My HS coach's ego is getting in the way of my and my teammates training. What do I do?

So you had a conversation with him and showed him your concerns and he adjusted your training.

In a sense but also not really. I told him that between when I ran 4:47 in the mile and 4:37 I had started to run more easy mileage on my own after practice (, this was a month between the two races). He only told me how bad and unsmart that was. He then brought up the mileage I'm guessing because he saw that it was working but he never once mentioned why he was and I didn't really want to upset him by hinting in anyway that he might've been 'wrong' before. That year before that I'd ask to do a little more easy mileage here and there and he'd always say no and then give me some reason about it some more reasonable than others but reasons nonetheless.

There are dozens of roads to Rome. Just because your current path is different doesn't mean it can't get you there.

If your coach is making significant changes in mileage due to inattention to detail, that would be a problem. You've not indicated that is your suspicion.

As far as I can tell, you don't understand why he's making some of the changes he's made from week to week. If you had complete faith in him, your assumption would be he's making changes to assure the best overall development of the team.

I would think you could ask him why mileage is changing so much in a nonthreatening manner and he could easy provide his reasons. However, if you do so in a manner that seems to indicate you don't trust his judgement, that conversation is likely to go sideways quickly.

It seems like you have a number of guys who are thriving with his training plans. I would definitely give him the benefit of the doubt - trust him and his judgement.

I have made significant changes in volume for an entire team when the number of niggling injuries or illnesses increase. Everyone may not be impacted, but it can be good evidence that there are significant problems brewing that can be mitigated/avoided by backing off on the training load for a bit.

It is crucially important that you and your teammates believe in your training. There is no perfect plan. I think you have enough evidence to have faith in your current coach. My advice is to express that faith and seek to understand what he is doing as part of becoming a student of the sport rather than questioning why your training isn't like someone else's.

Shut up n run.

People didn't like my post, but that does not really matter. "Science does not care that you have a full load of AP classes." And I am not saying you are doing it wrong by taking 5 AP classes. Good for you, but without complete rest you will not recover for the next workout / race, and you will lose fitness which with your goals you cannot afford to do.

Lack of sleep will lower your immune system. If you want to be a top US runner as you have said, you have to find ways to be better than your competitors or you will not be.

Over the four years I am coaching athletes I learn about their bad habits. Reading and sending emails late at night, coming to practice dehydrated, always eating junk, etc... All of this has a price and no matter how talented you might be there will be someone of the same talent willing to do better. They will win.

I'm sure there are factors with your coach's training that are creating issues but without recovery it does not matter.

Not sure why your last post got so much hate. I understood before and not making excuses saying its impossible to do what you're saying just saying it's a bit harder. I still should be implementing what you mentioned though. I already have been trying to adjust my circadian rhythm and I've been talking with my doctor about it too.

The food part though is honestly harder in my opinion. In my case I try to make sure I eat enough so that I'm never hungry and then some. While doing that I try to make sure as much of that food isn't processed and satisfies the nutritional requirements I need. Beyond that I'm not sure how much of a focus on food is reasonable at a highschool level or if it's even healthy/safe for a highschooler to try more?

I think people were thinking I was being mean or something.

In order of importance, I always place sleep first. After that hydration is critical especially over the summer months when you can really blow up and lose training days. After that nutrition does come into play when trying to get an edge on your competition.

The elephant in every room and not something I can ever bring up with my high school athletes is weight management. I can talk about good nutrition and making good choices with food but that is about it. With my post collegiate athletes, I can be a little more candid depending on the athlete. I can't imagine this is a problem with you though as I have yet to meet a high school runner as fast as you that is overweight.

5'8 and 140lbs but it varies up to 5 lbs throughout the day to day.