Forgive the intrusion...

I'm not a runner but thought you fine folks might be able to help me with a project I'm working on. Would like real humans to validate what AI is telling me.

If you were a super-serious amateur runner - not someone who wants to just complete races but actively working on driving down your times and being COMPETITIVE - whatever that means for you (REALLY pushing yourself to hit new PRs, winning or placing in your age group, qualifying for participating in a specific race). What is the top end of a weekly time commitment you could reasonably put towards this effort given the following constraints:

- You have a job and you don't run for a living (or treat it as your job if you're retired or rich)
- You have some level of social and/or family obligations (not allowed to be a hermit)

I'm looking mostly for time spent actually exercising. If you'd be so kind as to tell me what portion of that is non-cardio related work (like mobility and weights) that would also be helpful.

AND if there are outlier examples like people who run all night races or 100 miles or whatever that are just so out there, that's not really what I'm talking about.

Thanks so much for your input!

I ran a PR marathon in early December, so November was my biggest month in preparation for that. I am married with no kids, full-time employed, and active at church and with family and friends. These are actual numbers, but they are representative of the maximum I could commit to training.

Month Totals
Running - 35:22
Cycling - 12:14
Prehab, Mobility, etc. - 14:07
Strength Training - 12:59

Week of 11/11 to 11/17 (biggest week)
Running - 8:55
Cycling - 1:45
Prehab, Mobility, etc. - 3:35
Strength Training - 3:40

nevermind, updated post with images below

This is super helpful, thanks a ton.

I was a casual runner from 2009-2015 but got serious in 2016-2017, training enough to qualify for the Boston Marathon. My training was 100% running, except for occasional skiing. At 34, I was married, had no kids, and worked full-time as an engineer and trained like this:



The following year, I transitioned to mountain trail running and signed up for a 100-mile race. While you might consider this an outlier, the training wasn't drastically different from marathon prep, just with more elevation gain. Boston training peaked at 13 hours weekly, while the trail training peaked at 16 hours. This was during a busy timewe had a newborn, and both my wife and I worked full-time



Looking back, I overdid it, especially with 4-5 hour runs every Saturday. I regret the strain it put on my wife and wish I had balanced better. Still, I wanted to show that even busy people with families can achieve big training goals.

Married, two kids, full time job, church. PRed Sunday in Houston, marathon 2:45, for reference. Not especially competitive in Houston, but could be at a smaller regional race (e.g. BCS). Other build ups to longer races are pretty similar to the below. Most of the work is done early in the morning before kids/wife wake up with the exception of Saturdays where I come in an hour or so after the kids are up. Midweek workout, I'm about 30 minutes late. So, not a huge intrusion into family life (and I do check). I could probably push a bit more on mileage/time, but I think I would also need to sleep more to balance that out. I think ~8-9 hours total is about all I can manage before the trade off of other commitments and quality of life would diminish. Right now, it is a benefit - feel better, think better, concentrate better, etc. I feel it when I taper down for a big race or get injured - don't sleep as well, focus is less, can't sit still at work, have more aches and pains, etc. Hope this helps. It'll be interesting to see results.

Buildup to Houston was, based on Garmin:
July-29.9 hrs
Aug- 33.9
Sept- 33.4
Oct- 34.7
Nov- 36.8 (Thanksgiving break helped)
Dec- 31.4
Roughly 7.7hrs/week. Usually getting through 60-70miles a week. If not training specifically for a race, maybe an hour less. Not a big fluctuation, just change the specificity to speed vs distance.
Lift legs heavy (for a runner) usually a single day a week late in the evening for an hour or so makes the total a bit under 9.
I don't cross train, so 0hrs.

agreed on 100 not being an "outlier." I run roughly the same mileage for 100s as I did when I was running road marathons. Its just structured differently. And i had no kids and a job in the running industry when I was doing road marathons. Now that I only do trail races, I'm married with two kids, and a job not in the industry.

I don't consider myself a marathoner, though I've run 6. It's my worst race distance, but my time has improved with each race. Anyway, it's the only race I specifically train for I'll use that consistent period of running as an example. At peak training, 7-8 hours per week running and 2-3 hours per week working on mobility, stretching, and strength (focused on core and legs, but the usual upper body mixed in as well).

I'm 62, so I'm probably at much lower weekly mileage than some on here, can't handle too much without injury, and recovery is slower at this age. I work full time, but have no other major time constraints.

For regular "non-marathon" training I'd say probably 4-6 hours per week running, with some strength training and stretching, and unfortunately little to no cross training. I'm still pushing for improvement at all race distances and the most important pieces to this have been the weekly interval/speed workouts and the weekend long run. There is no substitute for miles, most of them at an easy pace. As mentioned on a different thread, run your slow runs slower and your fast runs faster, and I'd add run up and down hills when you can.

I have 2 goals this year. First, I want to PR the Houston Half in January 2026. For reference, my half pr is 1:58 from 2019. I ran it this year, had some quad issues so slowed down the last few miles, but ended with a 2:25.

Second, and not really a goal but something I just decided I want to do. I want to run every day. Or most days. Currently on a 25 day streak, want to hit 30 (for no reason other than getting a Garmin badge) then reassess.

So, not really sure what to do for training. I started training with Stryd about 6 months ago. Should I do periods of build training plans until October then do the Half training plan? Is that too much? Should I have a few weeks of maintaining plans in there?