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Podcast 008 – Vern Gambetta

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Vern Gambetta is one of the premier strength and conditioning coaches in the world. But, unlike many of his peers, his roots are in track and field. He considers himself a coach, first and foremost.

Many of you are familiar with his blog and the balance he shares between the nuts and bolts of helping athletes become better athletes and the art of coaching.

Interviewing Vern is a real treat for me as he’s a coach I’ve looked up to for many years.

Vern will be speaking at the Boulder Running Clinic’s 2015 July High School Coaches clinic. He’ll be presenting in both the formal classroom setting as well as outside in a “learn by doing” session.

Listen to the podcast on iTunes or listen to it on Stitcher if you have an Android device.

If you like the podcast please leave a review on the iTunes page. Thanks!

Podcast 007 – Nate Jenkins

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Nate Jenkins is our seventh guest on the Run Faster Podcast.

Nate is an American marathon runner who has taken the time to share his training logs over his career at nateruns.blogspot.com.  Nate does a wonderful job explaining why he does what he does.  He’s self effacing and the first to be critical of any mistake he’s made in his training.

Nate finished seventh at the 2008 Olympic Trials, in a star-studded field.  He has a marathon PR of 2:14.

Nate started running seriously in 8th grade and learned by his senior year in high school that high mileage worked for him.  

In this interview he talks about his interpretation of Renato Canova’s training system and how he’s implemented that into his training.  He also discusses his use of workouts like Aussie Quarters and the Mona Fartlek.

This interview runs a few minutes longer than most for the simple fact that I had so many questions for Nate.

Listen to the podcast on iTunes or listen to it on Stitcher if you have an Android device.

If you like the podcast please leave a review on the iTunes page. Thanks!

 

Two things you need to know about the Boulder Running Clinics February 2015 Clinic

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Here are the two primary things you need to know about the Boulder Running Clinics February 2015 Sports Science Clinic, which starts tomorrow.

First, you don’t have to be in attendance to get your FREE pair of Newton Kismet shoes, which retail for $127.  The wear testers at Competitor magazine have raved about these shoes and we are fortunate that Newton is giving a pair to everyone who signs up for the clinic.

Second, we will video all the presentations and, by mid-March, will send links so you can watch the videos on your computer, tablet or phone.

The list of speakers is fantastic, as are the topics they will be presenting.  Click here to check out the schedule.

Registration is $147 but if you use the code “blog20” you will get $20 off your registration.

This means that for $127 you will get a pair of great shoes and you will get nine videos showcasing some of the brightest minds in the world of running, talking about topics they think you need to understand.

To register, click here.  Registration ends at 4 pm MST tomorrow (Friday, February 20th, 2015)

Have questions?  I can answer them at coachjayjohnson@gmail.com .

Thanks for reading.  New blog posts coming next week.

 

 

Balance running training with a busy work schedule

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I just had an online client finish several weeks of intense business work, putting in long days and having little time for sleep.  He was able to train during this time, but looking back on it, I probably should have lowered his running load.

Now he has a much lighter schedule.  It’s by no means an easy work schedule, but nothing like the previous weeks.

I’m sharing this because I’ve asked him to go easy this first week.  His brain needs a break, even though his workload has gone from crazy to normal.  Your brain has to be fresh before you can train.  If your brain isn’t ready to go and you’re trying to run solid volume with good workouts and long runs, you’ll be able to do it for a few weeks, but then you’ll have issues.  You could get sick, you could have a little injury flare-up or you could simply start to feel flat in training.

What does this look like in terms of training?   [Read more…]

How should I run now that I’m over my sickness?

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Most of us are going to get sick at some point during the year.  You might get the flu from a child or you might get a case of the common cold as a simple result of being in public places.  For your running training, the key to getting better is simple.

First, don’t come back to running until you are 85-90% better. Just lay low and take time off.  Don’t rush coming back to running until you feel well.  You will find other information on the internet about sickness “above the head or below the head.”  My experience with coaching runners, both in person and online, is simple: when they follow the 85-90% suggestion, they don’t take any steps back in their training once they resume training.

Once you’re feeling 85-90% well, you must have the discipline to run easy for the next few runs.  You have to be 100% before you run your next workout or long run.  And you also have to be 100% the day before that workout or long run.

Let’s say you were on a Tuesday workout/Saturday long-run schedule (the schedule I like for busy adults with hectic lives). [Read more…]

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