Ye sure. So basically in May I started running a lot of mileage, I built up to like 50-60 ish by the end of july. I did a time trial at the beginning of July and only ran a 5;20 which was kinda disappointing tbh. Then for august i did 4 weeks of something called the lydiard hill phase to help build speed/strength as I really struggled with that.
Our season started the second week of Septemeber and we had a race every wednesday starting the second week of october. In season, our team drops mileage significantly so I ran a bit extra on my own to try to maintain 45 mpw. We usually did 3 workouts a week which ranged anywhere from 3 mile tempos to 7 by 1k up hill. When we started racing, we did one easy workout, the race then another hard workout for the week. I feel like once we started racing, we were basically using the races as workouts to improve, so ye i definitely agree with your statement about that.
My first race I ran 18:50 which was a bit disappointing because it wasn't a pr, but I bounced back pretty quick. My next 3 races were 17:27, 17:16 then 16:58. Our last race is this Wednesday which is the league meet where Im hoping for a top 10 finish. We dont have States this year due to covid so our seasons a bit short. I might do a time trial or something after.
Hope this helps