Is it possible to party/have a social life at a serious D1 school while still getting good grades and running?

Of coarse

Quit running. Focus on grades, partying, and social situations away from running. Join clubs, intramural teams, and go to the gym everyday after class. You'll be much happier when you put on 15-20 pounds of muscle and the girls in your classes actually start talking to you.

Scholarship? You can get your degree without accumulating any debt and if running comes easy to you, why not.

If you have always partied, how do you know you are running to your full potential?

If your heart isn't really in it/running in college isn't important to you, then you won't run to your full potential. Nothing is necessarily wrong with that, but it is a fact of life.

You can't 'party' in the way most college kids do--heavy drinking at least 2, usually 3-4 nights a week--perform well (GPA >3.2 in some STEM major let's say) academically, and also reach your max potential on the track. It isn't going to happen because there aren't enough hours in a day and in there is no time for rest/relaxation.

The current generation talks about AMUSEMENT every time. Our world pushes for living every kind of amusement, that means TO ESCAPE FROM A LIFE THAT PEOPLE DON'T LIKE. Now is very difficult to find ideals, and there is no more the taste of winning something using your own ability.

In 1960, Herbert Elliot (22 years old) won OG beating the World Record with 3'35"6. That one was the last race of his career.

For winning Olympics, he took holidays from his job, beeing OG in September, and working Elliot as the most part of normal people.

At that time, there were three possibilities for using your time : for a job (and all people worked for living), for fun, for doing something that was your passion. So, not beeing possible to do well all the three activities, PASSION HAD TO COINCIDE WITH FUN, so every athlete spent his time working and training (and, of course, competing) without thinking about other amusements, because ATHLETICS ITSELF WAS A FUN.

Now, nobody wants to forgo the amusement, SO ATHLETES WANT THAT TRAINING AND COMPETING COINCIDE WITH THEIR JOB.

Young people speak about "big sacrifices" for training, forgoing many types of amusements with great regrets.

This is a way to look at athletics activity not "positive". The motivation and the pleasure to reach some results in an activity that you love must be greater than the regret of what you don't do.

This is not an African attitude. Who wants to succeed, during the period of his activity is concentrated only in training and in competing, and doesn't lack other activities.

So, western athletes have too much waste of concentration in their activity, because that one is our lifestyle.

This is the reason because I cannot train a white runner for winning a medal in OG.

Read more:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=220022&page=7#ixzz2PjETcwaY

When you say you "party a fair amount", what does that mean? For some it means they attend parties and socialize. For others it means they drink to excess every weekend, take drugs and spend the next day all hung over. If you're closer to the first, you shouldn't have problems. If you're closer to the second, then your times will start to suffer or at least stagnate and your grades could also be negatively impacted as college is harder than HS.

I go to parties every 2-3 weekends and usually drink, though not very heavily.

D1 Alumni--I need advice wrote:

I go to parties every 2-3 weekends and usually drink, though not very heavily.

then I don't see it getting in the way of your running or academic success. drinking is only a problem if you drink to the point of having hangovers the next day as lost days (even on the weekend) are what cause people to fail to meet their potential as students and sometimes as athletes. The way you describe doesn't sound to be like that, so I would guess you'll be fine.

D1 alumni--I need advice wrote:

I've run times this year that I think will make me heavily recruited, but i'm not completely sure I want to run in college. I party a fair amount in high school, and am still able to run to my full potential and maintain good grades, but will this be the case in college? I don't think that I would be willing to give up my social life, or GPA, for running.

Yes, it is very possible. When I was in college on a very good D1 team, weekend parties/drinking/bars were a very common occurrence by most of the XC and track team. Of course there were guys on the team who thought drinking would hurt their running and didn't do anything. However, it's kind of funny because they were always the guys who trained really hard, but never raced well.

It depends on the school. If you go somewhere like Princeton, Stanford, Harvard, Georgetown, Cornell, etc... you probably have to spend a lot of time outside of practice/meets studying. But if you go to a 4-year community college like Oregon or Arkansas you should be able to cruise through classes as long as you're not an idiot.

It will depend on your major, how many credits you take, how smart you are, how efficient you are with your time, etc. I would DEFINITELY give running a go though if you can. It may or may not work out for you, but it's an experience you shouldn't pass up on. This is coming from someone who only ran competitively in college two of his five years.

There are four 'S's in college. Studying, sports, socializing, and significant other. It's possible to do an average job at three of them, but to do any of them well, you can only do two.

no, it's not really possible to pull off all three. But recognizing this now shows great maturity, so you'll probably make the right choice.

dude i would say take the scholarships to the best college you can go to focus on school and running do a little drinking like every other weekend but not to much because as a student athlete you should make the responsible decision to not drink to much myself i don't drink at all only like on occasion if it's a holiday or friends birthday besides that never and dont go to a strip club whatever you do

turkey leg wrote:

There are four 'S's in college. Studying, sports, socializing, and significant other. It's possible to do an average job at three of them, but to do any of them well, you can only do two.

That's total BS.

Most people in college spend more time wasting time playing video games and watching tv than anything else.

If you run at a serious d1 school, chances are your teammates will get together and drink at a party (perhaps their own party with the hot XC girls too :) )every once in awhile. I would join in with them, and just make sure you keep yourself (and your teammates) under control. This is a good group to stick with and only party with...because they'll probably only party on the days after meets - as the last thing you'd want to do is go out partying with non team members (regular binge drinking meathead college kids) the night before a race.

turkey leg wrote:

There are four 'S's in college. Studying, sports, socializing, and significant other. It's possible to do an average job at three of them, but to do any of them well, you can only do two.

Funny you should say this because this is what I found on my own. I can focus really well on TWO things in my life. If I try to do more than that, they all suffer and I don't do as well at any of them. I suppose focusing hard on one and only a little on two others is possible too, but I found I was always most happy and most productive when I was really working hard on two areas of my life, not more, not less. For me these were school and running all but one year of college. Focused hard on school and a girlfriend one year, and my running suffered for sure.

Trust me though, if you spend your college days just partying and socializing, you will regret it. Being a part of a team IS socializing and gives you an instant 15 friends, and you will hang out with them on weekends. It will work well for you because you'll hang when you can, and you won't when it conflicts with running. Pretty much all college runners still have a social life of some kind even if they are hardcore student-athletes. Especially if you plan on using all five years, it's a piece of cake. Even with a double major you'll probably only need to average 15 credits per semester (which is very doable). Don't think running in college is the end of having a life. That is not at all the case.

the 5th S: SLEEP

It's all about balance. It depends how good you are at time management. I would say work hard during the week and socialize during meals or short breaks from work. When it comes to partying do it on the weekend, and in moderation.

If you're drinking then drink plenty of water with your alcohol so that you don't lose too much of the next day. One glass of water for every alcoholic beverage.

And running in college is 100% worth it, probably more worth it than getting drunk or getting good grades (although most people on my university's XC team did a fair amount of drinking, especially as soon as the season ended, and had really high athletic GPAs). You're not going to look back in a few years and reminisce about how well you did on an exam. You might look back and smile when you think about how totally wasted you got that one night and all of the totally ridiculous things you did and even how you were still smiling when you were puking your guts out but it's not going to compare at all to the way you look back fondly on representing your school, being part of a team, and competing at a high level.

With that said I only ran for part of college and when I wasn't running for the team I pulled 4.0s in math/CS and still had a social life, but when I was running for the team I got a 3.4. Not awful for college but it really does make it more difficult to do well in school.