Yes, your post tells how many college coaches overtrain kids. It's kind of a battle of attrition approach.
Run em' 80 miles per week for four years and a few might turn out to be good.
The coach before you said that he does not really cut people because of injuries, then he goes on to say
w-h-e-n he does. That probably happens often. Lots of coaches are mean buggers in college.
my experience wrote:
Predictor wrote:
Your experience at your D3 school was much different than the earlier D1 P5 posters. A D3 program is a nice supplement to your overall college experience. It is fun, you get exercise, and you socialize. You only miss class once or twice per semester for the conference meet. Running at an average Power 5 school requires a significant commitment. You will practice every day including 7AM on Saturdays and Sundays, and have weightlifting, meetings, doctor visits, chiro, psychologist, and hosting recruits. The real commitment though is the travel and meet schedule. You will miss class nearly every Thursday and Friday. You may leave even earlier for conference and nationals.
I missed quite a few classes running for a D3 school. And we practiced every day including early o'clock on weekends. We did not lift, did not need meetings because we met up at practice, had no access to doctors or chiropractors. Did not need a psychologist. Hosting recruits was thirsty work.
You say "did not need," many times here. You must mean merely "did not have." I tell you what I lost 3 out of my 4 years of
eligibility because sports doctors were almost non-existent in the 1970s.
High School wrote:
Yes, your post tells how many college coaches overtrain kids. It's kind of a battle of attrition approach.
Run em' 80 miles per week for four years and a few might turn out to be good.
The coach before you said that he does not really cut people because of injuries, then he goes on to say
w-h-e-n he does. That probably happens often. Lots of coaches are mean buggers in college.
I typed fast so I might not have been clear. There are very few things coaches are allowed to remove an athlete from the team for. Very few. I can't cut an athlete for being injured, my compliance officer would shut that down ASAP. If I have a scholarship athlete that is going on 2+ years of being hurt when they have access to an athletic trainer, chiropractor, physical therapist, MD, and orthopedic surgeon something is up. Not everyone can handle running in college and many athlete don't do what it takes to stay healthy. LR likes to demonize college coaches as if we're incompetent. Running 80 miles a week as a male for instance isn't crazy by any means. Every distance coach I know worth a darn progresses their athletes to the necessary mileage.
This might be hard for some people to believe but a lot of collegiate athletes simply aren't that serious. They come in to college and will do the workouts and compete but that's it. They went to progress how they did in high school without adopting a lifestyle that leads to continued growth as an athlete. "Run hard, play hard" doesn't work for 90% of athletes but here we are.
High School wrote:
Yes, your post tells how many college coaches overtrain kids. It's kind of a battle of attrition approach.
Run em' 80 miles per week for four years and a few might turn out to be good.
Getting back to this late, but still think it is a good discussion. I agree with you here, however, I will admit that I was told multiple times by other coaches in high school/those with experience running in college throughout the end of my senior year/summer going into my freshman year of college that I needed to up my mileage and become more comfortable with longer distances so that I wouldn't spend as much time become adjusted to the mileage. I did, but did not up it by enough.
I think at a school such as mine (a small D1, not competitive school) that the coaches is just looking for the one kid to break through and really flourish in his senior year. I also believe that my previous coach (and others) are often biased based on their own training that worked for them when they were running.
Yes 80 MPW is the average mileag of a D1 distance runner. It's not about attrition, it's just that 50 MPW will only get most guys to 14:20 while 80 will get them to 13:55. Read about Houlihan. She used to do 30 MPW when she was running 4:05 in the 1500. She slowly increased her mileage over 5 years to 80 MPW last summer and broke the American record for the 5K. Schweizer tells the identical story. She has improved 2 minutes in the 5k. That is one of the truths to take away from this thread. HS guys should be doing 40-50 MPW senior year and expect to move to 60-70-75-80 through college.
The attrition rate was pretty high on my college team, but then the attrition rate can be pretty darn high in the overall student body. College isn't for everyone, toss in the pressure of competing every week and that's just one more reason for someone to drop.
We had kids leave because:
-got pregnant
-parents relocated far away and their support system was gone.
-failed too many classes
-serious illness (unrelated to running)
-decided the wanted to get a job and go to school part time
- transferred due to disagreement with the coach.
Off the top of my head I can only think of one person that left for running related issues, where the others left school but their situation was completely unrelated to being an athlete. They would have had the same problem had they never laced up a pair of spikes.
OP here,
Thank you and everyone else who commented for making this such an informative thread.
I think I'll keep working on my survey and send it out to even more people, but I'm loving the information given so far!
Hi, I recently wrote a blog post on what it is like to be a student-athlete in college, including my personal experience, training, competing, myths etc.
Being a Student-Athlete in College
When you think college athlete or student-athlete, the common things that come to mind are becoming part of a college team, NCAA (national collegiate athletic association), high-quality fields of talented individuals, traveling to meets, fast cross country courses, lots of team gear, completing a degree, and moving out of home – potentially even overseas. All these things are a part of the student-athlete experience.
What are the benefits of being a college athlete?
The support system is one of the biggest benefits. I’ll use my school, Boise State, as an example. The program here has been designed to optimize training and student-athlete health, so you can perform at your best and balance your other life commitments. We have multiple training staff that attends our training sessions, a team sports-performance psychologist, sports nutritionist, and some excellent athletic trainers and athletic training facility. We are allowed to visit the athletic training room 6 times a week if we wish and work with the athletic trainers to address niggles and injury concerns, and recover from training sessions/workouts. Often we go straight after practice, as the center is right near the athletics track. The room is decked out with foam rollers, compression boots, thera-guns, cupping, and dry needling kits, an ice bath, compression ice gear, heat packs, and a small rehab weights and equipment area.
The Training
The training is slightly different from home, which is to be expected with any new coach and program. We keep with the standard recovery run, 2x workouts a week for the most part (including fartleks, tempo runs, track sessions, grass sessions), a mid-week longer run, a sprint session, and a weekend-long run to finish off the week. The main differences for me were the addition of pre-cross country season altitude training up in the hills and ski resort in the warmer months, the team-based focus including groups for workouts, and a very season centered workout approach (Outdoor, indoor track, and cross country).
Team Focus
There is no denying that team camaraderie and a team-based focus is crucial to student-athlete life. One cross-country season at Boise State was enough to show me the immense importance of working as a team in what is often regarded as an individual sport, and as a result, I have friends and training partners for life, all around the world. In cross country, it is so important that the team finish as high as possible, so we need the whole team to perform at their very best, to place well in meets. To do this, we must work together in race scenarios to optimize the result at the end. It is also important to mention that I love having people to run with all the time. I can choose whether I go solo on some days, but for the most part, it is nice to know that I always have friends up for a jog.
Finances
Yes, we do get a stipend. The university pays us a certain amount each month to cover living expenses such as groceries, rent, phone bills, potential car payments, and entertainment money. This will differ from university to university.
Travel
Traveling and team camps are also another perk of being a collegiate athlete. In this past year, I’ve had the opportunity to visit states such as Utah, Washington, Oregon, and Indiana for competition, and explore heaps of Idaho. We also have a team camp once a year, which is a great way to meet new teammates, and have a weekend away in a cool part of Idaho.
Student-Health Support and Athletic Trainers
I mentioned this earlier in the post, however, it is important to mention it as a massive benefit of being a student-athlete. We have amazing athletic trainers who help us manage niggles and injury, to get us running and healthy again. I also have worked with the sports psychologist and sports nutritionist to optimize my mental toughness and mental skills, and diet to match my energy needs.
I wrote a whole article on being a student-athlete in college, including my personal experience and what to expect. Click to read more:
https://larahamilton.com/being-a-student-athlete-in-college/