Running Advice from pro or long time runners

AnvilHead

GiddyupTim wrote: »

...Callous as it may sound, that is why those people are champions...

I have difficulty reconciling the actions of elite professional athletes with those of everyday exercisers looking to create a long-term sustainable routine which will also allow them to fulfill the other responsibilities in their lives.

Professional athletes make millions of dollars doing what they do - it's their livelihood - and they also have access to (and can afford) the best of the best medical/rehab care. They don't have to worry about going back to work Monday morning to earn a paycheck to support their families.

If a pro football player blows out his knee, he goes on the disabled list and continues to earn his (huge) salary, as well as all his endorsement contracts (where the money is really made). If Joe/Jane Lunchbox blows out their knee and isn't able to go back to work, they get no paycheck and big medical bills. And they're out of commission for about twice as long as the football player because they don't have an elite, cutting edge medical/training staff at their beck and call.

Not everybody is striving to be a champion. Not everybody is willing to ignore pain and train through injuries they shouldn't be training through for bragging rights and a $2 plastic trophy at the next city 10K or half-marathon. A lot of people just want to lose some weight and get in better shape so they can go about their daily lives more efficiently. And in those cases, it makes perfect sense to be a lot more prudent than a "champion".

Certainly aches, pains and the chance of injury are a part of working out. For almost everybody. But a little common sense in managing those goes a long way.

GiddyupTim

AnvilHead wrote: »

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GiddyupTim wrote: »

...Callous as it may sound, that is why those people are champions...

I have difficulty reconciling the actions of elite professional athletes with those of everyday exercisers looking to create a long-term sustainable routine which will also allow them to fulfill the other responsibilities in their lives.

Professional athletes make millions of dollars doing what they do - it's their livelihood - and they also have access to (and can afford) the best of the best medical/rehab care. They don't have to worry about going back to work Monday morning to earn a paycheck to support their families.

If a pro football player blows out his knee, he goes on the disabled list and continues to earn his (huge) salary, as well as all his endorsement contracts (where the money is really made). If Joe/Jane Lunchbox blows out their knee and isn't able to go back to work, they get no paycheck and big medical bills. And they're out of commission for about twice as long as the football player because they don't have an elite, cutting edge medical/training staff at their beck and call.

Not everybody is striving to be a champion. Not everybody is willing to ignore pain and train through injuries they shouldn't be training through for bragging rights and a $2 plastic trophy at the next city 10K or half-marathon. A lot of people just want to lose some weight and get in better shape so they can go about their daily lives more efficiently. And in those cases, it makes perfect sense to be a lot more prudent than a "champion".

Certainly aches, pains and the chance of injury are a part of working out. For almost everybody. But a little common sense in managing those goes a long way.

Again, I think you are misconstruing what I am saying.
I'm simply using them as an example. I did not mean for it to be taken that far.
My point is only that people who excel at sports -- or want to excel -- sometimes need to push through pain.
The title of this thread is 'Advice from pro or long time runners.
I assume that means the OP wants to know how to become a runner who gets better and keeps the practice up.
I can almost guarantee you that no one who trains for a marathon and then runs one makes it without some sort of injury or pain along the way.
But yet, they have run a marathon.
They have pushed through.
Now, you can quibble and say: Hey, what about all those people who got hurt so bad they didn't run their marathon...?"
Or whatever.
Whatever!
True enough, what I say is a generalization. But it is a generalization with some honesty.
I don't know any committed runners who haven't put a band-aid over a blister and gone out on their run. Or who haven't gone through shin splints and -- by definition -- did not quit, or stop for long, if they did stop. Or who haven't spent weeks running on a runners knee, or a tight, sore psoas, or plantar fasciitis.
Maybe teenagers and people in their early 20s don't get injured. But, for the rest of us, if you want to run and get better you cannot stop for every little bump in the road.
My brother and I used to joke that at a certain age, you start having injuries so often that it is really just one, migrating injury. One week it is in your foot. That heals, and in the meantime you get one in the opposite knee. That heals and....
Well, you get the idea.
I've never shared that joke with any serious athlete over the age of 35 years who did not get it immediately.