Insubordination?

Train Harder wrote:

I live too far away from school to do morning runs

What the heck does this mean? How does the proximity of your home to the school impact your ability to go for a run before going to school?

I live one hour and 30 minutes away from school. school starts at 7:30, and i have to drive in my brother. I get up at 5:30 already, and i barely make it on time, by the same coin i go to bed at 10 on a good night, usually 11:30. i guess i COULD wake up at 4:30 and go run, but i need sleep to function/maintain my 4.0 gpa. also because i live so far away i don't get home from practice until 7:00, and i do core, shower, do homework, then bed. I'm working as hard as i can, but 39 miles per week isn't cutting it

It sounds like you are already working very hard - more than most people - and excelling. Good for you.

Why this need to push yourself even harder - till you find the breaking point? What are you trying to prove - and to whom? Running isn't everything - and you're already doing a lot of it. Allow some unstructured time in your life.

where in the middle of nowhere do you live?

I'm just curious what place in the US is 90 minutes from a school.

At one time, I lived 60 min plus away from school. I lived out in hickville, and went to private school in "the big city". The new highway was completed my senior year, which cut the commute down to 40 min.

I know kids who went to Don Bosco that commuted around an hour. It happens.

If you can't run more you can't, sucks, but sometimes life gets in the way.

If you have a free period you could try running during that. Just put in half an hour of easy running, then shower and grab some food or something. Or if you have a lunch break long enough you could do the same during that.

Another option would be if you have a free period/lunch break you can do homework in that time so you have more free time during the evenings. Or if your brother is old enough to drive you could have him drive on the way home and do some homework in the car so you have an extra half hour to an hour at night to run.

Something else you might try is to run twice a day on the weekends so you have some extra miles in there. Run a 3-5 mile shakeout on Saturday morning if the race is in the afternoon. If the race is in the morning go for 3-5 miles in the evening. Since you're not running very much you could cut the Sunday long run and go maybe 5 miles in the morning and 8-10 miles in the evening instead. This would add an extra mile or two.

Also think about your study habits and see if you're studying inefficiently, which can be a huge time waster. If you can streamline your study habits you might find you have more free time in the evening. This, of course, depends on whether you're already efficient or not.

Maybe there are other things you can cut out though, like if you watch an hour of tv, or waste an hour on Letsrun you could go out and run instead.

stop doing homework. its senior year for crying out loud

Would your coach mind you adding to the workouts he already gives you? A few more reps, longer cool down? See if you can build in more mileage when you are doing the team's workouts if he doesn't mind.

+1