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Alex Ostberg – Episode 009 – Coaching Runners Podcast

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Alex Ostberg is currently entering his 5th year at Stanford University, where he has been an All-American in both cross country and track. This podcast is rooted in a presentation Alex did at the 2019 Boulder Running Camps titled, “The Ten Things I Wish I Knew As A High School Runner.” Alex is passionate about both the sport and helping high school athletes improve, which makes this podcast is a must-listen for high school coaches and athletes.

Alex has been running competitively for 11 years and has developed a passion for understanding the physiological, emotional, and psychological demands of running. He competed for 2 years in middle school with the Wilton Running Club. After that, Alex ran for Darien High school where he set 6 state records. He was a two-time qualifier at Footlocker Nationals, and the Northeast Footlocker Regional Champion in 2014. These performances earned him the Connecticut Gatorade Player of the Year twice.

In track, Alex was the Penn Relays 3000m champion in 2015 and the 2014 New Balance Outdoor Nationals champion. He finished his high school career with PRs of 4:06 (1600), 8:43 (3200), and 14:16 (5K). Alex was recruited to Stanford University where he has competed for 4 years and is entering his fifth year. He has steadily improved on his performances with four NCAA All-American certificates. He has excelled on the cross country circuit, placing 16th and 13th in the past two NCAA XC Championships. On the track his PRs currently stand at 3:59 (mile), 7:51 (3K), and 13:42 5K.

In 2018, Alex was elected by his peers to serve as captain of the Stanford Track Team. In addition to his training, Alex has developed a passion for learning about the science behind training and peak performance. He is pursuing a bachelors degree in Human Biology with an emphasis on Exercise Physiology and will also be getting a minor in Psychology. He has had the opportunity to be a TA for 4 different Stanford classes, including Exercise Physiology, Exercise and Aging, Clinical Anatomy, and EMT class. One day, when his competitive aspirations are over, Alex aspires to be a coach himself.

Dr. Rebecca Breslow – Episode 008 – Coaching Runners Podcast

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Dr. Rebecca Breslow is a Sports Medicine physician in Boston, Massachusetts. She has specific interests in running and road race medicine, non-operative treatment of musculoskeletal injuries, sports injury prevention, fitness and exercise.

A graduate of Yale University, Dr. Breslow did her medical training at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.  An internist by training, she joined the faculty of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 2010.

Dr. Breslow is a life-long runner, and successfully competed on the local and regional Masters road racing circuit in the Boston area.  She subsequently became a USA Track & Field coach and a certified personal trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine.  In 2014, she founded Run Strong Studio, a training facility in Brookline, Massachusetts, and ultimately completed a Sports Medicine Fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Breslow volunteers on the Sports Medicine and Science Committee and National Team Medical Staff of USA Track & Field, and is a volunteer physician for many local road races and track and field events.  She currently practices in the Sports Medicine Division of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Tonya McDonough – Episode 007 – Coaching Runners Podcast

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Tonya McDonough is the girls cross country and distance coach at Iowa City Liberty High School in Iowa City, Iowa.

This conversation focuses on summer training for high school girls, specifically Tonya’s three juniors who want to make a jump this summer.

The starting point for the conversation is a brief overview of the concepts she learned in my Fundamentals Education Course, then the two go in-depth about factors that must be considered regarding summer training: heat and humidity, volume, the importance of strides and non-running work, the importance of the long run and the importance being mindful of the girl’s long-term development, given that they all want to run in college.

Enjoy!

Howard Russ – Episode 006 – Coaching Runners Podcast

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Howard Russ just completed his 11th season as men’s and women’s head coach for Beavercreek High School in Beavercreek, Ohio, a suburb of Dayton.

In 2018, Russ’s girls won their first OHSAA Division One state
championship, and Russ had his first state champion individual with junior Taylor Ewert. Ewert is a 4-time All-American including a 3rd place finish at NXN and 4th place at Footlocker in 2018. She was also the New Balance Outdoor National champion in 2000 meter steeplechase in 2018.

In this interview, Howard shares how he’s used the information from High School Running Coach and the Boulder Running Clinics to inform his training and improve as a coach.

He talks about Timo Mostert’s 2-mile power runs, and Dan Iverson’s distinction between goals and targets. Just two of Howard’s take-home messages from these two resources.

Thanks Howard for taking the time to talk.

Learn how to become a member of High School Running Coach here. If you would like to purchase the videos from the Boulder Clinics 2018 High School clinic click here.

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

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