What is the value of running meets in poor conditions (40F & rain) early in the year (northeast USA)? Is it worthwhile to enter all the normal events or is it too risky? I ask because it seems questionable to run in these “nobody cares” meets in terrible conditions whenever in a month it will be 80 degrees. Is it just a tough-guy thing that we should compete the regularly contested events or is it actually beneficial in some way? Thoughts?
Goes back to my short to long thread, if you are working with d3 athletes then i think they must run even if its not there reg event, 100m guys run 200, 200 guys run 400 etc.
Funny to read this after my team competed in 40 and rain yesterday afternoon. I am in Seattle. If we waited for good weather, our season would probably begin on May 15 and end with the state meet one week later. 
Do you enter all their normal events and blast away? I ask mainly because my best long jumper ever basically ended his season several years ago jumping in one of these freeze-fests.
Thank you, athletes and coaches need to toughen up.
I also coach at the HS level in Seattle. We’ve had district and state meets in May that were 60 degrees and rainy. Yesterdays meet was 43 and rain.
We emphasize lots of clothing/layers and thorough warmups. A lot of our kids wear full length tights and shirts under their singlets/shorts for the entire season. For practice we warmup in the gym on really bad days. During day long invitationals we’ll utilize the gyms or hallways of the host school if they are open for a place to escape the weather and stay warm and stretch. A couple times we’ve even kept our bus open with the heater running as a place to get out of the weather. I basically yell at the athletes if they aren’t putting their warm clothes on a few minutes after their race.
You just learn to live with it. At least the sprinters don’t have to deal with wet pits and cold sand like the jumpers do.
good tips but i think hes asking is it worth even racing in bad conditions…
it is worth it, running a certain number of meets is required to peak for the main competition.
Thats my point. They could always PR in there meet, like TC athletes.
I guess I’ve never had to question worth as it’s basically necessary due to our unpredictable climate and short season. We need to get races in so we do everything we can to minimize the effects of the cold/rain.
If I had the option of a longer season and guaranteed better weather around the corner then I probably would hold off racing as long as possible.
I totally agree with you…
Nobody toughens up by getting used to running like shit. You should compete where you can get a result OR if it’s a key meet where you absolutely must. It’s like the argument about constantly hitting your head with a hammer just in case someone dings you at a meet.
If your early meets are crap where you are- try to get to where you aren’t!
For example, in the old days, our indoor facility closed Mar 15th- that just isn’t good enough in Toronto (currently 1d C or 34F). We sometimes got in a meet at a training camp over spring break or we waited for something decent a bit later. We could still do SE work but the consequences of the conditions were not ingrained into the minds of the athletes.
Also keep in mind, the bigger the meet, the more adrenaline you have and the faster you can go in the prevailing copnditions. In HS, our kids often opened up at the Mansfield relays, which were often cold (sometimes high 40sF to low 50sF) but a big event for them.
Ben ran there once in HS and cleaned up- and wondered how he ran only 11.1 - until he realised that they started the race from the 110h mark.
There is a meet this weekend and its supposed to be between 20- 30 degrees. Wind chill probably way under that. And there is usually a headwind at the meet as well. Sounds like a fun time huh? I wonder if they will let us run with gloves on.
CF thats all great but coaches in the states working at small schools cant always wait till later bc later may be too late. Tell this to the coaches who season starts on march 29 and there conference meet is on april 19-20.
Ben’s 11.1 110m was his opener. Depends where you are but one place you better not be is in the clinic with an injury. See Dr Sprint’s post above for a perfect example of when to give it a miss.
LOL, i had my fair share of injuries this season. once again if you only have three meets the coach may not have a choice.