Horrible High School Coach

I don't really see what is so bad about running 9 miles the day after a meet or 40 minutes the day before. None of these things really sounds so bad to be honest.

^ this is op, I don't know that's a little excessive for high school sophomores. also we think his workouts are just to sparratic. it went meet, 9 mile, 40 minute, meet. thats a little much i think

This really seems about normal, I don't see anything too wrong with it. This poster still wins the "worst coach on Letsrun" award.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=3810036

distancerunner64 wrote:

^ this is op, I don't know that's a little excessive for high school sophomores. also we think his workouts are just to sparratic. it went meet, 9 mile, 40 minute, meet. thats a little much i think

Not at all. Our team's usual run is around 9 miles, and the day before a meet, we run like 7.

Also, just running one event per meet is pointless. As primarily a 1600-3200 guy, I still run the 4x800 sometimes to stay sharp when our coach wants to put other guys in the 3200. No one on our distance squad (other than runners recovering from injury) ever run one event at a Monday meet.

I see a much bigger problem with you than the coach; his training plan is not exactly how I would do it, but this coach's routine is to far off the mark from what a lot o good coaches do. Sounds to me like the coach is focusing on the end of the season. The coaches job is not to make you or your son run a PR when they think they should, the coach has to be concerned unimportant stuff like, scoring point and winning meets, winning relays and perhaps geting you or your son to PR when it really counts.

Stopping being a jerk and cut your caoch a break.

^^

op here again, i just think that a coach should listen to what his runners have to say and stuff. he MAKES us warm up like 2 hours before our race and he just gets mad about everything. our old coach was the best he gave good workouts and had us peak at the right time. this guy doesnt know running at all.[quote]distancerunner64 wrote:

You have a good coach. It's much better to have a coach who makes you do a little too much than one who doesn't have you do enough. Trust me. You'll never become a champion if you don't sacrifice.

The coach has made a mistake, it seems. He seems to be of the opinion that his team came into the season with some fitness. He probably mistakenly believes that you put in some base work over the winter and as a result are prepared for pretty typical track season training. The fact that his runners consider a 40 minute easy run to be anything other than a very light day shows just how much of a mistake he made in his assumptions. Maybe he is a horrible coach for making this mistake and doing typical mid-April training in mid-April instead of realizing his team's lack of fitness and starting the outdoor season with they type of training that other teams might do in December or January.

You should talk to him about all of this. Explain to him that the team is just flat out lacking fitness and that when he assigns workouts that might be appropriate for trained athletes, they are too tough for his team to handle.

I had an invitational Saturday meet, then the next day did 9.5 miles and on Monday had a duel meet in which I pr'd in the 800. We also run 5-6 miles before most meets during Cross country season and we don't do badly. Unless your just incredibly sore or something, the mileage isn't bad before a duel meet so just make sure you ice the night before and you won't feel any effects during the race

I wonder how good a team you have going if you're complaining about a 40 minute run the day before a meet. If you're walking I doubt you're getting much more than 5 - 5 1/2 miles in that amount of time. If you can't handle an easy 5 miler the day before a race it sounds like you should be putting in more off-season miles.

As for multiple races at duals. My teammates and I routinely ran at least two races and usually 3-4. My personal favorite was the 4x800, 800, 1600 and 4x400.

I see a lot more wrong with the OP's attitude than I do with the coach.

Doubling during a meet makes him bad?

A 40 minute run the day before a meet makes him bad? I guess 90% of coaches in America are bad coaches, then.

You walk on a workout, and complain when you get caught?

He may be a 'mean' coach, but as far as workouts and meets go, I see absolutely nothing wrong. The 'hard work' you speak of should pay off nicely at your league finals.

Look in the mirror, bud - in the 1970s, the best teams would run 90mpw. A 9 mile run the day after a meet would have been an easy day.

Probably a troll, but 9 miles the day after a meet is fine as long as you actually run easy for it. Granted it was in college, but I used to find I felt more recovered after twelve miles easy than after eight the day following a workout (though this was when I was doing 80 mpw or so.)

OP again, you guys are right. I need to stop focusing on this stuff and remember why i started running competitively because i love it. But ill leave you with more more thing, the other day before the mile he said " on the third lap, i want you to make a conscious effort to go faster". OK like we don't already. hes just not knowledgeable. but i guess his workouts are good, thanks for the help guys.

Good Lord. I ran the 1600 in high school and I know for a fact that I slowed down drastically the third lap even though it felt like I was maintaining pace. If you make a conscious effort to go faster the third lap you will, if you're lucky, only maintain the pace you were running for the previous laps.

Most likely, you're a regular j@ck@ss high school kid goes out in 65 and 72 then runs lap three in 85 and finishes off with a 75. Ask him what your 400 splits have been for the last few 1600s you've run. I bet your third lap is your slowest.

Your coach doesn't sound too bad.

We are expected to run 4 events at every meet - 4x8, 1600, 800 and 3200.

Our coach enters wrong seed times and we end up getting stuck in slow heats.

Our coach lectures us for an hour about responsibility and wastes all our practice time, then shows up an hour late himself the next morning when we are leaving for a meet and the bus has to wait for him. He then gives wrong directions to the driver, we get lost, and we miss the first hour of the meet.

Our coach makes the entire team do the same workout, boys and girls, and everyone has to wait for the slowest kid to finish before they can do their next rep.

Just to give you some idea of bad. Be happy. You could have our coach.

0/10

Our coach is great, but every once in a while, he kills one of us. Last week, he garroted our top 800 guy after practice. No one saw it, but I haven't heard from the guy since then. Granted, I am not friends with the dude, but I don't see how this helps the team. One of my teammates said the 800 guy just went on vacation with his parents a day early, but I didn't see him at Friday's practice, so I think the coach probably killed him.

Whenever I see a post that begins with"OK, so..." I visualize a cheerleading squad that begins by getting everyone's attention by clapping their hand and chanting "OK!"

You don't have to get our attention. Just get on with whatever it is you want to say.

You're walking during a 40 minute run. At this point, I'd say your coach is not the problem.