What Top Ranked Programs Do Differently

Published October 30, 2024

It's an exciting week here in the state of Colorado! My daughter's team - both the boys and girls - has qualified for state.

The 5A girls cross country meet here in Colorado will be one of the best girls races all year long, with five to six nationally ranked teams contending. I think you could make an argument that whatever girls team finishes ninth or tenth in that race could win the state meet in 20 or 25 or maybe even 30 states. It's unbelievable!

This weekend's state meet features two powerhouse programs - the Niwot boys are ranked second in the country, and the Mountain Vista girls are ranked number one!

I'm blessed that Kelly Christensen of Niwot and Jonathan Dalby of Mountain Vista are close friends. And I'm also fortunate that they're willing to share their training approaches in the new edition of Consistency Is Key - which will be available in late November.

In the book we talk about the Car Analogy and how you have to:

Build the Aerobic Engine
Strengthen the Chassis
Rev the Engine

Here's how Niwot and Mountain Vista Strengthen the Chassis and Rev the Engine.

Niwot

How they strengthen the chassis:

20-30 minute weight room sessions after long runs
Single-leg and single-arm lifting for muscle balance
Basic core work (pull-ups and push-ups)
Hurdle mobility and mini-band work twice weekly
"Rope stretching" (Active Isolated Flexibility) before workouts and long runs
Regular foam rolling and lacrosse ball work for fascial release

How they rev the engine:

Strides 4-5 times per week (80m to 200m)
Mix of sprint work throughout the week:
- 6-8 second hill sprints
- Flying 30s
- 120s and 150s
- Wicket drills twice weekly before recovery runs
- 200s and diagonals on turf at various paces
- Mile-pace hill repeats

Mountain Vista

How they strengthen the chassis:

Daily dynamic mobility work (15 minutes pre-run)
Weight room 2-3 times weekly (20-25 minutes)
Challenging lifts: hex-bar deadlifts and goblet squats
Basic exercises: pull-ups and lunges
Hurdle mobility work twice weekly

How they rev the engine:

Regular hill work in their "playground" behind school
10 x 10-second hill sprints with walk-back recovery
Sometimes 10 x 30-second hills with 3-4 minutes walking recovery
Focus on high intensity with generous recovery

What Do Great Program Do?

So now that we've seen what two programs do, what I thought I would do is give you a summary of what all eight programs featured in Consistency Is Key are doing.

The programs featured in the book are...

American Fork Boys (Utah)
Naperville North Girls (Illinois)
Niwot Girls and Boys (Colorado)
Mountain Vista Girls and Boys (Colorado)
Minster Girls (Ohio)
Sandburg Boys (Illinois)
St. Joseph-Ogden Girls and Boys (Illinois)
The Woodlands Girls and Boys (Texas)

Long Runs

First off, you know what EVERY single one of these programs does? Long runs.

Not just any long runs though - most of them make them progression runs where kids finish faster than they start. Niwot even has this cool thing called the "Game of 3's" where they break it into thirds and get progressively faster.

Strides and Sprinting

All eight programs do strides regularly. Some do them after easy runs, others sprinkle them throughout the week. But they all make sure their distance runners don't forget how to run fast!

Speaking of fast - these programs aren't afraid to sprint or hit the hills.

Mountain Vista has this area they call their "playground" behind the school - a big area with hills of different lengths and grades - where they can do hill work. Several programs do flying 30s or other sprint work to rev the engine. They're proving that distance runners need that top-end speed all year.

Mobility and Flexibility

Now, here's something interesting about the mobility work.

Most of these programs do hurdle mobility drills, and quite a few do "rope stretching" (Active Isolated Flexibility). Naperville North, Niwot, and others swear by it.

Wickets

Half of the eight teams do wickets (aka mini-hurdles). It's really just fast running over low hurdles to work on form and posture - nothing complicated, but super effective!

If you want to try wickets with your team when you start off-season winter training I've got a great progression guide you can download right here - I'll walk you through exactly how to get started.

Pre-Season Camps

Almost all of these powerhouse programs do pre-season camps.

Whether it's Niwot heading to Western State University or The Woodlands taking their top 15 boys and 15 girls to Fayetteville, Arkansas, they all see huge value in getting away as a team before the season starts.

Obviously, there's not much you can do with just a few days or weeks left in the season, but I thought this would be a good review of what the best programs in the country are doing and give you some ideas for what you're going to want to change for next year's training.

The big takeaway?

These super-successful programs aren't just running a bunch of miles. They're building complete athletes with:

Challenging aerobic workouts (long runs/progression long runs)
Engine Reving (strides and sprints)
Mobility/Flexibility (rope stretching)
Neuromuscular work (wickets/mini-hurdles)
Strong team cultures (camps)

That's it for today.

If your team is racing this weekend, good luck to you and your athletes. I've been posting reminders for athletes on Instagram that you can share.

Let's go!