How Challenging Should Hard Days Be?

Published February 5, 2025 

One of the chapters in ​Consistency Is Key​ that is both overlooked and misunderstood is this: Do Easy Days Easy and Hard Days Hard. I want to spend today talking about the second part of this maxim.

But first, I hope you'll join me tonight for a free live class. It's technically for coaches from the Michigan Coaches Association, but they're opening it up to anybody who wants to join live.

It'll be a concise, fast-paced class where I'll teach for about 40-45 minutes, and then we'll open it up for Q&A.

I'll talk about how you can use things from ​Consistency is Key​, and I'll give you multiple free resources that you can start using tomorrow. I've also created a page on my website that has links to everything I'm going to cover—every video, every PDF, and links to every article I reference. So even if you can't join live, you'll want to ​click here​ and check out that page. Note that I won't be uploading the videos of the class until it's over.

The class is at 8 p.m. ET, 5 p.m. PT. You can watch the recording at the conclusion of the class at the same link.

 ​Click Here To Watch Tonight​ 

And there's a second class on Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET, where I'm going to go day-by-day through the first 5 weeks of training for your kids. We'll talk about kids who train this winter and have been running consistently, as well as kids who are going to join you later this month having done nothing.

And there's a new wrinkle to the ​Track Training System​ where we're going to the track on Thursdays. I'll share a couple of those workouts for free.

 ​Click Here For Thursday's Class​ 

Also, at the bottom of this email, I'm sharing a deep discount on team tents. I bought my daughters middle school team a tent from First To The Finish this summer and it’s fantastic. If you need a tent before the track season, make sure to scroll to the bottom and check out that offer.

OK, on to the newsletter…

How Hard Should The Hard Days Be?

Let’s talk about what we don’t want to have happen.

We don’t want long runs and challenging aerobic workouts to turn into races.

While a college athlete or a professional athlete may be able to recover from a progression run that “got away from them” and turned into a race, a sophomore in high school is going to be wrecked 24- and 48-hours later if their 25-minute run was a race and not a workout.

This leads to the 11th point in the book, Know You Could Have Gone Farther or Faster (or Both).

• Kids need to end long runs being able to say both
• Kids need to end progression runs being able to say, “I could have gone a little farther at the last pace.”

But the flip side is so often both athletes and coaches see a workout I assign and wrongly think that because it’s a simple workout it be an easy workout.

Don’t confuse simple with easy.

The five aerobic workouts I use in the winter and at the beginning of the outdoor season aren’t complex, but they are not easy...not if you run ‘em right.

If you don’t know what these workouts are, ​check out this in-depth article​. Yes, the article title has “cross country” in it, but I use the same workouts to build the aerobic engine in the winter as I do in the summer, so it’s perfect for February and early March.

Here are two examples of simple workouts that are hard, if they're executed correctly.

A 30-minute fartlek of 3 minutes “on” followed by 2 min steady is enough to help a boy run well into the 9:30s and faster come April.

A 25-minute progression run of 10 min steady, 5 min a bit faster, 5 min a bit faster, 5 min fast but controlled is a killer workout for a girl who will run low 5’s in the 1600m. When they end saying, “I had 3-5 more minutes left, but that’s it” then they had a great workout.

When the athlete runs these correctly, they'll be glad to be done and will have to mentally get ready to knock out their post-run work, which comes immediately after the workout.

And remember that a simple assignment is nice as they don’t spend mental energy thinking about the workout – they just go out and run hard.

“What Does the Week Look Like?”

In February, most programs should schedule their long run for Saturday to take advantage of the sunlight, ensuring there’s enough time for the necessary post-run work.

Tuesday is ideal for a challenging aerobic workout. Feel free to tell the kids on Monday that Tuesday will be hard. It’s not a bad thing for kids to know they’ll be pushed out of their comfort zone and be anticipating that.

A new wrinkle this season is that we’re heading to the track as early as Week 2 on Thursdays. However, this isn’t a traditional "speed" workout. Later this year, I’ll explain why the term "speed work" is misleading and should be avoided. Instead, the goal on Thursday is to prepare athletes to handle 1600m and 800m goal paces as soon as possible.

This is a mistake I made for too many years - not getting to the track early enough in the season.

While we started with strides on the first day of practice and had a progression moving us toward 800m rhythm faster than most programs I was still waiting too long to get on the track for this specific work.

On Thursday night, during the live class for the Michigan Coaches, I’ll go over exactly what we do in the first three weeks of training. Be sure to ​tune in live​ or watch the recording afterward.

The bottom line is:

We want athletes running 120s, 150s, and even the occasional 300m as early as the second week of training to prepare them so that when they race an 800m in March, they’re ready to perform at their fitness level.

Will They Peak Too Soon?

If you’re thinking, “Jay, I’m worried athletes will peak too soon if we’re on the track by the second week of February,” don’t be.

Coaches using these Thursday workouts in the ​Track Training System​ won’t see their athletes peaking in April—they’ll run even faster in May.

You should be worried instead about the converse: having athletes with big aerobic engines who can’t change gears/speed up in the last 100m or 300m or 500m of a 1600m race because you didn’t start this work early enough.

Also, the best training systems don't have athletes "hold a peak" for a handful of weeks, and then fade. Rather, the athletes will continue to run faster week after week, with their fastest racing coming in the last 3-4 weeks of the year.

In sum...

• Make sure the hard days are being run hard
• Make sure you're going to the track by week 2
• Make sure you tune ​tonight and 8 pm ET​ for a free live class
• Make sure to tune in again ​Thursday at 8 pm ET​ for a second class
• Make sure you check out the page with all the PDFs, Videos, and Downloads that I'll reference in the live classes ​here​ 

I Got This Tent for My Daughter’s Team

I’m so blessed that both of my daughters have had, or currently have, Coach Doug as their middle school coach.

They were in need of a tent after last season, and because their team was growing, they needed a bigger one for this season.

I reached out to Austin at ​First To The Finish​. I simply sent him the school logo and their team created a great tent, so I placed my order. The turnaround time was extremely fast.

He’s offering you 10% off a tent when you use code “JAY10”

The First To The Finish tents are:

• Customizable: Unlimited printing at no additional cost
• Durable: Weather-resistant and built to last
• Easy Setup: Quick and lightweight

Pricing is as good as you’ll find anywhere:

• 10x10: $809
• 10x15: $989
• 10x20: $1,259

To get a design started, just email ​[email protected]​ and mention the discount code, or design your own using the online builder ​here​ (note: the builder app works on a computer, not a phone).

This is on the second time I’ve ever promoted something in my newsletter that wasn’t something I was directly involved with. But after going through this process with Austin, seeing how fast his team turned things around, and seeing how happy the parents and athletes were to have an awesome tent, I’m excited to offer you this discount.

 ​Click Here​ to check out their tents.

That's it for today. I hope to see you tonight at 8 pm ET for the live class - ​click here​ to join in the fun.

Let’s go!

Jay

PS – If you really want to dive into some training, here are three videos on YouTube that are fast-paced and full of information.

 ​Track Training - Taking Your Program to the Next Level​ 

 ​21-Day Training Plan for High School Runners - It Keeps High School Runners Injury-Free​ 

 ​Mental Skills for Runners - 1600m and Mile - Racing to your fitness level