Published July 16, 2025

It's the middle of July and you're right in the thick of summer training season.

If you’re like most coaches, you’re dealing with the classic July challenge: some kids are showing up every day ready to work, while others are hit-or-miss with family vacations, summer jobs, and the general distractions that come with being a teenager in July.

Here’s the thing—this inconsistent attendance actually creates a perfect opportu...

Published July 9, 2025

It's the middle of the summer and your kids may be wanting a new workout. In the last newsletter, I explained why I like Aerobic Repeats this time of year. Click here if you missed that one.

Today let's talk about the 30-90 Fartlek workout.

30-90 Fartlek - The Rationale

The 30-90 fartlek workout is fantastic for getting kids to run at or faster than their 5k race pace, while gradually increasing their fatigue to simulat...

Extending The Aerobic Stimulus: How to Get 12-Mile Benefits From 10-Mile Runs

Here's the deal: I've been coaching for over 20 years, and I can tell you that the coaches who are winning state titles and sending kids to college aren't just running their athletes into the ground with more mileage. They're training smarter. The gap between your program and the best programs in your area is widening. While you're debating whether to add more mileage ...

Published July 2, 2025

Let's talk about workouts today, workouts that "build the aerobic engine."

The workouts I use to do this are:

• Long Runs
• Fartlek Runs
• Progression Runs
• Aerobic Repeats
• 30-90 Fartlek

Athletes learn the workouts in this order so that by week 5 of summer training they're getting a decent handle on the concept of "running by feel."

You can read about those workouts here and learn why it’s so important that your athle...

Published June 25, 2025 

This 4-minute email explains why threshold runs might not be the best assignment this time of year. If you don’t have time to read it now, make sure you come back to it when you have time.

The Threshold Mistake

While threshold runs are a powerful way to build the aerobic engine, there is a common mistake that athletes make when executing them.

Here’s a quick story to illustrate the point.

When I was an athlete at the...

Published June 18, 2025

I got a text from a coach last weekend that made me laugh, then made me think.

His message: “Jay, why would I pay for any training system when you give away so much for free? I’ve been following your blog for three years and my kids are running PRs.”

I laughed because, yes, in last week’s emails, they got five weeks of training for free, and it really was a great amount of information for every level of athlete. But the...

Published June 11, 2025

 There’s a phrase that I’ve heard a famous coach say several times:

An injury is a mistake in the training and is the coach’s fault.

I don’t agree with that statement for high school and college athletes who might get injured playing basketball or get 5 hours of sleep for 10-20 days in a row.

What I do believe – and what I want you to consider today - is that there is no reason a high school athlete has to endure an in...

Published May 28, 2025

I’m honored that in the crazy/hectic last days of May you’re taking a minute to read this.

If you want to read about my two favorite runners, scroll down to the bottom. To keep things quick, here are a couple links and thoughts on this last week of May.

Today I’d like to share what I think is probably the most important article on my site.

​A Middle School Cross Country Training Plan for Every Environment​

It's my co...

Published May 14, 2025

I know this is a busy time of year, so today’s email is short - 2.5 min read time.

I’ve got one piece of advice for your athletes and two pieces of advice for you.

Here we go…

A Piece of Advice for Your Athletes Running At State

Simply run the time you ran to get to the meet, and you’ll beat a lot of people who are ranked ahead of you.

And if you can run an “A-” race - not an “A” race or an “A+” race - you’re going to...

Published May 7, 2025

I hope you and your athletes are doing well and that they are ready to have their best races of the year this week.

Three things to keep in mind, the most important being:

1. Keep instructions/race plans short and simple.

They’re fit and ready to go, and they know how to be uncomfortable. Don’t complicate things with complicated instructions.

…that said…

2. Remind them that if they want to do things they’ve never ...

Published April 30, 2025

Over the next few weeks, I'll keep the emails short because it's a crazy time of year. I'll give you one actionable idea that you can use with your athletes. Concise and useful.

Sounds good?

Think about what you’ve asked your athletes to do to run PRs this week since they started training months ago.

Things like...

• A new warm-up
• New post-run work
• Workouts you didn’t do last spring that you knew could lead to PRs ...

Building a strong core is essential for runners, not only to improve performance but also to prevent injuries and enhance overall stability. I’m Jay Johnson, and I want to share with you an effective, straightforward core strengthening routine called Core X. Designed specifically with runners in mind, Core X consists of 10 exercises, each lasting 30 seconds, making it a quick and efficient 5-minute workout you can easily add after your runs.