With inspiration from another thread.....

What would you do to become a "real" runner? Is the fact that you are out there now, running the streets, mean you are a "real" runner already? What is a "real" runner?

I certainly wouldn`t pay for a personal trainer when I could join a club with the support, Motivation & experience that I could use to become a "real" runner.

Nor would I Dave....in fact I sometimes feel as if I act as a personal trainer at my club! Perhaps I should charge!

If you are out there on a wet winter night........you are a 'real runner'!

Exactly Steepler.

SPOT ON. Why do people have to be good to be called 'REAL'....?

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I hate it when people call us joggers! urrr! i'm not a jogger i am a runner,there is a difference.

There is a difference.

But sometimes you're a jogger, sometimes a runner.

Most of my runs that I do I'm a jogger, easy aerobic effort, not pushing the body too hard.

When you're a runner, you're pushing the body to run fast, but not hard, it should hurt, but not too badly.

When you're a racer, it should hurt like hell!, but you keep your head around you.

When you're a sprinter you give it everything you have with no thought for caution.

I've never been offended when someone calls me a jogger, I know that most of the time I am, there's very few runners in the world who aren't also joggers, and those that aren't also joggers end up being not very good or injured.

In reference to the question, the first time you think " what could I do to be a better runner" for the sake of running, not fitness, that's when you're a real runner using the standard definitions people use of runner and jogger.

What makes you a runner? To have been dedicated to running for over six months in my opinion. I don't mind being called a jogger, but it does feel very 80's and very over-the-hill.

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According to my dictionary: the word 'jog' means 'to run at a gentle pace'. So jogging is running. Some people describe jogging as 10 minute mile pace, or slower - and anything quicker than 10 minute mile pace as running.
Having said that, I'm not sure how I'd define a 'real runner'. I'd guess they'd have to be capable of running a little quicker than jogging pace, someone dedicated enough to run on a regular basis, who knows what their their body is capable of handling, when to run hard and when to ease off, who knows their optimum distance(s) and who's mastered the proper technique and mechanics of running so they can run without constant lay-offs through injuries. In other words, quite experienced.
Cheers!

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Give me the hills!

As long as you are getting out there and pushing yourself when your training requires you to it doesn't really matter what you consider yourself to be. To the non - runner/jogger they will never know the difference... However long you have been running for whether it be 2 or 10 years and even how fast you run it should all be about giving 100% effort

runningfox- you can't use 10 mm as an arbitrary measure like that.

For me, I'd consider jogging anything above 7 mm, a slow aerobic effort, maybe 7:15, for the best in the world it's at least 6mm, maybe faster, but if I go out running with friends then for them 10mm most definitely isn't jogging it's hard running. The same for me when I started out and a big aim was to run the 2 mile loop near my house in under 20 minutes.

Jogging is a slow aerobic effort, whether that pace is 6mm or 15mm, it's still jogging.

So I quite liked Runningfox's 10mm - probably because that's the barrier I'm at and trying really hard to break at the moment. And still not quite getting it right. I ran 4.8 miles in 50 minutes yesterday. I should feel pleased as it's the furthest I've yet run. But I also feel a little disappointed that it wasn't quite 5 miles. Drat! And then tonight's interval training went appallingly badly, and I gave up after 3km. Probably because my muscles need a little more recovery time as I've just upped my training with an extra day per week.

Oh well, and so we all learn to become real runners

If you think about it Karen, then you're already running, not jogging even trying to break 50 minutes for 5 miles. You can probably jog at 12mm!

10mm is the barrier lots use because for the runner at around 40-55 minute for 10k standard (the level that I think everyone can attain providing no serious health problems and without dedicating their life to running, tbh with a male under the age of 30 I'm moderately certain they could be trained to run sub 35) it probably is their jog and most runners fall into this time bracket, but using the definition given above which is pretty accurate an "easy aerobic effort" then there's no way that most runners under 40 minute for 10km can't run faster and it still be an easy aerobic effort.

Just wondering why you followed what seems like a "hard" effort of a LT run, infact by the sounds of it you were almost racing it if you care that much about the time, with a interval session the following day? I'd never (well I would but that's because I'm a bit silly about these things, but it is good training practice!) follow a hard 50 minute run one day with an interval session the next. Your body needs time to recover!

Keep your easy days easy and make your hard days hard, and never do hard days consecutively is some of the best advice given to me. Not necessarily true at the elite level, but if you're running less than 31 minutes for 10k for a man or 35 for a lady, then it's darn brilliant!

Agreed. I said 'some people' would regard 10 minute mile pace as jogging. I didn't say I did.
Part of my marathon training was round a hilly eight mile loop - jog a mile then run a mile. I 'ran' each mile in 5½ minutes and 'jogged' the next mile in 9 minutes. For recovery runs I'd 'jog' 6 miles in 50 mins.
Cheers!

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Give me the hills!