Sock tans

Wow. I don't know you, but I can't read your name without saying , "Sarah, blam!" I hope you figure it out. Sounds like you need to do some serious praying. You got this!

Sarah, I don't know you but just read your last two entries, and I wanted to weigh in my support. You got this, whatever "this" is. From my experience in life, which has been a fair bit (I'm 45 with 4 kids), in my lowest times those closest to me always say "it will all work out". I wholeheartedly believe that, even when I'm down and I don't feel like that's true. Whatever decisions you make now, as you stated, you'll look back on this and realize how much grit and determination you have. Because I don't know you I won't share any advice on what I think you should do, but I will strongly recommend you share these thoughts and feelings with one or multiple people closest to you: parents, siblings, best friends, parents of friends, those you look up to, a college advisor/ counselor/ favorite professor. Those who know you well will be able to help you see where you are, how far you've come, and help you decide where you want to go. You're in a tough spot, but also an enviable one, having no debt and another year with a scholarship. I have no doubt you'll figure this out and be a smashing success now and in the future. - All the best, Russ

Burt- thank you for your words of encouragement! I sure did need to do a lot of praying, and now I’m pretty sure I’ve got almost everything figured out and am feeling a lot better :) so thanks again!

Russ- thank you for your advice, I did end up calling my mom and it helped a lot. And I think what you said is true- it will all work out in the end. I’ve realized that if I’m giving my all and things with the team end up not working out, something else will in one way or another, so I’m not as stressed about it anymore. And you’re right, I am in a good spot, I’m very grateful for what I have :) thank you for pointing that out. And thanks again to you both for being so encouraging! I really appreciate it.

Great to hear Sarah! I wish you the best as you recover and continue in your studies. And also, psychology students are the best; we're smarter than everyone else and we know why they do the things they do... ;) LOL!

I just read this as a follow up to your other post. Do you have former coaches or coaches here on FRB you might be comfortable contacting? They might be helpful.

Consider this a blessing. A typical pitfall of a collegiate runner is that he never learns to train on his own. So 2-3 years after graduation his fitness disappears, life swallows him, and he never recovers. Being cut from the team gives you a chance to learn to train on your own. This skill will allow you to remain fit and competitive for years after college.

Training-wise, I would recommend just running easy for as many miles as your injuries will permit you. Be consistent. Remember that 8:00, even 9:00, and sometimes even 10:00 for a runner of your levels is still a decent training pace that could allow you to improve if you run frequently enough for long enough. So if slower pace allows you to run significantly longer, slow it down. Overtime the injuries heal, but most of the fitness is still there, sometimes you are even more fit because you have not been wearing your body out with unnecessary speed. So then you do a few workouts to remember how to run fast, and you have a breakthrough.

So I looked at your recent races, and my thoughts are - low iron. Either that, or something else health-related that severely impacts endurance. The speed is still there, but the endurance is just gone - even for something as short as the mile. Have you had an iron test recently? How are your diet and sleep? How are you managing the stress of being in college?

Jason- unfortunately I don’t, but I really appreciate your help and advice! Thank you so much! I think I will definitely listen to my body and let it heal so as not to develop a chronic issue like you said in your first comment.

Sasha- you know, that would make sense. I’ve had that exact thought regarding training before, in high school I was running longer and slower miles and was seeing a lot more success than I am now. I’d basically given up on that view though because when I tried telling my coach that my freshman year he just said I needed to adjust to the training program, said to trust the program and I’ll see improvement eventually. That with everyone he’s coached thus far they’ve all seen significant improvement, which is true. And I do believe in Coach’s approach of training, our whole team is running really, really well right now. Excepting me and a couple other slower, injured folk.

But I do wonder if I would respond better to longer and slower miles. I think I might, but hadn’t really considered trying it out because my coach requires us to run 7:15-7:45 pace on our slow days, no slower. He’s also been very adamant about staying together as a pack, which typically makes our pace quicker because of our faster girls. And it’s not average pace either, we can’t drop below 7:45 pace ever even on hills. I’ve asked him if I could slow it down in the past and he just said on some days if I really felt like I needed to run slow I could, but it couldn’t be every 50% run (our easy days). I really struggled to hit 50% pace my freshman year, but this year it finally feels easy. My runs recently have been 7:15-7:30ish, never dropping below 7:45 pace and I haven’t been trying it just happens. That’s just the pace I’m used to now I guess, and even when I tell myself to purposefully slow it down I end up only slowing down to like 7:45 average. I can’t seem to allow myself to run 8:00 or slower because it’s been hounded into me to never drop below 7:45.

But I wonder if my body is different and can’t handle that kind of training as well as others can. My teammate Maddy, one of our fastest runners, knows that she can’t run farther than 8 miles and has to run fast. That’s what she’s learned about herself, what helps her achieve the most improvement. And she is definitely one of coach’s favorite athletes, I kind of feel like since she’s been seeing so much success Coach believes it’ll work for everyone. It’s working for Angie, Sharlie, Julieta, Morgan, and Madison too, plus a few others, and really well for the guys team too. All have seen significant improvement.

Coach says he’ll adjust the training for athletes based off of what they can handle, and it’s true. He allows us to choose how far we run, Angie gets up to 16 miles a day while Maddy only stays at 8. I think Sharlie and Julieta are around 10 a day but I’m not certain. But he won’t negotiate pace, only if it’s once in a blue moon and after a hard week or something.

Coach has told me that I’m one of the athletes that has him scratching his head. He says I was running so well in high school and I’m one of the only athletes that hasn’t adjusted to his program, that hasn’t seen significant improvement. It’s been discouraging because I want to be, I’ve been working as hard as I can, and yet I just can’t seem to match what I was running in high school. I thought maybe it’s because I haven’t had many chances to race, but I don’t know if that’s it. I personally think it’s the change in training, but I can’t tell coach that anymore because he’ll just say, as he has a thousand times, that it’s not the program I just need to adjust.

But maybe this will be a blessing. Maybe I can finally attempt running longer and slower, and then come back in December and see how things go. I’m not sure if I should though because come December I’ll still have to run 50% pace in workouts if I do run fast enough in the progression run or 6 minute test or whatever secondary try-out coach has planned. And if I slow it down for a few months my body won’t be used to that pace anymore, so coach will see it as me not being fast enough and might cut my scholarship anyway.

But I also know I’ve seen limited amounts of improvement with faster runs. Even if I continue with the faster runs, I doubt I’ll see much improvement. I’ll still always struggle to be fast enough. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to try long and slow and just give up trying to be fast enough for the time being, get a solid block of training in that I know works for my body and come back in December hopefully running faster than I have been. I don’t know. I’ll think it out. With what I’ve said what would you suggest?

As for low iron, it’s possible. I haven’t had it tested recently, but my freshman year I got tested twice and it was 33 and then I think 50 after I’d been pounding the iron. I’ll start taking iron supplements and see if it helps. But I haven’t had the low iron symptoms you’d expect to see like feeling tired all the time or incredibly drained after only 1-2 miles into a workout.

My diet could be better, most of what I eat comes from carbs and dairy. I’ve recently tried introducing more protein and eating more fruits and veggies.

The last two weeks or so my sleep schedule hasn’t been the greatest, but throughout the school year and first half of the summer I was sleeping well at 8ish hours a day. I’ll get back on track for that :)

Haha, after reading through a second time I’m realizing you meant for recovery from injury. I think that’s smart, I might try it. I think you’re right and I probably would be able to handle more miles if I ran slower, in regard to my femur. However, the problem still remains that my coach will expect me to run 7:45 or faster, averaging out around 7:30. Maybe if it’s for recovery from injury he’d understand.

Do you have any advice on training itself, not just as it relates to recovering from injury? I could try talking with coach again and suggest I try something different for a while, completing the faster workouts like 60% and 80% runs and intervals/pickups on pace but taking the warmups/cool downs slower and then run slow and long instead of sticking to pace on 50% runs. And see what he thinks. At this point he might not care haha, maybe he’d be willing to let me try anything because I feel like he’s given up on me, no longer believes I’ll amount to anything. And if you have no idea, no worries. I’m all ears for anything and everything any experienced runners can tell me :)

Given your history, I think more long slow mileage may be a good idea even if you are healthy. Some people can get away with pushing the easy runs, but in my opinion it is not worth it. You do get some benefits from a faster pace, but if you happen to be injury-prone or have relatively weak adrenal glands, whatever benefits it offers are outweighed by the damage. Instead, save the energy to push in races and speed workouts, and compensate for the slower pace by running longer. Even for a more resilient runner, I think the habit of running at safe speeds on an easy run is a good one. First, there is no playing with fire, you stay away from the edge. Second, there will likely come a time as the runner gets older that some of that resilience will be gone, but if the runner has gotten used to pushing the easy run the habit will still be there resulting in injuries and/or overtraining. Perhaps this is one of the main the reasons so many collegiate runners find themselves in the runner's dump a few years after college.

I know the weight that and injury can have on a runner, but I also know the strength that runners have. I have no doubt that if you keep doing your best to heal up and make sure you do some intense visualizing you'll do a lot better than you could imagine in you progression run. Good Luck!

being careful what I say since as a hs coach I don’t want to upset a college coach and harm any chance one of my kids has at college...

SLOW DOWN and allow your body to recover. Everyone needs recovery, even the best of the best.