Is my coach an idiot? Should I run unattached?

Imma get recruited you watch me, I can still go to footlocker or nxn!

OP, being part of a team is a unique experience that most kids don't appreciate until it's too late. How about starting with Daniels this winter, then in a few months, take the book with you and meet with your coach. Explain the approach and that you'd like to continue with it.

Can you tell the coach you have a conflict 2 days per week and can only attend practice on certain days? Use those days to train on your own with some longer, easier runs.

I agree. Thanks, I will try it. If she says no, I'm out, but it's worth a try.

Yeah, I don't even have to tell her I have a conflict, I could just skip, but I think it'd be better to like either train on my own or work something out with her.

That footlocker comment has me thinking this is a troll now, but on the off chance it isn't...

That training schedule is idiotic, stupid, foolish and dangerous. Sorry if that offends anyone, but those workouts are impossible to complete every day and if he runs for his school program 1 of 2 things will happen.

1. He does what the coach tells him to do and burns out or gets injured.

2. He tries to modify the training on his own and the coach gets mad at him.

You can't train young athletes like that. It's irresponsible.

OP, here's my advice: take your concerns to your coach. Tell her you like the workouts, but you need a minimum of 1 or 2 rest days in-between each hard effort. If you can, bring sample training programs of good coaches or athletes with you so she can see you aren't just being difficult. You can find Steve Scott's old training on the internet, he rarely did more than 2 hard efforts in a week.

If that doesn't work, go to the AD and complain about the coach. Tell the school that her training is uninformed and dangerous, and try to get a new coach hired. It's harsh, but this person is simply not qualified to coach running on any level.

If that doesn't work then you'll have to go out on your own. Try to find a private coach who knows what they're doing, seek out any local training groups that might be in your area. You should be able to find a couple meets to compete in unattached. Colleges will recruit you if you run fast enough times. They won't recruit you if you're always too tired or injured to race well because your coach is a moron.

Realhscoach wrote:

You should do everything possible to run with your team. You're only in HS once. Talk to any elite runner and they'll tell you that the experience of being on the HS team is the memory they treasure.

Oh pul-leeze, how many of those elites spent their 4 years in high school constantly over-trained and injured?

Yeah, I have had another coach in the past who I go to for questions or anything, and no lol, I'm not a troll, but my point with the nxn/footlocker was that there are individual races I could enter in, such as those, of course qualifying for those is a goal, not terribly realistic, but still. The issue with trying to get her fired or anything is that I live in the deep south and like they wouldn't care, like at all, so that's not really a possibility, I think I'll tell her I think her training is dangerous and show her why and see what she thinks, and then just train on my own if she doesn't change.

Obviously, running in college is something I would like to do, maybe if I get down to high 15's for the 5k, I could get into some decent ones, but ik that not running with the team would hurt my chances, but never breaking 16 would hurt my chances too. Do you think a colleges would recruit a guy running 15:45 for the 5k unattached?

Run unattached. Running can be a fun pastime if you are progressing and improving. There are plenty of road races to compete in. You will be able to pick and choose your races.

Running on a mediocre team with a mediocre coach is an exercise in frustration. Coaching makes a huge difference. Bad coaching will make you WORSE. You'll get injured, you'll get worse as the season progresses, you'll start believing you suck. Not worth it. Run unattached.

Honestly, if you approach her with the attitude that her training is dangerous and you know better, she is just going to get defensive. You can think that, but you need to be realistic about how the world works if you want to be successful with this. Just tell her you really want to try the Daniels system, it would require some modification of her workouts, and it would be sort of like a short term science project for you to see if it works differently for you. You might also talk to your xc coach about this to see if s/he has suggestions.

Regarding recruiting, what are your current PRs? I suspect this is premature thinking. But a kid choosing not to run with his team is a major red flag. Maton can get away with it, but even in his case people were shaking their heads over the whole thing.

Also, is your track season 11 weeks starting in late Feb?

Haha, yes, Maton can get away with it, I'm not really good right now, 17:40 for the 5k, sophomore. I think realistically, I will get down to 10:30 for the 3200 for track and 4:50 for the 1600. I'm not that worried, I doubt colleges will recruit me, my goal is to get in the 15's for the 5k, but like it could help, like with Dartmouth or Cornell where their running programs aren't super strong. I'm not that worried about colleges, obviously they'd rather a 15:xx guy than a guy that ran on a team for 4 years and ran 18 flat his senior year.

I agree she would get defensive, I know my PR's aren't impressive, but if you break 10:30 you are top 2 in my state meet, so like I could actually help their team, and ya, I think like telling her that I think I respond better to Jack Daniel's running formula would make it like not an attack on her.

Realhscoach wrote:

. But a kid choosing not to run with his team is a major red flag. Maton can get away with it, but even in his case people were shaking their heads over the whole thing.

^^absolutely incorrect

College coaches want fast runners. They don't care if you ran for your high school or not. They want fast. They don't want mediocre team players.

Wait, you have a cross country coach who is not the same as your track coach? Go talk to your xc coach right now before you do anything else. Your xc coach will likely understand the training problems. More importantly, your xc coach will understand the background of your track coach's thinking in a way you don't. Most importantly, your xc coach is an adult who stands a better chance of choosing the right words and being taken seriously.

Breaking 10:30 gets you top 2.... You got a little bit too aggressive with your trolling, man.

Coaches want fast recruits wrote:

Realhscoach wrote:

. But a kid choosing not to run with his team is a major red flag. Maton can get away with it, but even in his case people were shaking their heads over the whole thing.

^^absolutely incorrect

College coaches want fast runners. They don't care if you ran for your high school or not. They want fast. They don't want mediocre team players.

cool cool

Dude, im not trolling, that's the truth

true

Unattached? wrote:

Ok, so I ran track last year and the year before (I am a sophomore in high school) and I wanted to see if you think that our training was dumb because I want to see if I should continue on their training program or to run unattached.

This was basically what we would do every week.

Sunday- off

Monday- 4 x 800 meters at 2 mile pace

Tuesday- 5 x 600 meters at mile race pace

Wednesday- 400, 600, 800, 600, 400 at mile pace

Thursday- 8 x 400 meters all out

Friday- 8 x 200 meters all out

Saturday- race

We did warm up for this- about 640 meters- super easy, maybe 10 min pace.

I have tried to talk to her, but she says you have to run fast to get fast, so we should never do easy runs

I'm pretty sure you are one of my athletes. This is my workout and you have to run fast to get fast. I never said anything about "no easy runs" and this is not "what we would do every week." This is what we are doing one week. I'm not going to explain myself or how I came to my conclusions. If you don't like my program, you don't have to be a part of it.