I'm a 16 year high school XCer who, unlike most guys on my team, love to train alone rather than with a bunch of others.... training with like 20 other ppl is stressfu; and iMO theres always the pressure that you should keep up with everybody else.
And furthermore (I think a LOT of runners feel this way at one time or another) when I train in a group, it explicitly reveals how fast you are or not compared to your peers; when you train alone, you dont and hence there's less stress and worryment about it.
And most importantly, contrary to what my coach believes it is easy for me to keep myself motivated, since I genuinely want to train and improve, no matter how painful it may be.
I've actually gotten in trouble a few times for "not being involved with the team" from my coach since on the long-run days I decide to run by myself and also I don't communicate to her well about my intentions (which I will fix).
Is anybody else here similar to me?