tru runners dgaf abt time brah
tru runners dgaf abt time brah
Have a good group of friends to run with. Race against friends and try to beat them. Pick an age-graded % and try to beat that. Improve on last year's time, especially if it wasn't a great result. Run different types of races - road, trail, track, cross country, relays. I also really like workouts, so I guess file that under "enjoying the process" of training even if the results don't always pan out perfectly.
Surprised I'm the first to say this--I don't.
I enjoy running with my friends and do enough to stay in good shape, but I have no motivation to actually train hard. I'm much more focused on overall health now.
I use age grading tables to compare myself to my 25-29 year old self. I'm 65.
Being fit beyond your 30s is motivation enough for many of us. It’s also rewarding to continue learning from the sport, what mistakes you can correct, what lessons you can learn, how you can tweak training or racing strategy. The reality is that aging works against you and making these changes might not result in a PR but it’s rewarding to try to evolve the process and get closer to a perfect execution with the cards you are playing with.
also, new distances present new challenges. I’ve raced countless HM races and can pretty safely say I’ve maxed out there but I have only raced the marathon a couple times and I know I can continue to solve that riddle. I havent even begun to solve the mile and that could be another fun challenge.
you are playing with the cards you are dealt. None of us will win the Olympics but that doesn’t change the fact that we try to challenge ourselves. Similarly some of us might not PR into our older age but we still seek out challenges.
gidbob wrote:
I'm certainly not there yet, I'm 25 with 2 years of running, but not much serious training so I almost certainly still have PRs left in me. But for those that don't, what keeps you motivated now? The question is mainly for those that used to be motivated by PRs.
Enter the "discuss" or maybe the steeplechase or 400m hurdles. There, new PB.
You begin to simply enjoy running for the health and stress relief benefits. Maturity means dropping your obsession with youth and comparison thinking. Hopefully, by the time you reach the age where PRs are not possible, you have found far more meaningful things to be concerned with.
I am 40 but look 30. Everyone my age is fat and looks 50. Running is a fountain of youth. You will start to see this around 30 years old when people hit the wall from lack of exercise and drinking. That's motivation enough.
Skrrrrrrt wrote:
Being fit beyond your 30s is motivation enough for many of us. It’s also rewarding to continue learning from the sport, what mistakes you can correct, what lessons you can learn, how you can tweak training or racing strategy. The reality is that aging works against you and making these changes might not result in a PR but it’s rewarding to try to evolve the process and get closer to a perfect execution with the cards you are playing with.
also, new distances present new challenges. I’ve raced countless HM races and can pretty safely say I’ve maxed out there but I have only raced the marathon a couple times and I know I can continue to solve that riddle. I havent even begun to solve the mile and that could be another fun challenge.
you are playing with the cards you are dealt. None of us will win the Olympics but that doesn’t change the fact that we try to challenge ourselves. Similarly some of us might not PR into our older age but we still seek out challenges.
exactly this
gidbob wrote:
People who are too hold to PR, how do you find motivation?
I try to PR in blood glucose mg/dL
gidbob wrote:
I'm certainly not there yet, I'm 25 with 2 years of running, but not much serious training so I almost certainly still have PRs left in me. But for those that don't, what keeps you motivated now? The question is mainly for those that used to be motivated by PRs.
Enjoyment of running?
What else would I do.
gidbob wrote:
I'm certainly not there yet, I'm 25 with 2 years of running, but not much serious training so I almost certainly still have PRs left in me. But for those that don't, what keeps you motivated now? The question is mainly for those that used to be motivated by PRs.
You either enjoy the process or you don't. Enjoying the process is all the motivation I need.
OP, some of my PRs are older than you are. Despite that, I still love running and racing. I still like getting up early and going for a run. I still like the energy and excitement of being on the starting line. I still like the challenge of trying to run down whoever happens to be ahead of me. I still like the exhausted satisfaction of crossing the finish line.
Sure my times are a lot slower than my PRs. My PRs were never anything special anyway, so no longer reaching them is really no great loss. What hasn't changed is my love for the process. It's still a great sport.
If you don't enjoy the process, then by all means do something else. Life is too short to spend your free time on something you don't love. There is no law saying you have to run.
you can always change events or do field. 800 instead of 5k or vice versa. cross instead of track. road instead of track. i personally find competing with younger me pointless. so you either need to just organically enjoy the thing, or you need to mix it up sometimes where you have new challenges.
Try to improve your top 10, or improve your average. Or try to continue running a Sub XX:XX in your race distance for a certain number of years. Or make yourself have a 30+ PR, and a 40+ PR, and a 50+ PR. Try to run an age graded PR. There are a lot of options. Or you could just stop caring and just get out there and run when you feel like it.
Exercise feels great. I'm unable to run like back at the turn of the century. These days I just walk for around an hour and try to include old warm up drills.