coachjayjohnson.com

The best resource for runners and running coaches

Join over 5,000 people and become an Insider

Get Core Strength and Hip Strength Videos to Help You Stay Injury-Free!

By

Growth Mindset for Runners

What follows is an excerpt from the Geek Out section of my book, Simple Marathon Training. Enjoy!

Growth Mindset, by Travis Macy – Ultra Endurance Racer, Author of The Ultra Mindset

Years of experience as an athlete, teacher, and coach have taught me that a subtle distinction in mindset can lead to a significant difference in improved performance, health, and enjoyment in running.

I learned about growth mindset vs. fixed mindset when I read Carol Dweck’s excellent text, Mindset. The book made such an impact that I started teaching about it every week in my high school English classes. I subsequently wrote about the growth mindset as related to endurance training/racing and life in general in The Ultra Mindset: An Endurance Champion’s 8 Core Principles for Success in Business, Sports, and Life.

Someone with a growth mindset, simply put, focuses on getting better; one who adopts the opposite­—the fixed mindset—focuses on being good. The difference is subtle, yet revolutionary. [Read more…]

By

Aerobic Workouts: Introduction

Developing the aerobic metabolism is the number one goal of any distance runner. Why? Take a look at the percent energy contributions from the following three metabolisms, keeping in mind that aerobic means “with oxygen.”

Distance Aerobic % Anaerobic % Phosphogen %
1,600m 84% 15% 0-2%
3,200m 90% 10% 0-2%
5,000m 95% 5% 0-2%
10,000m 98% 2% 0-1%

The second key with the aerobic metabolism is that you can improve it year after year. This is why the best marathoners in the world tend to be older than the best sprinters in the world…and it’s why many masters runners, who come to running later in life, continue to run faster year after year.

The way I like to think about the aerobic metabolism is that you’re building your engine when you train aerobically. Now, you need a strong chassis to handle this engine (so LMLS and SAM work daily – videos here), but the key to your long term success as a runner, and the way you’ll run PRs at a variety of distances, is to continue to improve your aerobic system.

What follows are four fundamental aerobic workouts. They are presented in roughly the same progression that you would do the workouts, one per week for the busy adult and perhaps two per week for serious high school and collegiate athletes. The long run is the key aerobic workout of the week and I’m assuming that you’ll be doing a long run virtually every week that you’re training. [Read more…]

By

The Best Resource for High School Coaches

High School Running Coach is a site that features 22 of the best coaches in the country, such as Timo Mostert of American Fork and Doug Soles of Great Oak.

Here is cross country training from two featured coaches coaches: Adam Kedge of Albuquerque Academy and Dr. Jeff Messer, formerly of Desert Vista.

Adam Kedge’s training – http://bit.ly/2sZoW1y

Dr. Messer’s training – http://bit.ly/2rWmgBW

Many coaches tell us the site has had a much bigger impact on their coaching than all of the clinics they’ve attended, which is the goal of the site.

High School Running Coach is a membership site and the format is simple. Coaches share their training documents for a season – cross country or outdoor track – and then we do an audio interview to tease out aspects of the training that might not be clear. These interviews are available to members as streaming audio on the site or as a transcript. Finally, the coaches answer member’s questions in the members only forum.

Season 1 featured twelve coaches, Season 2 featured ten coaches. Each coach has submitted a key workout that we’ve made into a 38 page document. It’s a fantastic resource, which you can download for free when you visit HighSchoolRunningCoach.com.

If you become a member you have access to the content indefinitely. You can become a member of Season 1 or Season 2, or both. If you become a member of both seasons you’ll receive a 555 page book that contains all of the information for Season 1. The feedback on the book is that it’s a tremendous resource (and one that some people prefer over getting the information digitally).

 

Let’s Connect