Call me naive, but college running has not been what I anticipated.

This situation sounds overly dramatic. How fast are you? How reliable and compliant to the program are you when you are healthy? Do you make excuses often?

In my experience no matter what program: If you were fast, you listen to the coach, show up every day, never miss practice, work hard and keep quiet they usually treat you like you know what you're doing and don't question when you're hurt. That being said, if you are concerned go to another doc get an xray or mri.

Don't complain on message board.

tl;dr

Wait until you find out that much of life is not what you anticipated.

you're naive

If you are on the slow side you are of no use to the coach. The sooner you break down, the sooner he can get rid of you

Calcium, Phos and Vit D wrote:

If you are on the slow side you are of no use to the coach. The sooner you break down, the sooner he can get rid of you

+1 to this, absolutely true. Or if you are a complainer, don't show full effort, or think that you're special somehow you'll just be a burden to the coaching staff and team.

If it hurts, don't run. I think he is trying to get you to quit so he can free up the money.

Get the trainer to put it in writing that the only way you would feel that sort of pain would be from a bone bruise. That is key.

Write an email to both the coach and a trainer and request their response to this question. If they fail to answer within a couple of days, insist on it. Two more days and CC the AD. Then move up from there. Yes, you will not have much of a future at that school any more but if they are doing something wrong, they will feel the heat too.

This is what happened to me a couple years back. They just told me to man up and said it was just a tibial stress fracture. I was their number distance runner on the team too. They kept putting me in the 2 mile and made me do sprint workouts. In a matter of time by the end of winter track I finished my last tempo run and couldnt even stand. 5 months later I come back for XC, and they stacked up mileage to quickly and the whole process started over again. Now its been a year and Im still struggling getting back to where I was due to the coaches selfishness.

Tell your coach you're taking time off until your leg doesn't hurt, that you'll be back when it's better, and then do it. It's your health. You're responsible for it. If the consequences of doing this seem too severe for you and the leg gets worse because he's intimidated you, it's still your responsibility because you let a bozo control you.

You also need to remember that for some of these coaches, this is their career, how they make their money. Of course they want you to be practicing and trying to get better cause if not then they are out of a job

Quit and enjoy being a college student. Run when you like and relieve yourself of unnecessary stress.

Go to a DOCTOR and get a *diagnosis*. If necessary, on your own time/dime.

Really, how hard is this?

sg345345 wrote:

Go to a DOCTOR and get a *diagnosis*. If necessary, on your own time/dime.

Really, how hard is this?

Bingo! We finally have a winner.

OP. Quit whining and see a Doctor. You're giving me a "brain bruiser."

living the dream wrote:

tl;dr

Wait until you find out that much of life is not what you anticipated.

This is right. The shortcomings of the NCAA and college athletes and college and the shortcomings of the "real world" come from the same source:

Human greed, nasty group behavior and dynamics, etc.

If you have health insurance, kid, see a professional physical therapist. Do the exercises they tell you. If your athletic trainers are not following physical therapy principles, they are a joke. If they are, then listen to them. If you got injured in high school often, you might have some experience with this, but not so much, I expect, since you're young.

Look, college is mostly a cash sex and social affiliation greed machine. Institutions putting meat through the line, taking in the tuition. People trying to get laid. People cheating, people inflating, people trampling each other. A tunnel vision order All this bogus school spirit bravado. Losers returning to the institution who believed and still believe this stuff, to teach and coach. It's not everyone but it is a quantity and quality nobody anywhere properly concedes.

The same dynamic goes on in high schools, in professions, in the workplace, in politics, in churches, in neighborhoods. There are exceptions but not enough to stem the tide. For young people today, temptation and bad influence is easy to fall into. My advice to young kids is to stay vigilant and smart. Keep a journal, have some alone time. Learn to find people of virtue and then learn to discern people and settings that are beholden to the cruel greed of everyday life. Nobody will teach you how to do this or how to advocate for yourself.

From what I remember of college, the training staff was pretty much there for the football team. If you started describing a running injury, their eyes would gloss over and when they sensed you were done talking, they would tell you to ice it.

for all of you new college runners or high schooler runners hoping to run in college:the most important priority for your coaches is to run well/win. This means, the men/women who run/jump/throw the best receive the most attention. Also, the next recruiting class is always a priority. If you need/want attention and positive feedback. you'd better be doing well, or you'll just be the person who is under-achieving it's lonely. you will need to form tight bonds with your teammates or possess a very good ability to stay focused and positive in your own brain. everyone wants to be better than you, and wants to surviveyou'll probably increase your mileage too fast - be patient, don't try to hang with people. you'd be better off just doing easy running for 12 months than crashing and burning when you try to hang with the older, stronger runners. i learned this the hard wayif you had an awesome high school coach and close-knit team, college teams will likely disappoint you. it's not the same. it can be good and you'll form amazing friendships, don't get me wrong, but just not as good.i was a state champ in high school, and multiple time medal winner in a few events. One of my first indoor college races (D1) i was really tired and emotionally drained from some late nights of finals and found myself in a fast heat (that i didn't belong in!) with some real men. Like, two guys who had run sub 4:00 miles who were 22 years old. I was a little 18 year old who had run 4:18 in my best race outdoors. i got absolutely destroyed, went out too hard and fought to run 4:19 or something. hardest i ever fought in any race. that was the day i started to toughen up and realized my little high school accolades didn't mean a thingrun hard in workouts and races, and otherwise take it as easy as physically possible. run of soft surfaces. string together long stretches of good sleep. stretch, strengthen your core and hips.....i know it's hard to be running 7:30-8:30 easy miles when you're that age (trust me, i did all my runs at 6:30 pace) but it will make your life and legs so much better.running doesn't define you. if you leave, you'll be happy and fine/

malmo wrote:

sg345345 wrote:

Go to a DOCTOR and get a *diagnosis*. If necessary, on your own time/dime.

Really, how hard is this?

Bingo! We finally have a winner.

OP. Quit whining and see a Doctor. You're giving me a "brain bruiser."

Similar experience. Stress fracture, stress reaction, rinse and repeat. I was diagnosed by a doctor, but the "doctor probably wasn't wasn't a runner," so...

What about pool running to get to as close to a run specific workout and mirror what your team is doing without the pounding that you believe will cause your leg to break? You say "I NEED SOME F___ING TIME OFF", why do you believe you need time off vs alternative workouts that get you away from the things that are causing damage while still allowing you the chance to improve your fitness. What about using an Alter-G treadmill? I know that most schools don't have access to one, perhaps there is a PT business where you're going to college that you might find a way to get access to.

Have you asked about these options, or has your coach proposed them to you? If the answer is no, you might want to rethink "I AM DOING WHAT I CAN".

Kairoweenis wrote:

[quote]living the dream wrote:

The same dynamic goes on in high schools, in professions, in the workplace, in politics, in churches, in neighborhoods. There are exceptions but not enough to stem the tide. For young people today, temptation and bad influence is easy to fall into. My advice to young kids is to stay vigilant and smart. Keep a journal, have some alone time. Learn to find people of virtue and then learn to discern people and settings that are beholden to the cruel greed of everyday life. Nobody will teach you how to do this or how to advocate for yourself.

Wisdom

get better soon dude