Free Training Archives - High School Running Coach

Joan Hunter – First Four Weeks of 2018 Boys XC

Joan Hunter has put together a 37-page document, with details for every day from June 19th to the state cross country meet on November 10th, for members of Season 3 of HSRC.

Here is the first four pages of that document, the training from June 19th to July 1oth – click here to download the document.

Joan has shared the training of two different groups of athletes, based on age and ability, allowing you to see what the boys did, a group that not only won their state meet, but convincingly won the Nike Cross Nationals for the second year.

Joan and I shared a few emails after she sent this document. I’m including them here that provide insight into critical velocity (CV) paces. Tom “Tinman” Schwartz has had a big impact on Joan’s coaching and a cornerstone of his coaching a significant amount of work done at CV pace.

“Also, it would probably help if people knew I use Tom’s pace calculator to get kids’ paces for CV, threshold, etc. Everyone loves to think of CV pace as 10K pace (which makes them think that it is like Daniels cruise intervals or something) but really, for slower kids, CV pace is almost 5K pace since it is really 30-35 minute max effort race pace! So a beginner girl who runs 29 mins for 5K is going to run her CV reps fairly close to her race pace. Using the calculator for paces is a very important piece of our training.”

“One thing when working with CV pace, if you are using shorter races to plug into the calculator, you will get skewed results. Shorter races almost always spit out too fast of a pace. 5K is great, 3200 is OK, but Tom has formulas he uses to get CV pace for kids who race 800/1600 or shorter stuff. I usually look at CV pace using all the different formulas for a kid based on events and then sort of figure out a range. Tom explains his formulas in his DVD training programs.

“…CV pace is the pace of a 30-35 min max effort and equates to 90% of VO2 max pace (don’t ask me how he calculates all this…)”

If you want to watch an 8-minute video of Tom talking about CV pace, click here.

And if you want to watch an 8-minute video of Joan talking about basic training concepts, click here.

To get the 37-page document, you need to become a member of Season 3 of HSRC. Click here to become a member.

by Jay Johnson

Joan Hunter – Key Workout and Typical Training Week

Joan and her husband, Marc, are in their 4th year of coaching cross country at Loudoun Valley HS, in Purcellville, VA. For 10 years in the 1980’s and 1990’s, Joan coached at James Madison HS and South Lakes HS, where she and Marc had the privilege of being Alan Webb’s 9th grade coaches. During this time, they coached numerous state qualifiers and a handful of state champion relays and individuals.

After an 8 year hiatus from coaching while raising their many kids, Joan and Marc started a youth running club, NOVA Athletic Club, which enabled them to be involved in the sport without the huge time demands of high school coaching. However, once their son Drew began running in 9th grade, the Hunters saw his potential and wanted to ensure he would have every opportunity to develop, so they began volunteering at Loudoun Valley and eventually took over the distance program spring of Drew’s sophomore year.

The Hunters have led the Viking boys XC team to 3 consecutive state team titles, and 3 Viking boys (Drew Hunter, Peter Morris, Sam Affolder) have won the last 6 individual state titles. In 2017, the Viking boys scored 15 points at their state meet- something no Virginia team has ever done. That team went on to win the 2017 Nike Cross Nationals. Drew Hunter qualified for Foot Locker in 2014 and 2015, winning in 2015. Last year, Peter Morris qualified for NXN. The Viking girls have been state runners-up in XC for the last four years, have had one individual state champion (Natalie Morris, 2017) and have had one individual girl, Ciara Donohue, qualify for Foot Locker in 2014. In track, the Viking boys have won 2 outdoor state team titles. Last year, in Loudoun Valley’s first full official indoor track season, the Viking boys were state runners-up. Other important wins include the 2016 NB indoor nationals DMR and the 2016 Penn Relays DMR.

Key mid-season workout: CV reps plus hills

Warm-up (Ebbett’s drills, posture check, joint rotations, lunge matrix, runner’s touch, 100 ups, heel flicks, easy jog about 800 meters, skips, strides, and dynamic flexibility). 10 mins of running plus 3 mins tempo. All this takes about 30-35 minutes.

1^st season kids:

8 mins easy run, then 2 mins at tempo effort.

4-6x 800 meters at CV pace, with 90 second jog recovery (about 175 meters or so, I don’t worry about how much ground they cover.)

3-4x 200 meter hill, mile race effort, with easy jog down for recovery.

Easy run till they get to 55-60 minutes, total time.

Veteran, but non-varsity level kids:

10 mins easy run, then 2 mins at tempo effort

5-6 x 800 meters or 1000 meters at CV pace, with 90 second jog, same as above.

4x 200 meter hill, same as above.

Easy run till they get to 60-70 minutes, total time.

Varsity level boys and some girls (freshman girls would do 800s or a mix of 800s and 1000s, most girls have 90 sec jog recovery)

10-12 mins easy run, then

5-7x 1000 meters at CV pace, with 75 second jog (about 175 meters)

4-5x 200 meter hill, same as above.

Easy run till they get to 65-70 minutes.

CV, or Critical Velocity pace, is about 90% of VO2 max pace. We estimate this using our kids’ current 5K race times, or a time trial in the early season. We also adjust the times based on what we think they could run the day of the workout, based on weather, terrain, etc. We use Tom Schwartz’s pace calculator: http://runfastcoach.com/calc2/index.php

Typical varsity week of training, late September, early October, no race that week:

Total mileage for my top boys was about 60-67 miles, depending on doubles. My top girl was about 55 miles on single runs, and my other girls were between 38-45 miles on single runs (freshmen were less.)

Monday: 50 mins easy [Read more…]

by Jay Johnson

John Sipple – Bio and Key Workout

John Sipple – Downers Grove North (IL)

Sipple is a Chemistry teacher and started at Downers Grove North High School in 2007. He spent the first five years as the Head Boys Track and Field Coach and the Assistant Cross Country Coach. During his time as the Head Track Coach he coached the sprinters and the athletes he coached set 12 school records. In 2011, Sipple took over for Illinois Hall of Fame Coach, Will Kupisch as Head Cross Country Coach and transitioned into the distance coach for the track season as well. Since that time the cross country team has accomplished the following:

West Suburban Conference Champs – 2016, 2017
State Champions – 2017
State Runner-Ups – 2013, 2016
Other State Finishes – 2014 – 14^th, 2015 – 18^th
11 All-State Finishers, with 5 of the 11 finishing in the top 10
NXN Individual Qualifiers – 2013, 2014
NXN Team Qualifiers – 2016 – 12^th, 2017 – 4^th

In Track and Field, Sipple has coached multiple All-State athletes from the 4x400m relay up to the 3200m. In 2014, DGN became the first team since 2007 to have an All-State 4x800m Relay, and All-State runners in the 3200m, 800m, and 1600m. Since taking over as the distance coach, Sipple has had 5 athletes run 4:14 or faster in the 1600m.

Additionally, Sipple is incredibly proud of the number of runners in the program that have gone on to run at the collegiate level and a large amount at the D1 level. Plus, prior to Coaching at DGN, Sipple was a Volunteer Graduate Assistant Coach for the Men’s and Women’s cross country and track teams at Eastern Illinois University, where he competed as an undergrad.

Key Workout

1000m Repeats – anywhere from 4 – 8 repeats with rest varying from 30sec to 4 minutes depending on the goal/effort of the work.

We will utilize this workout in a variety of fashions, but the basic premise goes back to 1k repeats. Because of our training environment in the western suburbs of Chicago, we are limited to the streets and our access to do extended work on the streets can be difficult to organize with the size of our team. Additionally, I have found it very difficult to teach kids who have played other sports their entire lives to do any sort of extended tempo or threshold running.

One reason why I really like this distance is that a high school runner needs to be trained to focus for extended periods of time (especially younger runners). In most other sports that they have played to this point, they are only asked to “tune in” for very short segments of time. In playing with the rest available to the athletes and how we can “break-up” the distance and we are able to help runners develop focus over longer and longer periods of time. For example, we will actually start younger runners with shorter intervals (600m or less) and with athletes who are not our top athletes we try to pick a distance where they are being asked to focus for the same amount of time (so maybe 800m) as our top runners.

So, essentially everyone on the team is being asked to execute the same workout but it is tailored to them specifically. An additional benefit is that everyone on the team is having a very similar shared experience from the freshman to the senior and it is happening all on the track at the same time. I believe, that this can be used to really help develop the culture of your team.

We do an assortment of variations on this workout to the point where we will never really repeat the workout, and we will change everything from volume, intensity, and rest time. For example, in the early season we will utilize a version of this workout that we call 1k cruise intervals. For this workout the rest between 1k’s is about 30-45 secs and the athletes are being asked to run at a “tempo” pace to help our more experienced athletes work back into the mindset and the type of physical demands that will be necessary to do the 3 and 4 mile tempo runs later in training.

Additionally, we will modify the 1000m to mimic race demands that we want to emphasize and prepare our athletes to handle. For example, if a particular course that we are racing on in the coming weeks requires our athletes to commit to getting out harder than our typical race plan. We will modify the 1000m interval to reflect that by having the first 400m of the interval to be run at sub-3200m pace and then the remainder of the interval will be at 3 mile effort. As the season progresses we will change this workout and utilize it as a “classic” VO₂max style workout where athletes are running faster than race pace but are given plenty of rest for the next interval.

In the end, I really think that the main thing is to find the workouts that work best in your specific training environment and tailor those workouts to help prepare your athletes for not just the physical demands of your race but (and probably more importantly) the mental demands necessary to accomplish their goals. And as you design these workouts it is so important to think about the relationships that your athletes are developing with each other and how these workouts can impact team culture. K’s on the track is talked about by our guys during interviews and with other teammates in both a loving and joking way, and these are workouts that the kids will relive and talk about throughout not just the season or school year but for years after.

by Jay Johnson

Mike Harris – Bio and Key Workout

Mike Harris – Hopkins (MN)

Coach Harris is completing his 27th year coaching cross country and track/field in North Dakota and Minnesota. In the 90’s he assisted ND hall of fame coach Russ Schmeichel at Jamestown, ND. During this time the Jamestown boys and girls each won 6 North Dakota State Cross Country titles.

In 1998 he moved to Hopkins, MN (10-12 school of 1700 students) teaching high school science and coaching cross country and track/field. At Hopkins, his boys and girls cross country and track/field programs have always operated as a joint program 7-12. Our cross country and track/field coaches work with both genders at all levels.

Since 1998 the joint boys and girls cross country and track/field program highlights:

5 boys and 2 girls MN State Cross Country Team titles

1 footlocker national qualifier,

2 individual NXN qualifiers,

1 NXN team qualifier, (boys placing 7th)

1 girls and 1 boys MN Track/Field AAA True Team State championship titles

2 girls, 1 boys MN AA State Track/Field Championship titles

4 MN State All Time Track/Field Individual Best Performances

5 MN State All Time Track/Field Relay Best Performances

2 girls teams in 2011 & 12 qualified for The Nike Track Nationals (5th, 8th)

1 Brooks PR Track Invite 3200 qualifier

1 Dream Mile qualifier

Key Workout

One of our simple distance routines we employ in cross country and track is a variation to the normal strides done after completing a run. Depending on the time of the season runners complete their last mile on the track. At the 250m mark athletes do a progressive pick-up for 150 meters. I like to use the top of the corner to simulate what we want the body and mind to perform on race day during the track season. This progressive 150 beginning at 60% race pace reaches the 100 start at 80%, at the 350m mark we ask athletes to accelerate up to 90% to the finish of the 400m line. It is a continuous run without stopping for the 4 laps and allows changing gears. Recovery run at conversation pace for 250 meters until the next stride begins.

This drill was suggested by Joe Klecker a Hopkins alumni now attending Colorado. The purpose allows for a speed play event at the end of a recovery run without the normal break leading up to a separate running strides session. We call them “Colorado’s” in our workout plan and they are employed frequently at the start of the season when base miles are the staple for many of our multi-sport athletes who are just coming off a winter nordic season. Focus on the track is relaxed arm and leg drive down the home stretch of the track whereby the coaches can observe the athlete natural form and body mechanics. It provides a workout that gives them time on their feet along with a speed component that our coaches can give direct feedback to all athletes. Using a phone to record individual athletes gives kids focus and a chance for coaches to breakdown and communicate with our young or new runners.

A variation that is used during the cross country season during the weekly long run is ending the session with “trail Colorado’s.” The last 10 min of the long run athletes start a 25 sec progressive run completing the last 10 sec at 90% effort, then a 2 min recovery run. Again the drill is a continuous run.

by Jay Johnson

Mark Popp – Bio and Key workout

Mark Popp started teaching and coaching at Wayzata High School (which routinely has around 100 HS boys participating in Cross Country) in 2008, shortly after graduating from North Dakota State University. He assisted the successful and highly-regarded Bill Miles for seven years before taking over the program in 2015. In the last three years, Wayzata has won the State AA MN Championship twice and advanced to Nike Nationals each year, finishing 14^th, 10^th, and 11^th. In 2015 and 2017 respectively, Jaret Carpenter (4^th) and Khalid Hussein (10^th) were NXN All-Americans.

In the spring, Popp has coached sprinters since 2011, where his athletes have earned All-State honors 17 times in the sprint relays and 9 times individually. This year, he will continue to hand off distance coaching duties to Eric Jahn and Brandon Heebink, both of whom assist with the Cross Country team in the fall.

Key Workout

Cruise Intervals (Threshold)

One of the staples of our training at Wayzata is Cruise Interval training. We incorporate this a little bit in the summer in order to add a little quality to our base training. Running mostly on feel in the summer, our boys will build to 2 x 12’ at threshold effort with a 2’ recovery. During the season, we try to get between 7k-9k worth of threshold in over the course of a workout. The intervals themselves can be as short as 3:20 (roughly 1k) or as long as 10:00 (roughly 3k). The running surface might be the track, the roads, or dirt/gravel paths, depending on the conditions. In early to mid-September, we try to get a 4x2k workout in. We have 2k loop that is about 1200 of winding gravel path, and 800 of a paved residential street. Our time target ends up being the same as a Cruise 1000s track workout from week 1…but due to the more challenging running surface and turns, slightly shorter recovery ratio, this workout is more demanding. [Read more…]

by Jay Johnson

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…]