17:57 3 mile in the summer, nowhere close during the season.

Get your blood tested for 3 things.

Anemia :

CBC

& Serum ferritin

Lyme disease

Mono

asdfasdfasdfasdf wrote:

I'm a freshman boy and I've noticed that my 5k times that I've ran during the XC season have not been too fast compared to the times that I was running in the summer. I ran 17:57 for 3 mile in the summer, but the times I've been running at the meets have been pretty inconsistent. So far my best is an 18:49 that I ran last week, but my previous meets have varied from the 19's to the low 20's. I'm curious as to why my times haven't dropped. I've also noticed that people that I can usually beat or stick with in practice finish often 30 seconds ahead of me. Perhaps it's mental? Maybe I need to switch up my race strategy?

3 mile you ran was short.

It sounds like your times are dropping it just took a little longer than the others.

You haven't told us about your race strategy so we can't advise you about it.

Was the 17:57 on the road? Was it properly measured?

Running on grass and/or dirt is slower than asphalt.

Looking at the courses my kids run on, many XC courses seem to have lots of shape and unnecessary turns that can also slow you down.

Stop racing your workouts.

a few things that come to mind:

you ran that time trial over summer on flat fast surface and you are now running cc courses

another is that maybe you were actually faster over the summer becasue you were running alot more and not sacrificing mileage for racing

Or your coach doesnt know what he doing and you are running like crap cause you are running 20% or more of your weekly mileage at a very high level

My advice, slow it down and take a day off before a race and see what happens

So much good advice so far. And there are so many variables when it comes to training, racing, and life.

I just wanted to throw one more thing out there. Progress is not linear. Definitely check out all the other things suggested, but it is possible you are in a slump and will bounce back big time in the future. Be open to that. But also know that you might need to change some things (training, recovery, outlook, etc.) to make it happen.

asdfasdfasdfasdf wrote:

I'm a freshman boy and I've noticed that my 5k times that I've ran during the XC season have not been too fast compared to the times that I was running in the summer. I ran 17:57 for 3 mile in the summer, but the times I've been running at the meets have been pretty inconsistent. So far my best is an 18:49 that I ran last week, but my previous meets have varied from the 19's to the low 20's. I'm curious as to why my times haven't dropped. I've also noticed that people that I can usually beat or stick with in practice finish often 30 seconds ahead of me. Perhaps it's mental? Maybe I need to switch up my race strategy?

Pussitis. Look It Up. No Cure. Join Marching Band.

Stop racing your workouts

has your mileage dropped?

sometimes people run say 40 miles per week in the summer, then their mileage drops when the season starts because of tapering for races and more quality.

many runners would benefit from more miles rather than running more 800 repeats.

Stop racing your recovery runs.

You're soft

yea my 3 mile was timed on the road, but i don't think that it was short

i was hitting about 35 miles per week, but I'm probably only doing 25-30 now during the season.

as for race strategy, it's usually to sit back and wait to make a move. maybe i should just go hard from the gun?

also, what do you guys mean when you say to not race the workouts?

Freshman where at where college or hs. Do Americans have a mental block on giving their age!

asdfasdfasdfasdfasdf wrote:

i was hitting about 35 miles per week, but I'm probably only doing 25-30 now during the season.

boom

look you may have to talk to your coach about getting your mileage up toward 40. it's an injury risk obviously, but in my history, cutting mileage is the #1 reason for running slower. I saw it a lot, especially among distance runners movign from XC into indoor track. They would be their fittest in the fall running 50 mpw, then once track started they dropped mileage to 35 and never ran as fast again. I think many track coaches should just do xc training all year round.

as for dropping mileage,

Just seems to me the body will 'think' it can relax aerobically if you start running less. And xc all is all aerobics. But that's just my thinking, not based on science.