Upset and Confused about my 5k ?!!?

You're right. If you are a college runner, you should be training at that speed.

Dont be discouraged, just an off day. There's a reason it doesn't make sense to you, enjoy the process

Why do you feel the need to race right now? Read the summer of Malmo. Start there.

I get a summer road race on 4th of July or something. And we always ran Wharf to Wharf. But we never took these seriously... I mean we ran hard but never beat ourselves up over any of it. Like XC every course is different. Unless you run these year to year you just don't know how they compare.

You're a girl right?

If you're in college why are you racing out of season? Your "speed" workouts shouldn't be anything more than tempo/fartlek-- if you even do "speed" at all in June. Bizarre.

Settle in to base mileage. Run hills and do strides. Put that stuff behind you. You should not be racing expecting to PR. Only reason I could see jumping into a road race right now is as a workout. Not 100% expecting to PR.

Hunter S. wrote:

My coach said "speed takes a couple months to pay off. The first 2 to 4 weeks you are worn down because you just started your training."

Is that true? I just don't get why I did so much betterback when I was in zero shape, and now with all the training I did, I did worse at my 5k. I'm so discouraged.

No, that's not true. You should never go backwards once starting speedwork. If you do, then you are overtraining. How many days off do you take per week? What pace are your non-workout days? Maybe you should take an additional day off or back way off of your pace on easy days.

Since you were faster when you weren't training as heavily, that reinforces the possibility that you are overtraining.

You should never be "worn down".

Why are you running road races now and why are you doing speedwork? Are you running cross in the fall?

You're probably burned out. You should be working on your base. It's a long summer.

couple reasons why this might happen.

1. The first 5k race you ran was a faster course, or shorter than 5k

2. The 2nd race you ran was longer than 5k, or a slower/hillier course

3. You might just have been a little fatigued from your workouts, and thus weren't as fresh for the race.

4. You had an off day

If your workouts have been getting progressively better then I wouldn't worry about it.

Don't over-analyze summer races. Look at your training log, make sure you aren't overtraining, and just keep plugging away.

Summer races should either be workouts, or hard efforts w/ no pressure or expectations attached.

I suppose you are right. My coach has us do races each month of the summer and I am bad when it comes to being resilient and positive.

We should be treating these races as workouts, I'm just an obsessive overtrainer (aren't all runners) who is very, very impatient.

I need to work on that.

Hey Hunter. Don't you have another thread going here also? It sounds like maybe you just worry a little too much. You've got a coach. Let him do his job. Maybe you could find a hobby or something to distract you from running on your off time.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=6602682

I run hills every day. not like hill repeats every day, but I make my routes hilly because I think hills are very good. But is there a such thing as too many hills?

How often can I do my hilly routes?

You are right. I obsess way too much and should just let my coach do his coaching. Worrying too much will only bring my performance down.

are you a guy or girl?

I am a girl

You won't PR in every race and you definitely should not PR in the middle of the summer. You should not be racing hard year round.

You ran faster May 15 because you were rested and coming off a peak.

You should not be doing a ton of speedwork right now either, especially not "a few times a week" (plus racing?).

Your once a month summer race should be a benchmark, not a peak performance.

You said you're doing a Jack Daniels plan? I assume you have the book, so I recommend you read more of it (and other running books) as there is more to training, resting and racing than you seem to understand as of right now..