Why are runners tired from a "long season" consisting of six races when soccer players and basketball players play t

It is all about the training and mileage leading up to the race. The pro's train hard an insane amount and the races are just by-products of the work. That is how they are finished physically by the end of the season.

The biggest difference is the internet. It used to be lots of guys would race themselves into shape with a bunch of mediocre races and then a few really good ones. Now when say Jenny S gets outleaned for the AR and loses her shoe in the WC, people say she is washed up, so many won't race into shape and read the bad press.

In basketball or soccer, no one is expected to have their best game ever every time out but especially on Letsrun, Rupp getting two 5ths at the WC is the end of the world because he once ran 26:44 and/or got a silver medal.

been thinking bout this one wrote:

In soccer you play one game a week for 38 weeks or something like that and again these dudes are running around like crazy.

running around like crazy = walk-jog less than 7 miles once a week

GoodwinRunner wrote:

It is all about the training and mileage leading up to the race. The pro's train hard an insane amount and the races are just by-products of the work. That is how they are finished physically by the end of the season.

Plenty of basketball players run daily in addition to their games/normal training/weight program.

GoodwinRunner wrote:

It is all about the training and mileage leading up to the race. The pro's train hard an insane amount and the races are just by-products of the work. That is how they are finished physically by the end of the season.

The best runners in the past actually raced more and ran better.

soccer players are lazy wrote:

been thinking bout this one wrote:

In soccer you play one game a week for 38 weeks or something like that and again these dudes are running around like crazy.

running around like crazy = walk-jog less than 7 miles once a week

At the very least, it's a walk-sprint. They also practice and work out during the week.

It is more an issue of supply and demand. If the top runners race a lot, they will get paid less for each race. If they race less, they will get paid more for each race. Racing less means fewer injuries and more opportunities to earn money. Racing a lot means more injuries and more missed races. Managers understand this very well after two decades of ruining E. African talent by entering them into everything they could find just to earn more fees.

how do you explain this wrote:

The best runners in the past actually raced more and ran better.

Agreed

Today's athletes are largely under raced. I think it's a product of coaches getting a little too obsessed with controlling every little thing in training.

No Way wrote:

soccer players are lazy wrote:

running around like crazy = walk-jog less than 7 miles once a week

At the very least, it's a walk-sprint. They also practice and work out during the week.

At the world cup, Nike put chips in some shoes and tracked several players at over 9 mile in a game.

Runners always like to think of themselves as 'harder working' or something.

A 10 miler in the morning and a 10 miler in the evening is 140/week. That seems like a lot. But when you compare to the hours that pro fottball players, soccer players and basketball players put in, it pales.

Most of these guys are working out for 6-8 hour / day.

"At the world cup, Nike put chips in some shoes and tracked several players at over 9 mile in a game."

Which goes to show how f'd nike's technology is.

These aren't all out sustained efforts

I think it largely has to do with mental fatigue.

When Lebron heads onto the court at least once a week in the season, he isn't breaking himself every game. He isn't playing every game like he did in the NBA finals against the Warriors. And I will probably be right in guessing that after the Game 6, he was toast, phyiscally and mentally.

When professional runners get up to race in the diamond league and WC/Olympics, they are going balls to the wall. They have to, or they miss out on money and bonuses they need to keep being a professional. They have to have their game face on and ready to hurt at each race. And after WC/Olympics, like Lebron, they are toast.

Bro - Mama wrote:

At the world cup, Nike put chips in some shoes and tracked several players at over 9 mile in a game.

The average is far less. 7 miles for World Cup and less than 6 miles during normal league play.

Even those fat referees run more than the average soccer player.

OP

do both

do soccer. then do xc. see why xc is much more taxing. it's not the races, it's the required daily mileage.

I've done both. It's not even close.

Because when you race it's all you while a team sport allows you to coast on the hard work of others.

XY wrote:

These aren't all out sustained efforts

True... they are more like 6-7 miles of intervals

Ummm...training is very hard work.

Next

It's all about the intensity of the effort.

Soccer players are neither doing all-out sprints nor sustained tempo efforts. Everytime they walk even a few steps between runs to the ball, it's a chance for the body to regenerate ever so slightly.

With basketball, the same is true.

Notice, however, that the OP didn't mention football. Not surprising. Those guys have very intense efforts, so even though they are short-lived efforts, even the guys who don't take a pounding are beat after a game, and dead after a season, which only includes 16 games for most guys.

Runners who race regularly are actually more common than runners who don't. As an example, not counting heats or qualifying rounds, and speaking strictly of her outdoor season, Shannon Rowbury has raced 9 times this year, that I know of (DMR, Pre, U.S. Champs, Monaco, Worlds, Zurich, Berlin, Brussels, Fifth Avenue).

Really!? I've played full games of basketball and you don't run that much in comparison. Not to mention, you get time outs, rest between quarters, free-throw BS, etc. Next time you're watching a NBA game, watch some of the power forwards slog their way down the court. Once had some kid tell me Jordan could beat me in a 10k (this was many years ago and my track pr at the time was 29:20). I laughed in his face and told him to come and workout with us for a week and then make that statement. He never did.

And don't even start with baseball. I love baseball, but...

There is not a sport on earth that does more running than distance runners and distance running is physically exhausting. Don't fool yourself into thinking otherwise. Was had a collegiate WR (who ran hurdles in the offseason) tell me that there wasn't a team at that particular DI college that outworked the distance team.

If you haven't done a a full cross/indoor/outdoor season then you don't know what you're talking about.