How can I convince my coach to let me run more races during the season. I improve when I race more. We have a lot of indoor meets on our schedule but they are mainly for the sprinters and throwers, I was hoping to go with that group in race. Our coach would rather us do a 10 mile tempo run then race.
Ditch your coach. Endurance training principles are well known and are available to everyone. You don't need him/her.
Quit the team and move up to the marathon right now. Show that coach you know more than he does.
antsy runner wrote:
How can I convince my coach to let me run more races during the season. I improve when I race more. We have a lot of indoor meets on our schedule but they are mainly for the sprinters and throwers, I was hoping to go with that group in race. Our coach would rather us do a 10 mile tempo run then race.
Did you run cross country? Personally, I think the outdoor track season is long enough by itself, so I plan on having the distance runners on the team I help coach run in just 2 meets and 3 meets total if they make it to state indoors.
I did run cross country but our coach only had us run 3 meets. I need more racing experience. We are only running 1-2 indoor races, and 2-3 outdoor races. This guy thinks it's more important to do 10 mile tempo runs or 8x1000s or 18 mile long runs instead of racing. I didn't come to college to just run workouts.
Normally I would agree that you don't need to race that often (racing breaks up your training program) but your schedule does seem a bit light. Some times coaches make those decisions based on money. They take only their best runners to meets to maximize funding. Just imagine how much 90 plane tickets, 90 or 45 hotel rooms/per day and 270 meals/per day costs. Im not saying this is the case for you but look at it honestly as a possibility.
Also ask the question are the meets you are going to high level meets? Are there athletes at them who are going to challenge you to run your best times? If they are good meets, I would just train like crazy and try to smoke those meets and run great times. If they aren't you really have to get on your coach and tell him to race you more.
If all else fails enter local meets when the team is gone, there are usually small school meets (JUCO, NAIA, D3) that you can enter and at least get a race in even if the comp isn't there. If you guys don't have local meets you can always hold team time trials, not the same but closer. Good luck bro.
I don't think funding is too much of an issue. He just does not like us racing. The meets scheduled are not very far away. Just a couple of hours in the bus. He told me racing will take away from me trying to get to Nats in track. Every year in highschool I ran 11 cross country meets, about 6 road races, and about 12 track meets running 2 or more races at each meet. I improved every year at the end of the season. Often times coaches forget how important racing is. No training workout will ever compare to it. Racing teaches you to push yourself and try different things.
What division are you running? D1, D2, D3, NAIA ?
What year are you in college?
What events do you run in track?
What was your xc time?
D1
Junior
Mile, 3k, 5k, 1500, 10k
Mile- 4:55 3k- 9:57 5k-17:07 1500- 4:36 10k- 35:35
cross country 6k 21:24
I am a girl.
Hmmm well given what you just said here is what I would do. Convince him to use the meets as work out sessions. Tell him you will enter multiple races i.e. the 8 and the 15(or mile) or 3k and 15(or mile). Or tell him you will do a tempo run after the race. Bring up that Alberto Salazar uses this technique with his high level athletes because he believes that racing is a good thing as well. Tell him you will not peak for them but just train through them and use them as a second or third work out of the week. Explain that you don't care about the times at the races you are only interested in pushing your self in a workout type race. Maybe he will see the light.
hopefully. Thank you that may work.