Does anyone have an opposite sex training partner?

As a guy whose masters running level was similar to that of local sub-elite women, I have trained regularly with several women over the years, although I mostly train alone right now. I always dealt with the women as athlete to athlete and never had any personal issues with any of them.

I do most of my workouts with my coach. she is an All American 800m/1500m/3000m runner.

I sometimes pace our women team on some of their workouts!

Lol, of course not. I train on my own like a real man.

"Hey, who wants to join me on a ten miler in the dark after work? Psyche! You're not invited."

Takinadump wrote:

I do easy runs with my girlfriend and sometimes I pace her for workouts but not super often.

I wish my wife would even want to run a workout, but she has no interest in getting faster, it just isn’t her thing. If I run with her it’s usually my second run, so nice and easy.

39 year old woman here. I had a male training partner in college. There was definitely attraction there, but the fact that he was slightly slower than me was not a turn-on.

These days, I run with my husbands sometimes. He's faster than me, but it's rare that have the chance to run, so it works on those occasions. We have two kids (7,4), and sometimes he'll push them in the jogger if we want to run together. They are HEAVY at this point, and it's just not that fun. He never races, just not interested, but he used to do all my long runs with me when I was training for half marathons before we had kids. To me, that's a great spouse - not even planning to run the race, but up for a 14 mile training run.

I wonder if the wife of Sarah Lavender Smith's training partner reads Sarah's articles...

Used to train with a very elite (top 5 in the country) girl while in high school, by the time I got to college I would've been one of the best women in the world so that was no longer possible.

Bra-ket wrote:

I read the title in 3 different ways

Do you have an opposite sex training partner

Do you have an opposite sex training partner

Do you have an opposite sex training partner

Needless to say I don't have any of the above

This should be required reading for young writers learning how to use italics.

Along with the classic comma example:

Time to eat, grandma.

Time to eat grandma.

sadly I have to do my opposite sex training on my own

In my running group over a period of about 15 years, there was only one sub 3 female runner to train consistently with the fastest group. She actually did get married to her training partner. But they were both single. The other female runners who were fast enough to be in the group never hung around long enough to get to know anyone and never really paired off with a training partner.

I have seen some guys who are more in the 3:30-4 hr range get into pretty close social groups with women who train with them regularly. I have never heard of anyone crossing the line or any marriages breaking up. But the relationship between the men and women is pretty close. Whenever I have seen the men with their wives at races, you can tell that the wives just aren't into the whole running scene and just want to go home. It is definitely a weird scene.

I think there's definitely a risk to relationships, but these days our media actively encourages the destruction of relationships.

Getting all sweaty and breathing heavy and having fun with another person of the opposite sex is a big risk. Running also gets the blood pumping, including to the sexual organs.

It's almost as bad as grinding on somebody at the club and trying to not get aroused.

"We're just dancing", lol.

Likewise gyms are basically hook up joints, just like clubs. Good looking people getting hot and sweaty and grunting with their above average bodies and sex appeal.

Running at the local track this past summer, and running into a couple attractive early 20s girls, this dynamic was obvious. One of them was finishing her run when I got there, and she started doing all these stretches. She made sure that when I was circling the track closest to her, that she was on her knees with her ass in the air, "looking at her cell phone". Her black pants were so thin as to be transparent, so her thong and butt cheeks were fully visible. This was intentional, and then she gave me a blushing look as I passed and made eye contact.

Then the other girl, on another day, finished running before me and was stretching for like half an hour, as if waiting for me to finish running and talk to her. As she finally gave up, she stopped walking away as I passed by, waiting for me to say goodbye or talk to her.

Anyway, I think running leads to biological sexual arousal, or makes it much easier to be aroused, because your blood is already pumping and runners are attracted to other runners.

People need to check their own temptations, not just expect their partners to check their often justified jealousy.

Are you attracted to your running partner at all? Chances are, yes. And if so you should probably avoid the obvious and powerful attraction that comes with running and being attracted to somebody.

I've had several over the years. There's not much to it. It helps if one of us is in a relationship, because then any relationship issues between us are just a non-starter and we can just be friends.

I tend to take my easy days easier than most people at my ability level so it's easy to find female training partners for my easy days. The track workout days are tougher, it's pretty rare to find a woman at my level.

I would have trained with anyone, of any gender similar to my runnining level when younger. I was always about even with the women's world records then, so did not get the opportunity to train with many women.

As I become older and slowed, I occasionally train with others who are near my running level. Some of these runners are younger women. As happily married, I was interested in them as runners.

Its a plus to train with someone who is not direct competition for you in races (different gender and age groups).

Yes, I run with guys when I do have a chance to run with others, but 95% of my runs are solo. I am in a relatively small city that does not have the depth of running talent as in other places. So I often run with guys because often they are the only ones that can keep up with me. I enjoy the company but it of course never crosses any boundaries, and my husband supports me running with others whenever I can especially for my safety.

Subtle brag.

My best training partner is a girl. I run 1:48 for 800. She runs under 15:00 for 5000m. Over 1km - 2km reps and 30 minute tempos we're perfect training partners.

I don't care if I get beaten by her. I just feel honored to be apart of her journey.

subelite hobbyjogger wrote:

The author of this article does, even though she previously had an affair with another training partner.

I usually train alone, but will do some of my track workouts with my high school age son.

https://trailrunnermag.com/training/trail-tips/is-running-a-threat-to-your-relationship.html

It'd be funny if their spouses were doing the nasty with each other while the author and the other were out on the trails!

I do my faster workouts with other men who are faster than me. I often do easy runs with a woman. But here's the thing: when I run alone, I'm 30 seconds per mile slower than when I run with her. (I'm maybe 45 seconds a mile faster than her in races, for context.)

I run with women all the time, multiple times every week.

I am married, so I don't want to hook up with them, just like I don't want to hook up with the women I work with, or see anywhere else.

I really think this is the normal outlook.

I think people whining about the media and blaming the media or whatever, are just not taking responsibility for their own actions.

Sure champ. More than one girl with broken gaydar at the same track? I don't think so.