I'm OBSESSED, DEPRESSED, and my coach is an a******!!!!!!!

I don't know what I can tell you as far as what to do in the future, but as for your situation right now--your subject line says it all, and your coach is an a******. First off, your workouts seem to be at too high of a level for your race times. And second of all, any coach who reacts like that to an athlete (one without a history of being weak, mind you) just not feeling it on one particular day is clueless. In short, you should not feel bad at all about just having to take a day if you need it. Best of luck in the future. Hopefully you'll end up with a better situation in college if you decide to continue running.

You sound like you may be getting sick or run down. How did your summer training go, what kind of mileage did you do? Try and take a few days off, don't even think about running, for God sakes stay off this sight. The end of the High School season is still about 3 weeks to a month away, you can bounce back. Good luck

Someone should have advised to take the weekend off. One workout will not impact your year end performance. It may have been wise to communicate with the coach before practice if you did not. Clearly, his response was inappropriate, but he also may be frustrated that he is failing you by not achieving in races what he sees day to day in your performance. It is critical that you listen to your body, but also see that the season may be winding down, so race importance and anticipation builds. Also try to examine how much pressure you are feeling around all this and read some of the other threads. It is a great, rewarding sport but one where mental pressure can do more damage than physical injuries. You aren't alone in frustration. I'm old but still get the nerves up when focused on a big race. Hydrate all day long regardless of race day, workouts, rest days. Good luck. None of this will matter when you are running in college.

always listen to yourself and take the long term view. You have to see down the road. Don't quit running because your coach thinks he knows why you can't "run with the big dogs" - the real big dogs and big races that matter will come much later in college and beyond. Enjoy your talent and ability. I am an assistant coach for a high school XC team, and I can tell you, I would much rather have my runners running for the rest of their lives and improving beyond the high school level as opposed to having them idiotically overwork themselves to the point of injury. Who cares if you can't run with the best right now? If you improve gradually and take the long term approach, you will become the "big dog" others are chasing in a few years. Have fun and enjoy racing! Make running a part of your life as you grow up. Your a****** coach will soon be just that - an a****** high school coach you USED to have. Good luck.

Surely the point here is that you blacked out. That is not, or at least should not, be normal. You surely should not be running the next day or doing another 4 days training without a recovery period. I'm not talking about taking weeks off or anything, but get yourself checked out, take a few days to recover and then, subject to medical checks, start running again. If it doesn't bother your coach that one of his athletes blacked out in a race, especially given your age, then he needs to take a long look at himself.

go back to dyestat

fhs runner, go back to Canada.

You seem to be training to train instead of training to race. I have not heard both sides of the story, but if what you are saying is true- your coach seems to be pinning his/her future on your performance. You need to do the best you can, with what you have on that day. Some days are better than others. I would never demean an athlete, but as another responder mentioned some athletes pull the I am sick card- way too often. If you passed out during a race you should not be running hard for at least a week or ten days. Best of luck and keep with running and remember that you have less than a year left of high school competition.

2 key statements in your post:

1) "I've been hammering all my workouts so hard"

2) "I blacked out with heat exhaustinon/dehydration 150m from the finish"

All the red lights are going off here. I'm not going to analyze what training plan your coach has you on because you didn't write enough to let us know what you base was like oming into the season. The bottom line from the combination of these 2 factors is that you need to change something to get ready for any races left this fall. I think most knowledgeable coaches would agree that you should not feel like you're hammering every workout. That's a recipe for (possible) short term success but seldom leads to any meaningful long term development for most runners. Based on other things you wrote I would be inclined to believe that all the hard daily efforts have broken down your base. The question is, can you salvage the season? Without a radical change in your training pattern I would be sceptical.

Another thing to think of this time of year..."the hay is in the barn" - meaning you've done the work so just do what you need to be sharp on race day.

As for not improving since sophomore year, don't give up. I had a runner who graduated 2 years ago who had not shown a whole lot of progress between junior year of HS and junior year of college (I started working with him sophomore year of college). Before his senior college season he wrote that he had pretty much given up on ever being the kind of racer he wanted to be and that he just wanted to be a good team guy senior year and provide some direction so the younger guys would get better. However, that summer he and I had hit on a key workout and he was starting to show progress, at least in my eyes. He ended up dropping his 8k pr by almost 2:00 that fall and was a real key contributor on what was my best team to date.

There is no need to f******* swear on this site you f****** b****. Your coach may be an a****** but i'm sure that you like a fat c*** in your a** once in awhile. every c*** like you can use a c*** slapped across your face once in awhile.