Three Essential Running (& Life!) Lessons from Vigil

Legendary Coach Joe Vigil recently passed away at the age of 95. Over the last 20 years, I was lucky to spend time with him. He took me under his wing as a young coach and it meant the world to me.

Here are the three fundamental lessons I learned from him. I bet they’ll help you as well:

Lesson #1: Excellence is trainable

For Coach Vigil, chasing excellence in life was paramount. Note that I said life, not just running. He was famous for helping athletes and coaches focus on excellence in life as much as excellence in running.

Most importantly, he taught me that excellence is trainable. That’s why athletes hear me say to recommit to their goals every day. Chasing excellence can and must become a habit. When it does, your life and running get better and better. Wake up. Commit to your goal. Repeat. Easy as that.

Lesson #2: Performance sits on the shoulders of consistency

I often talk about stacking successful week on top of successful week. That comes from Vigil. He taught that your racing performance sits on top of weeks and weeks and months and months of consistent training.

The more consistent you are in your training, the higher your performance will be. Train this week so you can train next week. Just keep stacking weeks.

Lesson #3: Train your body and mind to race

Vigil held several degrees, including a PhD in physiology. He said his training was based in science but he was also a master of psychology. He knew that racing was not only about being fit but also about being mentally ready to challenge yourself.

Vigil famously had Deena Kastor, one of his most famous athletes, start a race-prep run a few minutes before the men in their training group. He told Deena that she must not let the boys catch her by the finish of the run. In turn, he told the men that they must catch her before the finish. Talk about preparing the mind to race!

Deena quickly learned how to challenge herself while running alone and being chased (something she undoubtedly used to become one of the best runners in the world). Vigil knew developing this racing skill was just as important as all of the workouts they did to develop her physiology.

The lesson: Don’t just analyze a workout by the paces, heart rate, VO2 max effect, etc. Sometimes a workout where you struggled but found something in yourself that kept you going is more important than the ones where you ran really fast. You’ll race faster as a result.

Let’s honor Coach Vigil by applying these three lessons.