Hi everyone,
I'm going to start of with some background info. I'm a male, high school junior, who has ran 1:59, 4:26, and 9:32. During my base I hit about 65 mpw in singles. Currently, I'm not running due to a minor issue of ITBS, but I've been pain free for a week and plan on resuming running in the next week. While I've been off I have been doing workouts on the underwater treadmill at the gym and easy runs on the elliptical.
The real issue is my coaching. My freshman year we had a great coach who knew what he was doing and I thrived under him. The summer of my freshman year, he moved and was replaced by an assistant who had never coach before. Under this coach, my mileage dropped from my 65mpw base to 40mpw the first week in August. After a month of this, I realized that it was hurting me and I would runs doubles to get up to 65mpw. The problem was that I was being pushed too hard in workouts and burned out before the state meet. Fast forward to track my sophomore year and I'm running great all season. I lost one race before regionals. The week of regionals I start experiencing shin splints. I tell my coaches that I think it is a bad idea to run four events at regionals (4x8, 1600, 800, 3200). They say you can do it, it'll be fine and the team is counting on you to win regionals. Well I ended up qualifying for states in the 4x8 and 1600 after finishing 4th in the 8 and dropping out 3 laps into the 3200. I biked the 2 weeks between regionals and states and split 1:59high on the 4x8 and had to scratch from the 1600. That summer I got to set up my own training plan and hit 65mpw throughout the summer. I had a great xc season because I made sure to keep everything under control. I didn't kill myself when my coach kept telling me to run harder.
Here's the issue, our xc coach is the distance coach in track, but the head coach is a football coach who believes in tearing yourself apart to get better. The distance coach can only be at practice once a week, but will provide workouts for us to do. I don't like this at all, I feel like a coach is necessary so they can point out the little flaws such as form and be able to communicate with them daily if I'm having aches and pains.
I have become pretty close with a guy at the gym who was a junior Olympic 10k champ and has ran under 14 and 29 minutes and is very knowledgeable. He also coaches younger athletes. He has given me workouts in the past, but I think he would be a great coach for me. The problem I have with asking him, is that he used to work with the distance coach at a running store. Now, my parents are willing to pay him, but I don't want to cause problems among the coaching staff and team by going to a different coach. However, I feel that it is necessary so I can achieve my goals and hopefully end up going to a D1 school to run. Can anyone offer some advice on what to do here?
Thanks