First, I’ll start with a little background on my running career. My life-time bests were all run when I was 19/20 years old, they are as follows:
800 - 1:57
Mile - 4:15
5k - 15:22
10k (XC) - 32:20 (I like to think I could have gone at least a minute faster this day on a track as it was a pretty hilly course)
Right as I was reaching my peak COVID happened and I kind of gave up after that. My last good race was the 5k but that was after a summer of half assed training. Before COVID I was running around 60 to 70 miles a week with long runs of about 15 miles.
So, at the age of 24, how fast do you think I could realistically get if I started training again? As you can see from my PRs I was more of a middle distance guy but I think my days of competing in the 800 and mile are over. My goal training target would move to a 5k for a year and then try to start half/marathon training the following year. My current plan is to spend the Summer getting to the point where I can run 40 easy miles per week again. I don’t think there is any point starting workouts again when somedays I can’t even run 3 miles without stopping to walk. Maybe if I get to that point I’d start throwing in some threshold/tempo. I’m not sure if true speed work/ hard reps will ever be necessary for what I’m trying to do, but if you think differently let me know.
There are a few things that I’m worried about. (1) I was always a healthy runner. I probably missed 1 run/year due to injury over my 6ish years of taking running seriously. I anticipate this being a bigger problem if I get back into serious training as I can already feel aches and pains coming up just from jogging a few times a month. (2) I weigh about 180 lbs while at my peak I would typically race at around 160. My BMI is still low at 22.5 but I imagine if I want to get anywhere near what I used to run I would probably need to drop back down to the 160s. This is a problem because I think I look a lot better with a little more weight on me. I’m 6’3 and honestly I still look really skinny, I really don’t want to go back to being a string bean.
Well if any of you read this and give feedback I’d appreciate it. If anyone is interested maybe I could start a series documenting my comeback. Maybe we can make a group for us washed up runners trying to get back into it.