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Jamie Kirkpatrick – Key Workout

Long run with progressive finish

This workout is used throughout the year (in and out of season), but more frequently in the last 2 months of our competitive season. Generally, the workout is 10-13 miles of running with the last 2-4 miles progressively faster starting ~marathon pace working down to ~anaerobic threshold pace or a little faster. These paces are estimated based on 5K pace + 50-60 seconds per mile & 5K pace +20-25 seconds per mile. Workout is preceded by lunge matrix (thanks Jay!) and almost always followed by 4-6 100M strides and some version of strength/core/hurdle mobility.

As the season progresses, the workout moves from less structured to highly structured – mostly because there is less concern (risk) about whether or not the athletes get it exactly right from a pacing standpoint early in the season. To illustrate this – this is how this workout was executed at three points during the 2015 cross country season:

“Pre-Season” (almost no structure) – Training camp in late June

Pre-run: [Read more…]

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Jamie Kirkpatrick – Edina (MN) – Season 2

Jamie just completed his 14th year as head boys cross country coach at Edina High School in Edina, Minnesota.  Edina is a first ring suburb southwest of Minneapolis. He has also served as the distance coach during track during that time and was the head track coach for 6 years (2005-2010).

The Edina boys have finished runner-up in the Minnesota State meet twice (2012 & 2013) and were the Nike Heartland regional champions in 2013. They have qualified for NXN 4 times, including each the last 3 years placing 18th in 2010, 10th in 2013, 9th in 2014 & 13th in 2015. The last two years, they qualified for NXN after not qualifying for the Minnesota State meet – more on this later!

Jamie is proud to be one of 3 attendees to have been at all three Boulder Running Clinics (along with Jay Johnson and Dr. Richard Hansen)!  Prior to coaching at Edina, Jamie coached at Minnetonka High School (where he ran in high school) for two years and competed collegiately at Saint Olaf College (go Oles!!!).

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Season 2 Coaches

We have a fantastic line-up of coaches for 2016.  Here they are, in no particular order.

Dan Iverson, Naperville North (IL) – Bio – Key Workout

Charlie Kern, York (IL) – Bio – Key Workout

Mike Callor, Fort Collins (CO) – Bio – Key Workout

Scott Bliss, Champion Valley Union (VT) – Bio – Key Workout

Jamine Kirkpatrick, Edina (MN) – Bio – Key Workout

Jonathan Dalby, Mountain Vista (CO) – Bio – Key Workout

John O’Malley, Sandburg (IL) – Bio – Key Workout

Mark Lacianca, Unionville (PA) – Bio – Key Workout

Rob Murphy, Alta (UT) – Bio – Key Workout

Jeff Boele, Lyons (CO) – Bio – Key Workout

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Charlie Kern – Key Workout

Key Workout:  6/6/5

This is a 3 mile continual run on the track at 6:00 pace for the 1st and 2nd mile, and then the athlete attempts to get to 5:00 or faster for the 3rd mile.

Goals: Pace judgement, pace changing, aerobic & anaerobic stress, building confidence

Explanation:

  1. Pace judgement: This is a workout for more mature athletes who can handle running 6:00 pace with little difficulty.  Often times when we tell a kid to run a particular pace, they will get it wrong. They go way too fast, or they go way too slow. This workout helps athletes to learn to run a particular pace in a consistent manner. I run with the athletes and call the split, providing feedback at every 200. While running the 6:00 pace, athletes will feel very relaxed for the first few laps and have to fight the temptation to go faster. This helps with the pace judgement goal. Inside every race there is the temptation to do more than is necessary at that particular stage. Athletes easily sabotage a race because of their lack of discipline.
  2. Pace Changing: By the end of two miles at 6:00 pace, aerobic fatigue has begun to increase; enough fatigue has set in that the goal of running 5:00 becomes a significant challenge.
  3. Aerobic to anaerobic stress: At the start of the 3rd mile, the athletes now have to increase their intensity, but once again, must exercise pace judgement. The pace increase mimics the change in pace that occurs at the “moment of truth” found in every race. When the real race occurs, can I match the move? The athlete must be prepared for such an eventuality.
  4. Building confidence: Confidence is achieved when the athlete is able to meet the 3rd mile goal of 5:00 or faster.

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Dan Iverson – Key Workout

The 10-mile Run

This is a staple of our summer program.  It’s a pretty simple workout — it’s a 10-mile run, after all.  We revolve our summer program around this workout.  It seems crazy simple, I know, but the beauty of it is that it is so adaptable for so many kids.

For our freshmen, it piques their interest.  We start at five miles.  For them, that’s the most they’ve ever done.  So they do it and feel pretty good about themselves.  then, we go to six miles, and seven, and eight… Obviously, we end up for the last month of summer doing 10-milers every Monday.  The freshmen get to go farther than they ever went before.  Sometimes, it’s pretty slow, but it opens their minds to new volumes of what they can accomplish.  It’s truly awesome to see our new kids see how much they can do!

For our experienced kids, we preach this as not a feat of length, but of intensity.  [Read more…]

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