As a former high school distance runner myself, I have decided that I will take the liberty to (literally) get back on track. My junior year in cross country I was the given the award for the Weston High School boys team MVP for my 17:27 5k. I first started running cross country and track my freshman year and my overall season did not go as well as I wanted. My friends and other team members were running much faster than I was and had an easier time improving their race times. This inspired me to go all out that following summer; through the blistering heat I pushed myself through 5-mile runs daily at tempo pace and despite having a hard time doing it, there was always a huge sense of satisfaction when I was finished. My sophomore year saw major improvement, with my 5k time going from 19:46 to 17:48. And in spring track, my mile time went down from 5:33 to a 4:51. I saw myself getting more and more varsity letters and awards as high school went on. I was never aware that this success was to be so short-lived. Suddenly during the spring of 2015 I have hit a major block for reasons unknown. My mile time went from a 4:51 to a 5:03. Deferred in my ability to run, I have lost all of my endurance, my running ability, and my will to break through whatever plateau I have hit. I have had test after test and the doctors so far have found nothing out of place; my father went so far as to ask me what could be worth me pretending to be bad at running. According to the doctors, I have normal ferritin, iron levels, heartbeat, breathing levels, and lung capacity. I'm not about to write off that this could be something mental, after all mild depression can occur in a loss of physical performance. Nowadays, whenever I think about running, it goes beyond making me sad; it makes me angry. Of all the years for this to happen, it had to be my senior year when boys are supposed to be at their best. I never knew how valuable to ability to run well was until I lost it all. With this blog, I will be reviewing a workout plan designed by a former marathoner (who shall remain nameless) that is meant for a "catch-up" in my performance. My goal with this is to 1. Figure what happened and how to be prevent it from occurring again, and/or 2. Make sure this never happens to another runner.
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