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Alex Ostberg – Episode 009 – Coaching Runners Podcast

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.

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Tony Holler – Episode 005 – Coaching Runners Podcast

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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Imagery for Runners

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

Use Imagery to Run Your Best Race

I strongly believe that runners need to use mental imagery to run to their potential on race day. Using imagery isn’t complicated. Find a quiet space and imagine yourself going through the race. A quiet spot and 3-10 minutes is all it takes. I used imagery on and off during my collegiate career. There is no doubt that my best two races (a 14:20 5k on Friday night, and a 8:20 3k on Saturday afternoon, at the Big XII Indoor conference championships) were the result, in some part, of the mental imagery I used to prepare for the race. There were countless races where I didn’t use imagery in the days leading up to the race, and, in retrospect, I think my performance suffered.

I recommend you start this process ten to fourteen days out from your marathon. Start with just 3 minutes a day, and as you get closer to the race, work your way up to roughly 10 minutes. As weird as it may sound, I find that sitting on the toilet in a bathroom is an ideal place to do this work. That said, don’t use the port-a-potty as your quiet space on race day, keeping your fellow runners waiting to take care of their important business. You won’t be very quiet, calm, or popular if you do.

The idea of mental imagery is to see yourself in the race: running the race and grooving the pace in the opening 20 miles, grabbing water and sports drinks with ease, taking a gel and having it go down easy, seeing runners pass you in the opening miles (runners who are going out too fast and will not doubt come back to you in the last 6.2 miles of the race), hearing the music at the start line, passing dozens of runners in the last 6.2 miles, and the crowd cheering at the first mile. You should be able to tune in to how your legs are going to feel, how your respiration will feel, and how your posture will feel. This all should feel good as you envision the first 20 miles. In the first few imagery sessions you want to envision everything going well. Once you’ve made this positive picture in your head, it’s time to envision things going wrong. See yourself going through a tough mile, or coming to a full stop at an aid station to get your water or sports drink. The key here is to envision something going wrong and then seeing yourself positively dealing with it.

Finally, what self-talk are you going to use in the final 6.2 miles of the marathon to help you grind out the last section? You can come up with your own version of Cindy Kuzma’s, “You do hard things.” The key is that you use imagery to hear yourself using positive self-talk to grind out the last 6.2 miles. Imagery is a powerful tool, so make sure to use it in the final ten days leading up to the marathon.

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