For background I am a high school junior with an 800 PR of 2:02.
Today at practice our coach surprised us and had us run a time trial in the 800. No warning in advance to hydrate, eat right and prepare mentally. I was mad for the lack of advanced warning but I trust my coach and figure he knows more than I do. Yesterday we had a pretty difficult set of hills and I lifted so I was already a bit sketched out. I ran a 2:10 and was pretty satisfied with that coming off a hard workout yesterday and still having 3 weeks until our first meet. But then he says, "10 minute rest and get back on the line." At this point I'm pissed. Why would we have 2 back to back time trials on the same day? So I do it and I run 2:30. 20 seconds slower than my previous time trial. This was a widespread effect, the entire team ran significantly slower than before? Is this a mental thing because of attitude or simply, bad coaching? I trust him as thanks to him I dropped my time from 2:14 to 2:02 last year. But it just makes no sense to me to run back to back time trials it just risks injury and loses my trust in the coach. I talked to him 1 on 1 and he said to trust him and I will reach my goal of sub 2. Can anyone give me their thoughts on this situation and what I should do? If you don't agree with his strategy can you please give me advice on how to approach the coach respectfully and ask for a different strategy to train. He gets annoyed with me when I voice my opinion I am a captain on the team and he says I should listen to him so the rest of the team will follow my example and listen to him too.