I had a successful freshman year of xc and track. I'll gloss it over, but set a course record on local frosh xc course and ran 51.8 (relay split), 1:58, and 4:19 (4-8-16) as my PRs in track. Over the summer in July, I was feeling constantly fatigued and learned that I had had mono a few weeks before, but it was gone by then. However, symptoms can apparently persist for longer than the disease lasts.
The reason why I decided to get tested in the first place was because starting in June, I began to feel very tired, and started to nap after practices, especially on the weekend. Before this, I literally never napped, period. Although the mono has now been "gone" (I assume that means I am not contagious anymore???) for around 10 months, I still often feel the urge to nap during the day, and feel more fatigued than I used to.
I worry about this only because I have not had the same success in my sophomore year that I enjoyed during my previous year running. I did not run 5Ks my freshman year, so I'll make track comparisons. Through winter season, which my state has, my fastest times were 53s (ish), 1:59 high, and 4:26 high. These are faster than my freshman winter PRs of 55s, 2 flat, and 4:41, but did not match my spring season from the year before. I have only just began my spring, but opened poorly at the Arcadia Invit with a 2:02 in the 4*800 and a 4:34 (after going out in 58s. Oops) in the DMR. Today I ran 4:41 in a dual meet, my slowest race since another awful dual meet a year ago, and felt awful. In all these races I feel as if I don't have the same energy to make a decisive move, or kick, that I can remember having when I think about my best races in the past.
I remember last year running 4:31 in spring, a new PR, and being congratulated. In my head, though, I knew I could've run faster. Now, I run those times and slower, and feel like garbage. I followed up that 4:31 race a few weeks later with a big PR in 4:24. My next race, another PR, 4:19. I ran two more miles after that (4:22 a week later, then 4:29 two weeks later at frosh nationals. I think mono had begun by that time in the season).
I honestly don't know if mono is the issue, though. During frosh xc, I ran 30-35mpw, and stepped up a bit during track, but I doubt I ever ran more than 40mpw. My longest run ever was 8 miles, which I only ran a handful of times. However, beginning with summer xc training, I ran far more. During peak xc season I ran 50mpw (estimated). I ran similar distances in track and have been continuing to do so. Today my coach and I decided to tone down training a bit, so training could also be a cause of my lack of improvement.
Nutrition-wise, and lifting-wise (from none my frosh year to mainly core work this year) I have only improved since last year, so I don't see those things being an issue. Another possible issue is that frankly, I am not very mentally tough as a runner, and that could play into how I feel. I doubt that explains everything though.
I only began to consider mono as the underlying cause here when my freshman coach told me that his sister took a full year to fully recover. I read further today, and read of people who took a very long time to fully recover. However others seemed to recover fully in only a few weeks or months, and the effects seem less severe in teenagers.
Could mono be my issue here? Is a long recovery period common? What can I do about it?