "better" shape without workouts. I haven't raced in decades (mainly because I picked the wrong parents, and being reminded of it at races is just annoying/depressing), but I still regularly do short intervals, long intervals, and tempos. Like folks of every age, it's fun on good days. And you do it on the less-good days so that you're in better shape on the good days. Nothing has really changed in this regard since I was a young kid (...who thought he'd be the next Bill Rodgers). That part didn't work out, but running quicker will always be funner than running slower.
....even if funner isn't a word.
Hey help wrote:
Like 32,40 ,50 ,60.Do you just run and easy 5miles here and there.
When you get to rock bottom in your success to dignity ratio.
There is a 49 year old in our running community who does nothing but run. Well, he works, but he had no other interests, no children and is a total jerk.
At a race last summer, he didn't too well and was passed the last 200 meters by a female Kenyan. At the awards banquet, he was pounding the table in frustration, saying how he was going to "train his brains out and pound her in the ground next year."
If he only saw the people laughing at him. What a joke.
As soon as you start posting to this site.
start in the stacks wrote:
This is the wrong question. The right question is: at what point in your life did you start taking responsibility for your running by designing your own workouts and race plans, without a coach to guide you or teammates to run with? A lot of talented people never do. Others keep going for a while based on what they remember their coaches telling them to do, but never learn enough about running to really take control of their own training. How many runners have read 1 book about training?
The Letsrun answer is once you are not pro or the day you finish college. Gotta get onto the fast track for the $400K/year job and $6 mil stock portfolio by the time you are 32. Then you can troll and hate on everyone in the world who is not white and rich.
Hey help wrote:
Like 32,40 ,50 ,60.Do you just run and easy 5miles here and there.
Well if you aren't very fast, then you never really race. So I wouldn't be too concerned. Just enjoy it. Eventually everyone gets further from the front. No need to put a time frame on it.