Can you intern while on a college Cross Country/ Track Team?

If you're talking about when you're in season, it would be extremely difficult unless you do it during fall/winter/spring break. For me at least, I hardly have enough time to keep my grades where they need be, train 60-70 miles a week, eat, and sleep.

But if you're talking about summer training and interning, it's definitely possible. Currently working 50 hours a week and getting in solid training. I don't have much free time outside of work and training, but that's not hard to deal with when you enjoy what you do.

Thank you. How long are the breaks usually? A week?

it can be done in the summer. i did it many times with running up to 120 miles a week.

Yes. I did it for 3 semesters and it was part of the reason I landed the great job that I have. Choose an internship with flexible, minimal hours but you still get a chance to learn something.

Thanks guys

As far as your internships that you were able to pull off, were they local so you could stay close, or in bordering areas, across the nation, international? How far would you be able to go?

RMacRac wrote:

Thank you. How long are the breaks usually? A week?

There are a lot of companies that offer internships for a week or two weeks during college breaks. Fall/Spring breaks in college are usually a few days to a week, while winter break is usually much longer (3-4 weeks).

RMacRac wrote:

As far as your internships that you were able to pull off, were they local so you could stay close, or in bordering areas, across the nation, international? How far would you be able to go?

My current internship is five minutes away from my house, so it gives me more time to train/relax/eat/sleep. However, last summer it was a two hour commute a day, which is really draining and hindered my training. If you are going to intern somewhere away from home, I would strongly recommend looking at renting an apartment in that area. It will save you a lot of time and can even save you money.

If you're in the NYC area, look at college housing during the summer. A friend of my is interning in the city and found cheap housing at Pace University and Stevens Institute.

Yes. But the best case would be 1. an understanding company that will let you leave early/ and allow you to miss for in season travel and 2. that the internship was for credit, thus allowing you to talk fewer actual classes and still have the required number of hours. Otherwise it will be a significant stresser.

Blahbaba wrote:

Yes. But the best case would be 1. an understanding company that will let you leave early/ and allow you to miss for in season travel and 2. that the internship was for credit, thus allowing you to talk fewer actual classes and still have the required number of hours. Otherwise it will be a significant stresser.

The company I work for hires interns occasionally who are on college teams. It's usually spring semester internships. This year we had a male DI track runner and a female who played on a DII hockey team. We had a female DI hockey player a year or two ago. Point #2 above is key, IMO. We're fine with offering a flexible in-office schedule or providing a project based internship if the interns have other school related things going on. The only time it's become an issue, and this isn't just with interns who are on teams, is when they come to us and already have a packed schedule.

We do have 1 major event on a Saturday during the semester that we require attendance of all our interns. Non-negotiable, it's a major part of learning about how our business operates. We're up front with any interns we hire that on that date, no exceptions, they have to be present. If that means missing a meet or a game that's part of the deal.

I also coach college runners and have had a number over the years who have had internships or student teaching to deal with during the competition season. Keeping the big picture in mind, I think we're pretty flexible in working with their schedules. Sometimes it means those guys do a workout on their own, or maybe we have to switch a Tuesday hard day for a Wednesday not quite so hard day. Small concessions to make, no training plan should be that rigid that you can't make some small adjustments to make it work for everybody.

Ran D1 at a school where you had the option to do full-time (40hr/wk) internships instead of classes for a semester. My internship went from June-December so it was during base and cross season while I was running ~80-100 mpw. Initially it really sucked trying to build a 100mpw base while working but I got used to it. I did most of my main runs before work since I was often tired afterwards. Coach was very understanding and I would partake in the 2 "mandatory" weekday workouts that started at 5pm by leaving work at 4 on those days. The only real issue was recovery - I peaked well for our conference championship race but was TOAST by regionals. If I were to do it again I would take better care to adapt the training to how I was feeling instead of trying to push through and do what my teammates were doing - I often didn't account for the fact that they were often much fresher at practice since they had not just been at work for 8hrs.