Fortitude 365Helping Athletes, Coaches, and Teams Perform!

Youth sport vs. the Next Level

9 Sept 2026 · 1 min

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In this first‑person monologue, a former Notre Dame track athlete explains that the key distinction between high‑school and Division I training lies not in the exercises themselves but in the underlying purpose. In high school, the athlete chased exhaustion, equating soreness and breathlessness with effort. In college, each session was deliberately programmed—some to stress the body, others to facilitate recovery—aimed at optimizing race‑day performance. The speaker emphasizes that sleep, nutrition, strength work, and mobility are as vital as the workouts, and that the most successful athletes are those who balance pushing and recovering while trusting a structured plan, rather than attempting to give 100 % every day.

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I ran track at the University of Notre Dame for 4 years, and the biggest difference between how I trained in high school versus Division 1 wasn't what we did, it was why we did it. When I was in high school, I thought every practice had to leave me completely exhausted. If I wasn't gasping for air at the end or sore all the time, I felt like I hadn't worked out hard enough. In college, every workout had a purpose. Some days were meant to push me, other days were meant to help me recover. We weren't trying to set PRs at practice, we were trying to be our fastest on race day. Sleep, nutrition, lifting, mobility, Those became just as important as the workouts themselves. Athletes who improve the most aren't the ones who go 100% every single day. They're the ones who know when to push, when to recover, and how to trust the plan.