Running in Med School

Roger Bannister anyone?

I too am a procrastinating medical student at the moment. I should be studying these wiggers diagrams but I've been in the library for 9 hours after 5 hours of class, after not going for a much needed afternoon run, which brings me to my point. I was a decent D1 athlete on a great team and there is absolutely no way I can see doing what I did then, now. Main issue is sleep. second issue is energy, it sounds wierd, but studying takes energy that depending on the workout may be taken away from you during study periods. These are my two things, which I think are pretty big barriers. I can get in 50 miles on a light week of school when Im on top of it.

Take me as one of many data points though. There have been far greater men than me and everyone else on these boards who dreamed it and did it. Dan Lincoln set the AR in the steeple in his third year i think. Bannister, pretty sweet but at an english school in the 50's, so comparisons are difficult. Good luck getting into med school and good luck in medicine.

PanSystolicMrmr hit it on the head.

I guess I should clarify that I'm a girl so 25-40 miles a a week is maybe worth 30-50 for a guy, depending on how much faster you are than me? Still not tons. But I also think I'm very average intelligence wise, and have focus issues, so studying takes me longer. SO if you are super bright and focused you might have more free time than me. But again, like I said before, there is always more to know and I think you should always be striving to learn it.

Also something that people haven't brought up is how important having social support in med school is. At times on a lighter academic week, I have chosen to go out on a Friday or Saturday night (sadly, "go out" may involve a bar or it may involve drinking at someone's apartment and trying, but failing, not to talk about school) knowing that it would make me sleep in the next day, causing me to cut my run short to ensure adequate study time, etc. If I lost my very limited social time due to trying to seriously train, I'd probably go crazy.

But that's just me, though.

So in sum, running/training on your own is very possible The amount you do will depend on YOU.

Running for an intercollegiate team...I can't even begin to imagine that working unless your coach let you do everything on your own, including drive to/from races etc.

good luck!

Some other names:

Jack Lovelock - 1936 Olympic 1500m champ, WR in mile, pathologist I think

Peter Welsh - 1966 commonwealth steeples champ, orthopedic surgeon

Matt Brick - Twice world duathlon champ, 2nd in Kona ironman, rode tour de france, Orthopedic surgeon.

These are just some of the kiwis I can think of.

She ran a 2:03 and also a 34 minute 10k while in school.

Abby Johnston goes to Duke med and dove at the rio olympics

Running D1 and being a medical student sounds like hell on earth. I ran D1 and I am currently a medical student going into internal medicine.

It's possible to be a competitive runner in medical school. I'm running 60 mpw right now. I'm currently in 4:30 mile and 16:00 5k shape. I'm not even remotely close to my college PRs. I ran 30 mpw during years 1-3. Was very slow during those years.