Dave Frank is in his 18th year at Central Catholic after eleven years at Saint Francis in Mountain View, CA.
As the head boys cross country coach (13 years) his teams have won nine State Championships (in Oregon’s largest classification – although CCHS has just 900 students) and have never finished worse than second at the State Meet. His boys have qualified for NXN three times (2005, 2007, 2013). He has coached four individual State Champions (Kenny Klotz – 2005, Taylor Morgan – 2006, Kyle Thompson – 2011 & 2013) and 19 First Team All State runners (63 total All State athletes). Klotz also finished 4th at Footlocker in 2005.
On the track his boys have run 7:40.68 (4 x 800m – 3rd at Nike Outdoors in 2006), 10:09.82 (DMR – 2nd at Arcadia 2014), and 17:22.43 (4 x 1600m – 2nd at Arcadia 2014). Klotz was the State Meet champ at 1500m & 3000m in 2006. Morgan won the 800m in 2007, and Andy Bennison won the 1500m in 2011.
He was the assistant coach from 2000-2004 and had a front row seat to Galen Rupp’s high school years.
Key Workout
Washington Park Fartlek
Years ago – in the 1980s, long before the Oregon Project or the Bowerman Track Club – there were many outstanding post-collegiate runners in Portland. Most of them raced primarily on the roads, but each year they also ran the XC Nationals (which is now known as USATF Club Nationals). To prepare for XC Nationals they began a weekly fartlek workout in Forest Park (miles and miles of amazing trails). When I came home in the summers I’d join this group for this *challenging* workout.
When I returned to coach at Central Catholic a group was still doing this workout – although less regularly. I considered using it with our team, but was initially deterred by the effort it might take to implement it properly. After conversations with a few people I saw the light, and it’s been a staple of our summer program for over a decade now.
The workout is simple – but as Thelonius Monk says, “Simple ain’t easy.” It is a four-mile loop with eight geographic pick-ups, ranging from 80m to 1000m. The terrain is mostly a single track trail, but it is possible to pass in certain areas. It is VERY hilly and twists and turns on a regular basis.
We try to do this workout every 10-14 days in the summer, beginning the second week in July, although we come back to it in mid-fall as “comfort food” when it seems to be needed. Logistics make it difficult to use in the winter, but we certainly would if we could.
We meet in a parking lot about a 10-12min jog (on the trails) from the first pick-up; depending on how much total volume we want for the day, we might do more than the initial 10-12min before starting the workout.
While the intent of the originators of the workout was a very hard and challenging effort, we’ve made it our own by adjusting the expectation and effort level to match our needs at any particular point in the season.
Early in the summer we might do just six pick-ups with our top group at a very sub-maximal effort; in early September it could be as many as 16 (doing the loop twice), with some of the pick-ups much harder.
Generally speaking we don’t want our boys to “run to fatigue” in the summer. This workout allows athletes to run as they feel – although we do generally assign athletes to a particular group with instructions to run together.
There a few key benefits to this workout:
- We often assign our “future varsity athletes” to run with the top group – and instruct the leaders to “keep the group together” for a certain number of pickups. This allows the newer guys to stay in the group and begin to develop confidence that they are capable of running with our better kids – and that they are, in fact, varsity level athletes.
- For example, we might have the less experienced runners do seven pickups with the group. After number seven, those runners will simply complete the loop for more volume while the more experienced runners might do 10-12 total pickups (still doing two full loops).
- At this point the veteran athletes are given the green light to run harder, although we still want them under control.
- Often times the newer athletes will lead the early pickups with the veterans helping them understand the appropriate effort level for the group.
- For example, we might have the less experienced runners do seven pickups with the group. After number seven, those runners will simply complete the loop for more volume while the more experienced runners might do 10-12 total pickups (still doing two full loops).
- At some point in these workouts our athletes – regardless of fitness level – will approach VO2 work, although that is certainly not the primary goal of the workout. By touching that level of fatigue, we are making the later transition to VO2 work much more accessible.
- As the summer continues, athletes will do more and more pick-ups. Each athlete can see their own progress in terms of the number of pick-ups and their ability to run with the group. This breeds confidence, one of the great keys to success.
- For years this workout has been open to anyone who wants to join us. This includes alums, runners from other schools, masters runners, junior high runners. This inclusion helps our athletes see the great community of runners that exists and helps them see others as “co-conspirators” in their quest for greatness as opposed to deathly rivals.
A decade ago, Dyestat published an article about this particular workout:
http://archive.dyestat.com//?pg=reg72008CrossCountrySummer-of-the-Rising-Tidestory
While this certainly can be a challenging effort, the majority of our top runners over the years have claimed that it is their favorite workout that they do at Central Catholic.