Advice for College Life

Set up 'work days'

Same times every day

wake up, breakfast, study, class, study, class, study, train, dinner, study, fun.

Treat it like a job. Go to the library 9 AM to 5 PM, or whatever it takes.

Here was, generally my college schedule. I was a mediocre D3 athlete, but a A student at a very good school.

Mon-Thu: Work/work out 7 AM - 10:30 PM

Fri: work/work out 7 AM - 8 PM

Sat: In season it's competition day. Offseason it's party time. Do chore type stuff during afternoon/hangover (laundry, cleanup, etc)

Sunday: relax in AM, light studying in afternoon and evening.

Treat school like a job. Study 40 hours a week on a consistent schedule. Stay committed to your sport. See how that works.

Thanks for the advice. Anyone else want to share their personal experience?

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get a girlfriend

Here's my advice: 1. Stoke the flames of your obsession with running. Maybe that's reading once a runner or watching lots of the awesome track racing that's going to happen this summer, or meeting up with your high school teammates for runs every day this summer. Whatever it is for you, do it.

2. Evaluate the things you need to do or not do to meet your goals. And then set up parameters for what that means you need to do. For instance, I felt that in college I needed to sleep 9 hours per night to not have bad training days (this was not a realization I came to in my freshman or sophomore year--lots of athletes make realizations about their habits during college, and it's probably something you'll do for the rest of your life, so embrace it when you can). So I made sure I went to bed early enough to get 9 hours (which was often after midnight, but it was college...). I also realized I couldn't get blacked out drunk and wake up sweating at 5am. I know that's essentially the thing that you're saying you're having a hard time not doing, or at least similar to it, but seriously, having a context for what I wanted to do and how I thought I needed to get there and what that meant for trying to string together the 100 great days of training I thought I needed. And when I look at underclassmen now (I work with them) it is this context that I often feel hinders them. I set those rules in my mind (though some people write that kind of stuff down) and then I followed it, and if I was at a party (which was often in college) I'd drink a lot of water and avoid the drinking for drinking's sake after midnight, etc, and if I was going to do something where I was going to be hammered and up til the wee hours, I'd plan to not do anything but sleep and run the next day to try to mitigate. Honestly, I'm sounding a lot more disciplined than I actually was: I drank, I didn't avoid physical things that would tire me out for running, I ate dessert, etc. But the context and planning made it work for me.

Good luck, man. Go make it happen. If you do, it'll be something that affects you greatly.

Give up booze and only smoke weed.

Prefontaine was right when he called running "the gift". Not many people call drinking bud light until you barf and having sex with some skank "the gift".

After college, you can still party. And the partying after college is just as good, if not better than college. But you will have a very hard time finding a running scene that compares to what you have in college. At best, there will be a half dozen guys in your area who will be competitive with you at local road races. Quality open track meets are very rare. You would probably have to travel to go to a decent meet. And open races can be very uneven in terms of talent. You may end up running against the same kind of talent you see at your local 5k or may end up in a race with a bunch of pros and get lapped. Also, you will generally be on your own for training after college. You will not have a bunch of guys to chase during workouts. At best, you may find a few guys who get together for runs every now and then. Bottom line is you will never find the same quality of racing and training after college that you have during college. Use it or lose it. The booze and girls will be their after college.

Roy is exactly right. After college, you don't have really clearly defined seasons, like xc, indoor, and outdoor. You can make them and focus on major marathons or something, but its just not the same. There are no more conference meets, dual meets, regionals. No national championships unless you are a pro. In college its acceptable to build your life around training and train when you want. After college, you have to fit your training around a job. In college I rarely had to run early in the morning or at night, but after college the majority of my running is between 5-6:30 am and after 5, so some weeks I'm doing 100+ miles a week entirely in the dark.

Oh ya and what Roy said about having people to work out with or run with - thats if you're lucky. In my area there are a couple established running groups that waddle around 9-10 minute pace, no fast people. In college you're going to meets with 10+ teammates. After college, getting in a fast race can mean driving 3+ hours alone both ways. In college your teammates care if you're not running well. After college no one could give a damn if you ran 30 minutes or 33 minutes at the local 10k. In college your racing is mostly free, after college you'll be shelling out hundreds of dollars to enter races.

My final take: run fast now. I know guys who ran fast in college, were on the verge of making the trials, but hung them up. One of those guys was a 4:02 miler. Post collegiate running is definitely rewarding - maybe even as much as in college if you can make big improvements, but also very challenging.

Thanks a lot for the advice guys. I know I could have just used the search function and looked at simliar posts, but its a lot more useful when it is pertinent towards me. I still have dreams of breaking four minutes and doing well in cross. I just hope that I can get this monkey business out of my system before its too late. I'm tired of being a has been

i was afraid before i came to college that i would get caught up too much in the whole party scene and distance myself from running.

but in college i got MUCH faster and became a different, more disciplined person. i think it had to do with the culture of my team and with some of the upper classmen. we treated running like it was our full time job, and it transformed a lot of people.

if your team isn't like this then do something about this, if you team is like this then just join em.

i went to the second largest state school in my state and the larger state school (with a much bigger budget, and able to get much better talent) was always very competitive with us in xc and distance track events (although they were pretty good at the 800). we beat them most of the time in xc and think it was because we had a more unified team with a culture that dictated hard work and high milage. the other state school would get state champs and all americans who would get there and stop working hard, party then quit.

it all depends on what you want to do. the grind of training and school can be a FUN and REWARDING experience if you put all of your energy into it. you'll cherish the days of waking up at 5:30 to squeeze in a 6 mile shakeout before classes, going to weight room, and practice. and if you actually have the talent to break 4 in the mile it should be a no-brainer, stop wasting your time acting like an idiot.