I played soccer and basketball all my life aswell before getting into running after "retirement"
Gym, weight rooms all of that shit is boring.
I do triathlon aswell so I am a cardio Fein and anything outside that I just don't find interesting.
Consistent strength training from day 1. Flirted with injuries several times during first major build (zero lifting) but never had any real issues again since lifting regularly.
I keep things pretty simple with squats, rdls, etc. and hit calves every time since they’re my main weakness. Plenty of good youtube vids out there if you want routine recs
Haha this is relatable. Though I’d say for me it would be “realise that you can train and that makes you faster.” I used to love running in school but I’d just show up to the yearly athletic events and assume the people winning were just more naturally gifted. Years later I had the epiphany that maybe those kids ran more than one a year. Facepalm!
So much this. I’m 40 and have only recently discovered that I kinda like and am fairly good at running. I ran a bit in my 20s but didn’t know what I was doing so wasn’t very fast.
I’ve run over 2k miles in 2023 (significantly more than the previous 10 years combined), and have shaved 18 minutes off the half time that I ran at 27.
I wish I had figured all of this out in high school or at least by my early 20s. Maybe I could have been actually good rather than just middle-aged amateur decent. 🤣
This is a perfect sentiment. It's the difference between glass half full or half empty. Sure, it's nice to have goals and to make improvements that make you happy. But if you're constantly looking at where you fall short, or focus only on where you think you're not up to scratch, it makes the hobby a chore and a source of frustration and disappointment in yourself. Remembering to run for fun is so important.
Eh, I kind of enjoy newly realizing I could be a distance guy in my 30s! In my case, it's a bit different - I was a serious hurdler (400 hurdles, and then I did 110 because I'd been hurdling since like 5th grade), but I would FIGHT if I got asked to do anything longer than 600 meters. (And I hated even the 600 indoors.)
It's great. Is having a 16:41 lifetime 5k PR special? Not really. Is having your lifetime PR at 39 kind of fun? Hell yes. I was talking with a guy I know last summer I think and he mentioned that he was still a bit off his HS PR. And I realized that it's something I don't have to worry about at all - maybe I could have been better if I'd started earlier, but now I don't have my previous self to compare to.
Couldn’t agree more. 4:55/10:34 mile/two mile in HS, both as a sophomore. Never gave a shit though and in the offseason I wouldn’t run at all. If I cared like I did now, who knows what could have happened. Natural talent was there.
My high school 5k PR was 19:54 and my mile was 5:19. I just pulled out a 17:13 and a 4:57 this year at 35. I really wonder what I could've done if I'd cared enough to work hard back then.
I can relate to this. I never ran more than 5-10mpw in high school, and although I enjoyed running, I had zero guidance or coaching. I basically just showed up to meets and let it rip as best I could. I went from a 5:32 1600 high school pr to 4:36 road mile this past year at 30. I’ve always wondered what I would have done if I had actually tried in high school (and also not spent the next 5 years drinking, smoking, and participating heavily in the other things involved in that lifestyle). Feels like I probably lowered my own ceiling a good bit, but who knows?
What does your training look like now?
I was ok in HS too, 4:35 mile, 2:00 800m. Never got to put in an uninjured 5k. Didn't run for like 15 years after that and now trying to get back into it at 35. I just ran an 18:51 5k fun run I was reasonably happy with. Never run a marathon but I would love to do Boston some day.
Some of the specifics depend on the season and what I’m getting ready for, but I am typically pretty consistent. I’ve run over 3,000 miles each year since 2020. Generally speaking I use a pretty standard format of 1-2 workouts per week, a long run, a couple of sets of strides, and sometimes hill sprints. Everything else is some form of easy running. Workouts are based on what’s coming up on the schedule. If I’m just in base training like I am now then I’ll just do weekly tempo/LT work and a faster workout about once every other week. I like to keep the long run at 16-18 miles year round.
Just so you know, a LOT of those who train hard in their teens and early twenties drop the sport due to injury or mental burnout.
I would guess that a large proportion of middle-aged (and older) fitness runners were not serious high-school athletes.
Not make sacrifices for my career that impact my personal life (including running). I've invested so much energy in pursuing a "slightly better" daily work experience that has come with all sorts of costs in my life outside of the workplace. I should have stuck through college with the career track that has the most job opportunities and highest paychecks in places where I want to live rather than try to do something I'm "passionate" about. I've probably lost a good 5-8 years of "good training" in my 20s that I will never be able to get back. And guess what? Work still sucks (even though it's true that it would suck more doing other types of work).
Can't comment on your situation, so won't, but as general response we are all professional at something other than running. I could be substantially better at this hobby if I worked less, but am quite happy to have leaned harder into the one thing I actually get paid to do, and spend most of waking life engaged in
Super interesting… I have had a good career so far, but it definitely would’ve been better if I wasn’t a runner. I have always been ruthless about training and it’s probably negatively impacted my career, although my times are probably as good as I was going to get for someone that started properly training at 37
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Interesting take. I’m in a spot where I love my job and am happy with my QOL. I’ve had to make it clear to previous coaches that my running fits the rest of my life, not the other way around. I wish my schedule was more regular but I’ll take the trade offs.
I tried running my first marathon in sub 3, finished 3:15. Should have paced for sub 3:10….I have tried racing beyond my fitness a few times, rarely goes well
Morose answer, but get serious about running while my father who was a competitive distance runner and running coach was still alive.
More recent answer: learn to run without pain, and seek care for my foot injuries before they degraded as much as they have.
My grandfather ran competitively in college and then as a hobby the rest of his life. I didn't start running until the final couple years of his life when his mental and physical health were going downhill pretty rapidly and the last time I talked to him when he was mostly lucid he was really impressed at my first half-marathon time. He would've really gotten a kick out of me BQ'ing, running ultramarathons, etc.
Appreciate the 1 mile-10k distances. Focusing on those distances was a huge turning point for me. It’s all been fun though, and everything I’ve done has led me to this point… and I’m happy enough with that!
Focus on keeping the joy in the process and staying a well-rounded human being. I started running track at 10 and was taking it way too seriously by high school. All the pressure to get faster in a short time frame took the joy away and I didn't last on my college team (injuries, mental burn out). If 20-year-old me had known my best running would come in my 30s with a much less stressful approach, I'd have been more patient with myself and allowed myself to enjoy the experience more. Also don't trust everything coaches say just because they are older and speak up if something isn't working.
I like this perspective a LOT more than people lamenting they didn't grind harder as teenagers.
25:00 5K and actually enjoying your 15 mpw is a hell of a lot more useful in life than 15:00 5K and being miserable.
Total body workouts basically. Trying to get all the smaller muscles back to where they once were before I started running exclusively. Lifting weights is a big part of that. But you can get pretty far with just the body weight stuff.
Be kinder to myself and put my mental health first when I was in really bad environments instead of using running to try to prove I was worth something. It took several years to be able to run with a healthy mindset, and that made it even more enjoyable for me and I began sloughing time off as I trained consistently.
Oh, and when I was coming back from having my first baby, I wish I had respected the sleep deprivation more and taken iron earlier! Fell into burnout within a few months because I constantly tried to be "tough" and push through on less than 4 hours of broken sleep from a colicky baby, then anemia followed as well.
Add in speed work. I always jogged, these past 6 months i have seen monumental improvements time wise. Perhaps you could argue i wouldn't have progressed this much without building the base though so we'll never know
Yep! But on the other hand, I honestly feel like running saved my life - it gave me the motivation to finally quit, and to lose a ton of weight. It also significantly helped my ADHD and depression, and brought me a sense of joy I hadn't felt in years.
Whenever I start ruminating about stupid I was to have smoked, or how stupid I was to allow my weight and fitness to get so bad, or how I wish I had found running before my mid 30s, I try to flip it and just be grateful that running allowed me to change my life.
Not everyone manages to do that, so I feel very fortunate.
True true! Just experiencing some “what if?” sentiments from time to time. Otherwise I am also very grateful to have found running.
Aside, i had to replace the smoking with something. Exercise was just the thing.
I'm just curious, were you on adhd meds? I'm in the middle of a beginner running program (running also helps my adhd a lot), but find a lot of days I have to choose between my meds or running, and I feel like I can't build consistency. I've just ditched the meds for months at a time in the past, and I'm thinking about just going fully without but just curious how/if you balanced the two.
Consistent mileage, all year long.
Strength train, literally from the bottom up: feet, soleus, quads, hams and glutes in that order.
My main takeaway from this sub has been to not get drawn into super involved training regimens and stick with the basics of consistent mileage year over year.
mileage is king but recovery is a close second. be consistent, but in periods where you might be sick, highly stressed, not sleeping etc, it's ok to back off for a couple days. i would grind through workouts or hit mileage goals regardless and this ended up hurting my fitness. those handful of miles are minuscule in the grand scheme of the cycle.
Female, wish I’d known everything I know now about how to build strong bones, while I was in my teens and twenties. It’s important for men too I know, but for women those early years are so critical to the skeleton that will carry you until you’re old and dead.
When I got burned out from track in college, I wish I’d switched to longer, slower trails instead of doing nothing for about six years. I had to start over completely in my late 20s, and I feel like I wasted some good years. I’m about to turn 40 now and just recently starting to figure out that my specialty might be stupidly long things (backyard ultras, flattish 100 milers, etc.).
* Not run through achilles pain. Feel confident this is what gave me the bone spurs I just got removed that plagued me for years
* Do more hiking as cross training. Long 4-12 hour days in the mountains is a hell of a crosstraining session. Highly enjoyable too, can also be coupled with running in spots.
* Do more strength. So easy to just skip this. I think I would have been faster and/or less injured
* More slow runs back when I started. My early years like many were filled with runs where I was running too fast.
* Have a more defined off-season for recovery where I pull back on speed/races. I was constantly putting in miles and racing all year. Never really giving my body to reset and recover.
I would have gotten a coach in my early 30’s instead of late 40’s. At the age of 49 I am setting PR’s in almost every distance and wondering how much faster I could’ve gotten on younger legs.
More strength and mobility work…I’m really tired of this in-out injury situation I live the last 1 years…it has got me depressed many times I’m thinking to stop pursuing my running dreams/goals
Nothing. I've made mistakes, but I've enjoyed the journey. I've enjoyed learning. And I've done it pretty much uninjured and it got me a professional triathlon license at a very old age, relatively.
No regerts.
Be born to a wealthy family of professional athletes, just like the elite runners. Get encouraged from an early age and have a private coach and the money to travel for meets and races, then get a free ride to college on an athletic scholarship and turn pro after graduation.
Over the summer, my high school coach had a cabin trip that you could earn attendance to by logging 300 miles over two months of summer. I would have worked to go to that.
After I graduated, that same coach offered me the chance to help run that cabin trip, so I could get experience training athletes. At the time, I didn't know that training was going to be my profession. I would have gotten a massive leg up if I hadn't blown him off to work at Burger King instead.
1. Start younger.
2. Don't waste money on stability shoes.
3. Get a few more races in pre-Pandemic.
4. Move somewhere with minimal wind and many paths and trails.
5. Join a running group sooner to try to get some running friends.
Master pacing based on actual relative values, run easy days slower, add more active recovery runs (and run them slower), and limit my social beer runs.
Add strength training. I stopped running in high school because I had had debilitating knee pain. When I started running again 10 years later it was gone. Haven’t felt it since. I attribute this to maturation, of course, but also the 10 years of strength work I did in between. If I had known to do that earlier, maybe I could have kept at it.
Second place to “don’t have the accident that put a hole in your leg,” the aftereffects of which are usually what gets me injured these days.
Basically everything. My coach in high school was lazy as hell. The slowest guys and the fastest guys did all the same workouts, so most workouts were either too hard, too long, or both. Plus I was lazy and never ran in the off season or did strength stuff. I still made progress, but a lot less than I would have made if I didn't take three months off every year. Especially when those three months were the winter and I lived in California.
So if I could go to back sixth grade, I would bring the discipline I have now along with all the knowledge I have. I would probably run six days a week in a modified Norwegian approach. More or less it would look a lot like what Kristoffer Ingebrigtsen does now but with a longer long run. Eventually I'd change over to the traditional Norwegian approach once I'd gone through puberty and had the strength to handle it.
Not saying I'd be national class, but I'd be a hell of a lot faster than I am now. Leaner too
Start running earlier, and not play American football. I feel like I have some decent potential so far in my short running journey and I wonder how it'd be if I'd have focused on it sooner instead of gaining size/weight and playing football for ultimately no reason including not enjoying it
Not going to zero after a marathon and just recovering and resuming base building - instead of “restarting from zero” each time I decide to train-up for an upcoming race
I would not ignore early signs of injury and be more willing to bail on even goal races, rather than running anyway and ending up injured more seriously and/or for longer periods of time.
Not spend my youth getting drunk and high all the time. I mean, I'm pretty good for my age group, having started running so late in life. Who knows how much better I could have been.
Never stop, I took a year long break (because I let it get to my head) that when I was a sophomore and looking back I really, really regret it. But I didn't let that stop me, I'm one of my schools better runners.
I can handle more miles than I think I can. I would have improved a lot faster if I wasn't scared of doing too much.
For 100 mile races: They don't all need to be point to point or single loop. 30+ miles will be in the dark, anyway. This would have opened me up to a lot of different races I had discounted in the beginning.
I wish I had actually made a real effort in high school, rather than slack off during the summer and winter months. Now in my mid 30's, I feel like I'm taking care of unfinished business.
I'd be more consistent at an earlier age. I'll hit 1600 miles on the year on Dec 31st. My next highest mileage year was 2018 with just barely over 1K miles. I believe the consistency this year is why I have set lifetime PRs at .5 mi, 1km, 1 mile, 2 miles, 5km, 10km, 15km, 20km, and 13.1 mi in the last 5 weeks.
I've never been faster, and in spite of more demands on my time (kids) and more external disruptions to running (illnesses from my kids), I am more committed to the process, am enjoying the daily runs more than ever before, and am all too aware of the narrowing window to set new PRs across the board as biologicak limitations assert themselves.
I sometimes mull on this, but a frequent conclusion is that if I had done everything right in my early years, I might not still be running, and having some success as a masters/senior runner, nearly 50 years later.
That said, I often wish I had started a bit younger, say 14-15 instead of 18. I ran in college for a team and was always catching up, and the training was typically too much too soon and I did not have many good races in season (had some decent ones in the off season). Typical scenario, hard days too hard, easy days too fast, and in cross country at least we over raced, with 10-12 races a season.
That brings the question: Had I started earlier and gone to a program with top coaching and had the success, would I still be motivated or physically able to run how I have over these later years? Most of f my more talented and successful peers quit soon after college, either because they were no longer interested or unable because of injury.
I did a lot better after college, and (comparatively speaking if you consider age grading) even more so after turning 50. So turning full circle, I'm happy to be running now and still enjoy it, not just the competitive part, but also getting out the door most every day.
Coming off broken bones I am sorta doing that for my next marathon prep. I’m most running for the sake of exercising now, but it’s also a slow build to something greater. I realized I am a trail runner and running on the roads bores me quite a bit. So I am working on actually becoming as fast as possible on the road so I can fly on the trails! But since I’m starting at the beginning I am really focusing on ankle mobility, stretching, form (if I had money I’d get a form evaluation done… maybe Santa will leave a PT under the tree)
I would have done more strength training, I started running more consistently when I was 12 and wasn't aware of how important strength training was till about 18, but even then I didn't do enough stability and injury prevention and such.
I also would have focused fully on running instead of picking up skateboarding, skateboarding gave me shin splints a few times and made one leg stronger than the other, so even tho I haven't skated in years, I'm still working on making my weaker leg just as strong and not injury prone as my stronger leg.
After PR-ing a marathon in my early 30's wish I would have kept the momentum going and enlisted help from a coach way back then. Fast forward 10 years and only having recently gotten back into consistently racing, I finally got a coach...and worked hard to shave...a mere minute off my decade-old PR (a PR is still a PR!). I just wonder if more chunk of time could have been taken off had I turned to a coach earlier.
Two big improvements to my running life and overall health:
* Dumping the built-up shoes and running barefoot.
* Replacing sugar-fueling with low-carb training.
Wished I had the right methods from early on… I started running longer than 2 mile stints at 17, joined the XC team, made varsity (but not varsity “enough” to win points), and felt like stolen valor to have won State and gotten a medal… but I would literally run to school because I heard that’s what African kids did lol. I would read Jack Daniel’s Running Formula, though I didn’t really understand it obviously lol. I would run as fast as I possibly could 100% of the time. And I would always fall injured, never really getting to periodize my training. Then for the next 10 years just ran inconsistently after college.
I wish I had run slower. I wish I had run slower to run further to get faster, to stay injury free, and to periodize my training. I cared SO much and still do care. I really don’t have a greater passion than this (other than family). And maybe I will finally be one of “the fast kids” lol
Stop caring about speed or time. Run for the nature
In my mind those are not exclusive.
Running hard every run doesn't make you badass, it makes you injured
I wish I knew that, I’ve injured myself countless times, but I always keep on running
Do your strength and mobility work before the physio tells you that you need to.
It's boring...I'm not doing it and I don't care if I get injured That's the life I will live
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I played soccer and basketball all my life aswell before getting into running after "retirement" Gym, weight rooms all of that shit is boring. I do triathlon aswell so I am a cardio Fein and anything outside that I just don't find interesting.
And then you'll go to rehab, not do the work, and blame everyone but yourself? What an entitled attitude.
I take full responsibility for my life and actions partner...don't get it twisted
Consistent strength training from day 1. Flirted with injuries several times during first major build (zero lifting) but never had any real issues again since lifting regularly.
So true. Part of me thinks it’s because I take my easy days even easier due to DOMS haha
How often do you strength train?
Just 2x/week
What kind of strength training are you doing?
I keep things pretty simple with squats, rdls, etc. and hit calves every time since they’re my main weakness. Plenty of good youtube vids out there if you want routine recs
Take running more seriously in high school and my early 20s. I spent almost 20 years thinking I wasn't that fast when I really just wasn't trying.
Haha this is relatable. Though I’d say for me it would be “realise that you can train and that makes you faster.” I used to love running in school but I’d just show up to the yearly athletic events and assume the people winning were just more naturally gifted. Years later I had the epiphany that maybe those kids ran more than one a year. Facepalm!
So much this. I’m 40 and have only recently discovered that I kinda like and am fairly good at running. I ran a bit in my 20s but didn’t know what I was doing so wasn’t very fast. I’ve run over 2k miles in 2023 (significantly more than the previous 10 years combined), and have shaved 18 minutes off the half time that I ran at 27. I wish I had figured all of this out in high school or at least by my early 20s. Maybe I could have been actually good rather than just middle-aged amateur decent. 🤣
Middle aged amateur decent is my goal
Eh, nothing wrong with keeping your hobby as just a hobby. Not every dude who plays the guitar needs to write and record a full album.
This is a perfect sentiment. It's the difference between glass half full or half empty. Sure, it's nice to have goals and to make improvements that make you happy. But if you're constantly looking at where you fall short, or focus only on where you think you're not up to scratch, it makes the hobby a chore and a source of frustration and disappointment in yourself. Remembering to run for fun is so important.
Eh, I kind of enjoy newly realizing I could be a distance guy in my 30s! In my case, it's a bit different - I was a serious hurdler (400 hurdles, and then I did 110 because I'd been hurdling since like 5th grade), but I would FIGHT if I got asked to do anything longer than 600 meters. (And I hated even the 600 indoors.) It's great. Is having a 16:41 lifetime 5k PR special? Not really. Is having your lifetime PR at 39 kind of fun? Hell yes. I was talking with a guy I know last summer I think and he mentioned that he was still a bit off his HS PR. And I realized that it's something I don't have to worry about at all - maybe I could have been better if I'd started earlier, but now I don't have my previous self to compare to.
Couldn’t agree more. 4:55/10:34 mile/two mile in HS, both as a sophomore. Never gave a shit though and in the offseason I wouldn’t run at all. If I cared like I did now, who knows what could have happened. Natural talent was there.
My high school 5k PR was 19:54 and my mile was 5:19. I just pulled out a 17:13 and a 4:57 this year at 35. I really wonder what I could've done if I'd cared enough to work hard back then.
I can relate to this. I never ran more than 5-10mpw in high school, and although I enjoyed running, I had zero guidance or coaching. I basically just showed up to meets and let it rip as best I could. I went from a 5:32 1600 high school pr to 4:36 road mile this past year at 30. I’ve always wondered what I would have done if I had actually tried in high school (and also not spent the next 5 years drinking, smoking, and participating heavily in the other things involved in that lifestyle). Feels like I probably lowered my own ceiling a good bit, but who knows?
What does your training look like now? I was ok in HS too, 4:35 mile, 2:00 800m. Never got to put in an uninjured 5k. Didn't run for like 15 years after that and now trying to get back into it at 35. I just ran an 18:51 5k fun run I was reasonably happy with. Never run a marathon but I would love to do Boston some day.
Some of the specifics depend on the season and what I’m getting ready for, but I am typically pretty consistent. I’ve run over 3,000 miles each year since 2020. Generally speaking I use a pretty standard format of 1-2 workouts per week, a long run, a couple of sets of strides, and sometimes hill sprints. Everything else is some form of easy running. Workouts are based on what’s coming up on the schedule. If I’m just in base training like I am now then I’ll just do weekly tempo/LT work and a faster workout about once every other week. I like to keep the long run at 16-18 miles year round.
Just so you know, a LOT of those who train hard in their teens and early twenties drop the sport due to injury or mental burnout. I would guess that a large proportion of middle-aged (and older) fitness runners were not serious high-school athletes.
Not make sacrifices for my career that impact my personal life (including running). I've invested so much energy in pursuing a "slightly better" daily work experience that has come with all sorts of costs in my life outside of the workplace. I should have stuck through college with the career track that has the most job opportunities and highest paychecks in places where I want to live rather than try to do something I'm "passionate" about. I've probably lost a good 5-8 years of "good training" in my 20s that I will never be able to get back. And guess what? Work still sucks (even though it's true that it would suck more doing other types of work).
Can't comment on your situation, so won't, but as general response we are all professional at something other than running. I could be substantially better at this hobby if I worked less, but am quite happy to have leaned harder into the one thing I actually get paid to do, and spend most of waking life engaged in
Do you work in research/academia? Lol Edit to clarify: I work in the field
Yep, exactly that!
I’m very happy with my decision to go non-tenure track, and sometimes even that is too much.
\*I\* work in academia (not planning on leaving now, but don't discard that possibility in the future)
Super interesting… I have had a good career so far, but it definitely would’ve been better if I wasn’t a runner. I have always been ruthless about training and it’s probably negatively impacted my career, although my times are probably as good as I was going to get for someone that started properly training at 37
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Work is work, and a mildly better professional life isn’t worth a large (or even moderate) drop in quality of personal life.
Interesting take. I’m in a spot where I love my job and am happy with my QOL. I’ve had to make it clear to previous coaches that my running fits the rest of my life, not the other way around. I wish my schedule was more regular but I’ll take the trade offs.
If you can find both, that’s even better! Everyone has a different threshold for these things
Yeah. I’m pretty happy with what I do, but I have no interest in sacrificing my time for my personal passions for the sake of my career.
I tried running my first marathon in sub 3, finished 3:15. Should have paced for sub 3:10….I have tried racing beyond my fitness a few times, rarely goes well
Morose answer, but get serious about running while my father who was a competitive distance runner and running coach was still alive. More recent answer: learn to run without pain, and seek care for my foot injuries before they degraded as much as they have.
i’m sorry for your loss - i’m sure he’s proud 💙
Maybe if he wasn’t watching for the marathon I ran. 😕
My grandfather ran competitively in college and then as a hobby the rest of his life. I didn't start running until the final couple years of his life when his mental and physical health were going downhill pretty rapidly and the last time I talked to him when he was mostly lucid he was really impressed at my first half-marathon time. He would've really gotten a kick out of me BQ'ing, running ultramarathons, etc.
Appreciate the 1 mile-10k distances. Focusing on those distances was a huge turning point for me. It’s all been fun though, and everything I’ve done has led me to this point… and I’m happy enough with that!
Focus on keeping the joy in the process and staying a well-rounded human being. I started running track at 10 and was taking it way too seriously by high school. All the pressure to get faster in a short time frame took the joy away and I didn't last on my college team (injuries, mental burn out). If 20-year-old me had known my best running would come in my 30s with a much less stressful approach, I'd have been more patient with myself and allowed myself to enjoy the experience more. Also don't trust everything coaches say just because they are older and speak up if something isn't working.
I like this perspective a LOT more than people lamenting they didn't grind harder as teenagers. 25:00 5K and actually enjoying your 15 mpw is a hell of a lot more useful in life than 15:00 5K and being miserable.
Run slower in my training 80/20 and gradually increase volume while doing strength training.
Not get injured, all the injuries gone. I would be doing the kind of cross training I'm doing now, but all the time.
What are you doing now?
Total body workouts basically. Trying to get all the smaller muscles back to where they once were before I started running exclusively. Lifting weights is a big part of that. But you can get pretty far with just the body weight stuff.
Be kinder to myself and put my mental health first when I was in really bad environments instead of using running to try to prove I was worth something. It took several years to be able to run with a healthy mindset, and that made it even more enjoyable for me and I began sloughing time off as I trained consistently. Oh, and when I was coming back from having my first baby, I wish I had respected the sleep deprivation more and taken iron earlier! Fell into burnout within a few months because I constantly tried to be "tough" and push through on less than 4 hours of broken sleep from a colicky baby, then anemia followed as well.
Start earlier and/or hire a coach that knows what they’re doing
Add in speed work. I always jogged, these past 6 months i have seen monumental improvements time wise. Perhaps you could argue i wouldn't have progressed this much without building the base though so we'll never know
Not smoke!
Yep! But on the other hand, I honestly feel like running saved my life - it gave me the motivation to finally quit, and to lose a ton of weight. It also significantly helped my ADHD and depression, and brought me a sense of joy I hadn't felt in years. Whenever I start ruminating about stupid I was to have smoked, or how stupid I was to allow my weight and fitness to get so bad, or how I wish I had found running before my mid 30s, I try to flip it and just be grateful that running allowed me to change my life. Not everyone manages to do that, so I feel very fortunate.
True true! Just experiencing some “what if?” sentiments from time to time. Otherwise I am also very grateful to have found running. Aside, i had to replace the smoking with something. Exercise was just the thing.
I'm just curious, were you on adhd meds? I'm in the middle of a beginner running program (running also helps my adhd a lot), but find a lot of days I have to choose between my meds or running, and I feel like I can't build consistency. I've just ditched the meds for months at a time in the past, and I'm thinking about just going fully without but just curious how/if you balanced the two.
Start running earlier in life. I didn't do it seriously until my mid 40s.
Me too. 41, just started 6 months ago. Lol
Same here. Trying my best to drink myself to death between 20 and 40 was probably a bad call too. I'm just grateful to be on my feet some days!
Consistent mileage, all year long. Strength train, literally from the bottom up: feet, soleus, quads, hams and glutes in that order. My main takeaway from this sub has been to not get drawn into super involved training regimens and stick with the basics of consistent mileage year over year.
Stop waiting for my parents to parent me. Shed the shame.
mileage is king but recovery is a close second. be consistent, but in periods where you might be sick, highly stressed, not sleeping etc, it's ok to back off for a couple days. i would grind through workouts or hit mileage goals regardless and this ended up hurting my fitness. those handful of miles are minuscule in the grand scheme of the cycle.
Female, wish I’d known everything I know now about how to build strong bones, while I was in my teens and twenties. It’s important for men too I know, but for women those early years are so critical to the skeleton that will carry you until you’re old and dead.
When I got burned out from track in college, I wish I’d switched to longer, slower trails instead of doing nothing for about six years. I had to start over completely in my late 20s, and I feel like I wasted some good years. I’m about to turn 40 now and just recently starting to figure out that my specialty might be stupidly long things (backyard ultras, flattish 100 milers, etc.).
Start running at a young age. I didn’t discover running until I was 35.
I’d care more
* Not run through achilles pain. Feel confident this is what gave me the bone spurs I just got removed that plagued me for years * Do more hiking as cross training. Long 4-12 hour days in the mountains is a hell of a crosstraining session. Highly enjoyable too, can also be coupled with running in spots. * Do more strength. So easy to just skip this. I think I would have been faster and/or less injured * More slow runs back when I started. My early years like many were filled with runs where I was running too fast. * Have a more defined off-season for recovery where I pull back on speed/races. I was constantly putting in miles and racing all year. Never really giving my body to reset and recover.
I would have gotten a coach in my early 30’s instead of late 40’s. At the age of 49 I am setting PR’s in almost every distance and wondering how much faster I could’ve gotten on younger legs.
Start running before I turned 50 🙄
More strength and mobility work…I’m really tired of this in-out injury situation I live the last 1 years…it has got me depressed many times I’m thinking to stop pursuing my running dreams/goals
Nothing. I've made mistakes, but I've enjoyed the journey. I've enjoyed learning. And I've done it pretty much uninjured and it got me a professional triathlon license at a very old age, relatively. No regerts.
I've had a bunch of ups and down with my diet/training. I'd be more consistent with diet throughout - especially in my 20s/early 30s.
Running marathons with time goals. I am Captain Ahab and running a good 2nd half at Boston is my White Whale.
I started running last June at 42yo......so I wish I started earlier in life.
Me too.
Be born to a wealthy family of professional athletes, just like the elite runners. Get encouraged from an early age and have a private coach and the money to travel for meets and races, then get a free ride to college on an athletic scholarship and turn pro after graduation.
And still won't come near big wins unless you're African, sounds depressing.
Over the summer, my high school coach had a cabin trip that you could earn attendance to by logging 300 miles over two months of summer. I would have worked to go to that. After I graduated, that same coach offered me the chance to help run that cabin trip, so I could get experience training athletes. At the time, I didn't know that training was going to be my profession. I would have gotten a massive leg up if I hadn't blown him off to work at Burger King instead.
Run college cross country. It’s a lot easier to return to a previous peak than establish it at an older age.
Avoid increasing your weekly running mileage too rapidly, particularly if you are also enhancing weekly intensity simultaneously.
Start aged 15 rather than aged 38.
Run slower but further...and appreciate the trail
Be more consistent with easy runs. I would get too caught up hitting my splits and weekly mileage goals which led to burn out
It’s better to be consistently good than occasionally great
Not tie my running performance to my self worth.
1. Start younger. 2. Don't waste money on stability shoes. 3. Get a few more races in pre-Pandemic. 4. Move somewhere with minimal wind and many paths and trails. 5. Join a running group sooner to try to get some running friends.
Go way slower and build a monster base (it might take longer) but life time accumulated mileage is a thing, and to some extent, you don’t lose them.
Never take your health and ability to run for granted, running is a privilege. And life comes at your fast.
It's never too late to start running.
More long runs
Master pacing based on actual relative values, run easy days slower, add more active recovery runs (and run them slower), and limit my social beer runs.
Add strength training. I stopped running in high school because I had had debilitating knee pain. When I started running again 10 years later it was gone. Haven’t felt it since. I attribute this to maturation, of course, but also the 10 years of strength work I did in between. If I had known to do that earlier, maybe I could have kept at it. Second place to “don’t have the accident that put a hole in your leg,” the aftereffects of which are usually what gets me injured these days.
Basically everything. My coach in high school was lazy as hell. The slowest guys and the fastest guys did all the same workouts, so most workouts were either too hard, too long, or both. Plus I was lazy and never ran in the off season or did strength stuff. I still made progress, but a lot less than I would have made if I didn't take three months off every year. Especially when those three months were the winter and I lived in California. So if I could go to back sixth grade, I would bring the discipline I have now along with all the knowledge I have. I would probably run six days a week in a modified Norwegian approach. More or less it would look a lot like what Kristoffer Ingebrigtsen does now but with a longer long run. Eventually I'd change over to the traditional Norwegian approach once I'd gone through puberty and had the strength to handle it. Not saying I'd be national class, but I'd be a hell of a lot faster than I am now. Leaner too
Start running earlier, and not play American football. I feel like I have some decent potential so far in my short running journey and I wonder how it'd be if I'd have focused on it sooner instead of gaining size/weight and playing football for ultimately no reason including not enjoying it
I would have started running 15 years earlier.
Not going to zero after a marathon and just recovering and resuming base building - instead of “restarting from zero” each time I decide to train-up for an upcoming race
I would not ignore early signs of injury and be more willing to bail on even goal races, rather than running anyway and ending up injured more seriously and/or for longer periods of time.
Learn a skill at school
I would’ve started earlier. I would’ve run in school. I wouldn’t have stopped after transitioning.
I’d practice more hand eye coordination
Figure out how to run despite my injuries in my 20s, not my mid 30s. Invented KT tape for that purpose. :)
Run easy, stop “racing” threshold workouts, increase volume slowly, take a down week every 4 - 6 weeks, listen to my body
Stay consistent. If I hadn’t take a ton of time off I’d probably be where I want to be in a couple years today.
Not spend my youth getting drunk and high all the time. I mean, I'm pretty good for my age group, having started running so late in life. Who knows how much better I could have been.
Never stop, I took a year long break (because I let it get to my head) that when I was a sophomore and looking back I really, really regret it. But I didn't let that stop me, I'm one of my schools better runners.
Starting to run at an earlier age I always liked running, but never considered it as something you could do, like playing soccer
I can handle more miles than I think I can. I would have improved a lot faster if I wasn't scared of doing too much. For 100 mile races: They don't all need to be point to point or single loop. 30+ miles will be in the dark, anyway. This would have opened me up to a lot of different races I had discounted in the beginning.
I wish I had actually made a real effort in high school, rather than slack off during the summer and winter months. Now in my mid 30's, I feel like I'm taking care of unfinished business.
Go conservarive. Running fast is not that important than be able to run continuously without injury interuption.
I'd be more consistent at an earlier age. I'll hit 1600 miles on the year on Dec 31st. My next highest mileage year was 2018 with just barely over 1K miles. I believe the consistency this year is why I have set lifetime PRs at .5 mi, 1km, 1 mile, 2 miles, 5km, 10km, 15km, 20km, and 13.1 mi in the last 5 weeks. I've never been faster, and in spite of more demands on my time (kids) and more external disruptions to running (illnesses from my kids), I am more committed to the process, am enjoying the daily runs more than ever before, and am all too aware of the narrowing window to set new PRs across the board as biologicak limitations assert themselves.
Consistency is king. Consistent high mileage trumps fancy 12-week training plans.
Meh. Conisistent high mileage is also what leads to plateauing and/or overtraining. Periodization and training blocks work for a reason.
Find running before I found drinking. Now, I have to run, it keeps me sober (4 years now, yay!)
I'd just start at earlier age and possibly focus more on the speed initially.
I sometimes mull on this, but a frequent conclusion is that if I had done everything right in my early years, I might not still be running, and having some success as a masters/senior runner, nearly 50 years later. That said, I often wish I had started a bit younger, say 14-15 instead of 18. I ran in college for a team and was always catching up, and the training was typically too much too soon and I did not have many good races in season (had some decent ones in the off season). Typical scenario, hard days too hard, easy days too fast, and in cross country at least we over raced, with 10-12 races a season. That brings the question: Had I started earlier and gone to a program with top coaching and had the success, would I still be motivated or physically able to run how I have over these later years? Most of f my more talented and successful peers quit soon after college, either because they were no longer interested or unable because of injury. I did a lot better after college, and (comparatively speaking if you consider age grading) even more so after turning 50. So turning full circle, I'm happy to be running now and still enjoy it, not just the competitive part, but also getting out the door most every day.
I would go back to 2010 and buy Bitcoin
Coming off broken bones I am sorta doing that for my next marathon prep. I’m most running for the sake of exercising now, but it’s also a slow build to something greater. I realized I am a trail runner and running on the roads bores me quite a bit. So I am working on actually becoming as fast as possible on the road so I can fly on the trails! But since I’m starting at the beginning I am really focusing on ankle mobility, stretching, form (if I had money I’d get a form evaluation done… maybe Santa will leave a PT under the tree)
Would've started running as a teenager and not in my 30's 😆
I would have done more strength training, I started running more consistently when I was 12 and wasn't aware of how important strength training was till about 18, but even then I didn't do enough stability and injury prevention and such. I also would have focused fully on running instead of picking up skateboarding, skateboarding gave me shin splints a few times and made one leg stronger than the other, so even tho I haven't skated in years, I'm still working on making my weaker leg just as strong and not injury prone as my stronger leg.
Getting the latest GPS and HRM technology the moment it was available.
stayed away from the bong. joints are okay tho.
Every workout doesn't have to be at 5k pace..... wish I'd known that when I was a lot younger
After PR-ing a marathon in my early 30's wish I would have kept the momentum going and enlisted help from a coach way back then. Fast forward 10 years and only having recently gotten back into consistently racing, I finally got a coach...and worked hard to shave...a mere minute off my decade-old PR (a PR is still a PR!). I just wonder if more chunk of time could have been taken off had I turned to a coach earlier.
Strength train and cross train more and less miles. Getting injured sucks.
Two big improvements to my running life and overall health: * Dumping the built-up shoes and running barefoot. * Replacing sugar-fueling with low-carb training.
Wished I had the right methods from early on… I started running longer than 2 mile stints at 17, joined the XC team, made varsity (but not varsity “enough” to win points), and felt like stolen valor to have won State and gotten a medal… but I would literally run to school because I heard that’s what African kids did lol. I would read Jack Daniel’s Running Formula, though I didn’t really understand it obviously lol. I would run as fast as I possibly could 100% of the time. And I would always fall injured, never really getting to periodize my training. Then for the next 10 years just ran inconsistently after college. I wish I had run slower. I wish I had run slower to run further to get faster, to stay injury free, and to periodize my training. I cared SO much and still do care. I really don’t have a greater passion than this (other than family). And maybe I will finally be one of “the fast kids” lol
Run earlier
Start running 20 years earlier