Question - Time committment for running (D3 vs. D1 vs. Ivy League D1)

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Its the same in D1 as D3, maybe slightly more in D1.

Practices will run 2-3 hours each day, depending on whatever precisely is being done. Some programs require independent morning runs, others do not.

A lot of it can do with the coach and geography as well. At my college our coach ran a tight ship, and practice started a 4:10 on the dot, whether you were there or now, but depending on where we were running that day practice might start with a car ride, or, if we were unlucky, a 4 mile warm up.

The longest practices I ever had ran from 4-7:30, where we did a long track work out and a lifting session afterward.

I was a male D1 runner, but the women's team had similar time constraints.

Ok. Thanks.

asfdasdawsdqwf wrote:

Its the same in D1 as D3, maybe slightly more in D1.

Practices will run 2-3 hours each day, depending on whatever precisely is being done. Some programs require independent morning runs, others do not.

A lot of it can do with the coach and geography as well. At my college our coach ran a tight ship, and practice started a 4:10 on the dot, whether you were there or now, but depending on where we were running that day practice might start with a car ride, or, if we were unlucky, a 4 mile warm up.

The longest practices I ever had ran from 4-7:30, where we did a long track work out and a lifting session afterward.

I was a male D1 runner, but the women's team had similar time constraints.

I think this will depend from program to program. I actually ran at both a DI school (Rice) for a year, then also at DIII (Williams) for three years.

It's an interesting comparison because they were actually quite similar programs in terms of competitiveness (I was 4th or 5th runner at both schools.) The commitments were more at Rice -- basically an extra 4 or 5 sessions a week (the "extra" was morning practices/doubles and mandatory weight sessions.) Mileage was higher at Rice, as was overall intensity. Both programs were manageable in terms of school/athletics balance, but of course these are schools where most athletes take school very seriously.

My guess though is that you would find more variation within DI and DIII than you would comparing generally across divisions.

Thanks for the comments.

owl/eph wrote:

I think this will depend from program to program. I actually ran at both a DI school (Rice) for a year, then also at DIII (Williams) for three years.

It's an interesting comparison because they were actually quite similar programs in terms of competitiveness (I was 4th or 5th runner at both schools.) The commitments were more at Rice -- basically an extra 4 or 5 sessions a week (the "extra" was morning practices/doubles and mandatory weight sessions.) Mileage was higher at Rice, as was overall intensity. Both programs were manageable in terms of school/athletics balance, but of course these are schools where most athletes take school very seriously.

My guess though is that you would find more variation within DI and DIII than you would comparing generally across divisions.

Based on our experience, the above posters are correct about the variation by program, coach, and geography. Certain Ivies, like Yale, had a lighter training load than others, such as Princeton. You can see by their HEPS results the ultimate effect of that difference. Not all Div. 1's are created equal either. Training at Oregon will probably not resemble training at Bucknell. You really need to visit the schools and ask what the typical weekly schedule looks like in terms of practices, cross training, and additional commitments like hosting recruits, etc. My D saw a significant change within the same Div. 1 program with a new coach--more double sessions.

I think some of the replies are underselling the difference in time commitment, especially as it pertains to travel. I ran CC, indoor, and outdoor track at a Division III school; my sister did the same in Division I. In terms of practice time, she was required to do more in terms of lifting, mandatory study sessions, etc., but I ended up spending time on those things on my own anyway.

The real difference was travel. I think I ran 6-7 CC races a year, all of which were within a 4-hour drive with the exception of nationals. In terms of track, a meet every weekend from January through the first weekend of May, 80% within four hours (nationals excluded), almost all either on a Friday night or all day Saturday. (In other words, these were 1-day meets). I stepped on a plane exactly one time for a regular season meet. We had good facilities, too, so including CC and track I usually had 6 home meets a year.

In contrast, my sister was on a plane once or twice a month, even though they had plenty of home meets on the schedule. For big track meets like the Florida or Drake Relays, they might leave on Wednesday night and get back on Sunday afternoon. Even looking at a school like Princeton, which has some great meets in their backyard, you'll note that they travel to Wisconsin and Notre Dame during the CC season and Seattle, Orlando, and Mt. SAC for track. Those are probably really fun trips and obviously the competitive opportunity is excellent. As a college athlete I would have been stoked to go on a trip to Seattle or Orlando with my teammates. But if time commitment is a key concern for your daughter, it's probably an important thing for her to be aware of.

Flagpole, one thing to keep in mind is that if she attends a D1 Ivy and runs, they will do a good job of making sure she has time to study and get her work done. I would say the same for most D1s. I ran for a large D1 (ACC) and the program took our academics seriously. I had a teammate who was premed and he was able to put school first while still being a serious runner. When we had meets, he could work things out with professors, etc. I never had much of an issue with my major, but it wasn't pre-med, so I had fewer obligations.

I would think - I do not know - that D3 would be more of a "run if you have the time" type of thing and professors would consider it a less important extracurricular.

I hadn't really thought of the travel...thanks for that perspective. She is serious about running, but she is definitely school first. The bigger time commitment of D1 might be a deal breaker for her.

Thanks for the info. I think these schools are all going to be different. We will have to investigate it all. When I was in college, I had one professor in particular who did not like making special arrangements for students who had to leave for a sport commitment, and I had another professor who ran for Oregon who was the most supportive possible.

Blow Up wrote:

Flagpole, one thing to keep in mind is that if she attends a D1 Ivy and runs, they will do a good job of making sure she has time to study and get her work done. I would say the same for most D1s. I ran for a large D1 (ACC) and the program took our academics seriously. I had a teammate who was premed and he was able to put school first while still being a serious runner. When we had meets, he could work things out with professors, etc. I never had much of an issue with my major, but it wasn't pre-med, so I had fewer obligations.

I would think - I do not know - that D3 would be more of a "run if you have the time" type of thing and professors would consider it a less important extracurricular.

I ran DIII at a midwest liberal arts college in the early 2000s. I would say from my conversations with others at DI institutions our time commitment was less than at a DI school. The major difference is at a DIII school you run because you want to while at a DI school it is like a job. Most of my teammates were decent HS runners but did not have the ability to run competitively at DI. That being said we did have Saturday morning practices sometimes on non-meet weekends in XC (Sunday was a long run day always on our own). Each day we had practices starting at 4 PM but at our school there were no classes from 4-7 PM so it was never really a conflict. Another advantage of DIII, as has been mentioned earlier is the limited travel. Most meets (minus regionals in XC) are usually within a 3 hr bus ride so school work is never compromised. One final advantage of DIII I think is it is more likely to develop life long runners than DI in my experience. Almost all of my teammates and conference rivals still run competitively to this day for local shoe stores and running clubs.

I am personally partial to DIII but to each there own.

Thanks for the info. She is leaning toward DIII for sure, but if for some weird reason she didn't get into her top DIII choice but DID get into one of the Ivies (we will apply to several schools of course) she would have a decision to make...either go and don't run or put in all the extra time and do run for them.

Running-related time breakdown for my D3 program

AM run: 1.5 hrs total (warm up, run, stretch, shower)

PM practice: 3.5ish hours (drive/walk to practice, team meeting, warm up, run, post-run stuff (drills/sprints/stretching/foam roller/weight lifting/icing, etc), shower, drive/walk home) - usually longer on workout days

So about 4.5 hours/day (Sundays was just one run so more like 2.5-3 hrs total)

Meet days: We only did overnights 1-2x during the regular season, so meets were usually a one day, all day affair. Usually depart somewhere between 6 and 7 am and get back between 6 and 8 pm. Plenty of kids brought work to do at meets though.

With many D3 programs though, things are flexible. Mine was a top tier D3 program (top 10 at nationals all 4 years I was there), but our coaches were very understanding of academic conflicts. On several occasions I was granted permission to skip meets due to my class workload, and I took off a season to focus on preparing for the MCAT. So if it is time you are worried about, D3 is the way to go.

Just another plug for D3 - the atmosphere at D3 championship meets is far beyond anything at the D1 or D2 level. I will always remember the Atlantic Region Championships at SUNY Geneseo in 2010 - guys in gorilla suits climbing in trees, St Lawrence and Geneseo having cheering squads of 50 guys covered in paint following their flagbearers going absolutely berserk (the competition between the cheering squads was just as fierce as the race!), and all-out racing 2000 other fans to each checkpoint on the course. Doesn't get better than that!

I'm currently running at D3 Midwest School.

Time commitment is what you make of it. If you invest all your time fully into outside of practice runs and all the little things during practice besides workouts or runs (drills, strides, hurdle mobility, core, weight room, etc. etc) then you end up spending something like 4 hours of total time during the day (an hour outside and 3 hours during practice).

As has been mentioned a lot, D3 has a way different flair than D1 or D2, given no one is on scholarships, so you see a lot more people, some very talent and others not as much, who run just because they love it, so the commitment will vary. I've heard you have a fun atmosphere in DI, but its definitely more of a "this is our job" type deal.

But at least from my school, though its not "forced" upon you, to be the best you can possibly be, it is quite essential you do invest a good portion of your time into all the small things, and so when you do that, the time commitment can become very large, which at times can be difficult at a top notch school.

I was a slightly above average D3 athlete. I trained around 3 hours a day on average with 2 runs and core/strength stuff.

MIT women's xc, a long while back.

Hit a high of 42 miles one week in xc.

Missed practice for a week at a time.

Practice was MAYBE an hour a day.

I was one of the faster runners.

It was the perfect interlude between a competitive high school program and the terrific and intense post collegiate club programs in Boston.

The guy to talk to is Steve Keith, the head coach at Vandy. He previously coached at Emory, and should understand the differences at highly competitive academic schools as well as anyone.

Lots of good posts. One important difference has not been mentioned. DI schools, including the Ivies, will all want distance runners to train hard year round. Many will consider the winter season more of a warmup for the spring and avoid intense competition, but this is not the norm in the Northeast where the indoor season is well-established. As for time to study, I disagree with those who argue that "the Ivies will give you time to study". On the contrary, they are all looking to compete on the national stage and will tend to run big invites (Wisconsin, Pre-Nats)which require at least two (sometimes three) days away from school. It is not unusual for Ivy League runners to have difficulty handling the training requirements and the academic requirements at the same time. Talk to kids who have stopped running. It's not always injuries...

I ran for an Ivy league school, and I'm sure the coach makes some difference, BUT if your daughter is worried about the time aspect of practice she clearly does not want to run competitively in college (at least D1). College is an entirely different game, the previous poster makes a good point about people who stopped running, it's usually because they couldn't rationalize spending 25++ hours a week on something they didn't care enough about. If you run on a college team, you run to be the best you can be, and that requires going far above and beyond any other extra curricular you could expect. If you truly want to get better, you will WANT to spend more and more time practicing, more and more time doing every little thing.