I’m a High School senior who is currently training for the XC season in the fall. I am looking to bring my PR of 18:51 below 18 minutes during the season. I am currently about 5th on the team. We are what most would consider below average (Top guy runs just below 17 and our 7th runs 19:00), but we are definitely the best team our school has had in a few years. Our coach has only been with us for two years but he has been coaching high school XC and Track for close to 30 years now. He was a stud in HS (sub 15 for 5K and 49 seconds for 400). At the beginning of the season, the mother of our top guy started to interfere with his coaching and has pretty much taken over at this point. Our normal coach is a bit submissive and has allowed her to do so and just goes along with whatever she says. She seemed ok at first and let us do what we normally do, which is 1 or 2 hard sessions a week with moderate/easy days in between. Most practices came out to 6-8 miles. I would run a long run each weekend and throw in a double or two during the week to hit my 50 mpw. However, the parent began to become more and more involved. She has now taken over our training and has us doing some strange things. She uses crazy technical lingo and has us do calisthenics that seem pointless after each practice. This week, we ran mile repeat Monday (7 miles for the day) , we did a Mile time trial today (3 miles for the day), and she plans to have us do more speed work tomorrow. I’m no expert, but I’ve always heard that the summer is meant to be a time for building our base and easy mileage. She seems to have an unhealthy obsession with hard workouts. My calves have been on fire since Monday and the time trial did not go well today. I’m not sure how I’m going to handle more speed work tomorrow. I just want to run and get my mileage in, not deal with extra garbage that may or may not even work. Advice? Do I just put up with her and perhaps double in the evenings so I actually get a good amount of mileage in?