sophomore_needs_running_help wrote:
Hi, I am a male sophomore high school XC runner. My SRs are 21:46 freshman year and 21:56 sophomore year. I have greatly struggled with improving my times, increasing mileage, and staying motivated to run. ....
Do you enjoy running? If not, you're destined to fail at all three of these things.
Dig deep and determine what, if anything, you like about running. Then, expand on that. Do more of that, in that way. There's no magic to this. To be good at running, you've got to run a lot. And to run a lot, you've got to like it. That's 80% of what you need to know right now.
Find ways to enjoy running and do more of that.
For me, it's time running easy pace, listening to music, zoning out, being alone. It relaxes me. I love it. Secondly, I enjoy setting race time, distance and mileage goals. Create a goal, achieve it, check the box, set a new goal. Repeat. I also love feeling fit, being fit and the way running makes me feel, in general. There's no better medicine. I like running local road races, also.
What do you get out of running? If nothing, then stop.
If there's something, then focus on that thing and do it more.
If you don't find a way to like this, you will not succeed at it. If you do, you'll find a hobby (and maybe more) to enjoy for a lifetime.