At the end of every marathon and half-marathon season (and sometimes before the race is even run!), runners start asking me about their next training cycle. Runners are planners. We like to know the path ahead, and I get it. As a competitive runner myself, I’m always working to figure out the best sequence of…
Carbohydrate manipulation across your training cycle is one of the simplest nutritional strategies to boost physical and mental fitness. For over 20 years, I’ve used this strategy on myself as well as with many of the athletes I coach and have had great success. In a nutshell, you supplement with carbohydrate before and during long…
5 WAYS TO RECON YOUR RACES It had been 10 years since I ran the local race series but I was excited to pin on the bib number and challenge myself. The series featured 7 (mostly trail) races of distances as short as one mile and as long as a half-marathon. As the first race…
After coaching so many runners – from new runners just getting started to Olympians and every thing in between – you start to see patterns and tendencies. Patterns of successful runners and tendencies of those that fail to hit their goal. In coaching, my #1 job is to help runners avoid the tendencies that keep…
Like every coach and runner, I learn (and re-learn) new lessons all the time. Here are 6 lessons I’ve learned over the years and the training ideas that I recommend applying more often in training. #1: YEAR-ROUND LEG SPEED TRAINING Staying fast, yet avoiding anaerobic training is the key to building your basic leg speed…
TWEAK TRAINING FOR BETTER RESULTS SIMPLY BY KNOWING YOUR RUNNER TYPE Runners can usually be divided into three general types — Speedsters, Endurance Monsters and Combo Runners – based on how they respond to training and racing. Think about your training and racing history and see which description sounds most like you. Speedsters The Speedster…
A KINDER, GENTLER TRANSITION TO EARLY SUMMER SPEED WORK In 2004, I helped a very talented runner build a solid aerobic base for the U.S. Olympic trials marathon, only to fail her during the race preparation phase of her training. I didn’t take into account her drive and tenacity, and when I put her on…
As a runner and with most things in life when I do something I go all in, 100%, and I don’t like to break my routine. I think that most runners feel the same way and would agree that taking a day off from running can sometimes feel like a punishment. I didn’t do a…
A SIMPLE TOOL TO DIAGNOSE BAD RACES Recently, an athlete I coach had a bad race. To him, the poor performance seemed to come from out of nowhere. Like all of us do, he began to doubt himself. He began to doubt his training. He began to doubt his coach. How could he be so…
RAISE THE BAR ON YOUR OWN PERFORMANCE Coach Joe Vigil is a master motivator. He’s also a tough task-master when it comes to running well. He continually forces runners to raise the bar on their own performances. As with Yoda, the sage Jedi Master, “there is no try, only do.” Following the advice Vigil gives…