High School Running Coach

The best resource for high school running coaches

You are here: Home / Archives for Coaches

by

Scott Bliss – Key Workout

Here is an example one of the staples of our xc training. It is kind of a combo of taking stuff from Scott Simmons book “Taking the Lead” and a workout I found in one of the running magazines done by one of the elites. We are trying to simulate a number of the things that they will experience in a race. We call it a combo workout and it includes three different training stimulus in the workout.

Warm up drills – lunge matrix, leg swings and dynamic warmup

Running warmup 15 minutes

First segment 10 minutes at tempo pace – we have a 1000 meter grass loop that is rolling that we will do this on for the full 10 minutes. We can change where we are doing this based on what we are wanting to accomplish with the tempo. This is followed by about a 4-5 minute jog down to where we will do hill repeats.

The second segment is hills and they will be determined by what race is coming up and  what we want them to get out of the hills. We have a medium length stair step style climb, a shorter section with 2 hills that we call the “figure 8 hills” because they allow them to climb and then recover down to the next climb and they just keep doing them and it is basically in the shape of a figure 8 and then we have a much longer, hard hill that will do near our state meet. We again then jog for about 4-5 minutes to the last piece.

The third segment is very similar to strides to simulate the end of a race.  We want them to change gears when they tired from the rest of the workout to feel what it feels like to do that when they are fatigued.

Cool down 15 minutes and any after practice work we will do if any.

by

Scott Bliss – Champlain Valley Union (VT) – Season 2

Boys and girls head cross country coach and head track and field coach. This was my 17th year this year. We have won 12 girls state championships (2nd 2 times) and 11 of the last 12 and 2 boys state championships (boys also have finished 2nd 10 times). We swept both state championships this year with the boys scoring 19 points. The girls have won 3 New England Championships, finished top 3 at New England’s 4 other times and have qualified for NXN 2 times (2010 & 2011). We also have qualified individuals for NXN in 2012 (Taylor Spillane now at Cornell) and 2013 (Autumn Eastman – All American and now at Georgetown). I also have coached 4 individual female state champions and 2 individual male state champions. USTFCCCA Vermont girls cross country coach of the year. Inducted into RunVermont Hall of Fame in 2015.

by

John O’Malley – Key Workout

Workout Concept: Deep into the competitive season, we have hopefully developed all facets of strong running: a variety of energy systems, neuromuscular abilities and connectivity, biomechanical efficiencies, and mental patterning that coordinates with these efforts. This workout enables you to key into your specific goal pace on specific goal terrain with desired goal mental responses. It follows the law of specificity—when you get closer to your goal performance, mimic the demands of that goal as much as possible. The workout affords us the ability to work on running cohesively, developing our psychological phases of a race, and becoming powerful—when you are self-aware, then you are powerful. You are prepared and you trust in yourself.

This is a demanding psychological and physiological workout. Consequently, I develop the components of this throughout the season through a variety of psychological and physiological practices. Each prior workout has a psychological and physiological momentum, and we attempt to pattern that toward desirable outcomes. I think this results in our runners having truly elite psychological approaches and responses to the competitive environment. Our psychological systems uses: running journals, reflecting on choices and “habit loops,” creating mantras and effective self-talk, interpreting internal and external feedback, experiencing failure, while our physiological plan parallels the mental approach by providing a challenge that requires the psychological goal of the workout.

Workout: [Read more…]

by

John O’Malley – Sandburg (IL) – Season 2

Head Sandburg High School Boys Cross Country Coach 2003-present and Asst. Track/Distance Coach 2003-present.

Cross Country: State qualifiers every year of his coaching career and placed in the top 10 in state seven of the last 10 years in the largest class division.

State Champions: 2015

State Runner-up: 2014

NXN: 2014 (15th) , 2015 (4th); NXR Midwest Champions 2014 and 2015

Coached multiple all state athletes including NXN champion and two time state and Footlocker national champion, Lukas Verzbicas.

Track: In 13 seasons: 14 1600 state qualifiers, including three runners at 4:10 or better. 4 x 800 has run 7:49 or faster in six separate seasons and has placed 5-4-3-2-1 in state, including the 2014 runner in 7:40.7 and the 2015 state champions. Each of his teams have run 7:46 or better for the past four years in a row. 2nd place in state in the 1600 Zach Dahleen went on to be an NCAA DI National qualifier in the 1500 (3:41).

by

Jonathan Dalby – Mountain Vista (CO) – Season 2

Mountain Vista High School Head XC/Track & Field Coach

August 2007-Present

• Led and mentored our team to 6, top 3 finishes at the 5A Boy’s State Cross Country Championships, including a3rd place finish in 2010, 2nd in 2011, and winning the past four consecutive state titles in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015.

• NXN Boys SW Champions 2015

• Coached our team to 6, top 10 finishes at the 5A Girl’s State Cross Country Championships, including a 3rd place finish in 2011 and a 4th place finish in 2012 and 2015.

• Nine time Continental League Boys and Girls Cross Country champions.

• Guided athletes in both cross country and track to consistent state meet and league podium performances. Many of our athletes have gone on to run at the next level collegiately.

by

Jonathan Dalby – Key Workout

Warm-up: Dynamic Stretching followed by 10-15 mins of easy running and 4-6 strides.

Workout: 2-5 x 1 mile w/ 800 at Tempo pace, 400m at 5K effort, 400 back at tempo. 2 mins rest between.
Followed by some short sprint work. Something like 5-6×10 sec hills all-out w/3 mins rest, or 2×80,2×100,2×120 w/3 mins rest.

Cool-Down: 10 mins of easy running followed by either light hurdle mobility and/or plyo work. Finish w/ 5 to 10 mins of dynamic flexibility. Some athletes throw on some additional static stretching if they choose to.

We use workouts like this when the kids have an important race late in the season and we are trying to maintain fitness. If the race is on Friday, we might do this workout on Tuesday. However, we have done this with only a day of rest between the workout and race w/ great results. We just had to reduce the volume a little.

The volume usually depends on the age of the athlete, and the importance of the race. Our freshman/low volume kids typically only do 2×1 mile, where the older kids can do 4 or 5. Before a race like the League Championships our older kids might do 5 of these as the only workout that week, knowing the race itself counts as the most important effort of the week. Before state or NXRSW we might only do 3 of these w/ 2 or 3 days of rest after.

The short hill sprints at the end of the workout are there to help keep their speed up. Late in the year they have already developed a nice base of speed hopefully, and the short hills are to make sure that they do not loose that.

I have found that the kids usually bounce back very quickly from this workout, and walk away feeling pretty good from the effort. As a coach, I like to watch and make sure they are not pushing too hard, especially on the tempo portions of the workout. It is important to not let the kids get carried away with this workout if you want them feeling good for an important race.

Get the Key Workouts from our coaches by joining the newsletter.