Coach and I got into an argument

I think just put up with his BS for the little bit of the season you have left. If you can get through it, you will be a lot more of a normal recruit because some coaches may see those open results and think "he's not a team player" or "he can't respect authority" regardless of your actual circumstances. Also, maintaining eligibility can sometimes be a real headache if you leave the school program so make sure you check on that if you plan on running open races.

if everything you are saying represents both sides of the story, it's pretty bizarre for your coach to have that kind of attitude with somebody who is possibly his best athlete. Difficult to comment without knowing the whole story, but it doesn't sound like a great situation.

A college coach would need to chime in on how this affects the college process.

A couple questions:

1. Is the coach also your X-C coach? I suspect not. If not can you go to your cross country coach to talk to the track coach.

2. Is he a new coach? Your PR's which I assume came your Sophomore year are good especially the 3200. Was there issues with him last year if he isn't new?

3. If you are truly being made to do a workout every day you should walk away and go the club route and compete in open meets, otherwise you are headed for an injury.

I would mind eligibility.

See if you can work on your own outside of practice. Focus on a few meets for times to advertise. Not every race will mean anything to recruiters.

Sounds like a fat excuse to me to not do that workout. Those 200s shouldn’t be difficult for you. You can do everything in your favor to recover don’t underestimate that. Listen to your coach because he’s gotten you this far in high school. That attitude won’t get you far in college. Colleges won’t like that because they’re not going to invest their time / money on undisciplined athletes.

There is more to this story for sure. Fortunately, he's not gonna be your coach forever, but who do you think college coaches are going to contact when asking around about you? What do you want him to say? My HS coach and I did not see eye to eye on many things, but I made sure he knew I respected him and would do what he asked me to. Do the workouts, don't be a problem child and get on with it. It takes 2 to argue. The arguments and more specifically, you being argumentative, should end. Add volume on your own if you need to.

"Just 5 days of speed work"?

Say what?

So in Oregon where we have been on lockdown we didn't have a season until April of this year. All that before from March-March was all training and time trials I had done under my private coach, it's just tough because I know some knowledge of training and I know what's been working for my body/how to get into shape and it's frustrating cause he doesn't wanna hear any of my suggestions or nothing, his training is from his son's training from the 1980s and he just copy and pastes that into my training. Which his son and I are completely different runners his son ran 51 in the 400, 2:00 in the 800 and 4:24 in the 1500. He has taken the fun out of the meets for me and it's hard because all I am trying to do is become the best I can be.

SanDiegorunner wrote:

Sounds like a fat excuse to me to not do that workout. Those 200s shouldn’t be difficult for you. You can do everything in your favor to recover don’t underestimate that. Listen to your coach because he’s gotten you this far in high school. That attitude won’t get you far in college. Colleges won’t like that because they’re not going to invest their time / money on undisciplined athletes.

All I am trying to do is be the best I can, no that workout is not that hard but what is it achieving the VERY FIRST day of track practice when I just had a hard effort a day ago from competing.

You mentioned that you have a problem getting the running volume you need to succeed as an endurance oriented runner. I agree that getting up early to do more running before school is a bad idea in terms of recovery. You would be much better off sleeping in. Instead another suggestion would to be to do more running when you get home after practice. Also because you are only practicing for 5 days a week, you can try doing more running on the days of the week when you do not have practice.

Runnerboyseekingadvice wrote:

So in Oregon where we have been on lockdown we didn't have a season until April of this year. All that before from March-March was all training and time trials I had done under my private coach, it's just tough because I know some knowledge of training and I know what's been working for my body/how to get into shape and it's frustrating cause he doesn't wanna hear any of my suggestions or nothing, his training is from his son's training from the 1980s and he just copy and pastes that into my training. Which his son and I are completely different runners his son ran 51 in the 400, 2:00 in the 800 and 4:24 in the 1500. He has taken the fun out of the meets for me and it's hard because all I am trying to do is become the best I can be.

his son ran in the 80s? Is this guy 80 years old?

Hard lesson.

Adult life involves a lot of power games. Lots of people can do things better themselves. You need to deal with who is in charge.

Yes, he was like a Vietnam drill sergeant and is very old haha

Runnerboyseekingadvice wrote:

high school xc coach wrote:

his son ran in the 80s? Is this guy 80 years old?

Yes, he was like a Vietnam drill sergeant and is very old haha

He coached my dad too

sucks you are dealing with an old school personality with outdated training methods.

if it is possible, you need to try to take control of the situation by working with this guy while filling in gaps. Miles after practice. Miles before and after meets. Long run on Sunday. Running as slow as you can get away with during workouts, etc.

If it is at all possible to continue on with your school team, I think you should try. If it is not something you can manage, I don't particularly blame you in this situation, but there could be consequences.

Write out what a typical week looks like for you, and you can get some advice on how to fill in the gaps. if not from here, perhaps from your private coach if he is willing to do that type of thing.

Is he another one of those ego coaches who think theyre always right and stuck in their ways?

You seem soft.

STEVE THE ADDICT^^^^^^"""""""" wrote:

Is he another one of those ego coaches who think theyre always right and stuck in their ways?

Yes, he thinks training should be you're always hurting and if you didn't puke after the workout then you didn't work hard enough mentality.

That's fine if you think that, I mean I'm just trying to be the best athlete I can be and he isn't giving me much choice or any say in workouts and if I ask him what this workout does for me he just ignores me and walks away I don't think some of y'all understand...