Speed work making me SLOWER??

All training can make a person slower. Weight training can make a person slower. High mileage can make a person slower. Non-weight training cross training can make a person slower.

As with a couple of posters above - BEFORE you do anything else, get your Ferritin levels checked. Can't tell you how many girls the OP's age get issues almost as soon as they start menstruating. A distance type kid is going to be affected the most (4/8 less so). It is an aspect that not a lot of coaches look into right away - too concerned about the training itself as if that is the problem. Took on 4 girls last year (similar age) from another coach (female), and all were iron deficient, yet none were even encouraged to get a blood test in the previous situation.

I recall a situation a decade ago, where a girl I had coached in HS came back from College after her freshman year clearly struggling - her father thought she was being a hypochondriac, her coach a malingerer. I advised her to get checked for Mono - which came back positive. So too often people don't look at the medical side of things and simply look at the training.

As to the training - looks pretty good to me, and the 400 and 200 reps are good as getting faster is still an important part of development, especially at that age, even if you are more of a distance "type".

I realized the iron/ferritin could be an issue from this thread so I asked my dad. He doesn’t want to take me to get a test, and says just take iron supplements and see how I feel instead.

Is this ok?

spinach is high in iron and good for you.

Yes that's OK. People don't really have a problem with have too much iron. Unless you take the whole bottle or something. Your stomach would stop you from taking too much.

I'll give a possibility that should be obvious but for some reason no one has said. You're a high school sophomore girl. It's common for women to have setbacks in performance at that age due to the changes in women's bodies that happen during puberty. Usually girls at your age will plateau or even get slower then the next season start making big gains again. Just stay the course. It might also help to do continuous threshold runs as opposed to intervals to get more out of your threshold workouts.

No, you should not start taking supplements without being tested. Though it is likely that you are not too high in iron, the symptoms of too much iron are very similar to not enough iron. You need to get your serum ferritin tested first before starting any supplements.

This.

OR

Maybe do less reps of mile pace 400s, that workout you described is pretty tough. 8 x 400 is plenty for someone your age.

On your 200m set you are actually spending more time running slow than fast.

A better solution here would be replace the 200m reps with 400m reps, slowing the rep to 90s so medium effort and waiting for 90s to begin another. If track work is optimal quality and duration, training pace should get faster overall without thought.

As i have got older I've responded badly to speed work. One thing I will add, reading the "Norwegian on lower mileage" thread is a good starting point and a huge eye opener for me that you can be competitive especially as a master, without needing any speed work whatsoever.

Please show me a High School female distance runner that has too high of iron.