How to tell coach I don't want to run

how is this hard

"Coach, I have mono, and it's getting worse. I am having trouble just jogging at this point, and I need to use the energy that I do have to focus on school. Because of this, I won't be able to run our upcoming race. I'm sorry to let the team down, but please let me know if I can support the team in any other way."

Just get a letter from your doctor telling him you aren't released for exercise.

Get kicked off the team for missing too many practices

"I'm not going to run."

Try to create a scenario where your coach has to watch you undress .... Then bring up that you have Mono ....

You don't owe the coach anything. How can this be hard?

umm tell him u have mono wrote:

how is this hard

Agreed.

"Coach I have mono. I won't be able to run this season."

Full stop. You don't need to say anything more, or be apologetic, or offer to help in any way. You been dealt a bad hand. Throw it away.

You open your mouth and say ‘Coach, I don’t want to run’.

If you need some images to help you understand what to do, just shout and I’ll put together a PowerPoint presentation.

malmo wrote:

umm tell him u have mono wrote:

how is this hard

Agreed.

"Coach I have mono. I won't be able to run this season."

Full stop. You don't need to say anything more, or be apologetic, or offer to help in any way. You been dealt a bad hand. Throw it away.

Completely disagree. Just because it isn't the kid's fault for being sick doesn't mean he shouldn't be apologetic for not being able to fulfill the commitment he made to compete.

"Coach I have mono. I won't be able to run this season. I am really sorry that I won't be able to run this year; I really hoped to make it to state this year. I hope this won't hurt my chances of competing with the team in the future."

JustAnotherRunner2001 wrote:

Just get a letter from your doctor telling him you aren't released for exercise.

DO NOT DO THIS.

Any athlete that can’t stand up for themselves has way bigger issues than mono.

Do you really not want to run, or is the issue that you can't run.

I Chose D2 wrote:

Do you really not want to run, or is the issue that you can't run.

Kinda a little bit of both. I'm struggling to hold 8:30 pace right now but they think that they can build me up before the season ends.

I think I forgot to say this in the beginning, but I'm a captain as well, so I think I kind of have a commitment to the team if nothing else.

CommittedRunner wrote:

I Chose D2 wrote:

Do you really not want to run, or is the issue that you can't run.

Kinda a little bit of both. I'm struggling to hold 8:30 pace right now but they think that they can build me up before the season ends.

I think I forgot to say this in the beginning, but I'm a captain as well, so I think I kind of have a commitment to the team if nothing else.

I had mono my junior year of high school as did my teammate who was also varsity. Once we found out I had it, I only jogged like 2 miles a day easy or whatever I had the energy for for about 4-6 weeks until I started to feel better. Then I took a week or two to gradually get back into modified workouts then raced at conference and sections and then that was my season. It sucked, but because I modified my training and embraced "less is more" to actually recover, I was able to run a similar time to the year before and get all-conference still as our #2. My teammate didn't back off her training as much and still was able to run at conference, but wasn't fully recovered and didn't do as well and didn't make the section team. During my recovery, I just took pictures and cheered for my teammates at races and helped with splits to stay involved. My advice to you if you love running would be to take a similar approach of less is more and try to recover in time for your championship races at the end of the year versus just quitting.