Good training, bad racing

[Thatcher]

What have I done wrong this summer? I ran in six races. My times were 16:06(Corona Del Mar, 2nd place), 17:06(Fill the Ark, 1st place), 16:07(East Millcreek 4th of July, 1st place), 32:18(Des News, 21st place), 16:47(Minuteman, 13th place), and 17:40(Dimple Dell, 1st place).

 My goal was to break 16:00 this summer, and that was the goal from the first race. From my opinion, my best race was the first one. I don't understand why I haven't improved my 5k time at all this summer. I figure it could be because I increased my mileage from mid  40's to over 70, but the past two weeks I've dropped my mileage down again. I'm trying to peak for the BYU Autumn Classic, where I hope to make the BYU team. I need to have a good race there, and am wondering what is wrong. Though my race times don't show it, I have been improving. I've done several tempo runs, the best ones being: 4 miles at 5:24 pace, and 3x1.5 miles at 5:17 pace, 5:10, and 4:58. I don't know what I'm doing wrong in my races. Does anyone have any suggestions or any advice?

My blog is thatcher.fastrunningblog.com

[Jon Allen]

Thatcher- looking at your training for the past 2 months, I think you are fine.  Trust your training- you've done the quality and quanity you need.  You almost doubled your mileage this summer, so that wears on you more than you think.  My only advice would be to make your easy days a bit slower- I usually am in the 7:30-8:00 range (and often slower) on my easy runs- make sure they are super easy, so you can recover.  Just relax, picture you running a good Autumn Classic, and it will happen.  Make sure your nutrition and sleep are good, too.  That is my two cents.

[Sasha Pachev]

Thatcher:

Something is definitely out of whack. One thing that stood out to me was that every time you try to run hard you seem to have a stomach ache. Is your diet clean? High mileage can expose dietary errors that you would not be affected much by if you do not train as hard.

Another thing to check - have you been going to bed on time? Same deal - you up the mileage, you cannot mess around with the sleep any more for a number of reasons.

Another possibility is that your body might still be maturing and you are having a temporary lag between different subsystems which affects the way you run.

I also noticed that you have been doing quite a bit of high intensity running in combination with increased mileage. If you had not run that kind of mileage in the past, it can cause overtraining.

Here is what I would do:

* If diet and sleep issues need addressing, take care of that first. A runner that messes around with those while trying to run high mileage voids the warranty :-)

* Cut back to only 2 hard days a week. If it is not the problem, it still would not hurt.

* Monitor your HR at different speeds as well as resting HR. Will probably not help much now unless you have past data, but at least you could use it for reference in the future. If you have the past data, then increased HR at the same speed could suggest overtraining, chronic dehydration, illness, or possibly maturation related problem. The cure would be to ease off on the intensity.

* For a test, in your 3 mile tempo, hit the first mile a bit harder, hard enough to where you would not be able to sustain it for the rest of the run. What happens to your HR when you are forced to slow down? Does it stay the same, drift up, or abruptly drop 5-10 beats per minute? I have an HRM if you need to borrow one.