Walking on D-1 after a high school injury

If you go D1 you need to up those miles to about 140-200 mpw. D1 is no joke.

I'm not going to have a good answer for you, but for others trying to help please include

- Average times for the runners on the team you are trying to walk onto (or the school)

- Your PRs in relevant distances

I agree that more info would help. Teams have roster caps so you will probably have to break 3:50/14:10 for most schools to be interested at this point in your career.

Most of the is running in the range 30-32 min 10k.

I definitely undertsnd the mileage is much higher. I have trained at 70-80 mpw but wasn't taking my easy runs easy enough.

My PR for 5k in XC was 16:00 but like I said I didn't get a senior running season.

Most of the team*

If you are a woman, you probably have a decent shot. For a man, much less likely. Assuming the latter case, it might be possible, but it entirely depends on what the coach/program at your school is like and how good you actually are. All you can do is email the coach and see what he says. Don’t expect him to pay much attention unless you have a verifiable, recent, impressive track time.

Even if making the team is unattainable, does anyone have any advice on moving forward to be as competitive as I can be? I have been feeling great but I'm uncertain if increasing mileage/intensity too quickly would be a mistake. I'm enthusiastic to increase mileage just not sure how fast or how much would be right for someone in my situation.

You will need to run 14:10 on the track or get in some of the same xc meets as the team and beat 1/2 of the team.

Email the coach and ask him what the requirements would be to walk on. Most coaches will entertain the idea if they have a roster spot available and a solid guy on campus approaches them. They will at least offer them a time trial. After all, you've have the motivation to train without the help of a team and coach to get into the same or better shape than several burn-outs who are already on the team. With that said, they would be taking you because they see an upside - not just because you can beat several guys on the team.

The poster who said you need to run 14:10 on the track has absolutely no clue. Honestly - STFU. A couple of requirements for on-campus athlete to make the team at medium level D1 distance programs (Consistently Top-5 in their Region and making nationals in XC some years) I've heard/seen in the past include:

- Sub 20:00 4 mile on the track (they host a tryout time trial each year)

- Sub 26:00 min 8k XC (Run at the 1st home meet of the year)

Again, it all depends on the coach, the team, and the roster spots available. Email the coach ASAP so you can at least get an idea (and be sure to post the requirements back here :).

milesoftrialsxc wrote:

Even if making the team is unattainable, does anyone have any advice on moving forward to be as competitive as I can be? I have been feeling great but I'm uncertain if increasing mileage/intensity too quickly would be a mistake. I'm enthusiastic to increase mileage just not sure how fast or how much would be right for someone in my situation.

It really depends on how good the team is. I don’t think you need to run 14:10 like other people are saying unless we are talking about a top tier D1 school. If you’re school is the average non power 5 D1 school that’s goal is to place high at conference/regionals, then you have a better shot. I’m not going to throw out any times because I don’t know your situation. It is true that as a sophomore, you will have to run fast to make up for your time not on the team.

Since you didn’t mention any running club, I’m going to assume your school is not a power 5 school or extremely good at running. Honestly my advice is that you’re only going to have this opportunity once so you might as well train like it. I don’t think now is the time to be conservative with your training. You’re going to have to be a little risky with your training if you want to get a good enough improvement. I think 80-90 miles a week with good workouts is what you should shoot for. There’s a lot of good resources here on let’s run of how college teams train, and I could even give you a general idea. Once you’ve been hitting that consistently, then I’d get in contact with the coach. If possible, try to approach him in person and let him know your situation and that you’ve been running high miles in the hopes of getting on the team.

We do have a club team and my plan is to race with them if all else fails.

In regards to the mileage, do you any advice on the most efficient way to train up to this mileage without hurting myself, considering I'm only in the 40s for mpw right now?

The most difficult part has been that I have no coach and trained through high school basically on my own (from a small high school with weak program).

Former D1 400 Guy wrote:

If you go D1 you need to up those miles to about 140-200 mpw. D1 is no joke.

You crazy! It's more like half that amount.

Also the first year you actually compete will make you a redshirt Freshman if this Fall or a redshirt Sophomore if we are talking Fall 2019.

Former D1 400 Guy wrote:

If you go D1 you need to up those miles to about 140-200 mpw. D1 is no joke.

No.

0.5/10

Which university are you planning on attending?

Former D1 400 Guy wrote:

If you go D1 you need to up those miles to about 140-200 mpw. D1 is no joke.

+1

just look at Levins

Coaches are very limited in terms of numbers for the guys' rosters. They normally are forced to turn many good HS runners away so they won't be eager to give up one of those spots to a college junior who hasn't run in a few years due to injury. I stick with the 3:50/14:10 times as what they will require unless you are at a pretty low tier school who still has spots open. If you were an incoming freshman who had run 9:15 and been injury free, you would be more attractive.

Also a Former D1 Athlete wrote:

Former D1 400 Guy wrote:

If you go D1 you need to up those miles to about 140-200 mpw. D1 is no joke.

You crazy! It's more like half that amount.

Also the first year you actually compete will make you a redshirt Freshman if this Fall or a redshirt Sophomore if we are talking Fall 2019.

i went to an actual successful SEC school

Any advice on the training up to higher mileage without hurting myself, considering I'm only in the 40s for mpw right now? Ideally I want to be up at 80-90 but definitely not too early