Why am I racing terrible?

Why is it that we get one guy on every team who trains more and runs worse than the rest and then needs all sorts of enabling to make this OK?

Seriously there is countless threads on this subject. Everyone else is managing fine and yet the workouts are too hard, it's too hot, the ground is only rough and slippery where he runs etc. etc.

Straw M Thoroughman wrote:

Why is it that we get one guy on every team who trains more and runs worse than the rest and then needs all sorts of enabling to make this OK?

Seriously there is countless threads on this subject. Everyone else is managing fine and yet the workouts are too hard, it's too hot, the ground is only rough and slippery where he runs etc. etc.

I know you're just a troll, but he isn't looking for enabling, he is looking for ideas on how to change the situation and improve.

Also he never complained about any of those things.

Too many iron pills.

OP, it's TERRIBLY not terrible. Get it?

Training is an individual thing. Some people need more running, some people need more recovery, some more faster work, some more sleep. Many think they have improved more than the actually have and start racing workouts to keep up with the #1 guy and then their races go flat. Many teams race too much without the necessary changes in training. Some people even forget that just because you train more doesn't mean that you can race with less effort than in the past.

It is possible to take too many iron pills, get your iron level checked.

LRC needs a webguy wrote:

Straw M Thoroughman wrote:

Why is it that we get one guy on every team who trains more and runs worse than the rest and then needs all sorts of enabling to make this OK?

Seriously there is countless threads on this subject. Everyone else is managing fine and yet the workouts are too hard, it's too hot, the ground is only rough and slippery where he runs etc. etc.

I know you're just a troll, but he isn't looking for enabling, he is looking for ideas on how to change the situation and improve.

Also he never complained about any of those things.

I know you're a troll but I guess you missed the part where I generalized?

He might not be looking for enabling but he's getting it anyway.

Wow, this was not a troll. It'd be interesting to get some of the same Guys posting again.

UPDATE: Ran an all time worst race at regionals today and whenever I run these days I'm short breathed, tired, legs are dead... Something's wrong! Any ideas? Getting CBC in about a week. I want to know what I did wrong before starting my winter base soon so I can learn from my failures.

If it is low ferritin an i start to get my levels up will I see the effects of my base after?

Sometimes you body needs tone to adapt, get the blood work done, listen to what your Dr says and keep working hard... the best training is long term consistent training, be patient you Will get there!

High School XC wrote:

Wow, this was not a troll. It'd be interesting to get some of the same Guys posting again.

UPDATE: Ran an all time worst race at regionals today and whenever I run these days I'm short breathed, tired, legs are dead... Something's wrong! Any ideas? Getting CBC in about a week. I want to know what I did wrong before starting my winter base soon so I can learn from my failures.

If it is low ferritin an i start to get my levels up will I see the effects of my base after?

i'd say you're overtraining. possibly did too much this summer, or started hard workouts too soon. let's say you started hard 5k efforts in June, it's now end of October, that's 5 months of hard work and one can't sustain that. if that was the case, keep up the mileage in summer (or winter) base, but dial back intensity until the season starts.

at this point it's time to shut it down, take a good 3-4 weeks completely off - real overtraining is bad, wrecks the whole body for months/years. you don't want that. if you only have one more race left and want to run it, just run 3 miles per day easy and once or twice a week do a short sharp workout of say 10 minutes of 100m fast/100m float.

also, if you up the mileage it generally is going to take a good 9 months before you see that pay off.

take the time off, you won't lose anything, then slowly build it back up. patience is key.

Thx, I'm not trying to be difficult but I started workouts in late August :/. Wow that 3-4 weeks will be terrible for me to not run but after u tellin me the severity I know it will probably be better in the end. How will I know when I'm not overtrained anymore?

you'll know you're not over training when your legs feel strong climbing up stairs. you're young, 3-4 weeks is nothing, especially considered months or years of frustration if you try and plow through. also, go ahead and pig out and eat a lot of food while recovering - best way to speed up recovery. gaining a couple pounds will speed up recovery process (won't bore you with the physiology of this one).

well, it may be that the intensity of your workouts during the season were too hard for you. or, you did too much 3k/5k effort the same weeks as racing. a good rule, if you have one or two xc races in a week, you should not do any other vo2 max work that week - the races are taking care of it. you may also thrive more on aerobic work, and need less anaerobic/vo2 max work. you really only need 3-4 weeks of the vo2 max work to get ready to race. better to spend most of your time with aerobic work, tempos, etc.

once you get back into it go back to the 40 mpw range (if you went from 35 to 50 mpw this past summer it may be you're not ready for 50 mpw yet that's fine), easy at first, then add in a day or two of strides, then add in a couple moderate effort days. after a while, once a week throw in some 5k effort type stuff, but with tons of rest (4:1 ratio easy:fast) so you get used to speed, but doesn't tax you as much. see if that works.

Thanks, my legs are kind of tingling and aching now hours after my race (ran SO BAD 19:17, worst career time) is this a sign of overtraining?

Sorry I have no helpful coach... We did 2 workouts a week one being 10x400 2 min rest quicker than mile pace and 4x1200 quicker than 5k pace 4 minutes rest with a race every week for about a month and a half...:(

High School XC wrote:

Thanks, my legs are kind of tingling and aching now hours after my race (ran SO BAD 19:17, worst career time) is this a sign of overtraining?

Sorry I have no helpful coach... We did 2 workouts a week one being 10x400 2 min rest quicker than mile pace and 4x1200 quicker than 5k pace 4 minutes rest with a race every week for about a month and a half...:(

3 Possibilities here:

1. Low iron

2. Low iron

3. LOW IRON

Get your serum iron and serum ferritin checked, ASAP...

You are showing the EXACT same symptoms I showed of low iron.

Your declining performance, splits and how your legs feel are a dead giveaway for me right there.

Post the numbers here and I'll tell you if they're too low or not.

GET BOTH THE SERUM IRON AND SERUM FERRITIN CHECKED, then we'll move on from here.

Low iron will have a HUGE effect on your endurance, and it would take 2-3 weeks to feel the effects once you start supplementing iron if it was low. Get it tested first, listen to what the posts above say. It's NOT normal for you to get worse and if your iron is normal then you may be burning out, and need some good time off.

I had the exact same problem my sophomore year of high school.

DO NOT WAIT AND GET YOUR IRON CHECKED RIGHT NOW.

I waited to get my iron checked and it ruined my sophomore track season as well. Please get your iron checked, I would hate to see another person go through what I did. Best of luck.

you said you upped your mileage to 50. I think most people assumed you meant for your summer training. Then you state that your workouts started in August. What were you running in June and July when you should be adapting to your workouts?

What is up with all the check your iron levels?

It sounds like you are running what you trained for. Were you running 6 min pace tempos in the summer? Did you run some easy 400s on grass at 5:30 pace in the summer?

Thanks guys I will get my iron, ferretin, and hemoglobin checked next week...

I built up to 50 mpw in the summer starting late june and through late August. Never really had a "transition" I just started doing the workouts my coach advised which was what I posted above. I was not loyal to tempo's each week but a lot of my runs would turn into tempo effort at the end during my base. I remember one week in early August before workouts everything started to change and I started to have a lot more "bad" days and I have never really felt "good" more frequently after that...and it seems it has gotten worse as of my race result today and as my times have reflected this season... Opened the season with 18:07 and ran under 18 couple times waited for a big breakthrough but it didn't happen and the best time I got was 17:45. I really didn't see any effect of the summer running, the 27 seconds I dropped was probably just getting used to racing.

High school XC wrote:

I'm racing so bad even though my mileage has gone up from 35 to 50. Last year I was able to run 17:3X on a big break through but this year I can even run below 18:10. I even have had a good amount of speed sessions the last couple weeks and I'm getting beat by kids that I could easily beat during the spring and last fall. I'm sick of seeing no improvement, what am I doing wrong? I haven't even come close to my PR from last year and I thought I was going to break 17 this year... Any help? Is there hope?

Speak to your alter ego, Annoyed parent.

And in case you are the one in 100 truthful post, the answer is simple. Over trained. Recovery is the most important component of a competitor, and especially a high school athlete who should be getting rest instead of training. Avoid injury, focus on rhythm and not slog.

Less is often better.