Transitioning to College and Succeeding at the next level

cameron miller from stockdale high?

This you buddy? scholarship to stanford or walk on?

In all seriousness:

If you want to make a smooth transition, remember that training is a process of stress *and recovery*.

1) Your coach-to-be will have ideas about the stress--the 1-2 hrs/day of exercise--that you should be doing this summer, and will be doing this fall. Give him/her a call or email so you can get general guidance and also get your more specific questions (big or little) answered.

2) a) Decide whether you *really* want to contribute to your new team, eventually if not immediately. This is NOT a no-brainer automatic "yes," because if you decide you truly want to do so:

b) You will need to get in the habit--preferably starting this summer--of getting to bed at a reasonable hour *every* night and waking at a reasonable hour *every* morning, WEEKENDS INCLUDED. And that realistically means:

c) Little or no "partying" during the entire year, and certainly none in season. Though many people don't seem to think so, you can have a great time in college without drinking--I did, and I never took a drink (didn't advertise the fact, though), even though the legal drinking age was 18 then.

3) Whatever decision you make (above), don't try to impress anybody at your practices. Strive to hit what's assigned on a given day, period--try never to "win" a practice or go faster/farther than you're asked to (unless what's *assigned* is something all-out, like a designated time trial/practice race).

You can let the *other* guys on the team try to establish a pecking order based on the workouts; *you* do it based on the races!

Good luck. Have fun--learn lots!

The biggest hurdle for a lot of freshmen is going to class and doing their homework. If you can't do that, don't go to college. Assuming you can do that, the challenges of adjusting to college life and college running depend on who you are, where you're going to school, what you're studying, and the training schedule of your team. If you have 6:00 AM practice 6 days a week, having a social life will be extremely difficult without significantly interfering with running. If you sign up for a lot of credits or major in something difficult, time management is going to be an issue. You will quickly learn that you should try to be doing something productive pretty much all the time.

As for partying, I would avoid drinking much your freshman year, but I would also recommend being involved with as much stuff and as many people as you can without significantly hurting your studies and running. You will meet a lot of new people, and it is important to establish relationships early on in college as it can be difficult to make friends once you move off campus. Don't limit yourself to hanging out with your teammates (though I highly encourage you to do this as well).

My experience and those of people I've known tell me running in college frequently goes quite poorly for a lot of people (myself included), and this does not necessarily depend on your talent, PRs, or determination. There are a lot of really bad coaches out there, and in college, things can be pretty cutthroat. If coaches don't produce, they can lose their job. This leads to a lot of coaches always trying to get 110% of every athlete all the time, which just isn't possible. It can be very tiresome (both mentally and physically) as an athlete to deal with such a coach. My advice to you would be to get as much sleep as you can, be careful with your mileage, always do everything you can to stay injury free, don't try to impress anyone in workouts, and be assertive. Coaches will indeed try to jack you around to suit their own interests and generally do not give a flying f**k about what's going on in your life. Don't be a problem, but don't be afraid to stand up for yourself either.

Other than that running is running I guess. College running is a lot differently than HS running, but you'll figure that out pretty quickly once you get to college.

I am not cameron miller, bump.

I agree with Guppy, the hardest part about being a student athlete is the student part. Before I went to college I had lots of visions of being with the team, training, traveling, competing, etc, thrown in with visions of the shenanigans of living on my own with the team etc, but very little (if any) visions of the school part. School will eat up a lot of your time, and you have to plan to be a good student to succeed. Time management is the biggest key to success.

Try to avoid the partying. That's a bunch of people who are wasting their lives, and if you want to be productive for the team now and for yourself later, live like a clock. Have fun, by all means, but don't become a party animal, alcoholic, who's paying lots of money to go to college just so he can have fun without parental supervision.

Girls play a huge factor as well. The right girl who supports and understands what you do, and doesn't allow herself to distract you from your mission can be the single most important factor in the support team that you will need. Girls who are jealous of what you do, or who you are willing to give up the dream for, will only ruin you.

As for the athlete aspect, my biggest advice is try to get to know your coach in order to know what he expects from you. Be part of the decision making process in regards to your role on the team is. My first two years my main focus was to make it on the travel team, and after that to be able to score some points at conference meets and winning duals with rival teams. Knowing what the vision is, and being part of it will help you succeed.

Sorry: probably should have specified in my earlier post that my first point dealt with the "stress" part of training, and the second point with "recovery."

After 20+ years of college coaching, I can say that what I found most often is that guys felt if they were taking care of business in the practices, they were doing their whole job--they focused on the stress, but stinted on recovery, and some had disappointing careers as a result.

Assuming that your college coach has a good history of developing runners, just listen to them. Don't question them, don't assume that you know more. Just do what they say to the best of your abilities.

Smartest piece of advice I've gotten on the subject came from a nationally renowned coach that I had the honor of getting to talk to a few weeks back. He said, the only time I'd suggest an athlete 'go after it' in the summer, is if they're borderline DI types coming into a program where they're not going to make an impact at Nationals one way or another. You'll be in great shape early season and you'll probably peak and fall before the big meets come around, but you'll have the coach's attention. That coach will know who you are and take interest in you as an athlete, and in your potential. Come in off a normal, heavy endurance base and improve all you want, you'll still be a mid to back packer the whole way through. First impressions are huge and it's better to be that surprise recruit/walk-on than it is to be a nameless face in the crowd. After the coach knows who you are you won't have to worry as much about one-size-fits-all paces, you'll have distinguished yourself from the other back-packers that coaches always seem to forget about. And this will open up the possibility of future improvement under a working relationship with your coach.

First of all, you shouldn't talk down on your talent. You may not be a freak of nature, but you are still extremely talented. You seem to be more of a 10k type, especially of your 5k time was from xc.

Just be prepared to get the crap kicked out of you every day by the upper classmen on your team. Your legs will probably ache everynight when you go to bed, but with your ability level you should be able to contribute by your junior season with a lot of solid hard work in your first 2 years.

Don't get discouraged when you are not contributing or just having trouble keeping up on some easy days. It will come with time.

Instead of never going to parties, consider a Constanza based leave on a high note plan. Most people won't remember the end of the night anyway. Then get some sleep.

This is great advice and I'll add on, if the coach doesn't have a good history of developing runners don't go there. I've seen a lot of coaches stay in their position by simply assembling talent with a superior budget. You might look at a team roster and think it's impressive but be sure to look into how those guys have developed.

BUMP! Important stuff is being said on here.