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Over-competing

  • 13-11-2011 10:05am
    #1
    Pisco Sour
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,029 ✭✭✭


    One of the coaches in my club last season competed in 96 events over the 13 track meets. This season he is picking up where he left off and has averaged about 7 events in each of the first 4 meets. In one of the meets, he did 9 of the 11 events on the programme (everything bar the Hurdles and the Walk). So in the space of 3 hours he did, 100m, 400m, 1500m, 5000m, 4x100m relay, Pole Vault, Long Jump, High Jump, Discus.

    He's seen as a great in the club with his attitude of getting as many points for the club as possible. At times I wonder am I the only one who thinks he is stone nuts, and is risking doing himself long term damage.

    He's in his late 40's, and is a newcommer to the sport. Only involved for around 5 years now. His PB's are quite strong in many events (59 for 400m, 5:01 for the mile, 3:15ish for marathon), but is this need to compete in so many events detrimental to ones health? Likewise, is the need for somebody to hit 100 marathons healthy?


Comments

  • #2
    RoyMcC
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,567 ✭✭✭RoyMcC


    This is in Oz, right? I think it's brilliant to have a guy so in love with his sport and obviously his clubmates think so too.

    He's taken up athletics at a pretty advanced age and obviously wants to make the most of every opportunity whilst he can. Clearly he can't do all those events to the max - if he was training and competing hard in each he'd be an ambulance case waiting to happen. But it's quite possible to cruise through some events, have just one or two trials in the field events for example, and just be nicely tired at the end of the day.

    He's an example to coaches that typecast athletes into just one or two events too early in their careers. You'll never get bored at a meet if you're an all-rounder.


  • #3
    RacoonQueen
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 20,366 Mod ✭✭✭✭RacoonQueen


    04072511 wrote: »
    One of the coaches in my club last season competed in 96 events over the 13 track meets. This season he is picking up where he left off and has averaged about 7 events in each of the first 4 meets. In one of the meets, he did 9 of the 11 events on the programme (everything bar the Hurdles and the Walk). So in the space of 3 hours he did, 100m, 400m, 1500m, 5000m, 4x100m relay, Pole Vault, Long Jump, High Jump, Discus.

    He's seen as a great in the club with his attitude of getting as many points for the club as possible. At times I wonder am I the only one who thinks he is stone nuts, and is risking doing himself long term damage.

    Is he going all out in them though? I suppose the beauty of a lot of track events is that you can recover from one enough within say half an hour/an hour and give another one a decent shot.
    04072511 wrote: »
    He's in his late 40's, and is a newcommer to the sport. Only involved for around 5 years now. His PB's are quite strong in many events (59 for 400m, 5:01 for the mile, 3:15ish for marathon), but is this need to compete in so many events detrimental to ones health? Likewise, is the need for somebody to hit 100 marathons healthy?

    Most people who do 100 marathons run most of them very slowly, compared to what they're able for. If you're doing 24 miles in training anyway - does the extra 2 and a bit really make that much difference if you're doing it at LSR pace? Everyone has different opinions on it, but we were told yesterday that we could do Rotterdam and then still give Cork a fair shot 6 weeks later. Couple of years ago I would have loved to set 100 marathons as a target - more so because long runs suited me in training and I wasn't able for the intensive sessions. Now I can handle the intensive sessions, hitting 100 marathons is the last thing on my mind. Have run marathons with some of the 100 marathon club and sure some of them walk big chunks of them. Some would argue it doesn't count if you're going to walk half of it.

    One's he not getting injured or rundown there's not really an issue. Is he still hitting big pb's in everything, thats all part of the fun when you're competing all over the shop.


  • #4
    robinph
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 24,147 Mod ✭✭✭✭robinph


    ...or is he doing all the events so that he knows what each of them actually require and can then better identify the talent in whoever he is coaching.



    Nah, probably not. He will just enjoy what he's doing.


  • #5
    Pisco Sour
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,029 ✭✭✭Pisco Sour


    Well yeh, he obviously very much enjoys all aspects of the sport which is great. But I still think squeezing in too much into a programme may not be healthy. He's not going all out in them all, but that's because he's usually bolloxed after the first few events. It's quite funny at times, he'll literally be running from one event to the other to make it in time. How he has the energy I do not know. :)


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