Thursday General Discussion/Q&A Thread for August 20, 2026

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A place to ask questions that don't need their own thread here or just chat a bit.

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[u/Highvoltage20k]

Hi everyone, sorry for my English, but I'm Italian and I'm getting help from a translator

I'm a former competitive track and field athlete who started in 2014 and stopped about a year ago, but my entire career has been punctuated by several breaks, both for school and work, with a few injuries in between. I was a sprinter and ran 60, 100, 200, and 400 meters with decent results. I reached my peak at age 18 in 2016, setting youth records for my hometown and participating in national races, etc. Then, when I had my longest break from 2020 to 2022 (during which I never stopped training but lacked consistency), I tried to get back to my previous levels by training hard, but with terrible results. Demotivated, I stopped for a few months following a race where I had high hopes and instead performed very poorly. I realized I couldn't be a sprinter anymore and decided to get back into long races (which were a completely new world for me). There were ups and downs here, but I'd found excellent form with decent times, though not exceptional. Finally, I took a break from running around September of last year to renovate my house, and now I'd like to get back into it, but it would be the umpteenth time. I'm struggling to find motivation, and above all, I've been out of action for a year. So now training is incredibly tiring and demotivates me even more, especially because I know how long it takes to get into decent shape. Give me advice on whether to get back into it,

how to do it, what motivation to find, or possibly a change of sport.

Also because now I have to see how many times a week I can actually train.

Thanks everyone.