My gooodness. When did the NCAA start letting teams take pre-season altitude trips?

Littledarkage wrote:

Even little D2 Adams state does extended stays at at altitude. And thats going way back to the 70s!

Ummmm.....they live at altitude.

I quit my D2 college xc team in Florida because the coach wouldn't send me to Iten, Kenya the summer before xc for me to train properly.

I told him the highest point in Florida was just 345' and this wasn't high enough to turn me into the aerobic beast of a runner I was capable of. Needless to say, I had to quit on principle and other disagreements in training methods.

Who knows what level I could have reached?

T.M.A.D.D.D.H.A.S.F.N.E.

rojo I assume you are referring to the length of the camp as it's common to take a week trip prior to classes starting.

You gotta think increased budget has something to do with this, as taking 17 athletes for 3 weeks is quite pricey. The level of college running and the coolness factor will increase if this becomes common practice.

Sesamoiditis wrote:

Doesn't Iowa state spend all fall in Flagstaff training and taking online courses?

Martin Smith used to pay one of the OU guys each year in extra scholarship to rent a team house in Flag for the summer.

kmaclam wrote:

Littledarkage wrote:

Even little D2 Adams state does extended stays at at altitude. And thats going way back to the 70s!

Ummmm.....they live at altitude.

Yeah but ur body adjusts and altitude feels like sea level...so they go train around 10,000 feet in leadville so that they can feel altitude benefits again

West Coast schools don't even start classes until late September, but they don't get out until June. Anyways, altitude trips have been going on since at least the early 2000s. I just read Jock by Robert Coe, in which he divulged that Stanford has been doing 5 or 6 week pre xc season altitude trips to Mammoth Lakes before xc.

When OK state was good, there was an article about their athletes taking online classes to train at altitude and not even joining the team on campus until October.

Littledarkage wrote:

Even little D2 Adams state does extended stays at at altitude. And thats going way back to the 70s!

Adams State does altitude stays! Tell me it isn't so! How could they ever afford it! Next you'll be telling me that CU goes to altitude.

not what it's for wrote:

kmaclam wrote:

I would think now that many of these schools football programs are bringing in millions more than ever, that these trips are even more prevalent.

Why? The football revenue doesn't need to be re-invested in XC trips.

Maybe you’ve never been involved in a Div 1 program with a successful football team - if football is doing well, it’s milkshakes all round

My goodness, Rojo!

rojo wrote:

We've released half of our NCAA xc previews today and I noticed this in our women's preview.

Jonathan Gault wrote:

The Huskies are just wrapping up a block of altitude training in Colorado Springs (UW doesn’t start classes until September 25), which served as a journey into the unknown for everyone involved. Coach Maurica Powell took her Oregon teams to Sunriver, Ore., (4,100 feet) for preseason camp, but taking a group this big (17 women) this high (6,000 feet) for this long (three weeks) is virgin territory.

When did trips like that start being allowed?

Imagine the cost of a trip like that.

Women's Preview:

https://www.letsrun.com/news/2019/09/2019-ncaa-womens-xc-preview-10-michigan-state-through-6-washington/

Men's Preview:

https://www.letsrun.com/news/2019/09/2019-ncaa-mens-xc-season-preview-mens-teams-10-portland-through-6-notre-dame/

The cost of that trip is likely about the same as it would be to house the team on campus for that period of time. The only extra cost is travel to and from, which is pretty negligible for a program with UW's resources. I think it's a great idea.

I saw the U of Texas Longhorns training in Park City/Deer Valley UT, during the weekend of August 15-18; some said they were there the whole week.

Get your head out of Fox News and stop it with these questions. Teams take these bonding trips to camps all the time. U of O is in Sunriver or Bend, smoke permitting, most summers. FSU goes to Zap’s camp. Basketball teams go overseas!!

Rojo…

MY GOODNESS!!!

Didn't Jack Daniels take a Cortland squad to Colorado (Durango? Alamosa?) in the mid to late 80's for training? I seem to remember them running a relay across the country on the way back from the West?

JTD-Care to chime in with details?

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MY GOOOOOOOODNESS!!!

Mid 2000s, went to preseason training with my mid major d1 team.

Regarding the cost: we rented out a youth hostel that slept up to 40 people. We had to take turns making the food in the kitchen. We used the school owned vans, it was a drive of a few hours.

I dont know the exact cost, but if I had to guess, it was probably under 10k for the 5 days.

joedirt wrote:

A lot of teams have "camp" before the season to get things going early. Some are on campus, others are off campus. I ran for two D1 schools, both had a week long camp before the official NCAA start of the season (one on campus, the other off campus at a camp in the woods 60 miles away). One year a number of the guys got together on their own and went and trained at 12,000' for two weeks prior to the camp. This was 20 years ago. Washington has the Rainsberger connection (her mom runs the Kokopelli running club in Colorado Springs and they put on camps in the summer up in Frisco at 9500', so there is probably a tie in there). It was probably elective and athletes might have had to pay, so it is tough to draw conclusions with limited knowledge of the facts.

If I had money I would bet your name is Craig

OMG, did someone say MY GOODNESS?!?!?!?!?