Incoming Freshman stories: The good, the bad, the ugly?

I hooked up with the captain and star runner of my team at a small liberal arts DIII school and became a letsrun meme. thread/

I'm a freshman over at Trinidad st and I ran 4:28 at the end of a mile repeat workout. Then that Friday I had easily the worst tempo of my life. Altitude is fun 😂

coachz wrote:

Gill St. B wrote:

Gill St. Bernards grad?

Gotta be Washington. Where good runners go to die.

Giggity!!!

Yeah, my vote is Washington as well.

In high school I came in expecting to make varsity as a freshman. I had run our course solo a bunch of times in 8th grade and posted times that would have had me at least 7th most meets. I trained decently over the summer but missed camp and the first races of the year were these two scrimmages. I ran lousy and wasn't even close, my times were at least a minute off and I was 4th or 5th JV runner for each.

The first real meet came along and luckily it was a combined JV and varsity race where everybody ran together. I had a breakthrough and managed 6th for our team. I think the more intense training was taking effect by that point and the weather was cooling off after a hot August. I stayed varsity for the rest of the year and peaked for regionals where I scored for us as 5th runner.

As a follow-up my friends and I trained all summer before my junior year: good mileage, hill workouts, all that stuff. I would up winning a scrimmage (one of the ones I had done so poorly in as a freshman). But that was almost the peak of my season as I didn't run that quick again for most of the rest of the season. I did rally for states and was our lead runner. But it sorta came out of nowhere as I wouldn't have even qualified if the team hadn't. Cross is funny like that.

johnny bean wrote:

The ugly American wrote:

That IS really good not matter what your mileage, as a freshman. Good times!! I ran 19-flat as a freshman and was really frustrated. 16:40 the next year and was much happier.

16:40 is a very good time and that shows you worked hard. what are your PRs now? I graduated HS with a 15:27 so I did alright. College I ran 14:43.

In 5k XC I ran 15:10. I ran one 5000m track race (I live near a BIG-10 school) in 14:47. In college I ran 14:08 and 29:03. Always wanted to break 8:00-flat, 14-flat and 29-flat. And I thought I coudl do a sub-9 Steeple, but I didn't.

This sounds a lot like what I've heard about OK state.

Cornell University, 2005-2009. Can't remember the distance coach's name..... Robbie Jones or something like that.

how do you not know the coach's name? sounds like BS to me

ray lewis is a murderer wrote:

how do you not know the coach's name? sounds like BS to me

*woosh*

High School:

I came in to my freshman year of HS riding a high from finishing second at the USATF National Junior Olympic meet in the 3000m in late July (9:27 3k so nothing insanely fast). The season went decently but I did not live up to my expectations. I ran 7 3 mile races all between 16:02 and 16:19 and 3 5K races in 16:44, and 16:55 culminating with a 9th place finish in my section championship in 16:04 (fastest freshman of the day). I was anywhere between 1st and 3rd runner on my team. Then I went to the State Championship and completely bombed. I was used to running very evenly paced races and couldn't handle getting out quickly with the rest of the field. I ran 17:48 and was our 6th man. It was the only time in my HS career that I failed to score for my team. All in all it was a good season but I found out that day at the State meet that the only thing that really counts in XC is how one performs in the biggest meet of the season.

College:

I went to a Pac 12 (Pac 10 at the time school) as a recruited walk on. My HS career was solid but nothing special (4:20, 9:15, 14:57) so I had a massive chip on my shoulder. I ran really well for the first month of the season and actually had a chance to make the top 7 going in to the conference meet. Then I bombed at conference meet and my season was suddenly over. I had a great experience but I knew deep down that I was pushing way to hard in interval workouts and tempos and was burnt out by the time the real racing started. I was able to keep up with our top guys in most workouts but I had to go to the well to do it and it ended up destroying me. I ended XC with a 25:10 8K best (not that times really matter in XC) and was stoked to get ready for track. I ended up bumping my mileage up to around 110 a week during the winter break to try to come in to track season "fit enough to handle the hard workload," as I put it then. Instead I ended up with a femoral stress fracture and began a long cycle of injuries. The rest of college I showed up at the beginning of the season really fit, then got beaten up to the point of injury by a continuous barrage of insane interval workouts and ended up on the sideline. I should note that of the 7 distance guys in my recruit class only two ran all four years, one was a walk on and the other was an 800 runner. That is the short story of my college running career. It wasn't all good nor all bad but sometimes I wonder what I could have done if I had gone to a school that brought me along slowly instead of throwing me to the wolves.

As a freshman I had never run longer than 3 miles (and that was only once for a Memorial Day 5k, next longest was a 2 mile Indian run), and on one of the first days of practice my friend got me to go for preseason training. We went on a 5 mile run. About 2 miles in, a junior looks at me and goes "aren't you turning around?" Figuring hey this freshman should be only going 4. I said I would do 5, the junior turned, and I went chasing after the varsity guys, probably a good 400m ahead. They disappear into a neighborhood and suddenly I'm lost. Another freshman comes and joins me in my quest to escape this pit of despair we called a subdivision. Morale was running low. We knew there was no way out of this neighborhood besides finding whatever road they took to get out. Figuring this, we explored almost every road we could find. We started doing math on how many possible roads there would be. We traveled every side street, hoping, praying for some guidance or a guardian angel. Eventually we give up. We've explored every road. THERE IS NO ESCAPE. We're both exhausted little 14 year olds without a clue where to go, probably a good 1-2 extra miles under our legs from being hopelessly stranded. My good friend and I decided we would just go backwards and go back the way we came. We drudged back, miserable and lacking on energy and food. Once we finally strolled back to practice, everyone was stretching and throwing a frisbee around.

"Where were you guys!"

"Coach is out looking for you!"

"Luke's dad is driving around trying to find you!"

The saddest part?

Our search was in vain. The road we sought back to the school didn't exist. We were supposed to find a trail hidden in someone's backyard.

Broken Dreams wrote:

I had a great experience but I knew deep down that I was pushing way to hard in interval workouts and tempos and was burnt out by the time the real racing started. I was able to keep up with our top guys in most workouts but I had to go to the well to do it and it ended up destroying me. I ended XC with a 25:10 8K best (not that times really matter in XC) and was stoked to get ready for track. I ended up bumping my mileage up to around 110 a week during the winter break to try to come in to track season "fit enough to handle the hard workload," as I put it then. Instead I ended up with a femoral stress fracture and began a long cycle of injuries. .

A lot could be learned from this post. There are no bonus points for a) keeping up in practice or b) running a ton of mileage.

My college coach used to tell us we were doing the same workouts as his best teams ever (guys who were 4 flat milers). I didn't believe him at the time. Now I realize he was telling the truth but we didn't have much left for the races.

I don't think I ran consistent 110 mile weeks until I moved to Flagstaff when I was 26 years old. People train a lot more earlier now, but the key is to do as much as your body can handle.

**

As for high school Robert's on this thread. I'm pretty sure my freshman year he beat me at the JV conference meet at the end of the year (I had always beaten him the year before) and I was 10th place. I think I also got beat by another friend of mine (I am now the godfather of his daughter) who the year before was in the race at the end of the season for the kids who never finished in the top 10 and didn't get a medal all season. It was like overweight kids. Not sure what happened freshman year as I think they both beat me. I don't think I ran 16s for XC until my senior year. Thankfully in the late 90s everyone was slow so I could walk on at Yale.

I didn't grow until late in high school which meant I was always icing stuff and I also didn't run in the summer much which was a big problem. I really needed consistent training to improve.

I sort of laugh now but I remember the other guy who beat me in the JV race arguing with me that I was just naturally more talented than him and that he worked harder than me (he trained a lot over the summer and I didn't understand you needed to train much in the summer). I guess he was right considering I got 4th at USAs twice but I argued with him saying I took it seriously. I took it seriously once the season started, but by then it was too late. I needed a base going into the season and didn't have it as I didn't understand you needed to train much in the summer. Fortunately before my senior year I ran more consistently in the summer.

***

Freshman year of college I was hurt when the season started. By then I was working my ass off cross training in the pool. First day of practice, I couldn't run but my coach drove me back to campus in his car telling me it was technically an NCAA violation. I must say I liked coach Bartold from the beginning. I was going to campus, he was going that way, so why not be a decent human being and give me a ride? He gave me a chance. By the end of the year I snuck into top 5 on the worst XC team in Ivy League.

How fast do you think it takes to walk-on Yale now?

wejo wrote:

[quote]I don't think I ran 16s for XC until my senior year. Thankfully in the late 90s everyone was slow so I could walk on at Yale.

cough cough cough wrote:

rojo wrote:

We want names. If the program is so bad, why don't you have the guts to post it's name, preferably under your name?

Cornell University, 2005-2009. Can't remember the distance coach's name..... Robbie Jones or something like that.

That was not me. I won't name the school or the coach. Any further posts under this handle are not me. All I will say is to be cautious and thorough when choosing schools. Shouldn't be hard to narrow down the possibilities given what I said.

Your point about doing as much as your body can handle is so spot on. It only pays to do more mileage/harder workouts if you can (and do) properly recover from it. I would add that young runners, especially college freshmen need to pay rigorous attention to what they do when they are not running. It is very easy to overdo everything the first time that you are out from under your parents roof. Even if a kid doesn't succumb to the allure of partying, they can easily fail to get enough sleep and eat well. I know I felt invincible as an ultra fit 18 year old. I remember crushing intervals the day after staying up far to late spending quality time with a girl in my dorm and thinking it proved that I could handle training on 3 hours of sleep. Kids need to keep in mind that fitness is a cumulative thing and just because you did well in a workout or race the day after doing something stupid does not mean that you "got away with it." There will always be adverse effects from a lack of sleep and recovery, they just may take a couple of days (or longer) to manifest themselves.

I walked onto a D1 team that was ranked top 3-4 all year. Had some decent HS qualifications, sub 16 in XC, etc. but didn't have the quality of summer training that I really needed. The top guys were total studs and could do some phenomenal workouts. On workout days they ran their intervals hard with short recoveries. On non-workout days, they ran easier (though not too easy - still 6:30 pace or quicker).

My problem was that I wound up running everything the same. On workout days, I tried to run the interval portion too quickly, got dropped and needed longer to recover. Overall workout days for me turned into something less than they should have. Then on recovery days, I felt great since I didn't exert the same energy on workout days and would hammer with the top guys (they would still be running recovery pace). Next day, I would be trashed for a workout. This cycle basically had me running "medium" every day. And as a result my race results were quite lackluster. I think my best race that season was as 12th or 13th man on a team that finished 3rd at Nationals.

The thing that I needed to figure out what that if you have a bad workout, you can't try to make it up the next day that is supposed to be a recovery day. Doing so just sets you up for failure. Run your easy days easy and workout out hard. If a workout doesn't go well, put it behind you and crush the next one. Oh, and get as much sleep as possible.

I empathize with most of these thread posts. I went JuCo out of high school, but it was a stellar JuCo program where the fresh/sophs could all have run D1 if they wanted (most weren't academic qualifiers). I set a 10K PR my first day running with the freaking team around a hilly 2mile loop in the middle of an 11mile run! Freshman year I struggled just to hit times similar to high school, sometimes coming close to high school race times in workouts. Took almost a full year to get adjusted, coming from 35-40mpw to like 75-80. But I hung on and made top seven my second year to make team that finished third at the NJCAA meet. So, I agree. Choose your school wisely and hopefully find a coach that's #1 priority is the health/mental well-being of athletes (if they exist, and I am sure some do) over wins. Didn't run as well as I hoped (who ever does?), but ah the memories...good, bad, and ugly.

But we had fun. Lot of food fights, practical jokes, good talks about all kinds of issues on the road trips to meets and back. Wouldn't trade it for the world, all the memories with those guys/girls I have utmost respect for today.

ex cornell guy wrote:

I got laid my first night at college. Fun times.

Thus far this is the only decent post in the entire thread. All the others are just boring stories about training and racing. If those types of things stand out as your most memorable freshman moments - especially in college - you failed in epic fashion.

ex cornell guy wrote:

I got laid my first night at college. Fun times.

pics?