To provide some background information, 2 years ago my school won sectionals. Everyone ran under 16:30 at least once, it was accepted as normal and everything else would have been bad. Last year we lost almost everybody, except for one guy who ran 16:10, I was injured. This year has gotten even worse, I'm our fastest at 16:55 and i've been out for about 2.5 weeks due to another injury. No one else is under 17. Our coach seems somewhat apathetic towards this, and says that our poor performance stems from our mindset. I hope its not this, and I think it may be our training instead (which I really hope because its much easier to change)
Here are my PRs
1600: 4:37
3200: 10:00
5000: 16:55
All of these were set in spring when we had a different coach who trained us more scientifically (Vo2 max, economy runs, lactic threshold) rather than emptying workouts we are doing now i.e. 5 300s fast but under control (no times are given, we just go as fast as we like and try not to die) and an all out mile at the end.
My main question is is it truly my mindset? I feel like I exemplify the metaphorical "wannabe distance god" but I can't tell, or is it training. I know this question is long winded and is more psychological than running related, but I do not want to be struggling to run mid 17s for the rest of the season as I watch the rest of my team accept even worse times. Any recommendations are welcome, and for those who take their time to respond you are helping me more than you know.