What to do about irritating teammate who feels he has to 'win' every interval in practice

Ignore him. Sure he may be annoying, but it sounds to me like you have an alltime rabbit, and someone to draft off of.

In hs we had a guy who always had to win the warm up. We made fun of him and he eventually stoped.

Do you beat him in races when it matters?

sucks not to be the alpha male doesn't it?

yes, I can. I have more natural talent; but he can beat most of the other 10 guys or so, most of the time. I do admire his work ethic; just not the irritating 'must win the interval' mentality.

How do his actions affect you and how would it benefit you to "wipe him out?" Are you concerned that he will somehow negatively impact your performance by racing workouts?

don't let him win those intervals. since you are better, run him to the ground. if you aren't as good, quit bitching, he owns your ass/

focus on your own workout. Confident runners don't give a damn who wins the workouts, and must runners who race workouts come up short in the race or get injured every season.

Old Mother Clucker wrote:

sucks not to be the alpha male doesn't it?

no, don't care about that. (don't most teams have a guy like this?); but it doesn't do much for team unity or helping some of the others feel better about themselves to have that 'one guy' who feels he has to crush everyone's spirit and self confidence.

Old Mother Clucker wrote:

sucks not to be the alpha male doesn't it?

Not really. What would suck would be if I had so little confidence that I felt the need to prove myself during workouts by "winning" intervals, tempo runs, etc. I guess I didn't realize that this was the type of guy that people were talking about when they used the term "alpha male" on this board.

Sure, race result matter a lot more than what someone does in a workout, but this guy sounds like he needs an attitude adjustment. The only reasonable thing to do is to smack that punk back down. Do it exactly like you said: take turns and break him early in the workout so he's forced to stumble around the track for the last half. Oh, and be sure to ridicule him afterwards. That'll teach him his place.

Yes, I'm being dead serious at the moment. Get to it.

I'm in agreement with this approach. For those of you who say turn the other cheek I applaud you for your ability to do so. These guys drove me absolutely bonkers. Don't do the gang up on him routine, it is up to the fastest guy to put him in his place. It is in his best interest after all. Pick a workout and beat him on every one. Do it as many ways as possible; by surprise attacks, right from the gun, mid interval surge. Don't hide the fact that you are racing him, better yet, challenge him before each one. After you beat up on him for a while, then tell him that he is an idiot and he needs to change his ways or there will be more of where that workout came from. Now get out there and do your duty...for the team!

fasdfdsa wrote:

don't let him win those intervals. since you are better, run him to the ground.

Translation: "Wah wah wah, someone is working harder than me at practice. I'm afraid he might start beating me in races, but I don't want to work any harder in practice. What do I do?"

We've all dealt with scrubs racing us in practice, but it sounds like this guy is pretty legit if he's beating the other 10 guys on your team in races. You can ignore him if you'd like, but don't be surprised when he kicks by you at the end of a mile.

Draft off him until the last straightaway, then surge hard like you're starting your final sprint. As soon as he starts sprinting to catch you, ease off into a jog & fade back to the main group. Make sure to laugh at him.

Ignore his behavior during workouts. Jokingly belittle his behavior after workouts. Start calling him one-step Johnson, or whatever his name is.

I doubt that "wiping him out" is going to stop him from doing it in future workouts, and maybe what I suggest above won't either. But what I suggest above will likely prevent others from participating in the competition.

norphxc wrote:We made fun of him and he eventually stoped.

"stopped"

I had a guy like this in high school. I was faster than him by 15 seconds in the 1600. I would just run my workouts and sometimes I would start a little behind him and catch him if I needed to run faster than him due to the fact that I knew that he wouldn't let me by without a fight. Then we did one workout where we were supposed to be running balls to the wall and I completely handed it to him after he tried to go with me after the first two intervals. I just walked by him and said you might want to think about running your workout because it is obvious you can't run mine. It pissed him off but realistically he knew I was right and there was nothing he could do. Be smart though a lot of high schoolers run their workouts way to hard. Don't let this guy mess up your workout.

Talk to the coach about it first. Good coaches have their teams work together in training, not against one another, until it counts. Don't whine, just let the coach know that the kid is turning every workout into a race, and that it's speeding up all of the workouts. He should understand that this will probably lead to injuries down the road if the other guys on your team are running way beyond their thresholds every day.

Also, be direct with him. Tell him that there is a reason for the prescribed speed of each workout. Immature runners have difficulty getting their head around long-term training strategies. Explain it to him.If that doesn't work, crush him. really. Let him know training is about working together, and the lone ranger mentality will result in getting your ass handed to you by the team. You guys might just have to break him, for the benefit of your team. He'll figure it out once this happens. I remember having to do this a few times in high school to the young talented guys who thought they could take the old balls on. They couldn't. They fell in line eventually.

Most of the really good collegiate teams that I know of hate training with guys like him. No one proves anything at practice. Races are what counts. Battle Royales on the trails don't always turn into legit performances on the track.

We would have this sometimes in HS. The coach would always yell at the offender: "Save your races for race day."

The coach needs to sit this guy down and explain to him that it's better for the team and for himself to give that behavior up.

If the coach doesn't do this why don't you try the "nice guy" approach yourself. Believe it or not you don't always have to be a jerk to jerks to get them to see your way of thinking. Explain to him how his behavior is going to hurt him in the long run...

you have three options:

1. complain to the coach, & let him deal with it.

2. ignore him and run your own workout

3. have every member of your team take tunrs kicking his ass, one at a time.