Wanting a solid coach for the coming track season

I'm just gonna clarify that I want a coach that will work with me day in and day out (Whether it be through email, or text.).

Young man, you might be better off joining a competitive running club (search USATF), or a local college club team. Heck, it would not be a bad idea to reach out to a university/college coach as ask if you can run (at least twice a week) with the team. Internet coaching can never be as effective as in-person coaching. Good luck!

http://www.usatf.org/clubs/search/

The problem with that is that I would still want to be training "w/ my team". I would start practice at the times they do, and I've got a team mate w/ the potential of anyone in the nation, so I'm gonna drag him along with my training. I'm gonna start when everyone else does (3:30 @ the track), then I will break off of everyone after the warm up, to do my own thing.

Hey, I had similar PRs to you my freshman year of HS (2:13/4:53/10:52 and I think you could just benefit from easy runs with some surges mixed in, also I like to do 20x400s at 73 with 90 sec rest, it should feel pretty easy.Try 5x1200s at 3:55-4 and 10x800s at 2:35 all with 90sec to 2min rest. Just try alternating through that. Also at the end of your easy runs try striders it helps with the leg turnover. And also you don't really need to do hill work because its track. You seem to have a great work ethic and i wish you the best of luck. Too much structure leads to mental burnout so don't fret about being super precise with every workout. Good luck with everything

Tanner I was in a similar situation as you in high school. It's tough. I was persistent though and eventually the coaches let me do my own training. You may consider doing their training and then supplementing it with morning runs. The doubles/triples/quadruples could also be used as track workouts and you could fill that day as your hard day on your schedule.

One thing though: please do not train for the 800. You will be far more competitive in the 3200. 2:04-07 is not competitive anywhere. If you can get under 10 for 2 miles you have an outside shot of making state depending on your division and where you live. It'll also get you ready for xc.

Thanks, I really appreciate that. I'm actually not gonna be running the open 800, I plan to run the 4 x 8 relay, and the 1600. I really just want to break the school record, as this will be the only year that we will even have a chance at doing so.

Here are the state qualifying times for my Division:

4 x 8 - 8:32 (School Record [SR] - 8:26)

1600 - 4:37 (SR - 4:24)

3200 - 10:04 (SR - 9:40)

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I will not be only running the 4 x 8 and 1600, but that's what I plan to run at our sectional meet, b/c it's what our team has the most realistic shot at making state in, and breaking our school record.

I'm really not planning on doubling more than 3x a week as I will probably only be running around 50-60 MPW. I also have a job that I have to do which restricts me from doubling sometimes (I get off around 9:45 PM usually, and need around 8-10 hrs of sleep to train well).

Bump?

TannerD22 wrote:

Bump?

Actually, you don't seem too coachable, not least because of your regular posting of well-intentioned but ill-considered coaching advice in other threads.

sometime coach wrote:

Actually, you don't seem too coachable, not least because of your regular posting of well-intentioned but ill-considered coaching advice in other threads.

+1

You remind me too much of myself. I was extremely uncoachable (still am).

There is hope for you though. Buy Magness' book and go through it thoroughly. It will walk you through how to train yourself as an individual. I did this (with a different book, but I apply Magness/Canova training to myself now) and I have improved a ton. I wasn't even sub 18:00 in the 5k my freshman year of high school and senior year I was 15:47. I'm now in college and have a sub 25 8k.

Just stay consistent with your training and learn to trust it. Make a plan starting in the end and work backwards. Be flexible and don't be afraid to adjust the schedule as needed.

Try to get through the rest of your high school career like this, earn the respect of your terrible coaches (I had the same issue) and they'll become more indifferent as you show results. It will make it easier. Then, pick a college where you trust the coach and love the team. That's when you will enjoy running much more.

I completely understand everything you just said, but I don't think you understand; There's a reason I want a coach through email, or even text. The reason being is because when ever I try to coach myself I don't enjoy it, but I know with a coach that is online or even through texting, I will enjoy it, as they will always be there to depend upon.

I've actually tried to base my training off of Daniel's Running Formula, and it didn't work. I've also tried to write a training plan, starting with the taper at the end of the season and work my way back - didn't work.

I just want a stable coach that I can talk to about what to do, because when ever I'm not in the best situation, or things don't work out for me, I jump to conclusions and don't like to fix what's broken.

Simply enough : I want a coach that is smart, reliable, and very understanding. I want to be successful, and this is the way I believe I can reach that success this coming track season.

Thanks.

you are looking for sympathy, not coaching.

Tanner, a few words of advice from a real live coach:

--if you have a relationship with your xc coach, go talk to him about your issue. Maybe he can work something out with the track coaches. Starting with a coach you know is always better than going to let's run...

--quit disrespecting ANY of your coaches, no matter how bad you might think they are. Frankly, with that attitude I'd be surprised if anyone wants to coach you. Most coaches work hard and want their athletes to succeed. Whenever I hear descriptions like yours I assume a big part of the problem is the athlete not the coach. Ask yourself if it wouldn't be better to respectfully request a meeting with you, your xc coach, and your track coaches, with the goal being a solid training plan for your distance group this spring. You all might learn something.

--you mention in your other thread that you are taking 4-6 weeks off. Huge mistake. Easy running after a few weeks off is fine, but a month off is nuts. unkess you're actually injured.

Best of luck to you

I respectfully disagree. In my job I'm held accountable for my performance and knowledge. If a poor track coach (and there are MANY) doesn't want to do the research for what it takes to be good then the athlete shouldn't have his performance suffer do to this. I know a TON of head track coaches at smaller high schools that are glory day jocks that would rather be at basketball or football practice. Yes, they want to win, but most of them in this category are too stubborn to understand they just don't get it.

-I had a high school track coach with mild asbergers. He threw little kid tantrums. I went somewhere else for guidance.

This isn't football or basketball. You can't be good at your craft with poor guidance and significant athletic ability.

To OP- find a good high school coach around you. If you're in a highly populated area there will be one. I had to drive 70 minutes every other week for motivation. These coaches are more than willing to let you train with their runners. For me I could work my own training for 2 weeks, but twice a month I needed to be around a bunch of guys logging high mileage in a nationally recognized program to see what I WANTED to become.

It would be extremely complicated to coach a kid like you in your situation.

You'll be doing workouts with the team and although they might seem messed up and wrong, I wouldn't know what they were and would not be able to come up with a good plan.

Any good coach also knows that seeing how you respond to the workouts and regular runs with day to day face to face contact is needed to properly coach an athlete.

As another poster suggested, you should meet with your XC coach and ask if he could arrange a meeting with your track coaches to come up with a plan.

Serious question:

If you can't follow through on your own training plans, how will you follow a plan from someone via email?

And why solicit a coach now when you are taking a month and a half break?

You seem to like the idea of being a runner more than actually running.

If you want to get faster, you should race. If you want to improve your running, you should run.

At your age and ability it isn't that complicated.

Thanks for the though out reply, I really do appreciate it.

I'm just gonna tell you a few things about them that I should've explained:

I've asked both coaches to have a meeting with them, and they declined it and said that "They don't care"

My coach that is a girl is very disrespectful to any make runner on the team, and actually talks about the athletes behind their back (AT PRACTICE!), it's quite ridiculous. Here's an example: I was sick one day during the week, and there was a meet the next day, so I missed school (still did a shakeout), and came to the meet (it was a home meet), the next day, I asked her simply "Hey coach, do you happen to know what event's I'm in?" just to make sure I wasn;t in anything ridiculous, and she replied "I don't know and I don't care! I'm not your coach so don't ask me, why don't you just get out of here." It was absurd and everyone on the team admitted she was in the wrong.

So, my other coach who's a guy kicked everyone off of the team the day before the last meet (Sectionals, what you qualify for state in), besides our 4 x 100 runners and 4 x 200 runners. He told them all that they were done, even though this was the most important meet of the year for every runner on the team. If he didn't just kick everyone off randomly with 3 days before the season ending, we would have had 3 more state qualifiers (The top 4 seeded 400 runners, all dropped out). I asked him one day if I'd be running the 4 x 8 at the coming invitational that we had and he stated "I don't care what you do or even about this team." and walked away. They don;t respect anyone on the team and simply don;t care about whether we're successful or not.

I've asked my XC coach to talk to the track coaches also, but he says he doesn't want to get involved with them as he knows the coach who is a female is very rude and disrespectful. He knows that she will take it as an insult, so he simply wont do it, but she doesn't seem to find it insulting when I state that I want to do my own workouts which are on my training plan.

I never stated that I won't follow my own training plan, I said that it is very easy to become absorbed into what seems to be the easiest route, and I'll take that, even though I didn't miss a single workout, run, or even cut anything short this summer. I hit every single thing I had planned out on my training plan, and never missed a beat. It's just hard to decide what I need to do when I'm in tough situations, like I am w/ my track coaches, so I try to find the easiest route, which honestly isn't gonna get me where I want to be.

Having a coach that is reliable and knowledgeable will give me all of the motivation I need, I want to evaluate what each coach values and has to offer during my down time, so I don;t start training on my own plan and realize that I'm doing the things he / or even she may not want me to do. I'm making use of my time as I know if I make my own training plan now, it's gonna make me want to follow it, not a coach who is better at coaching than I am's training plan.

Thanks for the reply and questions, but trust me having a good coach, even through email, is simply what I want to do, no matter what anyone says.

That's Great! Keep us updated!

TannerD22 wrote:

I never stated that I won't follow my own training plan, I said that it is very easy to become absorbed into what seems to be the easiest route, and I'll take that, even though I didn't miss a single workout, run, or even cut anything short this summer. I hit every single thing I had planned out on my training plan, and never missed a beat. It's just hard to decide what I need to do when I'm in tough situations, like I am w/ my track coaches, so I try to find the easiest route, which honestly isn't gonna get me where I want to be.

You wrote that your training didn't work. If you did all your workouts, how did the training not work?

What did you expect and what did you get?