My past 4 races have been considerably slower than usual and teammates that I almost always beat have been beating me. Why is this happening?
My past 4 races have been considerably slower than usual and teammates that I almost always beat have been beating me. Why is this happening?
Take your pick:
Lack of sleep
Didn't run over summer. If you did run it was probably too fast and hit intervals too early in the season.
More talented athletes a getting in shape.
Jerking off too much.
School work has you stressed.
You care, but not enough to do the little things like ice baths, stretching, etc. EVERY DAY.
You miss too much practice.
It's not your fault. Your coach sucks.
You're overtrained.
You're burnt out mentally.
You are weak.
Your looking four excuses
because u didnt train enough
Probably over trained and under rested. Have you taken a day off lately? Jog slowly for a few days on grass. Next workout, do not run it hard, and probably cut some of it out (reduce the volume) if you can get away with that. Finally, go out at the pace you want to average for your race, any faster and you will set yourself up for struggling the 2nd half of the race. You will be behind a lot of people, but they will come back as they tire.
That happened to me a couple of years ago. It turned out that I had low ferritin (iron). After a few weeks of supplements, I was once again beating the people I was supposed to beat. I didn't change anything else (rest, diet, workouts), just the iron.
But there could be a lot of reasons, as the other posters mentioned.
very often runners start cutting mileage when the season starts. Say they run 50 mpw all summer...then they get into the competitive season and all of a sudden they drop to 35-40. They think it's ok because of the added quality workouts...but it's not. They slow all season.
Same for track.
It's probably my #1 problem with high school cross countrry coaching.
your hate flow is blocked
you are now a whiner
run on hate
hate your competitors
don't be angry
just a calm hate, pure hate