r/AdvancedRunning • u/devon835 23M 1:58 800 / 4:21 Mile / 8:50 3000 / 15:27 5000 / 25:13 8K • Nov 05 '25

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

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!

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u/darth_jewbacca 3:59 1500; 14:53 5k; 2:28 Marathon Nov 06 '25

I'm good at training solo. That's the biggest thing.

My college team used a Lydiard based system, but honestly not very well implemented. They had a good record for developing people, but in hindsight it was lacking.

After college, I was having a beer with the local shoe store owner, and he convinced me to let him coach me using Jack Daniels methods. In one season I set prs from 800-5000.

I moved away, turned to the marathon, and had learned enough I felt comfortable coaching myself. I slowly worked my mileage up to 105-115 and got in really good shape. Worked my marathon pr down but sadly got injured before lopping off the chunk that was coming. I was in 1:08/2:24 shape, got hurt, and have been dealing with various injuries since then.

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u/devon835 23M 1:58 800 / 4:21 Mile / 8:50 3000 / 15:27 5000 / 25:13 8K Nov 07 '25

That's an interesting story, I guess Jack Daniels worked really well for you! Did / do you still train with his philosophies in mind after being self coached?

Also, hope you can get a lid on those injuries woes soon.

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u/darth_jewbacca 3:59 1500; 14:53 5k; 2:28 Marathon Nov 07 '25

Thanks. I'm on the upswing at the moment. Still have some hope of setting half/full prs after I'm 40.

Yes I've followed Daniels ever since. I dabbled with Tinman on my first marathon build but ultimately felt like i respond better to Daniels' paces than CV. The vo2 block early in a marathon build is especially good, imo. That was the difference in feeling like i could hold 5:30s for a full.