To everyone 30+ who has no chance of being elite, why do you run so much?

You mentioned 30 minutes a day...yea that's not going to keep you fit as you age.

At 39 I need at least an hour to keep fit and look good.

Competitive running was a huge part of my identity throughout my teenage and college years. I've taken some breaks from it over the years (I'm 33 now), but when I'm running 30-40+ mpw and doing some workouts it makes me feel more like my younger self and less like a bitter old man. I just don't get the same level of enjoyment out of any other exercise/activity. Also, it's a very efficient method of burning calories that I can do from my front door, which lets me eat more and crack some brews without gaining a ton of weight.

I didn't start until my mid 50's, so I'm still setting PRs all the time. With any luck (56 now) I've got a few more years to improve before the inevitable decline moves faster than my improving fitness. I run 80 mpw and I am very slow. I am however, getting faster (less slow) all the time. Plus I pass a lot of other runners in races, many of them younger than I am by a lot. I went out for my run this morning feeling tired and unmotivated after running a bit long yesterday. I sat in my car and looked at my phone for a few minutes to delay my run. Then, when I got going I felt GREAT and ran much faster than usual. You just never know when a good day will arrive, and that pleasure makes it all worthwhile. It isn't so much about absolute pace, but about how you feel and incremental improvements.

Plus, I'm fit and healthy rather than fat and sedentary like most of my age contemporaries.

Not quite accurate.

In 2007-2010, when i thought i could be quicker, i put in a lot more running mileage...i had an LA fitness membership...i ran treadmill and outside...best results were a 21:04 5k and 4:38:06 marathon.

I ran and walked a lot by feel from 2014-2017...

Mind you, the 21:04 was also at 172 pounds (5'8" )

During this time, I set a PR of 19:35 for 5k, 42:27 for 10k, 33:23 for 8k and 1:41:10 for the half marathon and a minute per mile drop in the marathon 4:38:06 beaten by 4:09:58 in 2017

These more recent times came with 30% running and 70% walking

So I disagree empirically...as athlinks user 82606260.

You can verify my story.

But now i challenge you to discredit my claim with real evidence.

Correction: 33:23 for 8k (road) was in 2012 at 182 pounds

33:52 was the 8k PR on an XC course in 2016.

Thank you for sharing, and kudos to you for making those improvements across the board. You present an interesting case study. I would need to know more about you, such as age, fitness background, injury history, etc., along with any relevant variables that might have been different during those time spans (eg, level of stress at work or in personal life, any changes in nutrition or sleep patterns) to be able to properly assess your story and put those times in context. Also: there’s a 4-year gap in between those time spans. What were you doing during that interim period? I tried finding you on athlinks but I’ve never used that site before and I couldn’t find an option to look someone up by their number, only their name.

Going just by the limited information you have presented, I wonder if you were overtraining during 2007-2010. I noticed you mentioned you went “by feel” from 2014-2017. Does that suggest you were following a rigid pacing plan in the earlier time span, perhaps ignoring your body’s signs of fatigue? That would be my best guess for explaining your differences in results. It’s possible your running intensity and/or mileage were too high in those earlier years, and you might not have been giving yourself adequate recovery in between hard efforts.

How can you do this consistently?

On a good week I sometimes make 40 miles, from this I may do a couple of 90min runs in that week. Do you just get used to it? The next day after a 90min run I'm kinda achy and usually think that doing another 90min run (10-11 miles say) would be bad for me, should I ignore this and push through?

I do it for the dopamine hit.

There's a man in my local area, I think early 50s, who has run over 500 parkruns. Does it every Saturday without fail. He runs at least 60 miles a week every week, all at 9 minute mile pace. Completes parkrun around 17:50-18:40 every week.

I think it is a little bit strange, but mainly I don't understand how he can do it without his body completely breaking down. I'd estimate he is about 180lbs at 5'9, so not exactly slim.

It's noticeably less than I did in a normal day when I was younger so it's always felt like a lighter load. Sometimes that's done in two runs. Sometimes not and now it's ungodly slow. I hesitate to answer questions like yours because I only know what I was able to do and not what anyone else can. I think you probably find the 90 minute runs tougher than I did at least partly because you're running much less than I was on the other days. I built up to 100-150 mile weeks over a couple years. There was plenty of pushing past stiffness and achiness then but it almost always went away after a mile or so. If that happens for you, sure, push past. But I cannot tell you it will. The other thing to emphasize here is that it's something I do because I enjoy it. Not everyone does and if you don't and aren't getting paid to run it might not be worthwhile.

I think I missed them. Probably because you don't know enough about the sport.

This will kind of tack onto the answer I just gave to the guy who asked me about how I managed an hour to an hour and a half each day for decades. We don't discuss the mental side very much here maybe because there's so little there that's quantifiable but that doesn't diminish it's importance. I started running at a time when everyone and his cousin was running 100 mile weeks and many were running 120-180, much of it at 6:00-8:00 pace. To me, 60-70 a week at 9:00, even in one's fifties, doesn't seem like much at all. For someone who doesn't see this sort of load as demanding it will likely be less so than it will for someone who does.

Other than running a lot because it makes me feel good ("dopamine hit") I run because, why not?

When I was much younger, my prevailing attitude about life was much like the OP, "Why bother?" I viewed everything as burdens to avoid, as if apathy and inertia were the default state of being.

Now, I say, "Why the hell not, run 80 miles a week?" Why the hell not, try to set a PR at 49 and maybe another at 50? Why the hell not try to break and age group world record like Gene Dykes or Ed Whitlock (I'm nowhere close)?

My answer to the OP is, "Why don't you run so much?"

Why don't you lift more weights?

Why don't you invent something?

Why don't you paint a masterpiece?

Why don't you find that thing YOU love to do that no one else will ever understand?

Why don't you spend your life doing what you love, rather than questioning those who do?

I started running because I wanted to lose weight, but now I do it for the dopamine hit too

You can start by STOPPING JUDGMENT OF WEIGHT AND RUNNING BY APPEARANCE.

I'm not even going to be nice or courteous here.

some of you are way too arbitrarily judgmental in a way that you don't have the way to be

And you need your a**** whipped by exactly those people

I'm not playing...you do.

9 minute mile pace is easy jogging for a runner who runs 17:50-18:40 for 5k, so he is recovering well between once a week harder efforts. Easy jogging doesn't tend to break you down, it builds you up.

Everything we do here on this spinning rock is meaningless.I just run everyday because I enjoy the simplicity of doing physical activity.No other reason needed.

It takes hard work to look like Noah Lyles. Looking like Rupp is easy.

These guys are lazy, that's why they became hobby joggers.