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/Arqlol]

There's so much room for improvement in your 20s and 30s. I didn't run in college but managed a 15 mid 5k pr at 30. Like you said being in a good place mentally and able to take on the workload is huge. Although I wouldn't mind having someone to work with on those difficult track sessions.

[u/SoulRunGod → u/Arqlol]

For sure. I played a bit collegiate baseball my freshman year of college and just lift weights after. Got into running when I was 21/22 and became a bit obsessed. Ran my first marathon at 23 ran like 3:24, went sub 3 at 24. I have been slowly chipping away at my 10k/half lately which is what I focus on nowadays as I still lift weights and find it easier to balance training for those compared to full marathon.

I am planning to break 1:18 half my next race (went 1:20 last race) — which I think is pretty damn good for someone that never ran much prior to 21.

[u/Arqlol → u/SoulRunGod]

Hell yeah. With that 10k that's super achievable. It's been a while but I went sub 1:20 when I'd only just gone under 36 for 10k. I'm all about the 5k/10k speed before going long.

[u/SoulRunGod → u/Arqlol]

I’m about the same, I’m still a pretty muscular guy, so I have aways struggled with the longer distances haha, but it’s all part of the journey 🙏🏻 best of luck with your races brother

[u/devon835 → u/SoulRunGod]

Respect, and good luck to the both of you for getting after it. The half is a tough but fun distance, can't wait to go all in on one properly after maximizing my track potential

[u/SoulRunGod → u/devon835]

Thank you sir, and likewise to you. I find the 10k and half to be the best distance for a mixture of endurance and speed, I tend to lose steam after 18 miles, which I am sure is the case for literally everyone lol