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Dave Frank – Bio and Key Workout

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. [Read more…]

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John O’Malley on “Everything is present at all times”

What follows is an excerpt from John O’Malley’s full interview, which members of Season 2 have access to. You can listen to the excerpt here. 

John O’Malley: The thing that we started doing more recently in the last four or five years that I’ve noticed that has made us better is that we’ve run a new training system.  One where everything is present at all times, and it’s just to a different degree. So in June we will be doing sprint work. We will be doing sprint mechanics.  We will be doing light loads of even VO2 max.  These are very light loads that are just anything that I would say are the high end aerobic work. It’s there. It’s all always present in our training system.  It’s just the degree that the volume and the density of it, the frequency that we do it changes as you move on.

I think that once we started doing that, we started getting a lot better.  That moved us away from the idea of having a three-month aerobic foundation build.  One where you’re basically just running aerobically.  That sort of foundation perspective that used to exist was not as effective.

That’s definitely something that once we started doing that we we really started getting a lot better.

Jay Johnson: I would love for you to use the terms base and foundation and – just say what you just said – but try and use those terms so that people understand what you’re talking about is different than what some people might say  – “you just need to build base in the summer in June and July and the first couple of weeks of August” or “just build your base so that you can run faster later In cross-country.”

John O’Malley: Yes, that’s a huge mistake in my mind. You know traditionally the way I was taught in high school, and you know the literature I’ve read early on was essentially that you “build an aerobic base, and that’s your foundation.”  The early literature from early on  stated that your foundation of training is aerobic running which, to a degree, is true. But that’s not all that you should be doing in the three month basic building block training block.

I don’t ever want to get to a point with any kid on my team in which they are doing something that they haven’t done in three months.  Therefore, when we talk about doing base or foundation now it’s it’s not just the aerobic work that may be the priority. In fact it is the priority.  But that doesn’t mean that we’re not doing every other component of training that’s a part of our training system. We do 60 meter sprints, we do hills.  If you were to look at our June program and our July program all of that would be present. You know Charlie Francis (sprint coach) once said you never want to get too far away from your ability to compete. [Read more…]

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John O’Malley on Culture and Planning

What follows are two excerpts from John’s full interview, available to Season 2 members, of HSRC. You can listen here or on the Run Faster Podcast. The transcription of the interview is below.

 

 

Jay Johnson: Can you give me two or three things you do in your program that you think you would see in all successful cross country and track programs. Could be from a coaching standpoint, or from a team standpoint, like “here’s what our team is doing or what I personally do as a coach.” It could be something like – the importance of consistency in training. We’ve had other coaches say hey you really need to get kids you know out for our sport that that if you’ve got 20 kids on your team versus 80 kids and your team you’re going to have a much better shot of being successful if you’ve got 80.

John O’Malley: Yeah. It’s really cool hearing those answers and the question didn’t even occur to me until ask if it’s just a coaching question or team questions and I have I’ve asked it in that way.  So that’s really clear that you segmented it that way. 

I think some things that we do that is simply learning from other programs and getting exposure to other great programs. I think first of all every great program has a plan.  The plan can work differently but there’s plans in place and there’s organization well before you your first moment of action, your first practice and I think great coaches do that. I think great programs have had that kind of a plan that doesn’t mean necessarily if they stick to it 100 percent and I think that would be counterproductive if it did.

But there is a plan in place and there is a plan in place for racing and training and mental/psychological training and things like that and cultural things with your program and how you’re going to develop the program. So I think there’s there’s a lot of planning involved in any great program. The best coaches I’ve seen are the ones who are constantly learning and have constant dialogue whether it’s with their own staff, if they have a staff, or other coaches around them and are just perpetually learning and really work hard.

You know I think sometimes people forget that to build a program, to build great runners and to be a great coach you really have to work hard. It’s not like you get to a certain level and then that’s just going to perpetuate itself. You’ve got to work hard all the time. I think that the best programs have a balance of of having accountability and being tough and rigorous and challenging and also have the human factor. You know the fact that they’re teenagers and they’re developing and growing and they often come to us as freshmen will know no background in running or very little background or running or something like that. And we balance that with you know those things and what it means to be a part of a team and what it means to grow from freshman year to senior year and as a person. And those those elements are clearly a part of a great program. [Read more…]

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John O’Malley – Sandburg High School Season 2 Update

Coach O’Malley’s athletes have had an amazing 2016 season. In March their boys won the 4xMile at the New Balance Indoor Nationals. Their team also broke the 4×800 Illinois State Record running a 7:37.4 in windy conditions. A couple athletes in particular have made their mark this season. Twins, Sean and Chris Torpy ran 4:03 1600/4:05 mile and 4:05 1600/4:07 mile. Last weekend Sean ran 1:47.9 (7th fastest prep ever) and Chris ran 1:49.8. Sean now holds the U.S. #1 and All-Time Illinois Record. Sean and Chris will be competing this weekend in the 800 and mile events at the Brooks PR Meet. We wish them all the best!

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Charlie Kern – Excerpts from his “York Cross Country and Track: More than Winning” presentation at the Boulder Running Clinics

Coach Kern will be sharing his outdoor track training with us in the coming days. To whet your appetite for that content, check out this video, a video of three excerpts from his “York Cross Country and Track: More than Winning” presentation at the 2015 Boulder Running Clinics high school clinic.  Clinic videos will be available for purchase in early 2016 and HSRC members will get a discount on the videos.

Thanks Coach Kern for your energy and the time you put into these presentations. Can’t wait to see your outdoor track training.

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Mike Callor – Key Workout

Cross-Country: “Death Quest”

This workout is done at a park about 2 miles away from the school on a hilly, grass course. It is a workout steeped in tradition where athletes of the present can compare themselves to athletes of the past (boys that get “around the turn” at the top of the hill typically have been sub 16:00 athletes). After a 2-mile warm-up and muscle activation exercises, it consists of anywhere between 4-6 x 4:00 on with 3:00 of recovery (walk/jog). The goal is to get further on the course with each one (progressive), with a stress placed on listening to your breathing. 2 mile cool-down back to the school, and that is it!  

This is just an XC workout. The amount of rest before this workout depends on the time of the season. Early, they might have a steady run Saturday, off, or shake-out on Sunday and then the workout on Monday. Later, the Saturday before is typically easy.  I have also added my own variations to the workout, such as 2 x 400 meter hills before the first Death Quest in order to make sure they don’t hammer the first one and regress.  

I believe that progressive workouts (done correctly), build fitness as well as confidence, which can be much more important.

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