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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.

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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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Charlie Kern – York (Elmhurst, IL) – Season 2

So happy to have Coach Kern join us for the 2016 season of High School Running Coach.  We’re really looking forward to what Coach Kern has to share with us about track training for distance runners.

Here is his bio.

Charlie Kern teaches Philosophy, Sociology, World History and is currently the Head Boys Track coach and Assistant Cross Country at York HS in Elmhurst Illinois.  As a prep, Charlie was a Kinney (Footlocker) finalist and the NYS Outdoor 1600m Champion.  Charlie completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Kentucky and earned All-SEC honors in Cross Country and Track five times.  Charlie’s running career continued long after graduation culminating in a World Masters Age Group Championship in 2009 when he won the 40-44 1500m championship in Lahti Finland, covering the last 800 in 2:03.  Charlie has coached student-athletes from the middle school through the community college level.  He has also coached adult athletes.  He serves as Andrew Starykowicz’s run coach, currently the fastest American Ironman Triathlete.  Coach Kern also directs a summer running camp, the Championship Training Academy, which attracted over 400 runners in 2014.   Charlie lives in Elmhurst, IL with his wife, Lynne and three children, Charlie (15), Ethan (13) and Emma (13).

 

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Dan Iverson – Naperville North (IL) – Season 2

Dan Iverson’s girls teams at Naperville North (IL) have consistently run well at the both the state and national level.  We’re excited to have Coach Iverson join us for the 2016 season of High School Running Coach.

Here is his bio.

Naperville North High School (1994-present)
  •  Assistant Girls’ XC Coach 1994-95, Head Girls’ XC Coach 1996-present
  • Head Girls’ Track and Field Coach 1995-2003, Assistant Girls’ Track and Field Coach 2004-present
  • Won five state cross country championships (2001, 2004, 2005, 2012, 2014)
  • Earned trophies (top three) at Illinois State Meet 13 times (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015)
  • Coached 27 All-State XC Runners
  • Coached multiple All-State Track Athletes, including State Champion 4x800m relay (2015) and Judy Pendergast as State Champion in the 3200m (2015) and in XC (2015)
  • Earned 5 berths at NXN (2005, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015)
  • 4th place at NXN in 2005 and 2014.

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