how hard is the decathlon

hopeful decathlete wrote:
My question is, how hard is it to compete in a decathlon? I am currently a 3k steepler, but it has always been my dream to compete in a decathlon in college and hopefully be good at one. And now going into my senior year time is running out and I want to find out if it is possible for me to train through xc and indoor to do a decathlon with moderate success. I am very athletic and coordinated so I figure that I would be able to compete in the jav and shot with some success, I am pretty strong too with my max bench being around 200 lbs. Due to being a steepler I have good hurdle form and the high hurdles wouldnt be too difficult because I am 6'2". The only hard part would be learning to 3 step in between the hurdles. I have run a 4:10 in the 1500 so I believe that could be my saving grace where most decathletes on the D2 college level suffer. My 400m PR is a 53, but that is off of no sprint speed work, which I would be able to work on for the next 6 months. The only thing I feel I may have difficulty in is pole vault, it looks like it is very challenging, but I am up for the challenge. What I want to say is what are my chances of competing in a decathlon in 6 or 7 months and actually being able to be somewhat successful in one? I appreciate the help!

OK, I have been thinking about this a little. I looked up some results from D2 track meets that I could find online and If you are even mildly athletic you will not embarrass yourself by giving it a shot. You might not be winning any meets but it looks like the back half of the field is pretty soft at that level.

One of the only ones I could find was the Chico State Multi Classic from 2014. There are guys going 3 meters in the pole vault, just at 6 meters in the long jump, under 1.8 meters in the high jump and well over 5 min in the 1500. And that is the A group. I have never done any throwing events so I can not comment on those.

If it is something you would like to do you should do it. If your worried about the pole vault, dont be. There were 5 guys in that meet between A and B group who went 3 meters or less. To put that into perspective, when I was in High School that was less than opening height and a semi athletic 8th grader could make 3 meters.

You might as well give it a shot.

is it possible for you to do a decathlon with your current training? The short answer is yes. If you have no specific goals and you practice all the events enough to at least be familiar with them (and safe when it comes to the pole vault) then yes you can do it. However if you you want to excel then you need to realize that your distance training will be counter productive to 9 out of the 10 events. Also you need to be aware of this other truth which surprisingly no one has mentioned. Your first multi is usually a throw away. I have coached several 6000+ decathletes that barely scored over 5000 their first time out. I would suggest doing a heptathlon indoor as a warm up so you know what to expect. I know you are a distance guy but be prepared to feel a lot worse on day 2 than you expect to. you are going to use lots of untrained muscle groups and you will be sore and tired. Day one could be 4-8 hours of competition without any real solid food. Also know that injury is a legitimate concern for all multi athletes.I have had kids that are in peak shape have to pull out on day 2 because they tweeked something in an event. There are very few decathlons where the entire field will finish. All that aside i hope you get to do one. It will open your eyes to a whole other side of your sport. the atmosphere of a multi is unlike any track or cross meet you have ever been to. The guys you compete against will be your friends by the end. Good Luck

how hard is the decathlon

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