Offseason solo-runs

I have recently began to run on my own now that indoor has ended for my brother and the vast majority of the team, who did not qualify for the state championships once again this year. It reminds me of outdoor sophomore year when I ran a qualifying time of 4:51 in the varsity one-mile. The original qualifying time for states was a 4:55, but there was one problem. So many other runners had great days state wide that day alone that way too many people had qualified; thus the qualifying time wad then changed to 4:46, where it has remained ever since. The past 4-5 runs on my own have been better due to the weather temporarily warming up. I cannot remember the last time in was in the high 50s during late January in Massachusetts. I am usually not my best when running alone, on one hand I have the benefit of being able to stop when I'm tired if I feel the need to do so. But on the other,  I have nobody to communicate with and keep me going for longer, plus I cannot make water breaks for myself unless I feel like spending hours setting up water checkpoints before I start each of my runs. The only other major problem I have with my neighborhood specifically is how hilly it is. It is pretty much impossible even for me to do even a short 2-mile at an average pace without tiring myself out. My neighborhood was built on a large tectonic area and therefore there is basically no flat land unless you spend thousands hiring landscapers to make it for you, like the Meadowbrook School with their soccer field. But I try to make the best out of it.  I haven't said it yet, but one of my neighbors is the legendary Garrett O'Toole, who I sometimes say hello to as we pass each other on our runs. Every once in a while, I would see him doing sprint drills up the long hill of Meadowbrook Road; my father and I agreed that doing the same would greatly help my sprinting and endurance. So I began doing them as well; of course not with him (I wouldn't want to look like I was stealing from him). Needless to say they have helped quite a lot, the set I do consists of three sets of three, each one a little bit faster than the last. I'm not going to lie to you and say that it is easy. Believe me, it is a huge pain in the neck, but "no pain no gain." There are times when I seriously consider skipping it, sometimes I actually do; however, I do not want to cheat myself. And I will keep this up until outdoor. After moving on from whatever I suffered from last year, I am looking to have the best season of my high-school career this Spring.