coachjayjohnson.com

The best resource for runners and running coaches

Jeff Messer, PhD – Episode 004 – Coaching Runners podcast

by

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

I Don’t Know

by

When it comes to most things about running, I don’t know the answer.  There are thousands of aspects of running, from the biochemistry of lactate buffering, to the potential benefit of glycogen-depleted long runs in marathon training, to the best way to transition into spikes for a track athlete.  But there is so much to know, and that knowledge is much greater than what I do know, which means that much of the time when I’m asked a question, I don’t know the answer.  You know what I’m saying?

Today I received the following question via twitter:

 @coachjayjohnson Maybe masters can better stimulate hormones w/heavier wts? Is lunge matrix anabolic enuf 4 old guys? (Linked to this tweet was the article “Resistance Training Ups Testosterone in Muscles of Older Men.”)

Great question.  I don’t know.  My guess is that for the vast majority of masters athletes – maybe 95% or more – the Lunge Matrix is not going to give them the same hormonal stimulus that weight room work will.  

But here is what I do know:  if you progress from body weight exercises to some light external loads, such as rotational work with a medicine ball, then to a heavier external load, such as a kettlebell, and then go to the weight room, the chance that you’ll be healthy and injury-free is high.  But I don’t know exactly how fast you can move through this progression; I’m cautious with the athletes I work with, and move them to the weight room slowly.  But again, I don’t know – maybe we could go there earlier.

I also don’t know how to answer the following question, but I do look forward to hearing what others think about it:

@coachjayjohnsonQ: assuming one MUST choose between “enuf” sleep & getting all needed calories in a day, choose sleep? #runchat 

Honestly, as a former college athlete and college coach, I thought this question was a joke given how many runners have some level of disordered eating.  But my guess is that it’s an honest question, and to me there is only one answer: you have to get enough calories to support your training while also getting enough sleep to support your training.  But again, I don’t know exactly how many calories that is and how little sleep that is for @ReadEatWriteRun.  (Note: some confusion might have come from this part of this infographic that I shared in the Sunday Morning Reads last weekend).

This is a great opportunity for people to chime in with their thoughts.  I look forward to reading the comments.

 

 

 

Sunday Morning Reads – 02.09.14

by

Good morning.

How did you sleep last night?  Did you get enough sleep to have a good run this morning?  Here is a fantastic infographic about sleep (click the graphic to enlarge it).  Campers at the Boulder Running Camps hear my say this every year: your mom wants you to change your diet to become a better runner, yet the campers probably don’t get enough sleep to support your training.  Obviously having both dialed in is best but sleep, along with hydration, is almost always undervalued by high school runners, as well as collegiate and adult runners.  I slept 9 hours every night during college to support 85 miles a week in singles.  For me it was the only way to handle the training.  The importance of sleep for runners can not be overstated.

Check out this short story on a Alan Feneca, former NFL lineman who broke 4 hours.  I would love to know what his training program looked like, specifically his long runs.  With his fiber type you could argue that a cross fit endurance approach might be good, as long as he’s getting in a few long-long runs where he teaches his body to utilize fat as a fuel source.

Finally, Alan Webb is moving on to the triathlon.  I wish him the best and I can’t wait to follow this story.  Remember, Webb ran in 27:34.72 for 10,000m.

Have a great week and look for a couple of posts this week.

Thanks to Skyler Cummins for helping with this week’s reading.

Train Like a Toddler

by

I am fortunate to write a weekly training tip and weekly Q&A for Nike Running.

I normally don’t post any of the content from Nike but I thought this post applies to everyone that reads this blog. So here it is, why you should consider Training Like a Toddler.

I’m the father of a toddler and I’ve come to realize that her approach to life (and the big world around here) is often the approach athletes should take with their running.

Want an example?

Last week she fell and scraped her little nose on the concrete sidewalk in front of our home. There was a decent amount of blood, but not too many tears, and within 10 minutes it was as if nothing had happened. She slept well that night yet the next day she definitely had a runny nose, but on the whole had a good day. That night, however, she had one of the worst nights since she was an infant; up three different times, crying much of the time and just plain upset. Very, very rough night and roughly 36 hours following the scrapped nose incident. The next day she had a fairly normal day and night, but the following day she set a person record…for her morning nap. Three hours. She always takes a morning nap, but it’s usually 75-100 minutes; 180 minutes a record by almost an hour.

So what’s my point? Two points actually.

First is that my daughter’s body, following the scraped nose incident, her runny nose and a bad night’s sleep, eventually made up for the stress with a record long nap. When the body is stressed you often see the stress manifest itself 36-48 hours later; that rhythm underlies this story and is probably why she slept fine the night after the scrape, but then sleep so poorly the second night. So the first take home message is “be mindful of 48 hours post-workout” or 48 hours post-“life stress.”

Second, because a toddler just goes with the flow of life she was out for 3 hours one morning. She was tired and her body was recovering from, in the past 4 days, a tumble, a runny nose and a horrible night of (little) sleep. So she rested more. Obviously adults struggle to find time to train, let alone rest, yet if you trained like a toddler you’d give yourself plenty of rest and recovery to absorb the training from hard days.

Let’s Connect