I am entering what will likely be my final college(d2) XC season(I do have a single xc season of eligibility left, but I am still undecided on running next year. I did not run XC in high school, and it has never really been my thing. I am a 400/800 runner on the track and that has been my focus-although I actually converted up to the 400/800 when I got to college. However, at the end of Junior season, I decided making all-conference in XC was a goal of mine and I was gonna take it much more seriously. I started upping my mileage, but then our fall XC season was cancelled. I had a decent outdoor track season(no indoor either last year) but I contracted the virus and it nagged on me most of the year, but I still managed a decent season.
Going into this year, I ran roughly 20-30 miles throughout the summer. We had our outdoor championship in mid-May, and I took two weeks off, then began running again in June. In this time, I would meet with my coach about once a week to get a workout in where I'd be running faster, but all of my runs on my own were generally easy paced, maybe some days I'd run a little harder and push but I liked to stick right around 7 minutes-7:30 pace.
Here are my previous times through college, I included track PRs to give a sense of what kind of runner I am(didn't include freshman year as it was a bit of a wash):
Sophomore:
8k XC: 30:24 on a flat course 33:41 on the hilly course where our conference championship is held(Belmont Plateau in Philly)
400: 51 point 4x400 split, didn't run open
600:1:28
800 2:03
1500: 4:27
Junior:
8k XC: 29:00 flat course, 30:35 XC championship at belmont
10k(NCAA regionals at Belmont):39:01
Track was indoor only, no outdoor season, and I got into a car accident and had my season cut short. It wasn't a terrible accident, but it led to a concussion that affected me
400:52 split
600: 1:26
800: 2:01(first meet of the year, only time I ran it before the accident)
1000:2:43(I ran this 6 days after the accident then called it a season)
Senior yr/Redshirt Junior
No XC
track outdoor only, got covid right before the season started and didn't feel healthy until the last two weeks, which is when all of these times came
400:51 split
800:1:59
1500: 4:20
Now, I know my previous XC times are pretty pedestrian. However, I have been running more mileage, 25-30 through the summer, and now that we have started practice its closer to the 40 mile range. I also have been doing very well in the workouts, and I feel in better shape than I ever have. I am keeping up with our number 1, who has been all conference in our conference and to put it simply has been an XC stud. We did 3 hill mile repeats as a part of a workout earlier in the week and I ran: 4:57-5:07-5:10, for example. I feel like I am in the best shape I have ever been in, and I feel very fast. I don't think its unreasonable to expect a big jump from me this year, and maybe get into the all-conference conversation.(it took 28:49 the last time we had XC champs). Am I setting my goals too high? I really think I can do a lot more than I have given, especially now with my commitment to cross country, but I don't want to be unrealistic either.