Weekly Discussion / Question / Tips post (also links to FAQs)

[u/AutoModerator]

The following topics Cannot be made as their own posts, but are allowed topics in the Weekly Discussion thread:

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• Questions about what to do for training.
• Questions about what event to do.
• Questions about what you could do at another event or do in the future.
• Questions about if you could make it in college track.
• Asking if you're good for your age/grade.
• Asking if you should do track. People are just going to say yes, anyways.
• Food/Nutrition questions.
• Injury related questions.
• Questions about how to run a specific race.
• Questions about what shoes/spikes to use
• Form check videos

Within this Weekly thread, you can talk about anything track related. If you ask a basic training question, you'll most likely be met with the response of "Read the FAQ", so here is the link to the FAQ post: [FAQs](https://old.reddit.com/r/trackandfield/comments/mlv33q/faq_central_sprinting_faq_distance_faq_how_to/)

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This switch is to make fit for everyone. You can talk about your own specific track related stuff in the Weekly thread, and more general Track & Field stuff goes in the rest of the subreddit.

[u/MotorOpposite3322]

Skip to last paragraph for my question.

I'm currently a sophomore in Highschool going into my junior year soon.

Last year was my first year running, XC started in August that's when I started, I went through XC and indoor + outdoor track.

By the November of last year my 5k PR was 19:45 but I'm fairly sure I could have done better.

Towards the end of indoor I started losing motivation, workouts felt like shit even though I was running 2:45-3:00 800s and then I got moved up to 1000s (pretty decent for being a couple months into running). I started showing up on my schedule unfortunately and then I injured both knees climbing and missed the rest of the spring season.

With all this said I've gotten out a bunch of bad habits I've had, my grades are coming up and I'm generally feeling better about everything and as a result I'm almost certain I want to give XC/TF another shot next year. "But what if you lose motivation again" I might, but I've already spoken to my coach and he seems to think I have potential and said he was happy to have me back next year.

What I want to know is what can I do between now and August so that I don't show up in the same shape I was last year when I first started. Currently I'm running 10:56 mile pace for 3 miles which is really bad. I do plan to talk to my coach about coming up with a plan but I'm interested if you all would have tips to get ahead. Ideally I would like to be able to be back to where I was (19:51 5k, 2:56 1000) by August but I don't expect that.

[u/Worldly-Feedback-468 → u/MotorOpposite3322]

Alright, in all honesty running is not a motivational sport. While motivation is an amazing tool, and one that works really well when you have it, you can't expect to be motivated for every run, it's just not possible. It's routine, it's discipline. That's how you get good, by staying consistent. So get rid of those pre conceived notions of 'motivation' and replace it with discipline. You have a goal. You told me yourself. You want to get back to where you were before so that you can keep improving. Make that the reason you stay disciplined. Get out there and run, build your fitness, that's probably the most important thing right now looking at your mile pace. You need to build your general fitness quickly. Once you have a good base, then you can start with the speed, but you'll notice as your base grows, your mile pace will drop.

[u/MotorOpposite3322 → u/Worldly-Feedback-468]

Thank you. Yeah, mainly my ‘motivation’ is discipline. Realising that a lot of others sometimes struggle with not wanting to work as hard all the time. 

Once I get my general fitness back do you think I should find a track over the summer and do the standard workout we usually do? It’s usually 6x800 3 minutes in between each. I know my original time for it an have a handbook telling me how I should do it. It seems like if I start the workouts now I’ll be on track to having good times by August but I could be missing something? Thanks

[u/Worldly-Feedback-468 → u/MotorOpposite3322]

Perfect, then you have a big key to success already!

I think that's a good call, you may benefit with starting slowly and building (Just going like 3x800, then the next week maybe 5x800) ensuring that you don't risk injury, though again I'm not a coach, so you should take this all with a grain of salt!

I think you have a solid plan, and it sounds like you'll be on track!

[u/MotorOpposite3322 → u/Worldly-Feedback-468]

Thank you. I’ll probably build up my endurance and cardio until may by doing long/recovery pace style runs and then start the workouts how you said in June. Thanks again.