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

Randy Oldman wrote:

Soccer players train to play one out twice a week for 40 weeks a year. Runners train to "peak" over a 2 or 3 week period.

Soccer players peak for the end of the season too

If they don't play their bollocks off from day one that won't be in the team at the end of the season.

Ok you're comparing apples to oranges here. Comparing two team sports where there is a considerable necessary skill component plus an athletic component to an individual sports that is pretty much 100% athletic skill. Runners have to train their asses off most of the year to be in prime physical shape for those races. That is very wearing, much more wearing than the athletic training basketball player do which is almost none within the season. They have to get in basketball shape to start the season, but once they are, there's no higher level of fitness to reach for. Mostly, they have to be in shape to play a lot of games and a lot of tiring travel -- not peak athletic performance. Why do you think pro basketball players can play 82-100 games over 6-7 months whereas that would be impossible for a runner?

If you're an American elite, every time you race you get mocked and ridiculed by the so-called fans. Racing involves tremendous negative feedback - so you race as little as possible.

Fenway4ever wrote:

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.

You've played professional soccer for a 38 week Season against the best in the world? Or maybe you've played an 82 game NBA season plus playoffs?

Soccer is a 90 minute fartlek.

Basketball a couple of steps and a flick of the wrist followed by a long rest.

Haha wut wrote:

Fenway4ever wrote:

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.

You've played professional soccer for a 38 week Season against the best in the world? Or maybe you've played an 82 game NBA season plus playoffs?

...or YOU'VE done 120 weeks throw in 15x1000 or 6xmile @ 4:25 with 2 min. rest followed by a 20 mile long run at the end of the week throughout a cross/indoor and outdoor season!?

Or maybe you've hammered out a world-class marathon at 4:52 mp for 26.2 only to wind up 6th!?

If you think playing a soccer match or an NBA game is anything compared to running a 26:50 10k or 2:06 marathon you've obviously done neither.

iuoieur wrote:

Haha wut wrote:

You've played professional soccer for a 38 week Season against the best in the world? Or maybe you've played an 82 game NBA season plus playoffs?

...or YOU'VE done 120 weeks throw in 15x1000 or 6xmile @ 4:25 with 2 min. rest followed by a 20 mile long run at the end of the week throughout a cross/indoor and outdoor season!?

Or maybe you've hammered out a world-class marathon at 4:52 mp for 26.2 only to wind up 6th!?

If you think playing a soccer match or an NBA game is anything compared to running a 26:50 10k or 2:06 marathon you've obviously done neither.

No one here was talking about marathons. The OP was comparing 1500-10000 and talking about runners being tired. The track season was being compared to an NBA/Soccer season, not a game or soccer match. What do you think that NBA players don't train? Or that an 82 game season isn't difficult?

Reading comprehension is nice wrote:

iuoieur wrote:

...or YOU'VE done 120 weeks throw in 15x1000 or 6xmile @ 4:25 with 2 min. rest followed by a 20 mile long run at the end of the week throughout a cross/indoor and outdoor season!?

Or maybe you've hammered out a world-class marathon at 4:52 mp for 26.2 only to wind up 6th!?

If you think playing a soccer match or an NBA game is anything compared to running a 26:50 10k or 2:06 marathon you've obviously done neither.

No one here was talking about marathons. The OP was comparing 1500-10000 and talking about runners being tired. The track season was being compared to an NBA/Soccer season, not a game or soccer match. What do you think that NBA players don't train? Or that an 82 game season isn't difficult?

What? You think 5/10,000 runners don't train? Or that cross/indoor/outdoor season isn't difficult?

If you don't think running track season after an indoor and cross is every bit as difficult/exhausting as soccer, football, basketball... then you haven't done it at a competitive level.

Tell me that doing a 20 mile run @ 6min. pace in the dead of winter (in a 100+ mile week) with core work afterwards after an 6-hour work day and follow it up 2 days later with 15x1000 on the track isn't every bit as difficult as anything you'll see in any competitive sport.

Let's get a few things straight. I don't think that Galen Rupp and Centro are working six hour jobs. We are talking about professionals here not you and your nerd track friends. I'm pretty sure that Ben True is probably the only decent American runner who chooses to train in the cold.

The XC season for pros is BS as is indoor. For most runners it consists of very few (sometimes one or two) races.

No one here said runners aren't training hard. To say they are training harder than basketball players or that an 82 game basketball season isn't as hard as a six race outdoor track season is stupid. Do you think that basketball players just show up and play? I'm not sure you know any professional basketball players because if you did then you would know that is not the case. Someone running 120 miles a week is running about 14 hours a week plus core an lifting. A basketball player will be playing three games a week plus strength and conditioning and working out for the same amount of hours as a runner. If you think that this isn't the case, you should maybe try and meet some professional basketball players. In the NBA player workout a ton and many of them run several miles a day as part of their conditioning. In Europe, most of the top teams have two a days even during the season in addition to strength and conditioning. The question is why do runners or their fans say a runner is "tired" or "over raced" from running six races or so in a season yet basketball players play an 82 game season plus playoffs? The top runners used to race a lot more and now they race less and run slower.

No one cares that you've run XC then indoor and then an outdoor track season. We aren't talking about you, we're talking about professionals. The best of the best. Trying to compare your XC, indoor and outdoor experiences to professionals would be as if someone were to compare their red league or even their college experience playing basketball to what it's like to play in the NBA. The difference is staggering. The number of games and the strength and quickness, not to mention stamina required to play in the NBA would blow your mind. It's obvious that you've never played basketball with or against any pros let alone NBA players because of you had you would never have made such a dumb statement.

Bro - Mama wrote:

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.

Pro football players stand around for about 4-5 of those 6-8 hours. 0/10

In football, basketball, baseball players get to unwind each night smoking pot, slamming beers, partying, etc. But, being a pro T&F athlete, you can't really do that inseason because your performance will show it. Pro athletes in the sports mentioned above also have guaranteed contracts and T&F athletes live or die with each competition.

Lul wutttttttt wrote:

No one cares that you've run XC then indoor and then an outdoor track season. We aren't talking about you, we're talking about professionals. The best of the best. Trying to compare your XC, indoor and outdoor experiences to professionals would be as if someone were to compare their red league or even their college experience playing basketball to what it's like to play in the NBA. The difference is staggering. The number of games and the strength and quickness, not to mention stamina required to play in the NBA would blow your mind. It's obvious that you've never played basketball with or against any pros let alone NBA players because of you had you would never have made such a dumb statement.

Oh, if we're talking professionals then professional runners work and compete every bit as hard as an NBA player.

How's that?

Oh, and the number of games and the strength and quickness, not to mention stamina required to play in the NBA doesn't blow my mind.

You come to a running forum and downplay the training it takes to become a national/world-class runner and then think you're not going to get called on it?

Do you even run?

I'm think I'm going to be calling it "fottball" from now on.

I would assume that you've never played basketball against an NBA player.

I'm not sure that anyone here said NBA players work harder than runners. No one here is arguing that runners don't work hard. The question was why do runners get burned out racing six races or so over a few months yet a basketball player can play 82 games plus the playoffs and still compete at a high level. Let's take Rupp as an example. He raced a mile this season and the 5/10 at the trials. Then he raced worlds. Now he just pulled out of a 10 mile road race. That's six races and his season is over. I'm not saying he's not training hard, I'm saying that many professional athletes train hard. I don't know anything about soccer but I do know several NBA players and have played basketball with and against them. I know a few professional runners and have run with them and they work hard too. In my opinion, from my experience, they work equally as hard yet a basketball player has to survive an 82 game season without burning out. A pro runner has to survive an outdoor season and race maybe six times and then he's burnt out. Ten years ago runners raced more and ran faster. It's just a question/observation, not an indictment of runners. You should stop being so defensive. I'm not attacking running, I'm asking a question.

The main reason for the differences is the goals an the methods to attain the goals.

Runners focus on peaking for championships and running a good seasonal time and of course qualifying for the championships.

In order to qualify for the championships you need to run one fast time and typically run well in one meet determined by your nation.

The rest of the year is training to be able to do this.

And you get some races in at your discretion.

Team sport have a more rigorous schedule to qualify for their championships.

First, they are given a schedule that they must compete and they must win enough games to make it further.

If they could just play a few games and try to peak for the finals, they would.

But they can't skip games. Not the whole team, anyway.

If runners were forced to have a certain racing record to compete at the championships then they'd race more.

The second post in this thread answered the question.

In professional running you're dancing on the edge of the blade, trying to get as much out of your body as you can without causing yourself to get injured or overtrained. This is the training. The racing is the fun part, you get to rest up for races.

What I hate is that this attitude of not racing is trickling down to the high school and college level. Runners are always resting, resting, resting for that big moment that may never come. Workouts have become more important than races. I see teams doing ridiculous workouts during the week and then tempoing meets on Saturday. Can you imagine if any other sport did this?

This thread has turned into a lot of bashing other sports. A couple of people have what I think the real answer is burried in their responses. It has two parts:

1) It's a different kind of fitness - soccer and basketball require much more explosive power and strength endurance and much less aerobic fitness than distance running (even compared to the 1500/mile distance).

2) This is the bigger one; Athletes in different sports train with different seasons in mind. Runners want to be 100% for every race, and everyone here knows that is not sustainable for a long period of time. Soccer and Basketball players know they have to be fit for months on end, so they tailor their training to maintain a level slightly below max fitness for a longer time.

Credentials: HS varsity level player before I switched for Track/XC.