Any other college freshman out there just frustrated with running around now? Standard 4:30 miler here (when in HS) & now struggles to race well at all. Have more endurance on runs now (basically every day is 6:00-6:20), and workout well (tempo's, mile repeats) but when showing up to races, legs have a mind of their own and turn to jello. Anyone else have this experience / Advice?
Couple things:
1) It's my estimation that 90% of college freshman stagnate. This is the result of new, often more intense, training, new schedule, a worse diet, and higher alcohol consumption, among other things. There is an adjustment period, and usually college runners won't see major breakthroughs until sophomore and sometimes junior years.
2) 6:00-6:20 is too fast for your easy days. That's obvious. Slow it down and save some for your races.
Your body is adjusting to a new plan (I assume) so that'll take some time. I can't speak for your school but the schedule for freshman I've known is a big shock to their bodies--mainly the lack of sleep that comes with college.
Also, completely agree with the 6-6:20 being too fast idea. Wayyy too fast.
Runner1242313413 wrote:
Also, completely agree with the 6-6:20 being too fast idea. Wayyy too fast.
+1. I ran 6-6:20 pace as a sub-14 and sub-29 runner. If I could travel back in time I would slow down recovery days following a hard workout/race to 6:30-7:00.
+1 to the advice given above. I made some improvements freshman year in college, but it was an extremely spotty season. I attribute it to mostly a poor diet of all you can eat dorm food, but also to lack of sleep as a not too distant second. Alcohol consumption wasn't really high enough to be much of a factor, I only partied a medium amount in the off seasons.
If I could go back in time, I would tell myself to think of the dining commons as "all you should eat" rather than "all you can eat." I would also cut my meal plan down to one meal a day so I could eat just cereal or a sandwich or oatmeal 3x a day in addition to that. I ended up just eating two huge meals a day and it made me feel like crap all the time.
I would instead actually use my minifridge and always keep it stocked with milk, cheese, sandwich meat, lettuce/some other veggies, and yogurt. With that plus a loaf of bread and some fruit on top of the fridge you can pretty well get by for all but one meal a day in the dining commons, without having to cook anything ever, so very doable for a college freshman
I would also establish a regular bedtime and stick to it. If that means don't schedule class before 10am so you can go to bed at 12:30am every night, do that. It is better to do that than to go to bed at 10pm 5 nights a week and 1am 2 nights a week.
Both of those ideas are very achievable by a college freshman while still allowing you to have fun.
May have something to do with your inability to use apostrophes appropriately. I highly doubt a tempo run owns anything. Properly pluralizes it should be Tempos. Fundamentals of English are simple. Try to keep up.
You don't have to bag the workouts but just don't really try some days and be a bit lazy. I wish someone would have told me this advice honestly you'll run better. sometimes the best runners just know when to back off and when to go. Listen and be patient.
Appreciate the advice everyone. I'll try to make my easy days easier & focus more on the small things. Thanks for your time.
Easy days easy- hard days hard.
Also, break your race down to something really really simple. Instead of focusing on a time, find one runner on another team that's been finishing just ahead of you. Focus on staying with that runner for as long as you can- even if you fall to pieces the last 400, or 800.
Focus on ONE thing, not the overall race, your time, your place amongst your teammates, etc..