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Tony Holler – Episode 005 – Coaching Runners Podcast

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Tony Holler is the boy’s track coach at Plainfield North H.S. (IL). In 2018 Coach Holler’s team swept the sprints – 4x100m, 4x200m, 100m, 200m – at the IHSA State Meet, setting two state records. He’s been coaching high school athletes for 38 years.

Tony is the owner of “Feed the Cats,” a system for training sprinters that is being implemented throughout the United States by high school track coaches. He is also the co-owner of Track Football Consortium, a site where he not only writes on the topic of sprinting, but he’s also written articles on distance running, such as the profile of John O’Malley (episode 002), which you can read it here.

In this interview we go into detail about the elements Coach Holler uses with his sprinters that he believes distance coaches should be implementing. There are some specific questions, such as how he views someone like Peter Snell doing 20-mile long runs as part of middle distance training. He’s got a great answer to that question.

Tony and I discuss what needs to be done to improve track and field in the United States – a subject that may well deserve a follow-up episode.

If you are interested in purchasing Tony’s videos use this link to ensure that Tony gets the full royalty. (I’m not affiliated with Tony or Championship Producations)

Thank you, Tony, for your time and energy.

You can find Coach Holler on Twitter at @pntrack

Two habits I ingrained in 2018

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I was fortunate to have the time and flexibility in my life in 2018 to ingrain two daily habits. The first is a short routine of Active Isolated Flexibility, AIF, which I learned from Phil Wharton. The second is simply twenty minutes of silent meditation each morning. The AIF work takes me less than ten minutes, though it should take longer, as I rushed through the routine most days. For the meditation I use a free app called Insight Timer that has a starting and ending bell, so the time is set. Finally, I use an app called Streaks, which costs five dollars, that was no doubt helpful as I can track these two habits.

I started doing the AIF work in December of 2017. My guess is I did it twenty to twenty-five days that month, with the obvious goal being to establish a habit of doing AIF each day in 2018. What happened? I was able to do AIF 358 days out of 365 in 2018, so ninety-eight percent of the time. I missed seven days. [Read more…]

Jeff Messer, PhD – Episode 004 – Coaching Runners podcast

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Dr. Jeff Messer serves as department chair for the Exercise Science Department at Mesa Community College, Mesa, Arizona. Dr. Messer also serves as a volunteer assistant coach for boys’ cross-country and track-&-field at Desert Vista High School, Phoenix, AZ.

In addition, Dr. Messer serves as a personal coach for professional runner Jessica Tonn.

Dr. Messer is the former head coach for girls’ cross-country at Xavier College Preparatory (Phoenix, AZ.) and Desert Vista High School.

In this interview, we discuss post-workout nutrition, mitochondrial quality, how Dr. Messer ensures neuromuscular training is part of every training session, and what his longer practices – the 2 hours and 45-minute sessions entail.

I’m fortunate to call Dr. Messer a friend and I hope you enjoy listening to this interview as much as I enjoyed recording it.

Here is a fantastic video of a Workout Wednesday Flotrack did when Jeff was coaching at Desert Vista.

Jeff is featured on Season 1 of High School Running Coach. Here is a short summary of Jeff’s training philosophy, here are highlights from the Q&A with Jeff, here is a HSRC member’s take on Jeff’s coaching philosophy.

Jeff has presented twice at the Boulder Running Clinics – you can watch free excerpts from his presentations 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

Jeff Boele – Episode 003 – Coaching Runners Podcast

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Jeff has a unique background as a coach, in that he was a distance runner in high school and college. He moved to Boulder, Colorado, to train, and found himself coaching the jumps at Lyons High School, just north of Boulder.

He took the challenge of becoming a great jumps coach seriously, and that meant taking a deep dive into the speed and power world. Jeff has a tremendous understanding of how distance runners can benefit from that training.

We get a bit technical during the interview, which I love because a successful coach, one who already knows how to develop athletes and has a culture where kids work hard and love the sport, can better understand how lifting and multi-throws may fit into their training plans.

Example: Jeff coached Paul Roberts, who finished fifth at Footlocker and made the world cross country team as a junior in high school (and I should note that Lyons HS has less than 300 students). Jeff shares that before they did focused work in the weight room, Paul would run his last 400m of a 1,600m race in 61-62, and run his last 400m of a 3,200m in 64-65.

Fast forward to Paul’s senior year and he was closing in 58, and even 57-point, in the 1,600m, and was able to close in 61 in the 3.200m.

Finally, Jeff has had the chance to not only go through the Altis coaching education offerings, but he has a close relationship with Dan Pfaff, one of the best track and field coaches in the world (many say THE best). I really enjoyed hearing how those experiences have shaped him as a coach.

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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

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

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