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John O’Malley – Episode 002 – Coaching Runners Podcast

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John is the only person to have coached two Footlocker Champions (Lukas Verzbicus and Dylan Jacobs). He’s also had tremendous success coaching 800m runners: 26 boys have run under 1:58 and 9 under 1:54 under his guidance.

This interview with John O’Malley was recorded in November of 2018, soon after a disappointing cross country season for his team. John talked about elements in the program he’ll be working on in 2019. John’s candor during this first part of the interview is really special.

We then talk about winter training, specifically what he does to improve speed, to improve, as he likes to say, “wiring.” If you’re in San Diego or Houston in the winter, the track is clear and you can do this work, but if you’re in a suburb of Chicago, the track can be covered with snow and ice.

The end of the interview was a lot of fun: “If you could shadow one athlete between now and Tokyo, who would it be?” and “What is your favorite non-distance event in the Olympics.” Loved his answers.

Thanks John for your time.

Notes and Links:

Great Article – “Divergent Thinking – Inside John O’Malley”

Short blog post from High School Running Coach – “Everything is present all the time.”

Key Workout from High School Running Coach.

You can 38 minutes of free video from John’s two presentations at the 2018 Boulder Running Clinics High School Clinic here.

This episode of the Coaching Runners podcast is brought to you by the Fundamentals Education Course and the Boulder Running Clinics. Two great resources for coaches who are looking to take their program to the next level.

If you have questions or comments about the show, please email me – Jay@CoachJayJohnson.com

Chris Lear – Episode 001 – Coaching Runners podcast

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What a pleasure it was to interview my friend Chris Lear for the first episode of the Coaching Runners podcast.

Chris is known primarily as the author of Running with the Buffaloes and Sub-4.

Most people don’t know that Chris broke 4:10 for the full mile as a high school athlete, and was an All-American, running the 1,200m leg of the DMR for Princeton, when they finished fourth in the NCAA.

Chris talks about his training in high school and highlights elements that high school coaches will find useful.

I ask Chris what the one thing a high school coach can do tomorrow that Mark Wetmore and Ron Warhurst do with their athletes.

Chris also talks about the role talent plays in distance running.

Thanks Chris for kicking off the podcast with a great interview!

Links:

Running with the Buffaloes at 20: Author Chris Lear reflects on the running cult classic in an in-depth interview.

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This episode of the Coaching Runners podcast is brought to you by my Fundamentals Education Course and the Boulder Running Camps.

If you have questions or comments, please email me at Jay@CoachJayJohnson.com.

Coaching Runners Podcast

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Welcome to the Coaching Runners Podcast. I’m your host for this podcast.

The goal of the podcast is to help high school coaches broaden their knowledge of the craft of coaching and help them take their programs to the next level.

I interview coaches at all levels of the sport, as well as athletes, sports scientists, and medical professionals. These interviews, ranging in length from 60 to 120 minutes, are released on Sundays.

Most Wednesdays shorter episodes are released, featuring content from High School Running Coach and the Boulder Running Clinics.

If you have questions or comments, please email Jay at Jay@CoachJayJohnson.com.

Enjoy the show!

Q&A: Minutes vs. Miles? Can Easy Days Be Too Easy?

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What following is a transcript from the Run Faster Podcast. Thank you Jim – the four questions you sent were great and no doubt questions other readers and listeners have had. Click here to download a PDF of the podcast.

Hello, this is Jay Johnson and welcome to the Run Faster podcast. Today is a Q&A, so if you don’t like Q&As, you can fast forward. If you do like Q&As, that’s great. I hope you’ll enjoy this and that means that there’s no guest today. It’s just you and I. Okay? Four questions came from a reader. Jim. This was in response to a newsletter and I really appreciate these questions.

They’re rooted in a really good understanding of the information I’ve been putting out via the newsletters. I believe Jim has read Simple Marathon Training. If he hasn’t, I would be surprised given that these questions are in some ways rooted in the information in that book. I am going to come back to Simple Marathon Training at the end of this podcast in a little bit of a plug but more, and I’ll use this as an example.

I’m working with a couple new people who aren’t running the marathon and yet all of the things I believe in that apply to distance running, whether you’re a high school athlete training for the 1,600m or you’re an adult training for ultra marathons, it’s still the crux of it is in the Simple Marathon Training book. The marathon training is obviously different in that the focus on the long run and needing to utilize fat is important.

Okay, but I digress.

Here’s the four questions and we’ll see if you’re interested in listening further.

First question. ‘Do you always prescribe minutes to even advanced runners? If so, why?’

Second question. ‘Can you run your easy days too easy?’

Third question. ‘During your fundamental phase, do you see value in hill sprints as well?’

Forth question. ‘During your fundamental phase, do you see value in starting to progress a moderate speed long run in distance to prepare for marathon-specific training?’ [Read more…]

Aerobic Workouts: Progression Runs

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Progression runs are not only a great way to get a significant aerobic stimulus, they are also an indicator of your ability to run by feel. Let me explain.

Because a progression run has you running progressively faster throughout the run, you have to gauge your effort early in the workout. While you don’t want to run so slow to start this workout that you’re not being challenged, there is a tendency to run a bit too fast on the first segment of the progression run. You’ll have to speed up at three points in this run, so you have to make sure that in the first section you are being challenged, but running conservatively. If you are skilled at running by feel, this won’t be a problem, but if you’re still honing that skill then knowing what rhythm you can run and still be able to speed up three times will pose a challenge.

I really like a 50-minute progression run as the bread and butter version of this run. Do 20 minutes steady, 15 minutes a bit faster, 10 minutes a bit faster, 5 minutes fast but controlled. If you do a 10-minute warm-up and a 10-minute cool-down then you have 70 minutes of running. If you do LMLS before the run and SAM after the run then you’ll work out for 90 minutes, start to finish. This is a realistic amount of time to ask of even the busiest adult runner, let alone a high school or collegiate athlete training in the off-season. [Read more…]

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