Ok this is going to be kind of long but if someone could explain this I'd be very thankful. My senior year of high school wrapped up with a 9:29 3200 in June of 2006. I then took a week off then began training for a DI program. My training was intense, yet not voluminous, as my highest mileage week of the summer was about 55, and the rest around 40-45. I started my cross country season off well, with 2 good races. I began to dislike my coaches training, but I did what I was told and stayed the course. My third race, (an 8k) was a disaster, I was tired from the start, and nearly collappsed at the end. I was told it was just my being a freshman and adjusting to the 8k XC season as opposed to the 5k. I continued to dislike the training, and felt I wasn't responding to it whatsoever. My next 8k was pretty good, then my final 8k was average at best. I never felt like I had pop the entire season. We never did speed, a training facet I respond to quite well. I then took some time off in November, running 3 days a week at best. December I did even less. January I barely ran at all, and decided to leave college. February was a lot of the same. I ran towards the end of February, and a good amount of March, feeling decent but not amazing. I then took a good amount of time off in April due to a knee injury. May was spent running a few times a week. June I began running more often, but nothing seriously consistent. This July I've finally begun training hard and here's my question: Why do I feel great now on difficult distance runs considering all of my time off? I would figure given the considerable time I took off I should be struggling, but I'm not. I wonder if I needed the rest to get the training of my college coach out of my system and to bring me back up to par? So I'm asking what you guys think? I feel great now, and Im not going to argue with it..if you could help me out I'd appriciate it..thanks