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Why can't am i getting worse at running

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Replies

  • Posts: 61,406 Member
    I think you've gotten your chicken and your egg mixed up but hey, if it makes you feel better, blame me for everything.
  • Posts: 200 Member
    Nah, I'm not blaming you for anything actually... I was one of the ones who found his initial posting far-fetched myself. Just making an observation about the general nature of all of the forums.

    My responses weren't really directed toward you... other than the picture- I'm always amazed at how fast people can find them and get them posted.
  • Posts: 25

    Actually I think it makes quite a lot of sense at this point... much more than it did in the beginning and I think that's because the OP has been offering information in bits and pieces... The gal who understood what he was trying to say "got it" because she coaches high schoolers- so that also makes a lot of sense.

    Here's what I'm gathering- OP ran XC through high school coached by someone whose abilities he and his teammates apparently questioned... ie She said go run 18 miles and my watch or my app or whatever said 12... how many did I run? OP decided to run a marathon, why? Not for the challenge of 26.2 miles, but for a cool jacket and a week off of practice... He probably didn't know or care how long the race was, it was a "marathon" and he was just going to run until he saw the finish line and that was that.

    Now, he graduated in June (?), and has never had to train himself... he did what the coach told him to do (and it seems he was never really sure what he was doing... the 18 miles or 12 miles thing. Add to it, losing his teammates- no more camaraderie.. it's just him and he doesn't know how to do anything but run... it doesn't really sound like too much fun to make that transition to be honest, and I enjoy running by myself. Maybe he took a month or two off after graduation so his endurance came down some. He tried slowing down like everyone told him... he can finish the miles but he's getting bored and wants to stop. I think the advice to try to find a running club to join or to try another activity if he finds that running isn't really for him (and that's ok) is good advice.

    OP-- am I close?

    well i also did the marathon for college and i knew all about the marathon.. my sister was in the club too but she quit and so when it was my time i was just like "this will look good for when i apply for college". i didn't really find the 26.2 miles challenging or like intimidating i was like whatever about it didn't seem too bad. for the marathon coach she didn't know how many miles we were running she just took us to the same trail and ran longer.
  • Posts: 7,866 Member
    my coach for the marathon was a spanish teacher who can just run long distances.. she just told us to run x miles on this day x miles on that day and i couldn't even run up to 7 miles consistently and we only went up to 16 miles when she said it was 23.. idk the spanish teacher was really clueless and a lot of people made fun of her. i just did this for college

    OK, notwithstanding the point about group dynamics from Victoria I'd suggest using a structured plan from somewhere to help you regain capacity. It's not out of the question that with an aimlessness around the sessions you're not seeing results, which becomes demotivating.

    Unless you have some kind of objective in place at the moment I'd start with a 10K improvement plan, as you've got the track record of doing the distance and it's not too time consuming.

    Hal Higdon gets a good reputation, Runners World also have several plans, but there are plenty around.

    Complement that with some form of performance tracking app; Runkeeper, Endomondo, Strava so that you can see how your performance is improving. That'll help the motivation.
This discussion has been closed.