D1 guys drinking hard training hard

There are too many "I was a D1 runner..." proclamations on this thread. That means absolutely nothing. Either put up an actual credential if you want to validate your claims, or don't; but pretending that because you are a D1 runner that your opinion matters at all is fooling yourself. There are plenty of slow D1 guys out there and there are plenty of fast D2 D3 NAIA guys.

Miscalculations wrote:

There are too many "I was a D1 runner..." proclamations on this thread. That means absolutely nothing. Either put up an actual credential if you want to validate your claims, or don't; but pretending that because you are a D1 runner that your opinion matters at all is fooling yourself. There are plenty of slow D1 guys out there and there are plenty of fast D2 D3 NAIA guys.

The thread is geared towards D1 guys.

yeah, the OP started the problem!

But you'd be fooling yourselves if you don't think we tuck it away in your file for when it comes time to discuss next year's scholarship. If it doesn't appear it's negatively impacting your performances, you *may* be alright at that time, but then you have to live with the "what if's" after all the miles you've laid down in the first place.

Nice, another egotistical "coach" dangling money over the

heads of their athletes, trying to get them to compete

better. All the while, using the excuse "my job is in the

hands of 18-22 year olds" bullshit. Don't kid YOURSELF. You

have one of the best jobs in the world. Especially if you

coach D1. You're most likely making a substansial amount

per year traveling all over the country watching the best

of the best compete. And after all, whats REALLY stressful

about your day? the looooong hours of trying to recruit top

talent? or the fact that you might have to stand in the

rain for a half an hour to monitor your athletes interval

workout? If you took pride in being a coach, and actually

believed in the athletes you preside over, then your

encouragement would rub off onto them, fostering better

performances. They would run well, on excitement and pride

knowing that you are behind them, rather than running on

anxiety and fear of the fact that they think you might cut

them or give them shit about having fun on the weekends and

blowing off steam. Hell, if that was the type of

atmosphere, my bet would be that there would be no NEED to

get drunk and vent, the athletes would be more preoccupied

with aggresive competition...it would take care of

itself... People wonder why American distance running is

not as strong as it should be. IMO, its because nowadays

its seems that the aspect of developing a quality bond with

an exceptional athlete or group of athletes and fostering

encouragement and passion is out the window. Its all about

MONEY, and trying to protect your nice cushy career as a

"D1 coach".

But you'd be fooling yourselves if you don't think we tuck it away in your file for when it comes time to discuss next year's scholarship. If it doesn't appear it's negatively impacting your performances, you *may* be alright at that time, but then you have to live with the "what if's" after all the miles you've laid down in the first place.

Nice, another egotistical "coach" dangling money over the

heads of their athletes, trying to get them to compete

better. All the while, using the excuse "my job is in the

hands of 18-22 year olds" bullshit. Don't kid YOURSELF. You

have one of the best jobs in the world. Especially if you

coach D1. You're most likely making a substansial amount

per year traveling all over the country watching the best

of the best compete. And after all, whats REALLY stressful

about your day? the looooong hours of trying to recruit top

talent? or the fact that you might have to stand in the

rain for a half an hour to monitor your athletes interval

workout? If you took pride in being a coach, and actually

believed in the athletes you preside over, then your

encouragement would rub off onto them, fostering better

performances. They would run well, on excitement and pride

knowing that you are behind them, rather than running on

anxiety and fear of the fact that they think you might cut

them or give them shit about having fun on the weekends and

blowing off steam. Hell, if that was the type of

atmosphere, my bet would be that there would be no NEED to

get drunk and vent, the athletes would be more preoccupied

with aggresive competition...it would take care of

itself... People wonder why American distance running is

not as strong as it should be. IMO, its because nowadays

its seems that the aspect of developing a quality bond with

an exceptional athlete or group of athletes and fostering

encouragement and passion is out the window. Its all about

MONEY, and trying to protect your nice cushy career as a

"D1 coach".

the prime example is Henry Rono. Of course, his life wasn't so great after college and he never lost the beer belly, set a masters wr, or finished that thread.

I am a former D1 runner who partied with the best of them. Not just weekends but a lot of week days too. Any chance I got. I ran well enough 14:58/31:18. But what would i have done if I didnt rage so much? I only missed one practice because of it and was still able average in the 80-90 miles a week after fresh year and im talking about averaging 80-90 not just hitting that a few weeks. I ran ok, but would give anything to go back and not drink as much and try to reach my full potential.

MilesofBooze wrote:

Im on a pretty decent d1 team. not national level but we do ok for what we have. a bunch of us hit the booze, most of us being the top guys in cross and on track. year after year keep getting faster. our training doesnt suffer from it. we still get up and get our miles in. more of a weekend thing. a few times during the week in the year. usually after cross. sometimes you gotta have fun because it is not wasting your college experience if you are not going to the olympics. train hard, booze hard, get some girls, run good times. thats how we do it

Oh man I get sick of hearing about people using the "college experience" as an excuse to drink during the season. First of all, who ever said getting wasted every weekend was a fundamental part of the college experience? Second, even if it is that is what the months after Cross Country and during the summer are for. Is it really that hard to not drink from September-Thanksgiving and then maybe again maybe February-early March + mid-April through early May?

To the OP, the negative effects of drinking on athletic performance are well known and researched. Just do a google search and I'm sure you'll find plenty of scientific articles and the stats will not make you happy. Really, a truly dedicated runner should avoid drinking (or at least getting wasted) all together as they are training consistently year round so it can always affect their training. But that level of dedication isn't really realistic for most college runners.

Sick of hearing the "college experience"! ok buddy well it definitely is part of the overall experience. its not the fundamental part but it is part of it. Im just saying I want to have fun. sitting in every weekend because I have a long run even though im probably not gonna make it past the college level is not my idea of a college experience. all you "do gooder" runners who try and make people feel bad for drinking make me sick. i dont care if I could have run a second faster if i didnt drink. but i wouldnt have made the friends i made and had some of the greatest times while being at college if I hadnt been partying from time to time. Im not saying everyday or even during the week. people need to lighten up with this stuff and stop being redic. we need AJ Acosta to get on here and lay down some knowledge.

a lot of it is a mental thing too. I have and know others who have even ran on hangovers and put up pr's or close to it. If you get over being a baby about a hangover you will be fine. stop worrying so friggin much about every little thing.

Who said you have to sit in on the weekends and twiddle your thumbs in your dorm room? I know plenty of guys who would go out to parties, hang with friends, dance with hot chicks, and drink a beer or maybe 2. Why do you have to get drunk in order to be social and have a good time? There is plenty of time to get wasted after the last race of the season and during the summer.

Ever seen what the average college (even DI) coach drives or where they live? Ever checked out their salary on-line for public institutions? I'm not saying the very few & select high caliber BCS conference head track coaches, but the average college coach at any level...

Ever wonder why so many of us fore go families or end up divorced?

If you're not drinking excessively in season, then you have nothing to worry about. Keep boozin' frat boy.

forgo

"First of all, who ever said getting wasted every weekend was a fundamental part of the college experience?"

The cool kids.

random a hole wrote:

forgo

Appreciated.

I would be interested to see how many of those girls were hot

If you are an American you can pretty much drink as much beer as you want and it won't affect your training cause I think the alchohol content is like 1%.

If you are Canadian you are looking at 5% or 7+% alchohol for a bottle of beer. So for Canadians if you drink beer there could be more of a problem.

DI Head Coach wrote:

But you'd be fooling yourselves if you don't think we tuck it away in your file for when it comes time to discuss next year's scholarship.

But if you're job depended on the athletic performance of 18 - 23 year-olds, what would you do?

Judging by what you said, you probably hold scholarships over your athletes head or are low balling them because "you don't have enough money" or "trying to land a big recruit next year." If you satisfied your athletes and gave them what they felt they deserved, I bet they wouldn't drink as much or as heavily as they do. Yes there are only 12.6 scholarship for the entire track and field team, but should you really be depending on a walk on to be a factor on your team anyways?

Also, STUDENT-athletes don't choose to go to a school to help you keep your job. They go to run fast and get a degree, as most of them realize they wont go pro, or that there's not much money in running anyways. If you know athletes drink, then you as the coach should be able to find a way to work around the fact your athletes drink and still get them to race well.

People overblow the impact of drinking. You can go out a couple nights a week and not have any issues training as long as you're still getting decent sleep. Actually, thinking back on college, schoolwork made training much more difficult than drinking did.

I once ran a 2 minute PR in the half marathon two nights after getting pretty drunk. It was irrelevant to the race.

You can always transfer or quit. If you don't meet the terms of your academic scholarship, you get'er yanked too. Keep boozin' bra.