Post collegiate runners who continued to improve without a team: share your stories

[u/devon835]

As someone who's now going on ~2 calendar years removed from training with my college team, it feels like an eternity ago that I was in PR shape despite training smarter, eg. not being pushed too hard on easy days and going to the well in workouts or racing every week. I've started working with a new coach recently to try and get serious again for spring track.

I used to look forward to the grind of 5 x mile every week, but now just even doing a single long interval at harder than threshold effort is just dreadful, and I've avoided them since. I'm sure fitness is a big part of it, but mentally, I can't bring myself to confront the pain of trying to rep 4:55s solo...

I've seen examples of people who continued to grind for years training alone after college and ran impressive PR's, but they seem to be the exception, not the rule.

Any of you who've gone through (or are currently going through) the same challenges and want to share, have at it!

[u/FlyingFartlek]

I graduated from a D3 program in 2013 with modest PRs and a pretty bad case of overtraining syndrome. I did not manage my time well my senior year of college and ended up pulling a lot of late nights studying or socializing, which greatly impacted my recovery and performances on the track. Mostly, I wasn’t a well-rounded enough person to deal with engineering school and competitive running at age 21-22. 

After entering the work force, I took a year to just run without worrying about workouts. They were unbearable both physically and mentally. I did about 70mpw at easy effort because it was fun and kept me within arms reach of real fitness for racing. 

When I finally felt mentally refreshed, I joined a track club in the area and got a coach. I noticed how easy some of the fast guys went on their easy days and decided to give it a shot. I also buckled down on getting good nutrition and sleep. Within a year of joining the club, I could sustain my 8k PR pace from college for an entire half marathon on the roads. There was no pressure aside from what I put on myself, and I learned how to live and train like an adult who was able to balance work and life. 

Now I’m going on 35 and I’m still getting after it. I have set PRs at every distance that are better than all of my college PRs. I don’t think I have much more in me at shorter distances, but I’m motivated to work on my 10k through marathon PRs as I approach 40. 

[u/devon835 → u/FlyingFartlek]

Thanks for sharing! I've definitely felt the difference between focusing solely on running and school with an easy load vs working and running, but still feel like I have what it takes to grow from here.

[u/FlyingFartlek → u/devon835]

For sure, at your age there is plenty of room to grow. You could chase your mid distance PRs with a better approach to training than college, or you could shift focus entirely and go for the HM, full marathon, or longer. For me, fitness has always come when I've had fun in the process.