In college I consistently ran around 31 minutes for the 10K in cross country. After college I continued to stay in shape but rarely raced and my training consisted of mostly easy distance runs. Then 3 years ago, when I was 26, I decided I was going to start training seriously again and was able to run 32:30 off of only 50 miles a week and a few quality workouts.
I got injured soon after that and have spent the last 3 years fighting a bad injury that I ended up needing surgery for. I ran intermittently during that time but was never able to be consistent or put in anything other than some easy mileage.
Now at 29 I am fully recovered from that injury and have decided to be very conservative building up my mileage. I've been at about 45 miles a week for the last 4 weeks which was the end of the base phase of my training. I decided to test where my fitness was and jump in a 10K road race yesterday and only ran 35 minutes. I didn't expect to be racing fast by now but definitely expected to run faster than 35 flat.
I'm at the same weight I was at just 3 years ago when I ran 32:30 off of similar mileage so it feels like I should be running at least in the mid 33 minute range. Is it possible that my fitness has declined that much in 3 years?