What is wrong with me??

What is the intense weight training 4 or 5 days? Is that assigned by your coach? I take it your contacted by college coach now and he has given you your workouts coming into college? I got two seniors just graduated H.S.. They both are on full scholarships to Div 1 schools. Both are at 53 to 63 MPW. Seems to be a slow upward build of 1000's. A slow upward build on length of tempo runs. Very slow upward build of mileage. Their in the pool a lot, but very minimum of any weight training. Food intake seems to be a huge major focus. Electrolytes, glycogens carbs etc. I don't know, when you said intense weight training 4 or 5 days...I just know that would take out both these young guys.

If you're lifting with your legs, then that may be the problem, so stop doing that. My advice is to do a week of very easy runs of 4-5 miles. And see if that freshens you up, if it doesn't, then do it for 2 or 3 weeks.

A lot of college coaches are not sympathetic with their athletes. If you think you need to take it easier then do it. Most coaches will stress the more the better, regardless of what an athlete actually needs.

Yes the weight training is assigned by my coach. We do a lot of squats deadlifts and plyometric stuff. We also workout our upper body just as much as legs.

There's nothing wrong with YOU.

Yes the weight training is assigned by my coach. We do a lot of squats deadlifts and plyometric stuff. We also workout our upper body just as much as legs.[/quote]

I don't mean to disagree with your coach, he probably has done this many times and has a method. Deadlifts and squats are large muscle group hits. To me these are scary lifts and I would want to be standing right next to you with these lifts, making sure you know exactly what your doing. IMHO these kind of lifts, at your young age, will kick your butt for the week. They may even shock your poor body constantly. I know we see the big boys doing some of these lifts, but I bet guys like ALSAL, brought them along very slowly over a very long period of time. This is just my opinion, but I would say this. Use your head and THINK. What if you were not running at all...would these large muscle group lifts, kick your butt all week. I feel certain the many guys targeting a 7.5 or 8 mile tempo at like 5:12 and repeat long intervals such as Kithukas 3000x2 2000x2 1000x2, or Ches's 10 x1000 with no deadlifts and squats, are a huge key. In my day you bench once a week that is way enough, you squat once a week or freakin deadlift once a week, with no running, you are hurtin all week. Maybe figure this out, you got to have your recovery to run. Maybe your reps, sets, weight, days in between, should way change. Think and go with your instincts. JMHO.

[quote]College runner4775 wrote:

My body feels like complete trash right now! In addition to that I have started sleeping almost 4 hours more than usual. I'm not really sure if I'm burned out,overtrained, etc/quote]

You need some rest. Do 1/4-1/3 of the schedule until you wake up rested for a couple of days in a row (not less!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and in whatever is a normal night of sleep for you.

You got to this place because you have increased both volume (number of hours/Kms) and intensity (distance + gym) and probably have no active rest options like massage.

You are going to have to use the coach's program as "guidelines" until your body can do his level of work. And yes, stay in the gym.

Wow- it's like I wrote this post myself. I'm in the exact same boat, but it's been very hot lately where I'm from. My coaches have told me that once the temperature goes back down, I'll be back to my old self, hopefully this is the case for you as well.

In the meantime, there's really no shame in slowing down your runs, reducing the tempos, dropping down the miles for a week or two, or something along those lines. My coach has actually suggested that I take it a bit easier for about 10 days, which will be helpful because there's a long season ahead, and a little bit of down time can help to keep you from getting burned out later in the racing season when it really matters. The way I see it, it's worth sacrificing a little bit of fitness to be able to run all season long without a slump or decline later on toward the championship season.

If you're an incoming freshman, then there could definitely be a transition period where you'll feel a little bogged down by the increased volume, especially if you've got tempos during your buildup. It happened to me, and I had a bit of a tough time at first, but it passed, and now 65 mile weeks (pretty standard on my team) are all in a day's work.

Don't get discouraged, there's still a lot of season left, and hopefully you live in a place where it'll be getting steadily cooler, which should help. Good luck!