The Post-Collegiate Guide To Beating Burnout

Talk to any former collegiate runner and you’ll find a similar course of events somewhere in their career; run mega-miles in college chasing PRs and records — burn the candle at both ends so that you make it through school with your running and social life intact — have everything fall apart sometime during your initial post-collegiate training cycle.

It’s almost inevitable; especially if you aren’t running competitively and have a professional life to worry about. Where do you find the motivation to hold onto that fitness you earned through endless hours over your collegiate career while still establishing your career outside of the sport. It becomes hard to justify the hours that you need to dedicate to running especially without the structure that running in college afforded you.

My career was spent forcing myself out the door and forcing myself through workouts, I don’t think I ever actually enjoyed running. It was something I did because I enjoyed the feeling of racing and winning against past runners who wore the jersey. The wins didn’t happen every time I went out there but I enjoyed the process and the art of improving myself. The process, however, would grind on and on and on… I ran so many 1500 meter races crossing the line in 4:11 that when I finally broke through and ran 4:07 and then 4:05, to finish off my senior year, I felt the…