As a HS coach reading this....I'm glad to get the reinforcement that I'm doing the right thing. Develop all facets of your running/training throughout the summer phase. Low mileage and intensities based on where you are at and grow throughout the summer with built in recovery weeks. If all you do is run LSD I guarantee you will get better at only one thing...running slow.
It's amazing how this plan works for roughly 20 weeks with very little taper resulting in consistently high performance when it counts the most. A good coach knows when to employ the art of the program with the science but great communication about the "Why" of what you are doing is really important to that trust element. You may need to stimulate that in your coach in a non threatening way.
I use this with all of my kids no matter their level of talent or readiness. Those that commit the time in the summer see the greatest gains and remain healthy throughout the season. Nothing like witnessing the confidence level increase dramatically in my best and not so fast runners that buy into the system.
Sure, there are those that won't each year, even some of my better athletes but it's their race and their team. I'm just there to show them the way. If they care about each other, they will do it for each other and those years are truly special. My team went in to the state meet ranked 12th and finished 5th last year. No trophy but by golly we felt pretty good about peaking when it counts. We do it every year no matter how talented we are or aren't and typically others are just left shaking their heads or making excuses.
The secret for us is that no matter how things turn out, trophy or not, we know we are ready and typically do not worse than what we are ready for. It's unrealistic to think we are going to perform some impossible feat when 20 weeks of training tells us exactly where we are. It's up to the other schools to live up to their potential as well as us. We just do that better than most and understand why.