True or False: Young men run better when on the prowl/recently broken up - Young women run better when in a relationship

The thing is that **most** college track women are absolutely insane. They train to satisfy their compulsions first and win races second.

Most college track guys are the opposite. They don't run because they just made up the idea that they have to. They run to compete, improve, and win.

When you have a college track romance, the girl's insanity is directed towards controlling the guy and this puts her running focus on competing and winning. Guys on the other hand, have some serious insanity to deal with when dating a track chick so their performance suffers.

What about off the track romances you say?

Guy runners that have figured out how to get a date, date up. Guy runners usually have girlfriends who rate at least 3 points higher on the hotness scale then they do. So an average guy runner who is a 5, is likely to date at least an 8. When you date girls who are 8s and above you start to hit crazy territory. Slightly good looking runner dudes, who choose to date, almost always bag 9s and 10s; so they date full-on crazies.

Girl runners get better when they date, so off track romances are just that.

How can we use this knowledge to build an unstoppable college distance power house? Recruit ugly as sin guys and Helen of Troy girls. So if you are a college coach of both the men's and women's teams and you have 2 4:10 1600m prospects to choose between where one is a suave and chiseled playa and the other is a pimple faced scrawny midget with a receding hairline... go with the go with the pimple faced scrawny midget with a receding hairline.

Likewise if you have a 2 5:15 1600m female prospects and one has the face of a tune while the other looks like Barbie, choose Barbie.

If you follow my strategy, this is what will happen. You will have a team of guys who are 1s and 2s. They will find 4s and 5s to date on campus. These homely 4s and 5s will support their running because they probably haven't dated anybody who was actually good at anything in the past. Also these 4s and 5s the narcissism and egos that the 9s and 10s have blind them to the fact that they are out of the guy's league and therefore don't need to be so controlling. Your guys will run well.

The guys on your team won't have any bat$h!t crazy 4 and 5s who they have lots in common with to date.

On the women's side, you will have a hiram 9s and 10s. These women will likely exchange digits with your competition since they are way out of your men's league. They will date your competition and get faster. Your competition will date them and get slower.

But will this work if there are vast distances separating the schools in my conference? It does. In fact it works even better. In this case your hiram will keep a fraternity boyfriend on campus while still attempting to date your competition. This of course will make the relationship very stressful on your competition and drag them down even further.

Best strategy ever.

Not sure about the girls, but for the guys this is definitely true. I ran the worst times of my career during my sophomore year of track and junior year of xc while I was dating a girl. Broke up with her during my junior year of indoor track and in the next 2 months I dropped my mile PR by 10 seconds, my 5K PR by 40 seconds, and qualified for nationals in the steeplechase after not even breaking 10 minutes the previous season while I was in a relationship (ran 9:50 before we started dating).

This thread feels creepy since we all know who "Name Redacted" is, but now that I'm here... Yes, I think there is some truth to it. Like others have said, when a runner male is in a relationship, he gets comfortable and loses some competitive drive. When a female runner is in a relationship, she feels emotionally emotionally supported which makes her mentally stronger. I've posted on some of the "difference between coaching males and females" thread that generally (at least in my opinion) males are externally motivated (competitive with each other) and females are internally motivated (competitive with themselves). So if a male is single, he may be subconsciously competing to find a female and therefore run faster. If a female is in a relationship, she feels better about herself because someone supports her and therefore runs faster.

Lots of college-aged guys are in poor relationships. I have found healthy relationships to significantly improve my training and performance.

baby's first psychology wrote:

Lots of college-aged guys are in poor relationships. I have found healthy relationships to significantly improve my training and performance.

Disagree. A live-in, at least a new live-in is the worst for running.

As a single guy, what are you going to do at 6-7am? Run. What are you going to do after work? Run. What are you going to do at 9 or 11pm if you want? Run. There is no life like the single life for putting in miles.

Living with a girlfriend, are you going to say, "Hell, it's 10pm but I could double up with 8 miles right now and make it 18 for the day"? No. Not with anyone you want to live with anyway :)

My best season in college was when I was in a bad relationship (I'm a guy). I was dating a girl on our team, who barely ever had time to hang out. Practices would start where I'd see her wit the women's team, get angry that we hadn't gotten to spend much time together, and then ran with that anger. I'd also feel conflicted because I was upset, but didn't want to be mad at her because I really liked her. Running hard intervals was this oasis where my internal monologue was forced to shut up.

You thinking of "lesbians"?

I ran decently while being single.

I ran my best when I was in a loving/supportive relationship.

I ran my worst after my divorce and had to take a full year off of running to get my life back together without feeling so heartbroken.

It took two years to get back to being the runner I once was - I think my new girlfriend has helped quite a bit with this. Haha!

Opposite was true for me. Being single and on the prowl meant late nights on Friday and Saturday in an attempt to get laid. Said attempt almost always failed and I would wake up to hung over for a quality Sunday long run.

The relationship I am still in yielded my best running results. No need to waste time and energy "hunting" for poontang. Meant Saturday nights were spent laying on the couch recovering/resting and feeling refreshed for a great Sunday long run. Of course the GF was very understanding about me getting up early to do my long run Sunday mornings. Rest of the day spent resting/recovering on couch.

No lie, a guy took over 90 seconds off his 8k time in college on our home course the first few weeks. It wore off about 3 weeks later and he was back to normal.

Too bad people can't channel that regularly. But I say true.

I broke up with a long term gf halfway through my senior xc season. I finished up the season pretty well and ended up pr'ing by quite a bit. The only drawback was that I went out every weekend (and some weekdays) and got absolutely annihilated. Still don't know how I ran as well as I did given my lifestyle.

I was about to call BS on this thread...then I realized I won two events the 800 & 1500 at the conference meet the week I broke up with my gf of 3 years. I remember just feeling a ton of energy and running was a great outlet. During those weeks of dealing with it, I started crushing mileage. Wouldn't want to go through it again, but cant deny I ran fast.

We need to make a distinction between single running and post-breakup running.

Post-breakup, runners of any gender are probably going to step up their training, because that's how we cope we stress (unless the devastation is too overwhelming). I've seen this happen to countless friends both male and female and have experienced it myself as well.

For women, I don't think there's a strong connection between relationship status and running success. I agree with a previous female commenter who said that female runners are typically internally motivated; single or committed, it doesn't really affect our dedication to training.

the theory is ridiculous. There's way more noise than signal amongst men and women runners. A few confirming anecdotes != evidence.

The names redacted are, as people have guessed, probably Centrowitz and Laura Roesler. This link from a family friend says they were dating over the summer

http://www.rvgoddess.com/BLOG/2014/JULY/072814.aspx

I agree except that I don't think that anger needs foundation or that there is an exclusively evolutionary basis to competition. I think this effect may stem from women's general abhorrence of male anger... girlfriends/wives, without realizing, train their men to avoid anger. Male anger can certainly be an extreme danger to women in aggregate. I think successful male runners in relationships are either very good at controlling/channeling that "anger" energy to the point where it isn't instinctively perceived as a danger by their partner or they are just extremely stubborn.

I agree except that I don't think that anger needs foundation or that there is an exclusively evolutionary basis to competition. I think this effect may stem from women's general abhorrence of male anger... girlfriends/wives, often without realizing, train their men to avoid anger. Male anger can certainly be an extreme danger to women in aggregate. I think successful male runners in relationships are either very good at controlling/channeling that "anger" energy to the point where it isn't instinctively perceived as a danger by their partner or they are just extremely stubborn.

I ran PRs in the 800, mile, 3K, 5K, and 10K shortly after I started dating the girl I am currently with. I was also running the best workouts of my life.

So, from my standpoint, it's not true at all.

I watched a video about Miruts Yifter a while back. If I remember correctly, it was Kenenisa himself who said that Miruts told him that "you run faster without women."

No further endorsement of the theory needed. End of thread.