Give me your opinions or experiences.
Over the winter (Jan-March), thought I was training smart/well. Ran 70-80mpw consistently with nordic skiing as doubles on the weekend. Tuesdays usually consisted of a 25-30min tempo, Thursdays were usually a quicker paced fartlek style of workout. I live in NY so most of this was outdoors in the snow and 10F weather. The fartleks began to feel better, but the tempo runs were consistently a slugfest to keep a respectable pace.
Tried two 5 mile races at the beginning of April and turned out to be 2min off my PR for both. Backed off of workouts and mileage for a week or two, and nothing really felt any better in my sustained pace workouts.
I have zero problem going for a 10mi run at 7:00 avg down to 6:20 avg. I can close runs at 6min pace without feeling bad at all. It is when I try to get going under 5:50 pace that I crumble. First mile of a race feels great in 5:00 (a little slower than 5mi PR pace), but after that it is a slow painful death.
In the few workouts that I have run with a heart rate monitor, my heart rate will be relatively low (160-170bpm) but I feel like I am going at 200bpm.
Diet is way more well rounded than most 24yr olds should be. And I consistently sleep 7.75-8hrs per night.
Am I overtrained? What am I missing?