High School Runner w/o indoor track team - Winter Running Help?

Just some other information:

*Yes, my varsity cross country team ran 25-35 miles a week. I was doing somewhere around the same per week in the summer too. I'm well aware this is not legit and before some of your rip me and my team apart for this, we've only won 4 meets in the last 8 years. This season was a "breakout" season for our team, with us going 3-3 and having two guys under 18 minutes (me and my brother) and five guys under 19.

*During track season I hope to continue my weekly mileage at around 40 mpw but have a lot more speed work in there. In track my coach usually put me in the 800 and 1600 but this year plans to have me focus on the 3200 and 3000 steeple.

*My winter running club will practice 3 times a week, do low weight/high rep lifting 1 day and race at USATF developmental indoor meets or at local road races. A lot of the kids in this club don't play track or cross country so I'm keeping the training easy, with our long runs being at most 40 minutes and some pretty simple ladder workouts or repeats on the track.

*In my first post I stated that I didn't start seriously running until August of this year, but even then I was doing 25-35 miles per week. Keep this in mind as here are some of my track PRs:

800 meter - 2:11

Mile - 5:09

2 Mile - 11:37

2000 meter steeple - 7:46

I'll be the first to admit these times are pretty bad, even for a sophomore who didn't train much. I set all of these in late March/early April and got hurt at the end of April, so I didn't really have much time to improve on these times either.

Build a base. Not having indoor is an advantage with the right attitude. Not being able to race sucks, just because mentally you probably want to always compete. But while all your competition is racing and burning out, you can get stronger and be that much more competitive during outdoor, which is what really matters.

I think your training plan sounds good. And based on your improvement in XC, if you are able to increase your mileage by that much and stay healthy, you should set your goals a little higher. You seem very talented.

Just go running every day. Easy most days, moderate once in a while, and every now and then if you feel good, go fast. My school didn't have indoor track and I trained over the winter with my friends, two of whom ended up running under 9:15 for 3200m. I'd generally recommend staying off the track, at least for most of the winter.

Bro half the country, probably more, doesn't have an indoor season and they get along just fine. Don't worry. Just keep on keeping on with your running.