CoachJayJohnson.com

Quick story.

For several years Mark Wetmore had an 8.5 x 11 inch frame with what appeared to be a day planner page, framed, on the wall, near his chair. His office was always clean, no clutter on the desk, no coaching awards on the wall. A team picture or two hung on the back wall.

Any visitor facing Mark could look to their right and see that framed sheet of paper.

A good journalist, say Chris Lear, would be able to tell you the year printed on the page and the time slot within which a note was written on that paper. I can’t. Sorry. What I can tell you is that the date was January 1st and the time was sometime in the morning. And the note was simply this: a workout that Mark Wetmore would be meeting Adam Goucher to conduct. I could be wrong on this detail, but I’m 90% sure that Adam was a professional runner at this time.

So that’s it, a framed page out of a day planner, hanging on the wall next to Mark.

The lessons here our numerous and obvious…just thought I’d share it.

Adam has a new book out. I have yet to read it but hope to get to it later this year. Dave Racey is well read and if he likes it I have no doubt it’s good.

A coaching friend of mine recently sent an email to a group of coach detailing some of his frustrations with his team.

He states, “Perhaps you are as perplexed as I in finding ways to get the best out of them come spring. Or perhaps you’re already found a way… and if that’s the case, please share!”

This man is an exceptional coach and he’s coached multiple state championship teams and individuals during his career, so he knows what he’s doing.

I always hesitate to give advice high school coaches because I’ve never coached at that level, yet the irony of this is email is that a mutual friend of ours has touted the following for a long time: a culture of running at your school is more important that the workouts. Continue reading →

The first is a running video that I found on a fantastic new site, The Gait Guys.

The CHASE. from Gretchen Powers on Vimeo.

The next isn’t running related…except that it really speaks to the term “athleticism.” Thanks to the The Science of Sport for sharing this video.

The final video is a nod to Brent Vaughn, who I very much hope has a great race in Houston in a few short weeks. He works tirelessly and was such a pleasure to coach. I hope to cover all of the various exercises demonstrated in this video at some point in 2012.

One for high school coaches – Advice from Adam Kedge.

One for college runners – Winter Training for College Runners.

One for adult runners – Do you have the guts to turn around?.

Today is the 24th of December and I hope you enjoyed the posts since the first of the month. I don’t plan to post between Christmas and New Years, but you never know. However, I look forward to posting regularly in 2012. Maybe not every day, but close.

Thanks for your time and attention this year and I look forward to bringing you better content in 2012.

Quick story from the 2011 Canadian National Endurance Conference.

Alberto Salazar said in his presentation on 5,000m training that a key workout in their group is:

7-8 x 1,200m at about 10 seconds faster than race pace.

In his next sentence he started talking about lactate.

Quick – what should the next thought in your head be?

How about “What’s the rest?” Or more specifically, “What’s the recovery?”

Now, the quote above was taken from his afternoon talk and I couldn’t attend his morning talk (still traveling to Canada), where he had shared what the rest is. I know he said that the recovery for 6 x 1 mile is 400m in 4:35. My guess the recovery for these 1,200s is 4:00 or more.

Note: I like the term recovery rather than rest because recovery can mean running or walking or jogging. To me rest makes me think of stopping and standing around, while recovery begs the questions “am I jogging or walking?” But that’s just me, if you use the term rest that’s fine too.

The point I’m trying to make in this post is that Continue reading →

This video is in response to the following question from Jason Fitzgerald, who wrote in a couple of weeks ago.

While I’m not injured, I have a chronically tight IT Band. I just ran 2:39 at the Philly Marathon and am just getting back into running. Despite everything I know about ITBS (I’ve had it before and feel like I learned a ton seeing PT’s and a lot of research), I can’t knock the tightness in my glute/hip. I’ve worked on glute strength and hip mobility – what other things can help treat ITBS?

Lots of books on running out there and by no means am I one of the coaches who has “read everything” (Really? You’ve read everything? Hmmmmmm. Bothers me when coaches say that).

Here are a few favorites, some books you no doubt know, others you might not have heard of.

A Cold Clear Day is great for the serious runner. Continue reading →