% of college runners that overtrain

yes

4% (D-1)

0.5% (D-2)

0.03% (D-3)

40% DI

5% DII

1% DIII

So D-III runners don't overtrain because they don't care as much? Or is it because they actually have to take real course loads?

The nation's top D-III teams, though less talented, are just as competitive and care just as much about the sport as D-I runners.

I was apparently among the .03% of D-III runners who overtrained. I did a string of 100-115 mile weeks before my junior year, ran a couple great races early and burned out. Is that not overtraining? And I can assure you that plenty of other guys on my team and others had a similar experience. I think the number is probably more like 10%, and does not differ significantly from one division to the next. I think it has more to do with quality within the division--there is a lot of pressure (mostly self-inflicted) on a potential scorer for a top-20 D-III team (like I was) to put in big miles and big workouts. Much less pressure on a guy on a crappy D-I team.

I'm just an ex-DIII runner though, so you shouldn't pay too much attention to what I say.

The optimal training strategy may be more complex than some think. Not only might lesser runners train too hard trying to keep up with the top 2-3, it is probably the case the runners in slots 6 or 7 and up train in a way that pushes that line. The reason is that you want one or two of them to come good. That is, you would actually like to have high variability with runners in that group because you will select the ones that succeed. With some schools, this strategy extends down the sticks because unless the 3/4/5 guys do better than one might expect, on average, the team will not succeed (e.g., make Nationals).

I think you see a very high percentage of runners overtraining at the top schools simply for the reason that it is so competitive just to make the travel squad. If you are a walk-on or lower level recruit, you know you are going to have to improve dramtically to have a chance just to be a varsity runner. A 9:20 2 miler is going to look at the roster and realize he isn't going to be a top runner without doing some serious training. Many of those 9:20 2 milers adapt and find their sweet spot in training and go on to have successful careers. But, many, many others just keep training extremely hard, their body doesn't adapt, they don't find their sweet spot in training and they never contribute to the team. I am always amazed at how many outstanding high school runners never end up being successful at a school like Wisconsin. That is not a knock on Wisconsin at all, just a fact of how it is if you want to go to a school like that with limited talent(relatively speaking). It is interesting how often people will bring up the success stories of the limited high school runner that became successful, and choose to ignore all the others that were never heard from again. They may have trained just as hard or even harder, but were in a constant overtraining mode that ended their careers.

I'll bet that a lot of people overtrain due to racing in practice.

Chairman Wow wrote:

I'll bet that a lot of people overtrain due to racing in practice.

Agreed, which is at least partially the coaches fault. When you have a competitive team with a lot of good runners, it is natural to race a little in practice, which certainly leads to over training.

When I was in college, we had our best team ever and had a chance to make it to nationals for the first time. We were about 9 or 10 deep. We all trained harder that summer than we ever had before and once practice began we were already in great shape. Everyone wanted to prove they were one of the top guys on the team. Easy runs became 5:30 pace 12 milers and quality workouts were brutal. Needless to say, we peaked very early and never made it to nationals. The coach and athletes all learned something from that experience.

Yeah, that was my experience too, only we (well, my team, I was one of the 9:20 two-milers mentioned in a previous post who never panned out) would make it to nationals and then bomb. Same thing with our girls, who were even worse about racing in practice. We also (both boys and girls) were plagued with injuries.

nobody overtrains, they just underrest.

mattress king. wrote:

nobody overtrains, they just underrest.

I would agree with that to a certain point. You obviously need to train hard to be good, very hard to be very good. Most runners are willing to put in the hard work, but it actually takes courage to also be willing to give yourself recovery days and let your body restore itself. So many college runners think they will lose their fitness if they run too easy on an easy day, take a day off once in awhile, etc. Obviously it doesn't work that way.

Midwesterner wrote:

mattress king. wrote:

nobody overtrains, they just underrest.

I would agree with that to a certain point. You obviously need to train hard to be good, very hard to be very good. Most runners are willing to put in the hard work, but it actually takes courage to also be willing to give yourself recovery days and let your body restore itself. So many college runners think they will lose their fitness if they run too easy on an easy day, take a day off once in awhile, etc. Obviously it doesn't work that way.

I think that in high school most of the runners need to be told to stop being a lazy wuss and get their a** in gear. In college most runners need to be told to back off.

College runners undertrain at some programs because they don't do enough miles,

then they overtrain because they claim a certain training pace (min/mi) is easy for them when it's NOT (or shouldn't be for them), and yes, they race workouts quite often instead of running in control...

and the coach often doesn't care if his slower walk-on guys are practically racing every workout. So it's up to you to train properly

The number of people running 26:00-28:00 for 8k and claiming that 6:30 pace is "easy" is staggering. Overtraining is often independent of how much mileage you're doing. I guarantee I can come up with a program to overtrain nearly anyone consisting of no more than 30 miles a week, or a 100 mile per week program that any decently experienced runner could handle with no problems.

I'd guess d3 is a higher percentage, probably 30-50 percent. Not as talented kids for the most part, generally not as well coached in high school,yet still doing new "college" workouts and finding groups that push paces everyday

On the site where I keep my training log, I happened across a college kid's training - he does all of his runs at 6:10-6:40 pace, yet runs about 29 minutes for 8k on average. Crazy.

I was looking through Steve Cram's training analysis, a booklet I an old coach gae me, and it was interesting they stressed that the Brits were not afraid of recovery like the Americans were. It seems that the college guys get so caught up in chasing numbers (pace per mile, mileage goals, etc..) that they forget how essential it is to get to the line feeling good.