My first contact with endurance sports was at the tender age of 14 when I joined a local mountain bike club. Brutal rides across rugged, hilly terrain, lasting several hours at times—this was for me! 

The combination of endurance, intensity, and speed had me hooked. 

At age 17, I became a triathlete. I competed in Olympic-distance triathlons in the summer and duathlons during the spring/fall season. At that time, I also ran multiple 10K races and the occasional half-marathon. 

As a teenager, I was a self-coached athlete. And therein was the problem. While I had a basic understanding of training derived from books and magazines, I didn’t get the balance of rest and recovery right, let alone an intelligent training progression. In my mind, more was better. Needless to say, I was constantly burned out, battling frequent colds and injuries. 

Hence, in my 20s, I turned my back on endurance training in favor of serious strength training and Muay Thai. I continued the basic ‘fitness running’ all ring sport athletes engage in, a walk in the park after years of multi-sport endurance training. 

Eventually, a shoulder injury inspired a comeback to the sport of running. That focus—and improved training methodology—massively increased my running performance, leading to faster race results (and more awards) than I dreamed possible.

Yet, I still only run 4 – 5 times per week. That leaves enough time for complementary strength training and cross-training. In my case, that’s a gym membership and Muay Thai. For you, it might be bodyweight workouts, Yoga, swimming, or any other activity.

For us amateur and age-group runners, that’s just a healthier way to train. With a balanced training regimen, we look better, feel better, and perform better. That enhances the quality of our work and social life, too.

What’s more, running allows me to switch between different race distances. From the 400m sprint to the marathon, I have raced it all over the years. That’s the beauty of being an amateur athlete—not being locked into a particular race distance. 

But what I love most about running is that it is measurable. With a running smartwatch, I can put a number on my VO2 max, lactate threshold, and maximal speed. The finer details require some lab equipment, but they’re quantifiable. Better training leads to faster race results. Therefore, every race informs me whether my training was effective—in minutes and seconds.