I've been an avid runner since before High School, I really loved the feeling of consistent improvement that comes with hard work. Last track season was the peak of my High School running career, running 4:40 in the mile and 10:30 in the 2 mile before I incurred a mysterious leg injury before my league meet that caused me to redshirt for the rest of the season.
This last Cross Country season was pretty awful, I wasn't running nearly as much mileage as I should have been because I was afraid of getting injured again and as a result my best performance was a 16:20 on a course about 2.98 miles in length, and then slowing down to a 17:15 on a 3 mile course at my league meet. Pitiful results.
Now, after going hard over the winter off season, reaching mileage upwards of 70 mpw with a 14 mile long run on the weekends, I'm afraid I have the exact same injury that put me out of the season my Junior year. I'm taking off the first week or so of practice and going to start back up easy again but my question is this;
Is it really even worth it anymore? I love the sport and all, but my coach can be a real dick and my team is so small (only about 3 competitive runners on it) that I don't feel like I would be leaving much behind. I'm the 1st/2nd guy on the team and my buddy who is also the 1st/2nd guy on the team told me that if he was accepted into a certain college that didn't have a running team, he would outright quit.
This makes me think seriously about my situation; I have almost a full scholarship to a pretty good school off of academics alone, I have a recurring injury, and my coach is a real ass. Is it worth it to fight through to the end? I'm not so sure anymore.
Thanks for your help in advance.