Training to Make College Team

Take my advice and say f*** college running. You will become a far better runner running for a club and finding a coach to develop you that way. College running sucks ass.

bump. thanks for the advice thus far.

babich wrote:

Take my advice and say f*** college running. You will become a far better runner running for a club and finding a coach to develop you that way. College running sucks ass.

As difficult as a college running experience can be I wouldn't pass up the camaraderie, parties, NCAA competition, trips, and the sharing day-to-day life with friends. Maybe that didn't happen in your (and others') experience, but ultimately I don't think running for a college-age runner is only about your PR to then brag about on LETSRUN.COM

That said, OP: I'd recommend learning about your team and the style of workouts the program emphasizes. Yes, build your base and get 12-14 mile runs and long tempos into the mix, but give some respect to how you will be running on the team and the workouts you will have to prove yourself in to make it. I'd say keep it to 60-70 mpw unless the program is going to have you running 80-90. You don't want to run yourself into the ground just trying to get to the "starting gate" of the road ahead.

Also, IF you know guys on the team, try to see if you can hop in for long runs with them or recovery runs. I think it's good to get to know the team in a non-creepy or invasive way (ie. don't try to "work your way in"). If you don't have that ability, I'd still recommend running with someone a few times a week. It will make the journey more bearable and hopefully help you keep your focus; curtailing over-training.

clubber lang wrote:

believe that I could have <32 mins.

There have been more than a couple of guys who have run 13:20 to 13:30 off of 40 miles a week.

Stay away from such awful advice.

Those times above must be 100 meter times, because no one is running NCAA leading performances for 5km on 40 miles a week.

You put in minimal effort, you get minimal results.

The team you want on...

what is their schedule like this year?

All 10kms?

What are the average 10km times for the number one runner?

Number five? Number seven? You will have to meet or exceed some of those first team performances if your future Coach is to consider you.

If you are at zero miles now...then

30 miles a week September

35 miles a week October

40 miles a week November

45 miles a week December

50 miles a week January

55 miles a week February

60 miles a week March, April, May

70 miles a week June, July, August

How much experience do you have with that mileage?

How much weight do you need to lose?

Have you had Coaches or more experienced runners compliment you on your skills or potential as a runner?

Videotape yourself running and ask someone for a critique

of your form or lack thereof.

What do you know of proper shoes, running surfaces, diet and nutrition, proper hydration and when to run?

Seventy miles a week next summer is the minimum mileage you should be doing. Don't hammer the pace. LSD.

They have to be all slower than 8 minute miles.

Nothing wrong with running 90 minutes a day at a nine minute per mile pace, which will give you roughly 10 miles a day.

June find a road 10km and try to run the first 5km in 17:30.

If you are feeling good, pick up the pace and finish with a faster second half.

July...same thing. Run a road 10km and do the first 5km in sub 17 and try to run the second half faster.

August, one more road 10km first half sub 16:30 and pick it up over the second half. This way you have newspaper or internet results that your future Coach can check and confirm your fitness level.

If the top seven or eight runners on the team are all currently running sub 32 for a XC 10km than you are screwed. Unless they graduate a lot of student-athletes next summer there will be no room for you.

I'm doing the same thing right now at my school. I picked it purely based off of academics. So I ended up at a D1 school with PRs that were just decent at best (4:37 mile). I'm a sophomore now. I played some club sports and tried to maintain some running, but by the end of my first semester not running competitively was eating at me. So this past summer I hit a bunch of 65s and topped out at 70. I sent and email to the coach and finally met with him last week to discuss walking onto the track team.

We discussed my PRs and he said that since I dont have a sick 400 time and thus not the best leg speed, that I was going to have to focus on the longer distances. And as stated earlier in the thread he brought up the bench mark of a 32min 10k. He also said that to be perfectly honest, the team will take people if they can be competitive and score some points at the conference meet. So what he said was he needs me to be consistently running at 85mpw (I asked about pace and he said not to worry about it just get the milage), and once I get there, I can start training with the team.

At a D1 program coaches will take walk ons if they can be competitive. Some people can run well off low milage but its a select few and you probably would have already hit some excellent times in high school. High milage has had alot of success, and thats what most good college programs run. Also as a distance runner the most important and some times toughest part of your training is building a base. Doing so proves to the coach that you're ready to work and that there's a good chance of you turning in some good times.

Finally the coach told me a story about Lydiard which I'll paraphrase before I left his office. There was some average guy (wasn't a runner) that came up to Lydiard and begged him to train him and make him a world class runner. Arthur's response was, go run 4 months at 100 miles a week and then I'll train you.

norphxc, thanks for the post and good luck making your team. Do you think you'll be able to do it? You start at a better point than I do my best times were a 10:20 2 mile and a 16:30 5k. I think that in a year I can be down to 32:00. Best of luck man.

I think you are better off getting straight just exactly how you'll go about getting more fit. Saying you'll build your base is great intention, but how will you execute? I'd love to see you pull it off, but thought I'd ask to see your more detailed plan before offering up mine.

FWIW, I think being open to half-marathon's is an excellent idea that is all too often overlooked. There is still a significant anaerobic contribution in the 8K, albeit somewhat small. In the half-marathon, it's almost non-existent. And your main goal is to increase your aerobic capacity, so again, I think looking at a half is a great idea.

you've got a better 5k than I do, so we'll see. Also I ran that mile pr as a soph, and thanks to some injuries and training set backs, never bettered it. I was always more of a track guy, focusing on 16/8. But since I don't have say a 52 or better 400, the coach wants me to run longer races, which will be an adjustment, but right now I just want to get the work in and hopefully start training with other people.