In high school I was a three sport athlete, playing football, basketball, and track. I was really into lifting and had pretty strong legs (squat=375, clean=240) and upper body (bench=230) and some explosiveness (could dunk on occasion). Ran distance my jr/sr years and had pr's of 50.5, 1:59, 4:41, and 10:12 off no mileage whatsoever. Ran these times at about 165-170 lbs (I'm 5'll').
So I go to college and the coach has me run xc in the fall. I start putting in miles, quit lifting, lose like 15 lbs., and run a 27:30 8k. My first two meets of indoor (as I continue to lose weight but still have lots of my strength/explosiveness) I run huge prs (4:24 mile and 8:48 3K). I haven't stepped on a track since due to injury.
Long story short-the next 3 years I'm injured on and off, have disordered eating that causes me to lose TONS of muscle and strength (was below 130 lbs at times), but do finally get a handle on that this fall and run a 25:15 8k of 80 miles a week on average.
My worry is this; its been 3 years since I've raced on a track. I know I'm way more aerobically fit, but I'm afraid I'm going to get blown away in a mile, 3K, or 5K due to all the strength/speed/explosiveness I've lost (for instance, it'd be a miracle for me to run a 60 sec quarter now; and today I squatted 150 lbs ten times and about keeled over; and my vertical that used to be 32 in probably around 15). Anybody been in a similar situation/have any advice? Should I start lifting like crazy again to get stronger? Plyos? Drills?
Sorry for the length!