I love to coach runners. Hell, I love coaching and helping anyone achieve their goals regardless of what they may be and that is probably why I spent so many years learning the art and science of the "helping profession." I love to help people achieve their goals whether they be physical, mental, emotional, professional, financial, or whatever. To see someone work, make progress and succeed is one of the most rewarding things ever.
That would be the love part, and now for the hate;
Focusing just on running it can be very challenging to keep an athlete engaged and motivated especially if their reasons for training are not fully clear to either themselves or you. Worse is when an athlete has things going on behind the scenes and you witness them struggling through workouts and not getting results and then banging your own head against the wall trying to work them out of it only to discover (later and after the fact) it had nothing to do with running or the workouts or burnout but more to do with an ex-lover or something non sport related.
These things need to be communicated to your coach. No, I will not take it easy on you because you are sad and if anything I will step up the volume of work to remind you to be true to yourself and your goals. Sympathy is in the dictionary between shit and syphilis, or at least in my copy.
As a coach I attempt to work as hard for my runners just as much as I expect them to work hard in training. Nobody gets to slack off. Sometimes as a coach I have to step my own game up, my speed, my mileages, not only for my own benefit and training but to also show that it can be done, and to set a positive example. As I learned a long time ago on the teams, "Lead from the front!"
I need to start packing for North Mexico (Texas) for a little 100 miler they are having there in a couple of weeks. I am looking forward to running around "gringo's" and being north for a bit.
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