Was I screwed before I was even born?

You screwed yourself thinking you can only 25-30 miles per week. And now you're screwing yourself again by giving up so easily. There's no rule against running 60 miles a week. Try it some time. Take a risk.

But maybe some people were born with a low IQ, so maybe you were screwed before you were born.

Speaker of Hard Truths wrote:

You screwed yourself thinking you can only 25-30 miles per week. And now you're screwing yourself again by giving up so easily. There's no rule against running 60 miles a week. Try it some time. Take a risk.

But maybe some people were born with a low IQ, so maybe you were screwed before you were born.

There aren't rules against running 60 miles a week, but not when you have never gone above the 20 mpw range before.

Summer to freshman year, and during the following XC and track seasons, I never ran more than 15-20 mpw.

What you suggested would have gotten me injured.

So, could you answer the main question instead of saying garbage?

60 isn't the magic number, maybe you would benefit from an increase in training volume. Running better mid season compared to the season's end is a completely different thing from talent. Maybe it was a bad race due to stress, lack of sleep, or poor preparation.

On the talent side of things - we all fall somewhere on the talent spectrum (we're not all going to win the Olympics), and as a competitive runner you have to come to terms with that.

Everyone can develop considerably over time but most people with minimal talent take years to build up to a level that makes them think they have actually reached their potential.

You will have to think beyond your school years and decide if it's worthwhile to hammer away until you are in your mid thirties.

That's how long it took me.

They can operate on children before they are born but screwing them is expressly forbidden.

There is no gene for DECREASING your fitness halfway through the season. You did something wrong. Diet or not recovering well or bad training, etc.

I would also consider other sports. If you are running 25 miles a week while they are running 15 but doing a bunch of other sports (swimming, basketball, soccer etc.) there summer training might be a little bit better.

As to the 60 miles a week is too much: Buy the ticket, take the ride see where it takes you. You don't know it is too much until you try.

I summed up your problem in your other post.

JuniorRunner wrote:

So on my team, many of the guys do barely any summer mileage. They run about 3 days a week, which is IMO very minimal for improvement.

Last summer (going into 10th grade): 25-30 mpw per week, ran 5-6 days/week for 12 weeks

You would have expected I would have been one of the lead runners on the team... nope.

I peaked mid-season and ran worse during the season's end (no injuries), while nearly everyone else set PRs at the final meet.

I know I did the work, so only thing I can think of is my genetic capabilities. Considering none in my family were good at sports, was I already screwed before I even began running?

prooooof wrote:

There is no gene for DECREASING your fitness halfway through the season. You did something wrong. Diet or not recovering well or bad training, etc.

Being a delicate flower is genetic.

not sure about you, but your mom definitely was.

25mpw isn't much different than 10mpw. neither require massive adaptations to take place.

If you want to improve and want some advice on doing so, you're in the right place. But there are so many factors that go into being a good runner and getting such and such out of training. Keep your head up! Way too much pressure to be putting on yourself for only being a high school underclassman!

Maybe you are an under-responder relative to your teammates. But there are so many qualifications to that. Especially in high school, people physically mature at different rates, so the verdict may be still out on your response to training (different response may not be related to your outright genetic ceiling but just different stages of maturity). I mean, look at your peers, they're getting facial hair at different rates, for example, and probably up to your age, people were growing (heightwise and musclewise) at different rates.

Maybe you're not getting enough rest and not recovering well from workouts. Maybe what works for your teammates doesn't work for you. There are so many things. You ought to be looking for "solutions" and not bringing yourself down. You're way too young for that and that's too early of an age to be not getting value, excitement, love and enjoyment out of your running.

Your solid work ethic will make up for much of it in the long run. It's more fun that way, anyhow.

You may also be a little over-trained compared to your more-rested teammates. Be patient and keep up your training; I expect you will catch up even this year.

Also, oh behalf of all of normal humanity, I apologize for most of the responses on this thread so far. Don't take it to heart; these message boards are full of sociopaths, and you should just ignore them.

You might just be a strength based runner while your teammates are speed based. Strength based runners need mileage to improve, 25-30 mpw assuming you've been running for at least a year isn't a whole lot.

FWIW I never broke 21 in HS because at the time I didn't care enough about running to actually train properly (I was mainly doing XC and track because my parents forced me to do an EC), and my coach didn't push the team very hard, but after graduating I started to actually like running and went from 20 to 50 miles per week on my own doing a slow build up. Three years later I'm now a low 16 5k guy and can run a HM at a pace that I used to be barely able to handle for a single mile.

JuniorRunner wrote:

So on my team, many of the guys do barely any summer mileage. They run about 3 days a week, which is IMO very minimal for improvement.

Last summer (going into 10th grade): 25-30 mpw per week, ran 5-6 days/week for 12 weeks

You would have expected I would have been one of the lead runners on the team... nope.

I peaked mid-season and ran worse during the season's end (no injuries), while nearly everyone else set PRs at the final meet.

I know I did the work, so only thing I can think of is my genetic capabilities. Considering none in my family were good at sports, was I already screwed before I even began running?

Dude, do you tell everyone on your team you run 25-30 miles in the summer? or perhaps do you lie and say you do the same as them? ,,, I bet a fair number of ppl on the team say they run 3 times a week because it sounds "cooler" and everyone else is saying it.

You have no idea how much they run in the summer.

You Are What You Is wrote:

Your solid work ethic will make up for much of it in the long run. It's more fun that way, anyhow.

How could you know this? Have you had the opportunity to experience both extremes?

It would probably actually be the most fun to be gifted like Bekele AND work as if you had no talent at all, don't you think?

So after your sophomore season ended you could have upped your mileage 10% a week and hit 60 so you stop talking garbage.

JuniorRunner wrote:

Speaker of Hard Truths wrote:

You screwed yourself thinking you can only 25-30 miles per week. And now you're screwing yourself again by giving up so easily. There's no rule against running 60 miles a week. Try it some time. Take a risk.

But maybe some people were born with a low IQ, so maybe you were screwed before you were born.

There aren't rules against running 60 miles a week, but not when you have never gone above the 20 mpw range before.

Summer to freshman year, and during the following XC and track seasons, I never ran more than 15-20 mpw.

What you suggested would have gotten me injured.

So, could you answer the main question instead of saying garbage?

JuniorRunner wrote:

... was I already screwed before I even began running?

Yes.