How do I stop being so bad at the sport I train for every day?

you're running less MPW than the average top 3 or 4 teams at state in HS lol. bump up the miles a bit. but be smart.

You are young and naive. Your mentality is off.

Train. Improve whatever you can. Don't assume you are entitled to anything more.

Assuming you are a Freshman, don't worry. Its pretty common for freshman to struggle a little bit with the transition. An 28:00 8k is very reasonable for a 17:00 HS XC runner a year previous. You improved a second in the 800 as well. Study the sport, learn about training, injuries, etc, and be confident in your racing and training, and you will improve. You likely won't drop 8 seconds off your 800 or 2 minutes off your 8k in a year, but running is a sport where improvement is very incremental. If you consistently put in good/smart training, stay healthy, and stay positive, you will improve. Focus on the work, not the times. The times will come once you have everything else down.

You're getting hung up on how much better the accomplishments of others are compared to yours. You need to chill on that, and focus on improving your own abilities.

I run 1:51/4:06/24:40's and I get my butt kicked at just about any race worth running, and its the same for guys like Chris Derrick, Donn Cabral, and Cas Loxsom when they race in Europe.There's always a bigger fish, and if that prevents you from enjoying the sport then you're gonna have a tough time.

Here's my advice

1) Your progression over the years is pretty good. Going from 19:10 to 16:59 in 2 years is excellent, and for a college freshman who came in with 16:59/1:59 pr's, running 28:08 and 1:58 is a solid start. Take a breathe.

2) keep gradually increasing your mileage over the years, you'll be surprised how much better you'll preform running 65 mpw instead of 50.

3) 53 is decent for a distance runner, but that's more like a 54.x for the open 400. Your best bet is to keep gradually increasing your training volume and developing your potential at longer distances.

4) Enjoy your progress. If you run 1:57 you should be happy you pr'd, rather than dwelling on how the winner of the race ran so much faster than you. If you can't appreciate those small improvements, then maybe this sport isn't for you.

I'm not the OP, but I thought the response above is great. Very solid advice. Thanks for that.

I trained 75 mpw and never broke 32:30 for 10k. Of course on 40 mpw I couldn't break 35 minutes.

We're all limited to some extent by our natural ability.

Maybe 100 mpw would have gotten me under 32. I'll never know. I was satisfied to be a local class runner. Did well in the 30-39 age group.

What all the other have said is certainly valid. Your weekly mileage is just pretty low for someone running 28:00. I'm a college sophomore too, and our progressions are almost alarmingly similar, but I finished high school with a 5k XC pr almost a minute slower than you and 800 pr 5 seconds slower than you. 4:37 for mile. I ran 28:30 for freshman year, but I bumped mileage up from averaging 65 mpw during track to 75 mpw this summer, and I'm a 27:10 guy now. Keeping that consistent weekly mileage will really, really help you BUT ONLY if you're getting the sleep and good food to go along with it.

Consistency over a LONG time is what will get you to the fast times that you want. There will be some seriously tiring weeks. My coach always pushes us to do as many miles as we can and still feel rested for the workouts. sometimes you cross than line, and that's another datapoint for you to work with on your training.

So take a step back, look and how far you've come, and run more miles.