I was wondering how many guys on here are running on their own and still try to be competitive. This is mainly aimed at 18-30 year-old guys. Do you have any advice?
I was wondering how many guys on here are running on their own and still try to be competitive. This is mainly aimed at 18-30 year-old guys. Do you have any advice?
It's hard, especially once you have a full time job and other time commitments. You really need to develop a routine, find a couple of running partners, and be disciplined. Good luck to you.
It's not impossible. I knew some pretty fair runners who trained alone all the time. I trained alone for years but it was only once I hooked up with 3-4 other guys and then trained with almost daily for years that we all became age group ranked runners.
I had improved all my PRs, except for 1500m, after I left my training group. It was good when running with them, but saw no further improvement after 6 years with them. I went to US Uni for 2 years and that was a disaster to my running career, but once back in my country, I had improved a lot. I still hooked up with fellow runners quite regularly (about 3-4 runs a week), but it was up to me to decide when, what and how fast. Since all of my running buddies where glad to have a run with me (or a part of the workout, mostly helping me out with the pace) and I did not have to adjust my training to them, it was good. I am lucky to have such good friends who support me and help me out. Other 8 to 10 runs of the week I do by myself and I think it helped me out to toughen up and to know my body better. When in group, you adjust to them - whether slowing unnecessary down, or running ridiculously fast, when it is not needed.
It's an advantage for some people. If you're quite a naturally motivated and competitive person, then sometimes running with a group can cause you to train too hard, particularly when it comes to speed work etc. I found I improved a lot when I started doing most of my running by myself, and ran how I felt. Often this was quite fast, but with very few anaerobic workouts.
By tuning in to how I felt rather than what was expected by the training group, it meant I could successfully train hard without going over the edge.