Run By Feel: A Game-Changing Skill

Published January 22, 2025 

I learned so much from this past weekend's Boulder Running Clinics. It may have been the best one yet, and the 215 coaches from 33 states learned a great deal.

Every year we record the videos of the clinics so that people who can't attend can get all the information.

The videos go on sale this next Monday, January 27th.

I only sell these videos for four days every year.

This year the sale ends next Thursday, January 30th.

"Wait - I have to buy the videos next week if I want them?"

Yes. I only sell the for four days each year, and that four-day window is next week, Monday through Thursday.

If you've never purchased clinic videos it's hard to know what you're missing. I'll host a free class where I'll share highlights from this year's clinic so that you can get a sense of what you'll get when you purchase the videos.

I also share excerpts from previous clinics dating back to 2018 as those videos will be on sale next week as well (again, these are only on sale once a year).

Even if you don't invest in the videos, you'll leave the free class with several take-home points and a couple training tips you can implement right away.

The free class will be Tuesday, January 28th, at 8:00 pm ET/5:00 pm PT.

While there is no substitute for being at the clinic in person, the videos are the next best thing.

Okay, now let's talk training...

A powerful concept from my book ​Consistency is Key​ that can transform how your athletes train and race is "run by feel."

Running by feel is one of the most crucial skills a distance runner can develop, yet it's often overlooked in favor of focusing on specific paces and times.

At the end of this email, I'm sharing Chapter 8 from the book, which is simply titled "Run by Feel". Note that the chapter is written for your athletes and not for you. You have my full permission to copy this email and share this email with your athletes, though you don't have permission to share any of the other chapters of the book.

Running By Feel

The chapter below explains how running by feel is fundamentally different from other sports skills - while basketball players need to master shooting, dribbling, passing and defense, runners have a shorter but equally important list of fundamental skills, with running by feel at the very top.

What makes this skill so vital?

First, it's essential for racing middle distances, where the opening segments of races are crucial. Athletes need to learn how the first 200m of an 800m should feel, or how to lock into the right rhythm for the first 400m of a 1600m.

This isn't something that comes naturally - it takes months of practice to develop the ability to internalize these paces without relying on splits. But perhaps even more importantly, running by feel helps athletes stay injury-free and avoid overtraining.

The chapter shares specific examples of how veteran runners use this skill to make smart decisions when minor injuries start to develop, rather than stubbornly pushing through workouts that could lead to bigger problems.

The challenging part is that running by feel takes months, not weeks, to develop. It requires coaches and athletes to move beyond silly slogans like "no pain, no gain" and instead embrace a more nuanced approach where athletes learn to balance racing discomfort with the wisdom to back off when needed in training.

The payoff is huge though - athletes who master running by feel are able to string together sustained periods of consistent, injury-free training that lead to breakthrough performances. The goal this spring is to have a block of uninterrupted training and racing. If kids can do that, then they'll PR throughout the season and run their best races in the championship season.

I'm sharing this full chapter for free because I believe it's one of the most important concepts for developing successful high school runners.

NXN Programs Run By Feel Too

It's also one of the concepts Eric Dettman and Marie Markham of Lincoln High School in Portland, Oregon talked about in their presentation on training at the last weekend's clinic. And they know what they're talking about - Lincoln's girls have qualified for NXN three years in a row!

They use the "run by feel" terminology all the time, especially early in the season. And they use it when they're doing fartlek workouts, which is also one of the key workouts in both my ​XC Training System​ and ​Track Training System​. You can read about the workout for free ​here​.

Here's what Eric said about how he and Marie teach fartlek running...

"With a Fartlek, we'll talk about the off being somewhere around training pace, so they aren't just jogging, and the on being tempo pace but focusing on running by feel and not too hard.

I try to describe to new kids that pace as that effort when you're running next to someone and you could talk to them but you don't really want to."

I love that description. It's similar to the paragraph, sentences, phrases approach that I learned in college.

Easy running is when you can talk in paragraphs. A bit faster - steady pace - is when you can only talk in sentences. If you can only speak a short phrase then you're running pretty fast, which is similar to the "on" portion of a fartlek, but likely closer to 5k or even 3,200m pace.

But regardless of how you teach this to athletes, you want to empower them today with the tools to learn to run by feel. It'll make your 800m runners better this season and it'll make your cross country runners better in the fall.

On January 22, this is a fantastic skill to start empowering your athletes with. And as you'll read in the excerpt below, I talk about how it's going to help prevent injury as well.

Before I share the chapter I have a favor to ask.

If you have read ​Consistency Is Key​, it would mean a great deal to me if you would leave a review on Amazon. I'm honored that there are 171 reviews - with a 4.8 rating - for the first edition. But I can't "transfer" those reviews to the listing for the second edition.

You do not have to have purchased the book on Amazon to leave a review.

If you have a few minutes and would be willing to ​leave a review here​, that would be fantastic. And thanks in advance for your time.

Okay, here's Chapter 8 of ​Consistency Is Key: 15 Ways to Unlock Your Potential as a High School Runner​.

Let's go!

Jay

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Note: I've added some extra spaces between the sentences to make it easier to read on your phone. And again, this is written for high school athletes, not coaches.

Chapter 8 - Run by Feel

Take a moment and think about your friends who play ball sports. I wonder if you agree with the following: for them to reach a level of excellence in their sport, they have to hone certain skills.

The basketball player has to be able to shoot and dribble, the softball player must hit and throw, the golfer must learn to accurately drive the ball and putt. To be excellent at a ball sport means you have to master several different skills.

What skills do you need to learn to reach your potential as a runner?

I would argue there are mental skills like “keeping a calm mind,” which my college coach would often say during challenging workouts. When someone suggests running is as simple as putting one foot in front of the other, they have a point. Yet you can make improvements in your posture, for example, especially when you get tired. (Though you’ll need muscular strength to do that, so build that chassis!)

But what else is there?

Compared to the basketball player who has to learn to shoot, dribble, pass, rebound, and play defense, your list is probably shorter. And at the top of the shorter list? I’d put “running by feel” every time.

Learning to run by feel is a critical skill if you want to become an excellent runner. It is crucial for race performance, especially in cross country. It is also crucial for your long-term development on the track.

The connection may not be obvious at first, but learning to run by feel also improves your chances of staying injury-free. The tricky thing is that running by feel is difficult for coaches to teach, and it will no doubt take you some time to learn—think months, not weeks. It also applies to many different aspects of your training.

The next time you put on your running shoes, imagine you’re heading to a cross country meet. How hard should you run the first 200m, 400m, or 800m—especially when you won’t likely hear any meaningful splits along the way And even if you did get your splits, what would they mean if the course has thick grass? Or what if the course is muddy and you’re running the fourth race of the day, after it’s been torn up? Obviously, a 400m split on such a surface would mean something different than a 400m split early in a 3,200m track race.

When you’re only 800m into a 5,000m cross country race, you have over two and a half miles to go: you need to balance your ideal position with the distance you have yet to cover—without decelerating each stride to the finish line. If you know how to run by feel, you’re less likely go out too hard in the opening minutes. It’s a skill worth learning!

If we zoom out and look at a week (or month) of training, running by feel will also help you do a couple of things.

First, it’ll help you to stay injury-free. Second, it can help you avoid overtraining. And both are keys to consistency.

Let’s say you run a cross country race in spikes, in mid-September, four weeks from your championship season. Though you have followed a thoughtful progression of training, and though you have raced in these shoes before, you go home that night with sore calves. Or worse, your right Achilles is tender to the touch.

What do you do?

You might decide to do a bit of self-therapy, and you go to bed confident you’ll be able to run the next day. You join your team Saturday morning for practice, and you do your typical muscle activations and mobility exercises. You then do a 60-minute run, where you incorporate 5 x 20 seconds at 3,200m effort, starting at the 45-minute mark.

You don’t normally find this simple assignment difficult, but today you feel your right Achilles again in the first 10 minutes: it’s not painful, but it’s definitely tight.

You continue to run, and at the 20-minute mark everything feels pretty good. You’re talking with your friends and enjoying the morning, and before you know it, you’re at 45 minutes. You do the first stride, and now your Achilles hurts a bit once more.

What should you do? Do you finish the run or do the next four strides with your teammates?

The novice runner might say to herself, “The assignment was five strides, so that’s what I need to do.” She’ll likely do all five, even though her Achilles goes from slightly painful on the first one to quite painful by the fifth.

The runner who has struggled with soft tissue problems in the past may say, “Agggghhhh… I know I shouldn’t run another one, but I’m going to anyway. If that one doesn’t go well, I’ll skip the last three”.

If this runner feels pain again on the second stride, he’ll likely make the smart choice and skip the rest.

Your goal is to become this type of runner—one who has the courage and patience to shut things down when you feel an injury developing.

In either case, the desire to become an excellent runner pushes the runner to do the strides—despite the pain. And while desire for excellence is an enviable trait, neither of these hypothetical athletes would be making the best decision.

When faced with this dilemma, the veteran runner would do some version of the following.

After running the first stride, she’ll simply say, “Shoot. I’ve got to shut this down and jog the rest of the way. My team needs me to be 100 percent four weeks from now. I’m frus- trated, but I need to stay as consistent as possible. I’ll ask my coach what I can do tonight to work on my Achilles.”

Your goal is to become this type of runner—one who has the courage and patience to shut things down when you feel a soft tissue issue. Some might say the veteran runner is simply the one who “pays attention to her body.” And that’s absolutely the case! The skill of running by feel in workouts and races improves your ability to pay attention to the occasional soft tissue issue on easy days.

However, “paying attention to your body” has its limitations, and doesn’t necessarily lead to mastering the skill of running by feel. A distance runner has to balance bodily discomfort while racing with being mindful of soft tissue issues during training. It’s not an either/or situation.

Your goal is not to have a mindset where you say, “I’m either grinding through training and racing or I’m casually running for fitness”. You need a both/and approach: “I endure both discomfort in races and discomfort in shutting things down in practice when necessary. I’m willing to both run by feel during training and tell my coach about a soft tissue issue.”

Consistency and running by feel are tightly linked, because running by feel can keep you from overtraining. That means you’ll “stay on top of your training and not buried under it.” Those are the words of Sam Bell, who coached Bob Kennedy, the first person born outside of Africa to run under 13 minutes for 5,000m.

When you can run by feel, you’ll be able to train that next day and pay attention to your fatigue, possibly running a bit easier than you normally would (which can be a challenge as you’ll want to go with your friends who are running their normal paces).

Finally, in high school sports, slogans like “no pain, no gain,” “pain is just weakness leaving the body,” and “go big or go home” are commonly used and can really shape how we think about training. You’re going to be uncomfortable when racing, and obviously you’ll be sweating. But let’s remember that your goal is to train intelligently week after week so that you can run personal records throughout the season.

Those slogans aren’t applicable to the path you and your team are on, the path to greater levels of fitness that result in faster racing. There are a number of specific workouts that can teach you to run by feel, and I’ll share those in the following pages.

The bottom line is that running by feel will allow you to string together sustained periods of injury-free, uninterrupted training, which invariably leads to fast racing and often to running PRs.