Do we start and finish our track & field season too early?

Oiriallach

The track & field season here in Ireland currently runs from April to August. I think it would be better weather-wise if it ran from May to September instead - i.e. put everything back a month. There is one big difficulty, however, which would make such a change difficult. That is the desirability of having the universities' and schools' competitions finished before the exams start.

What do others think?

Oiriallach

I posted this in the Training Logs sub-forum by mistake. Perhaps it could be moved to the main forum?

<mod>Done</mod>

Chivito550

Oiriallach wrote: »

The track & field season here in Ireland currently runs from April to August. I think it would be better weather-wise if it ran from May to September instead - i.e. put everything back a month. There is one big difficulty, however, which would make such a change difficult. That is the desirability of having the universities' and schools' competitions finished before the exams start.

What do others think?

This season is a funny season. Nationals are end of June, and there's a big lull after, before meets in the last 3 weeks of July. August is a complete write off unless you are 1) a master or 2) your club has qualified for league final and will pick you to compete. But most seasons Nationals will be either late July or early August.

The season here tends to be May, June, July, with usually very little in August. I think the bulk of the season should be June, July, August, as the weather is too cold in May these days it seems. Conditions just aren't favourable for running fast times (certainly in sprints anyway) in May.

Having said all that, as I like to go to the major championships each year, which are always in August, I like to have my season finished before then, so if there were meets going into late August, early September, I probably wouldn't be running them anyway.

Oiriallach

I guess that, besides school and university exams, the timing of the National Seniors (a few weeks before the start of the European/World Champs each year) is another reason for leaving the season as it is. If we were to shift the season to be a month later to more closely match the "good" weather, it might be hard to generate much interest in competitions after the National Seniors. We would need another big domestic competition in late August or September for athletes to aim towards.

El Caballo

Oiriallach wrote: »

I guess that, besides school and university exams, the timing of the National Seniors (a few weeks before the start of the European/World Champs each year) is another reason for leaving the season as it is. If we were to shift the season to be a month later to more closely match the "good" weather, it might be hard to generate much interest in competitions after the National Seniors. We would need another big domestic competition in late August or September for athletes to aim towards.

I suppose from a distance runner perspective, you start to get seasons clashing with each other with no breaks between XC and Track if you move out the track season to September. XC is a long enough season as it is for distance runners and when you add in a later track season, it becomes May to February for racing. Really doesn't play into the hands of peaking.

Chivito550

El Caballo wrote: »

I suppose from a distance runner perspective, you start to get seasons clashing with each other with no breaks between XC and Track if you move out the track season to September. XC is a long enough season as it is for distance runners and when you add in a later track season, it becomes May to February for racing. Really doesn't play into the hands of peaking.

Well if the track started and finished a month later, then so would XC, so there would be no change from that regard. The reality is that May is colder than it used to be and October is warmer than it once was. Whether that's climate change or just weather patterns I don't know, but May in Ireland is not ideal for fast running. Seems like a complete waste to have August with no meets. In the UK they have track meets all the way until the end of September.

BeepBeep67

There's also a legacy in Ireland mainly due to production facilities downing tools for the first 2 weeks in August, that August is holiday month, you only have to look at the prices.