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Wisconsin Clinic – Winter 2021

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I send emails specifically for high school coaches each week. To sign-up for my newsletter click here.

YouTube playlist with Strength and Mobility (SAM), Leg Swings (LS), Lunge Matrix (LM), and Core X is here.

YouTube Speed for Distance Runners playlist – click here.

YouTube Running Circuits videos – click here.

And to purchase my book Consistency Is Key: 15 Ways to Unlock Your Potential as a High School Runner, click here. Make sure to use the code “WI10” to get 10% off your order. Free excerpts of the book are here.

You can watch over seven hours of free Boulder Running Clinics videos here. I share discounts on clinic videos via my newsletter, or simply email me and I can share a discount for being part of the Wisconsin clinic.

Finally, the Boulder Running Camps is a great way for serious kids and coaches to learn more about the sport. Email me if you want access to free recordings from the 2020 summer virtual camp and the 2020-21 winter virtual camps. While the virtual camps aren’t for every athlete, serious athletes who are eager to improve are having a blast. Over 87 percent of campers said the camp was worth the $297 registration free, and over 30 percent said it was worth more than $297. If you have a team interested in attending please email me – we offer deep discounts for teams and I’d love to get you and your team involved.

If I can ever be helpful please email me at jay@coachjayjohnson.com.

Aerobic Workouts: Progression Fartleks

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Once you gain a solid foundation of fitness, there is a very good chance that this will be your favorite aerobic workout.

The workout is exactly as it sounds. You’ll be doing a fartlek that gets progressively faster, and the fartlek segments get progressively longer. Just like the fartlek workout I’ve described previously (click here) you will run two paces: “on” and “steady.” The difference in the progression fartlek is the the on portions will increase in length as the workout progresses. And you should be running faster as the workout progresses as well. Similar to the progression run, this is a great workout to get you mentally ready to run faster at the end of races (that is, running a negative split race).

The first progression fartlek is simply:

3/1, 3/1, 4/1, 4/1, 5/1, 5/1, 6/1, 8. So 3 minutes on, 1 minute steady, 3 minutes on, 1 minute steady, 4 minutes one, 1 minute steady, etc. The fastest running should come in the final 8 minutes of the workout. Most athletes run about the same pace for the first two 3-minute segments, speed up for the 4-minute segments, running this new pace for both 4-minute segments, etc.

Key point: Do not use your GPS and run pre-determined paces. This workout is designed to sharpen your skill of running by feel. You need to run this workout in such a way that the last segment has you running faster than all of the previous segments. And that will be a challenge as the 1-minute steady recovery will go quickly. Bottom line is that this is a killer workout and you’re going to be challenged. [Read more…]

Aerobic Workouts: Aerobic Repeats

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Most runners think that speed work is a key to gaining fitness and being race ready. While it’s true that you need to do some race pace work (use that term rather than speed work) to race to your potential, you need to have done weeks and months of challenging aerobic workouts first. Aerobic repeats are done entirely below your anaerobic threshold, which is different than workouts such as 10 x 400m with 60 seconds of walking, where you are maxing out the aerobic metabolism plus dipping into the anaerobic metabolism. The aerobic repeat workout is entirely aerobic and it’s the type of workout you want to be doing regularly in the foundational phase of your training.

4 x 8 minutes with 3 minutes steady is the first aerobic repeat workout I use with athletes. Totaling 41 minutes of high level aerobic running, this is a challenging workout, so long as you run steady rather than easy for the 3-minute segment. Yes, it’s slower than the 8-minute segment, but don’t think of it as a full recovery. By the end of the 3 minutes you should be thinking, “I wish I had another minute at this pace.” Do a 10-minute warm-up and a 10-minute cool-down to get 61 minutes of total running.

What paces should you run? I have no idea. I have no idea what your fitness is, so I can’t tell you what paces you should be able to run for this workout. What I can tell you is if you run by feel you’ll be able to execute this workout on the second or third try. The keys to this workout are as follows.

First, you need to make the first 8-minute segment very conservative. Do that and you give yourself a great chance of running faster on the next three 8-minute repetitions. [Read more…]

Aerobic Workouts: Fartlek

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Fartlek workouts are one of the simplest aerobic workouts and can be used at the start of a block of training, with both young athletes and older athletes.

Fartlek is a Swedish term that means “speed-play.” You simply oscillate between two or more paces in your run. The simplest fartleks should be done in 5-minute blocks. So you can do 2 minutes “on” – a pace that is challenging, but one you could do for 15-20 minutes. Then do 3 minutes “steady” – a pace that is slower than the “on” pace, but faster than your easy run pace. That is a solid 5 minutes of running. Do 4 sets and you have 20 minutes of running; do 8 sets and you have 40 minutes of running. So you can complete a 10-minute warm-up and a 10-minute cool-down, then do 4-8 sets in the middle, giving you 40-60 minutes of running. Simple.

The common mistake with fartlek workouts is to go too fast during the on and too slow on the steady. So, run VERY easy during the first on segment, but keep the steady at an honest pace. Again, the on portions should be at a pace you can do for 15-20 minutes, so running just 2 minutes at this pace is not that challenging.

This workout is the antithesis of 10 x 400m with 60 seconds of walk/jog. In that workout you go super hard, then walk/jog; in this workout you run a challenging, but not hard pace during the on portion, then make the steady portion fast enough that the 5-minute block is challenging, but highly doable. [Read more…]

Aerobic Workouts: Introduction

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Developing the aerobic metabolism is the number one goal of any distance runner. Why? Take a look at the percent energy contributions from the following three metabolisms, keeping in mind that aerobic means “with oxygen.”

Distance Aerobic % Anaerobic % Phosphogen %
 800m  60%  35%  5%
 1,600m  82%*  18%  0-2%
 3,200m  90%  10%  0-2%
5,000m  95%  5% 0-2%

*There is a debate as to the exact percentage for the 1,600m, ranging from 80% to 85%.

The second key with the aerobic metabolism is that you can improve it year after year. This is why the best marathoners in the world tend to be older than the best sprinters in the world…and it’s why many masters runners, who come to running later in life, continue to run faster year after year.

The way I like to think about the aerobic metabolism is that you’re building your engine when you train aerobically. Now, you need a strong chassis to handle this engine (so LMLS and SAM work daily – videos here), but the key to your long term success as a runner, and the way you’ll run PRs at a variety of distances, is to continue to improve your aerobic system.

What follows are four fundamental aerobic workouts. They are presented in roughly the same progression that you would do the workouts, one per week for the busy adult and perhaps two per week for serious high school and collegiate athletes. The long run is the key aerobic workout of the week and I’m assuming that you’ll be doing a long run virtually every week that you’re training. [Read more…]

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