My coach told me to give up competitive running

I run with a club.

NotAustin18 wrote:

You should have 2 workouts a week, Tuesday some speed work, Friday a tempo, then Saturday or Sunday (depending on if you rest on Sunday or not) a long run.

NO. Do NOT do this. The schedule he posted is much better than this.

Best thing to add, if anything, would be hills and the occasional really fast speedwork.

You could start fishing a bit on your off/light days and work up from there.

You can do higher volume both overall and on the speedwork:

8-10x1k is a typical college workout, as is 16-20x400 on 100-200 jog.

Waterworks wrote:

I explained in a previous post that this is not a weekly plan and that i do two sessions a week and a long run. That was just an example the workouts that i will do in general race prep.

Fair enough.

Road Racing Expert wrote:

NotAustin18 wrote:

You should have 2 workouts a week, Tuesday some speed work, Friday a tempo, then Saturday or Sunday (depending on if you rest on Sunday or not) a long run.

NO. Do NOT do this. The schedule he posted is much better than this.

Best thing to add, if anything, would be hills and the occasional really fast speedwork.

What's wrong with that schedule? Bernard Lagat does Tuesday speed work, Friday tempo, Saturday long run.

What schedule would be better?

Got it. And Are there guys running for this club who are sub 30? Sub 29? Sub 28? [pretty sure I don't have to ask about sub 27]

Dkny64 wrote:

Got it. And Are there guys running for this club who are sub 30? Sub 29? Sub 28? [pretty sure I don't have to ask about sub 27]

We have 4 sub 30 guys on the team. 3 post collegiate guys, I understand my coach giving them preference but I feel I still have something to offer.

Waterworks wrote:

My coach told me the other day to give up competitive running. I have a 5k pb of 16.03 and 10k of 33.10. He said i would never be a top runner and was wasting my time training so much and all that i could end up as is a road wh*re and that is nothing to be proud of. I really enjoy running even if it is at a local 10k. He thinks he's the shlt because he has run sub 30 and if you cannot achieve what he has, you are wasting his time and your own and should take up fishing. What can i do in this situation as he gives me no positive advice and pays no attention to me at all?

Sometimes you are told exactly what you need to hear. Either you are going turn this into motivation and get your butt in gear and do what it takes to get to the next level or you are going to cut your losses, accept his critique and invest your energies elsewhere.

you dont know how good you will end up being if you stick with it and neither does anybody else... there is only one way to find out...

NotAustin18 wrote:

Road Racing Expert wrote:

NO. Do NOT do this. The schedule he posted is much better than this.

Best thing to add, if anything, would be hills and the occasional really fast speedwork.

What's wrong with that schedule? Bernard Lagat does Tuesday speed work, Friday tempo, Saturday long run.

What schedule would be better?

All 2-4 workouts per week various types of repeats - hill, track, fartlek, whatever. Not all of them hard. Tempos and long runs of secondary importance for road 5ks.

I don't put much stock in what Lagat does based on one week from news article one time, but that article did say he did hills and track intervals in that week.

Good advice for 90 % of this message board

Don't let your coach matter. Learn to coach yourself; own your running. My son had many tennis coaches. One knew what he was doing, but the others, including a D-I coach, were frauds. A few were abusive. Coaching should impart confidence, not be a vehicle for the coach's ego needs. It almost always is. None of us is Geb. Geb isn't even Geb. That's axiomatic. Also, use your coach's view of you to fuel the fire.

"Perspective is our greatest challenge." -Billy Mills

Age - Status

Born - Heart murmur, lower ventricle defect

7-16 Swimmer/Biker

11 - "Don't do anything strenuous." -Doctor

12 - Soccer, halfback & left wing, swimmer

15 - Jr Olympic Gold Medalist , 100m breast stroke

16 - 12:15 2.2 miles hily road

17 - 3:28 marathon, soccer state champs

18 - 4:45 mile

21 - 12:36 2.5 mile level road

35 - 16:04 5,000m

48 - 16:43.1 5,000m

50 - 4:52 mile, 3:28 3/4 mile

52 - 16:37.8 5,000m, 4:45 mile, 4:46 mile, 4:49 mile

53 - 4:41 mile, 50 mile run

54 - Present Day

Waterworks wrote:

I can't. I live in a remote area and all of my buddies are there.

I have to agree with him after reading this.

Waterworks, do what you want to do..RUN! And enter races. It's your life and your happiness.

There's nothing wrong with the roads. I enjoyed being a roadrunner. (of course, it was a long while ago).

When I first started out, I couldn't find a person to coach me. I asked two coaches. One said a flat out no. And the other, I had to ask three times...and finally two years later he said "Ok".

I agree with HRE. Until you find a coach, learn to coach yourself. Keep on running.

There's a tremendous amount of coaches that would be willing to help you. Kim Jones and her hubby Jon Sinclair come to mind.

Waterworks wrote:

My coach told me the other day to give up competitive running. I have a 5k pb of 16.03 and 10k of 33.10. He said i would never be a top runner and was wasting my time training so much and all that i could end up as is a road wh*re and that is nothing to be proud of. I really enjoy running even if it is at a local 10k. He thinks he's the shlt because he has run sub 30 and if you cannot achieve what he has, you are wasting his time and your own and should take up fishing. What can i do in this situation as he gives me no positive advice and pays no attention to me at all?

Tell him to give up coaching, that he'll never produce a top runner.

Also post his name, there's no room for people like him in this sport.

Coach Cookie wrote:

Waterworks wrote:

My coach told me the other day to give up competitive running. I have a 5k pb of 16.03 and 10k of 33.10. He said i would never be a top runner and was wasting my time training so much and all that i could end up as is a road wh*re and that is nothing to be proud of. I really enjoy running even if it is at a local 10k. He thinks he's the shlt because he has run sub 30 and if you cannot achieve what he has, you are wasting his time and your own and should take up fishing. What can i do in this situation as he gives me no positive advice and pays no attention to me at all?

You can still be a world class triathlete. Give these guys a call

http://www.usatriathlon.org/

You could also take up ultra running. If you can take jogging for endless hours you could be elite in that sport.

Waterworks wrote:

Dkny64 wrote:

Got it. And Are there guys running for this club who are sub 30? Sub 29? Sub 28? [pretty sure I don't have to ask about sub 27]

We have 4 sub 30 guys on the team. 3 post collegiate guys, I understand my coach giving them preference but I feel I still have something to offer.

So you're 19 years old and running with a serious but non-elite club team. Are you also attending college? Working?

btw, "I feel I still have something to offer" seems to me like an odd way to think about the situation. I believe the first question is whether you enjoy running with this team despite the coach's negative attitude toward you. If the answer is "yes", great, keep running with them and tune out the coach. If the answer is "no", find another way to run. [which could include running some workouts with members of your current club on days when they aren't running with the team.]