read my 3 min rant please on BURNING-OUT

I agree with alot of what you say but you have to understand burnout isnt just physical. RUnning that much at such a young age will affect the way you view the sport. ANd I know alot of people are gonna bring up the kenyan question but the keyans are trying to make a living with track, most americans will make a lot more money if they simeply complete college and go through their lives without track. I know alot of burnouts. WE have a coach in our area that specialzes in getting really fast results ( 1 year 2 second improvements for 1/4 milers) but his athletare notorious for being burnt out by their sophmore year of college, including a couple of guys who were all american in the frosh and sophmore years but never were that fast again in college and really just lost all desire for the sport.

You wrote: "I BELIEVE ALL LABELED BURN-OUTS DON'T CARE ABOUT RUNNING ANYMORE!"

Exactly: they don't care about running anymore, because they're burned out.

You may be totally psyched up about running right now. You want to run 100 mpw, and you're willing to do anything and make any sacrifice to be fast. We've all been there. But you can't become a superstar overnight. For most people, it takes years of training -- maybe a decade -- to reach their full potential. You're excited right now, but will you still be willing to make all those sacrifices, year after year, five years from now?

Of course, there are physical issues too. If you train super-hard without adequate background, you may get some great results, but spend 75% of your time injured. This gets old after a while, and you drift away from the sport.

I'm not saying you should train more or less -- you do what you feel is right -- just pointing out that, as ?man said, burnout can be both physical and mental. Personally, I trained 30-45mpw in high school. Sometimes I look back and wish I'd trained harder and run faster. But I had tons of room for development through college, and at 26 I'm still improving, and still as hungry as ever.

"No Such Thing As Burn Out"

Read those words.

No such thing.

The term "Burn Out" states an athlete is burned, used up, just ash and char.

This doesn't happen.

What does happen? Too much success too soon. Athletes lose interest in things that come easy. Its the opposite of burn out. Its "Success Out." I'm already good, why do I have to do anything else. I won my state meet. I got a great college scholarship. Those are my just rewards.

Remember why the Kenyans are so good. $$$$ When they get $$$$, they go back home, buy some land and a few cows a live.

It is all about motivation.

Why do you still run? Because you know you can be better but haven't been.

That is the truest value of our sport.

Word Ferris: You will never burn out until you catch fire first.

Stop your yackin' 'bout being "hungry" and get actin' like great white during baby seal season!!!!

do you think sufficient rest through out base training, season training, and off-season training can help prevent this burn out (be it mental or physical)? Would "down" weeks in training and required time off during the off-season to rest and relax help prevent "burn-out"?

Malmo, I hear you -- and believe me, I'm training a lot harder than I did in high school.

I guess my point was that you can say "There exists such a thing as burnout", or you can say "Burnout is a figment of your imagination, but there are lots of guys who get very fast but then fade away and quit running". At the end of the day, it's the same -- these guys will never have the chance to run to their full potential at maturity.

But ferris, why wouldn't they reach their full potential, even if they stayed in the sport and desired better results.

this was one of things I was trying to get at: athletes not reaching their full potentail because they trained really hard (summer mileage up, etc,etc.) during high school?

ferris

ignore the mesage above if I read your mesage wrong

well, I'ld call myself burnt-out. I've decided to completely do away with competitive running. Why? Cause I'm fed up with the sport. I'm fed up with putting tons of time and effort into something that doesn't seem to show any return for investment.

I think there are a few causes of "burn-out"

>people's tastes and interests change

>rate of improvement begins to slow, and thus the runner begins to get frustrated

>a long string of injuries that leads to frustration

>not being able to compete at the level you feel you should be able to

maybe one of these days, I'll get the fire back and decide to make another go at it, I'm still young, so there's time. But for now; torch my running shoes and call me burnt out.