Who's consistently run 100 mpw with a fulltime job?

dude, you're wife is an idiot ir just realizes your an a** and decided to put up with you. also sounds like you have some family problems...most parents look forward to spending time at night with their kids. perhaps they stare at the tv because you neglect them. on a final note: you train more than some elites, and they are actually paid to do run...sad life you have brother.

Sanctimoniousness personified wrote:

chickenlegsjg wrote:

This....if you 100 + FT + marriage + kids - then you're neglecting your family and work. Really sad to hear that some of the folks here actually double. So, you leave your family in the AM to run - leave them during the day to work - and then leave them again at night to run. Sad.

People like you guys are so lame. You can run 100 mile weeks in less than an hour and three quarters a day. Kids are usually busy with TV, video games, homework, and so on. How many people get home from work at six and spend the whole evening with their families with undivided attention the whole time? And if it's really that big a deal, get a treadmill and run for ;part of the time you're hanging out with the family.

* your wife

My wife appreciates the time I spend running because she knows I'll reciprocate and she'll get time to do things she likes to do. At any rate, if you spend ten hours a day working and commuting, eight sleeping, and two hours running, you still have four hours to spend with your family and much more on weekends. How much time do you spend with your kids in a typical day?

you might be the most selfish person on the board - and that is saying a lot around here.even meb walks his kids to school each dayi run 1hr in the AM...come home, wake the family, cook breakfast, quick clean, shower, and head to work....moment i return home (if not working from home that day) to the momemt i got to bed, i'm with family...2 hours in am and 6 hrs in pm....more if i'm working from home...could i double? sure - but i prefer to help around the house and spend time with my family.

Sanctimoniousness personified wrote:

My wife appreciates the time I spend running because she knows I'll reciprocate and she'll get time to do things she likes to do. At any rate, if you spend ten hours a day working and commuting, eight sleeping, and two hours running, you still have four hours to spend with your family and much more on weekends. How much time do you spend with your kids in a typical day?

I finally gave in and read this thread. Why hasn't someone mentioned this earlier??Some of these replies - in support of 100 + mpw and double sessions - remind me of that of a few of the non-elites in my area. They prioritize work and training. Their families are a distant third. It's unfortunate, and their families suffer. Reminds me of this WSJ article from a few years back:https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703439504576116083514534672The article begins: "As the wife of an endurance athlete, Caren Waxman wakes up alone every morning, including holidays."Some of those in this thread can extend this: "In addition, my wife goes to sleep alone every night."

well, not easy wrote:

No offense, but do you ever feel the desire to lighten the load on your spouse's shoulders by cleaning up, doing dishes, filling up the car, cooking, etc...? How about something (think of something relevant for your child, e.g. playing, or helping with homework, or just a talk) to do with your children?

If you are at work 8-9 hours a day, plus add 1 3/4 hours, that is 9 3/4 - 10 3/4 hours being away; with the last 1 3/4 hours of being away being your own choice..

What I still don't get, but I am hoping you can explain to me, is unless it is a job (money making activity to support a family), how is your hobby higher priority than helping the family?

I'm a nice guy so please don't attack me ;-)

Of course you know whether or not I walk my kids to school because, uh, well, you've decided that you do. And Meb walks his kids to school so he's not selfish? Yet most parents don't walk their kids to school. If they did we wouldn't have so many school busses on the roads. You think maybe Meb walks his kids to school because he doesn't have to go to work on school days?

So what exactly do you do with your family while you're spending those eight hours with them? Do your wife and kids not have anything that they do on their own? Do you oversee everything they do? Do they never see you do anything that doesn't involve them? Do they never go out to play or to visit friends? How are the kids ever going to develop any independence and sense of autonomy if you're there hovering for every waking minute? I love my parents but I'd have gone crazy if they hadn't tended to their own business and interests at times and given me some space.

I've taught grad courses on personality development so research on what works and doesn't work well for kids is something I've stayed on top of. It turns out that one of the biggest differences between kids who do well in life and those who do less well is the amount of "adult talk" the kids experience in their first two years. More is better. This seems to be a major reason why kids whose parents are more educated and affluent largely end up as better educated, well adjusted, and affluent adults. So yes, spending a good deal of time with your kids is good.

On the other hand, kids also need to develop autonomy and they need their own space to do it. I don't know what goes on in your house but it's not good for kids to have their parents hovering over them for every second they're home and awake. It's good for kids to see that their parents have lives and interests beyond them. If you don't want to go out for a run in the evenings when your kids are home with you that's fine. But you really shouldn't be doing something with them for that entire six hours. Go to a movie, hang out with friends, watch a basketball game. But have some time away.

And really, the thread is asking for stories from people who have run 100 or so mpw with a full time job, not stories from those who don't. The matter of family isn't even addressed in the thread topic.

Surely somebody who is running 100 mpw does not have time to read a forum and moreover reply to it.

trying2stayhealthy wrote:

At any rate, if you spend ten hours a day working and commuting, eight sleeping, and two hours running, you still have four hours to spend with your family and much more on weekends. How much time do you spend with your kids in a typical day?

[/quote]

You see this post on every single "running with a job" thread, and it always frustrates me. It's over simplified and assumes every day of your life has only three activities taking up your time, and you can immediately transition from one to the other. You have to include all the stuff in the margins to get the full picture.

H3rcule wrote:

Surely somebody who is running 100 mpw does not have time to read a forum and moreover reply to it.

I'm not running that much now and most of the time when I was there was no Internet. But all I can tell you is that I never found that running 100 mile weeks took up so much time that I couldn't do other things. 130-140 was tougher to fit in with work.

mo'pak wrote:

The last week from another guy I know.

He is married with a young child. Works full time.

As Monday the 17th was a public holiday I will start from Tuesday the 18th and finish at Monday the 24th.

Fortunately for you metrically challenged American folk he has started using miles rather than kms in recent times.

Tue. 5.03am. 12 miles. 81 min.

3.20pm. 4 miles. 28 min.

Wed. 5.07am. 12 ml. 81m.

3.57pm. 4 ml. 28 m.

Thu. 3.31pm. 3 ml. 21 m. 5 x 2 ml b/w 10.34 and 10.12 with 1/2 mile easy rec. 3 ml. 22 m.

Fri. 5.04am. 10 ml. 67 m.

3.53pm. 6 ml. 41 m.

Sat. 7.38am. 12 ml. 79 m.

4.30pm. 4 ml. 27 m.

Sun. 8.16am. 20 ml. 1 hour 48 min.

Mon. 4.58am. 12 ml. 76 m.

6.28pm. 6 ml. 42 m.

His best times are 14.49 for 5 km 68 min for HM. and 2.25 for the Marathon.

This person is running again less than 9 hours after hitting stop on his watch from his morning run, so I'm guessing he run commutes? Much easier to fit in a second run when you're not spending an hour in the car every day.

HRE wrote:

H3rcule wrote:

Surely somebody who is running 100 mpw does not have time to read a forum and moreover reply to it.

I'm not running that much now and most of the time when I was there was no Internet. But all I can tell you is that I never found that running 100 mile weeks took up so much time that I couldn't do other things. 130-140 was tougher to fit in with work.

So have you lost your motivation? Do you no longer love running as much as you used to? Why are you not running 100mpw now?

I love running as much as ever. After several years at triple digit miles I stopped improving and decided I'd run but not necessarily train, which would have involved doubling, schedules, etc. I probably spend almost as much time running now as I ever did but don't cover near as much distance in that time.

I'd love to know, but probably never will, how many of you guys who are making a big thing about running hundred mile weeks with a job have actually tried it as opposed to just deciding it's too much and will destroy the lives of everyone close to you. Maybe it's a generational thing but when the sport was amateur practically every out of school runner who ran triple digit miles did it with a full time job, there were no running shops, and often with a family. And they managed it just fine.

Ron Clarke did. Ron Hill did. So did Ron Daws,George Young, all of Lydiard's guys. The list could go on for ages all the way from Olympic medalists down to people who were never more than just decent local racers. If I recall the story correctly, Phil Coppess did it as a single dad with a full time job and custody of his kids. Did any of them ever get divorced? Sure. Did any have kids who had difficulties? I don't know but statistically it seems pretty likely. But it's not like non-runners don't have those sorts of issues.

I cannot understand why some of you think it's impossible to do something today that a reasonable number of us managed to do thirty five plus years ago. And few if any of you offer anything substantive to support your ideas and rather go with generalizations, insults, and so on.

HRE wrote:

I'd love to know, but probably never will, how many of you guys who are making a big thing about running hundred mile weeks with a job have actually tried it as opposed to just deciding it's too much and will destroy the lives of everyone close to you.

When you go from 50mpw to 70mpw, and find yourself needing more sleep to recover, feeling more stressed with the time management, and finding yourself getting injured more often, how do you conclude that increasing mileage even more would somehow make all those problems easier?

You don't. You'd rather conclude that your body needs more time for recovery than others, and you try to get the best out of your fragile body, and learn to accept that your ceiling is much lower than other people's. That's not lack of motivation. That's being realistic.

So you and your buddies could handle 100mpw and full time jobs. That's great. Congratulations on being so gifted with your durable bodies. But you don't have to look down on other people just because they cannot handle what you and your buddies could. You don't have to conclude that other people lack motivation or they don't want love running. You don't have to insult other people for being "too fixated" on avoiding injuries. Ignoring tendonitis and hobbling through does not prevent future tendonitis or make your legs more durable. I have tried to run through the pain before, and it made the injury worse and eventually needed much longer time for recovery. It would have been better off if I had backed off early on. But I guess that means I "lack motivation."

Personally, I have never gotten to that "magical" 100 mpw training number -- body just runs down. But kudos to those who can. Boiling it down, it takes -- what? -- somewhere between 11 and 14 hours for someone capable of running 100 mpw to reach that marker? Just running 8 minutes a mile average, you're talking a bit over 12 hours.

To me, the time investment isn't the problem. Lots of working folks spend that amount of time on all kinds of things. I know plenty of folks who work 60 to 70 hours each week. I know people who take close to 12 hours per week just commuting to work. Whatever.

From my perspective, it isn't "how do you find the time?" that's the key question. It is how do you stay healthy putting in that amount of work while having a full time job, etc.?

Wake up

Run 90 minutes

Go to work

Either run 30min on a 1hr lunch break or run after work

Go home.

That way when you are home you are home.

Alan

Early 30s, not married/no kids, full time job, full and active social life. I ran 70 - 80mpw for a few years with pretty strong times in 10K and HM. I guess I would consider myself a local standout. I ran two marathons but they were pretty week in comparison to my shorter races. So last year I committed myself to marathon training at 100mpw. Jumped from 80mpw to 90-110mpw over 2 months by adding an extra double and adding a few miles on to most of my runs. Never ran on Sundays. Not for any religious reason, I just like to party on Saturday/Sunday and hate running with a hangover. I held this for about 3 months with an average of 98mpw. A typical week looked like this;

Mon AM- 8 easy, PM- 12 easy

Tue AM- 16 hard, PM- 5 recovery

Wed PM- 10 easy

Thu AM- 12 hard, PM- 5 recovery

Fri PM- 8 easy

Sat AM- 22 hard.

Sun- Off

Total: 98 MPW

I work full time but I'm salary and have a flexible schedule as long as I get my job done. Show up at 7am, work for a bit or hit a morning meeting, head out for my morning run around 9am. Eat lunch at my desk or have working lunch meetings. Usually leave around 5 or 6pm and do my evening workout. That's a 10 or 11 hour work day but I take a 2+ hour workout break so it evens out to about 8 hours of work a day. I could work less but I'm kinda an 'up and comer' and I take pride in doing my job well.

Even though it was 'only' one extra run and 25 extra miles more per week the difference between 75 and 100mpw was huge for me. My fitness shot up almost immediately. PRed in the 10K and regularly held HM pace over the last half of my longer hard runs. Unfortunately I was constantly exhausted even with 7 - 8 hours of sleep per night. I never wanted to go out any more, I was winded walking up the stairs (yet strangely a 10 mile tempo didn't phase me), and my body hurt all the time. Like, really hurt. I called in sick one day because my legs just couldn't get me out of bed and I stayed there, awake but not moving, until 1pm. Then I went for a run.

I developed a minor case of plantar fasciitis and milked that into 6 weeks off. I was just burnt out. When I came back I stayed with 70 - 80mpw and I feel much better. Serious marathon training is not for me.

We've probably been down this road before but the experience you describe in going from 50 to 70 was EXACTLY what I had and I concluded that I was going to hold that level for a while and then run more. It actually did make those problems easier, not easy, but easier. Running more gets you fitter which makes running easier. I struggled much more at 40-50 a week than I did at 100-110. That does not go on infinitely but it does happen. I know others who had similar experiences. I don't know if that would be the case with everyone or not but I do know that no one will get that answer from reading a message board.

I was able to do it, by running 9 miles at 530-6am before work, then a 6 miler on my lunch break at 2pm. Long run on Sunday, 20-22 miles, easy 9-10 miler on Sunday.