Chasing the DIII Dream

Found this thread and was going through wondering where you ended up, nice to see you were well under 16

This is just about the perfect training thread. Consistent, high-mileage training, massive improvements. It's almost as if this training was engineered by GPT-3 or something to be the perfect LetsRun thread.

Seriously, though, awesome job on your hard work and improvements! I can't believe I had never seen your thread before, and will follow it closely whenever you post.

This is one of the most inspiring threads I've read in a long time. You should be proud of yourself for all the work you've put in and your accomplishments. Keep up the good work!

I'm happy people are still reading and enjoying. Outdoor season was a bit of a mixed bag. Although I ran huge 10K PR of 32:49 in mid-March and a 1:13 half marathon on a monstrously hilly course in early-April, I never managed to lay down the fast 5K that I wanted. Workouts were indicating I was primed for a sub-15:30 clocking, but a bout of sickness derailed my first attempt in mid-April. I really thought I was going to smash my 5K PR in the final meet of the season, but only a lap into the race, I was tripped from behind. The race was much too large (30 people in a heat!), and I just got unlucky. I got back up in a panic and ran a 70 second lap to catch back up with the leaders, who were running just under 15:40 pace, but that sudden pace injection caused me to rig up badly just after we hit 3200m (went from running 5:00 pace to 6:00 pace in the blink of an eye) and I ended up DNFing in embarrassment. Leading to that race, I'd been hitting some pretty hard workouts, and my biceps femoris had been feeling strained. Under normal circumstances, I might have been able to weather the pace surge and bring things home, but as it was, the experience just kind of broke me: a sorry end to the season to be sure.

After that, I took a break for two weeks, and have been building back slowly since early May. Next week, I should once gain reach the 80-85 mpw range I was hitting in late-February/early-March. If there's interest, I may share updates throughout the summer. Being that this will be my senior year, I really want to go for broke and chase some ambitious marks. Deep down, I know I have what it takes to run under 15:00 for 5K. It's just a matter of staying healthy and keeping up the training necessary to achieve that goal.

Felt like updating. Summer training has been a mixed bag. I strained my soleus in early June following a hasty build in mileage and had to take a couple of weeks of just walking and biking before slowly creeping back to my ideal levels. It's been brutally hot and suffocatingly humid this summer. Owing to the weather, my recent overuse injury and the fact that the average 8-10-mile route out my front door features 600-800 feet of climbing, my approach to volume has been decidedly more conservative than past base periods. My weekly average for the last 4 weeks has been 67 miles, and I have taken to running for time rather than distance. The bulk of these miles have been easy runs over the rolling terrain surrounding my home, but I have also begun to incorporate a session of hill strides and the occasional road race to spice things up. Here's a day-by-day of this past week:

8/1 - AM 55' Easy (7.5mi)

PM 40' Double (5.7mi) + 6x100 strides

8/2 - AM 20' WU, 10x100 hill, 25' CD (7.5mi)

PM 30' Double (4.1mi)

8/3 - AM 60' Easy (8mi)

PM 35' Double (5mi)

8/4 - 75' Easy (10.3mi)

8/5 - 35' Easy + 1K cruise @ <5:20 (5.5mi) + 4x100 strides

8/6 - AM 20' Shakeout (2.6mi)

PM 15' WU, 8K Road Race in 26:11 (1st OA), 20' CD (9.2mi)

8/7 - OFF

65.3mi total

Given that Saturday's road race was at midnight in the foothills of the Smokey Mountains, I didn't get to bed until 3:30 Sunday morning and decided to take the day off. Before you get too excited about the road race, I should say that a mistake in routing lead to an early turnaround, which shortened the length of the course by about 100m, so the adjusted time would be about 26:30. The conditions, however, were far from ideal, with a dew point around 70 degrees, so I am pleased with my ability to chain together 5:20 miles with such consistency. To run 26-mid in the dog days of August before the incorporation of any substantial speed work bodes well for this XC season.

My training partner worked to get W&L's running club NIRCA status, and we have a schedule laid out with a planned peak for the national meet on November 12th. Over the next few weeks, we will be easing into some threshold work before testing ourselves at the first round of meets in mid-September.

Just found this thread as I prep for my upcoming XC season as a rising collegiate junior. Binged the whole thing and am honestly astonished at your dedication and tenacity. Love that you were able to keep pushing and bring your times down consistently. As someone who has struggled with injuries and fitness over the past few years I loved reading this journey of success! Your fitness looks great, wishing you well for the remainder of the summer and your XC season!

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the read. My journey has certainly been an unconventional one, but at this point in time, I think I can look back without regrets. I've improved more than I ever thought I could and bested in races those whose high school PR's far eclipsed mine.

Best of luck to you this season also!

Trying to hang with the varsity guys in practice just means that when the team is supposed to be doing an easy run, you’re out there doing a tempo run instead. Then you don’t get better and they smoke you in races. Not smart.

It's also funny because no one on the team was then or is now doing daily 10 milers in under 60 minutes, which would be solid tempo run for many of them. It is a DIII program after all, and I'm not sure such a practice is even that common at the DI level: Among the DI runners I've known, most reported their daily pace hovered in the mid-6's with some days much slower.

8/8/22-8/14/22

Monday (12.3mi):

AM 60' Easy (7.6mi) + 6x100 strides

PM 35' Double (4.7mi)

Tuesday (12.9mi):

AM 20' WU, 6x800 @ T (2:41 avg.) off 60" jog, 20' CD (8.8mi)

PM 30' Double (4.1mi)

Wednesday: 60' Easy (8.2mi)

Thursday (13mi):

AM 60' Easy (8mi) + 6x100 strides

PM 35' Easy (5mi)

Friday (12mi):

AM 15' WU, 4mi M->T prog. (5:50-45-38-40), 15' CD (8mi)

PM 30' Double (4mi)

Saturday: 55' Easy (7.4mi) + 4x100 strides

Sunday: 95' Long (14.3mi)

Summary: 80.1mi off 4 doubles and 3 singles with 2 workouts

Finally got in a really solid week of training. Since my internship wrapped up, I'm headed down to Florida to visit my fiance and will be taking a down week accordingly. Mostly hour-long singles on deck next week with a couple light workouts to keep me feeling fresh. Hoping to stay healthy and keep putting in 75+ mile weeks once I head back to schools at the end of the month; it will only get easier once this oppressive weather breaks!

I'm amazed that this thread is still going, as a current JUCO runner I will be following your progress closely!

Thanks! In the past, I've grappled with the decision to keep the thread going, which has led to long bouts of radio silence. As a freshman, I first stopped posting because the coach told me the thread presented a poor view of the program and that if I wanted to share my training, it should be purely via non-anonymous platforms. I conceded at that point, primarily because I foolishly believed if I could just improve enough to be contributor, I might earn a spot on the roster. After running 15:47 as a sophomore and 32:49 as a junior (marks more than good enough to mix it up with the members of the team), it became clear to me that there had never been and would never be a place for me in the program.

Maybe I condemned myself by starting this thread, but I don't care anymore. If sharing my training on a running message board precludes me from making a roster, even when I have bettered the marks of those already on it, maybe that roster isn't worth being on.

I've already made my peace with being an unattached runner; my love for the sport far eclipses my lack of opportunity to compete on a varsity team. The goal is to keep up the weekly updates throughout my senior year. Even if I fall short of my sub-15 goal next spring, I will have wholly refuted the notion--that I would never be capable of scoring in the conference--put forward to me when I tried to walk-on freshman year.

You’ve already refuted that. Your 10k PR scores at conference (I know not all races are the same). College coaches are some of the most narrow minded people on the planet. Has to be done their way so they can feel like they earned it. Individuality is also discouraged so threads like this certainly count against you. I was bitter at mine for awhile but then I realized that most of them are pretty terrible and bad experiences are extremely common. Even if you run 15:20 it’ll be a huge accomplishment.

The coach may be an all right guy, but he had/has NO right to tell you what to post or not post if you are not on his team. This has been a fun thread to read, mostly due to the steady work and improvement, but also due to the real-life context proving you did in fact prove your point performance-wise.

And you don't need to stop running/chasing your goals just because you graduate. As long as the passion is there and it fits in with the rest of your life, keep getting after it.

Well this certainly did present a poor view of the program. F*ck that guy!

Good to see you continue to improve over the years. Adds a little bit of a chip on your shoulders to know you can beat the majority of the guys on the team too. I'm sure the team would've appreciated having you on the team considering they missed 4th by 2 points at regionals last year lol.

What a shame, Brandons, that you two missed the epitome of SCHOLAR-athlete.

if you plan to go to graduate school next year, you'd still have a year of eligibility. might be a nice way to cap the academic time by putting in a year on a college team (maybe even one that competes against WL). I just discovered this thread and want to congratulate you on your perseverance and integrity!

3 D's on your chin? I guess go for it if that's your thing