The Most Important Article on My Site

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 contention that...

• We need to take the long-term view when working with a 12-year-old sixth grader.
• They need to run faster at 15, and then faster again at 18.
• You should also set them up to be their fastest at 22, and perhaps an Olympic Trials Marathon Qualifier in their 30s.

Don’t miss this one.

Here’s the schedule for emails for the next six weeks as we wrap up track and look toward the summer:

We’ll go all in on cross country coaching education in June!

I’ll be sharing three new articles, with the exact training that’s in the XC Training System on Monday.

I’ll have bonuses - worth hundreds of dollars - for coaches who enroll in the XC Training System that week as well.

The first XC Training System webinar will be on Sunday, June 8. You can still join later in the summer. This webinar will be recorded, and it’s going to be a great time to get started with coaching education.

I’m going to follow my own advice and take a couple of down weeks starting in July, but only after answering questions for coaches in the XC Training System all of June. Then it's back to work full force in August, helping coaches fine-tune their training before school starts.

Now that we've done that housekeeping, I'd like to tell you about...

My Three Favorite Runners

My three favorite runners are my 81-year-old mother, my 16-year-old daughter, and my 13-year-old daughter.

Let’s start with my mom…

She ran the Bolder Boulder 10K on Monday, having run it for most of the last two decades. For the past decade, she’s consistently placed in the top two in her age group with times that would make runners half her age jealous.

She exemplifies what happens when you prioritize nutrition and activity throughout your life.

Memorial Day at Bolder Boulder—watching my mom cross the finish line while my Vietnam veteran stepdad cheers her on—was a real treat.

My 16-year-old had her own racing adventure the weekend before my mom’s race. Friday through Sunday, I traveled to Huntsville, Alabama, with her so she could run a mile at the Running Lane Track Championships.

I realize most of your athletes can’t make this meet due to state championship timing, but for those who can, it's worth making the trip. What sets this meet apart is its laser focus on the student-athlete experience, and it’s a ton of fun for them.

Note: I’m not getting paid to say this—I just genuinely love what they’ve created.

She ran a PR in the mile and had a great time competing. I was so proud of her for hanging back and running as close to even splits as possible for the first three laps, even though she found herself trailing by 10 meters just 300 meters in.

It was a very impressive, mature run. The coach in me was just as proud as the dad.

It was also a great opportunity to spend one-on-one time with her. Any parent knows how precious—and rare—that uninterrupted one-on-one time is.

Next up: Wildwood camp with a teammate. But first, she’s earned some well-deserved downtime.

And my 13-year-old daughter completed the Girls on the Run event last weekend. It’s a fantastic program, and I’m so happy she had fun doing it. I’m also grateful for the volunteers who met with her and her friends over the last few months for a workout once a week. It was her second 5k, and she crushed it!

Now I just need to get a photo of all three of them together at a meet somewhere. We’ve got to figure that out somehow for the fall cross country season.

Thank You

Thank you for working so hard to make both track and all the spring end of the school year activities awesome for kids. As a parent, I see how much time my kid’s teachers put into these last couple of weeks, and it’s a real gift.

I’ll be in touch Sunday night!

Let’s go!

P.S.

“This 1:1 feedback has been an absolute game-changing feature of XCTS/TTS.”

This is from a coach who has attended many Boulder Running Clinics and has purchased the videos when he hasn’t been able to attend.

But what makes the XC Training System (XCTS) and Track Training System (TTS) different than those resources is that he has priority email access throughout the year.

I’d love to help you this summer and fall like I’m helping him.

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 contention that...

• We need to take the long-term view when working with a 12-year-old sixth grader.
• They need to run faster at 15, and then faster again at 18.
• You should also set them up to be their fastest at 22, and perhaps an Olympic Trials Marathon Qualifier in their 30s.

Don’t miss this one.

Here’s the schedule for emails for the next six weeks as we wrap up track and look toward the summer:

We’ll go all in on cross country coaching education in June!

I’ll be sharing three new articles, with the exact training that’s in the XC Training System on Monday.

I’ll have bonuses - worth hundreds of dollars - for coaches who enroll in the XC Training System that week as well.

The first XC Training System webinar will be on Sunday, June 8. You can still join later in the summer. This webinar will be recorded, and it’s going to be a great time to get started with coaching education.

I’m going to follow my own advice and take a couple of down weeks starting in July, but only after answering questions for coaches in the XC Training System all of June. Then it's back to work full force in August, helping coaches fine-tune their training before school starts.

Now that we've done that housekeeping, I'd like to tell you about...

My Three Favorite Runners

My three favorite runners are my 81-year-old mother, my 16-year-old daughter, and my 13-year-old daughter.

Let’s start with my mom…

She ran the Bolder Boulder 10K on Monday, having run it for most of the last two decades. For the past decade, she’s consistently placed in the top two in her age group with times that would make runners half her age jealous.

She exemplifies what happens when you prioritize nutrition and activity throughout your life.

Memorial Day at Bolder Boulder—watching my mom cross the finish line while my Vietnam veteran stepdad cheers her on—was a real treat.

My 16-year-old had her own racing adventure the weekend before my mom’s race. Friday through Sunday, I traveled to Huntsville, Alabama, with her so she could run a mile at the Running Lane Track Championships.

I realize most of your athletes can’t make this meet due to state championship timing, but for those who can, it's worth making the trip. What sets this meet apart is its laser focus on the student-athlete experience, and it’s a ton of fun for them.

Note: I’m not getting paid to say this—I just genuinely love what they’ve created.

She ran a PR in the mile and had a great time competing. I was so proud of her for hanging back and running as close to even splits as possible for the first three laps, even though she found herself trailing by 10 meters just 300 meters in.

It was a very impressive, mature run. The coach in me was just as proud as the dad.

It was also a great opportunity to spend one-on-one time with her. Any parent knows how precious—and rare—that uninterrupted one-on-one time is.

Next up: Wildwood camp with a teammate. But first, she’s earned some well-deserved downtime.

And my 13-year-old daughter completed the Girls on the Run event last weekend. It’s a fantastic program, and I’m so happy she had fun doing it. I’m also grateful for the volunteers who met with her and her friends over the last few months for a workout once a week. It was her second 5k, and she crushed it!

Now I just need to get a photo of all three of them together at a meet somewhere. We’ve got to figure that out somehow for the fall cross country season.

Thank You

Thank you for working so hard to make both track and all the spring end of the school year activities awesome for kids. As a parent, I see how much time my kid’s teachers put into these last couple of weeks, and it’s a real gift.

I’ll be in touch Sunday night!

Let’s go!

P.S.

“This 1:1 feedback has been an absolute game-changing feature of XCTS/TTS.”

This is from a coach who has attended many Boulder Running Clinics and has purchased the videos when he hasn’t been able to attend.

But what makes the XC Training System (XCTS) and Track Training System (TTS) different than those resources is that he has priority email access throughout the year.

I’d love to help you this summer and fall like I’m helping him.