CoachJayJohnson.com

It is my privledge to know Jeff Messer and if you can find the time to listen to this podcast you'll no doubt be happy that you invested that time. While Jeff has a Ph.D in Exercise Science, he's also one of the best high school coaches in the country in his role as co-head coach of cross country at Xavier College Preparatory in Phoenix. I think that combination gives him a unique perspective on training and coaching. Throughout the podcast we will be referring to a presentation Dr. Messer gave at the 2012 LA ‘84 Foundation Summer Cross-Country Clinic, titled "Exercise Physiology & Sport Nutrition Applications to Cross-Country Training." To view the slides from that presentation, click here. It's a tremendous resource. I think everyone from high school coaches and athletes to masters level runners will benefit from the information in this podcast. Definitely of my favorite interviews thus far. Thanks Jeff! As always, you can listen to this podcast via iTunes here.

It truly is an honor to have Vern Gambetta on this blog since I've been reading his work for close to ten years now. While most people consider Vern a strength and conditioning coach, he does not. "I don't think of myself as a strength coach. I think of myself as a coach." This podcast is a unique opportunity to learn from someone who understands both track and field and distance running on a deep level, yet also works in other sports worlds - swimming, strength and condition, rugby, etc. I thouroughly enjoyed this interview. Thanks for your time Vern and thanks for all of the great information you've providing in your blog and in your books. As always, you can listen to this podcast via iTunes.

Zeke Tiernan is the guest for the 10th podcast. Fitting because he was an All-American at 10,000m in Cross Country and at 10,000m on the track when an athlete at the University of Colorado. Also fitting because ten years ago he gave the best wedding toast I've ever heard at our wedding in Boulder in the summer of 2002 where he graciously agreed to be our best man. This past Saturday Zeke finished second at the Leadville Trail 100. The LT100 is a 100 mile trail race that starts at 10,200 ft. in Leadville, CO and take runners over 12,500 ft. Hope Pass as part of the out and back course (see elevation profile here). This year marked the 30th year of the race and Zeke ran the fourth fastest time ever by running 16 hours and 44 minutes. Impressive for a husband with a full time job and a toddler. Zeke and I spend the majority of the interview covering this year's race, yet fans of the podcast will no doubt gain a great deal from Zeke's philosophical - dare I say spiritual - view of running. It's a sincere pleasure to introduce you to one of my favorite people on this earth, Zeke Tiernan. As always, you can listen to this podcast via iTunes here.

Brendan Martin recently finished 13th in the 2012 Boston Marathon.  Only 23 years old, Brendan could currently be running collegiately, taking advantage of a fifth year of eligibility as he graduated from Columbia University in four years.  While he ran solid college PRs of 14:09 and 29:43, he was not an All-American at the collegiate level.  To finish 13th at Boston in your first attempt at the distance is indeed impressive.  In this entertaining interview Brendan discusses his journey as a runner, from a skinny former lacrosse and football player to a legitimate marathon athlete. Brendan runs for the Hansons-Brooks team, based in Michigan.  While many of you are familiar with the group, Brendan talks about his experience thus far in the group and their approach to training.  Brendan definitely exemplifies the blue-collar work ethic that the Hansons-Brooks team is known for. I was fortunate to work with Brendan at the 2011 Boulder Running Camps, where he worked as a camp counselor and I'm excited to have him as part of the podcast series. As always, you can either listen do the podcast on this page, download it to your desktop, or subscribe to the podcast via iTunes.  

Adam Kedge is one of the most accomplished distance coaches in the country. Not only have his boys teams won multiple state titles in both cross country and outdoor track at Albuquerque Academy, his boys team has been ranked #1 in the nation twice by Marc Bloom's Harrier publication. I consider Adam a friend and I'm fortunate to have him as a contributor to this site. This post on advice for a young coach is tremendous and I'm lucky that Adam took the time to share it here. This interview talks about his coaching philosophy and how he works with distance runners. We also spend some time talking about Curtis Beach, then 2012 NCAA Indoor Heptathlon Champion, who Adam coached at Alburquerque Academy. As with all the podcasts, you can download this podcast in iTunes - just click here.

I really enjoyed this interview with Patrick McHugh of North Shore Country Day School, north of Chicago. Patrick has a fantastic post on his blog titled "Training a 4:05 High School Miler" that details his work with Peter Callahan. It's one of the most important blog posts I've ever read and I recommend you take a few minutes to read it. Below is Peter's progression as an athlete that appears in the Coach McHugh's blog post. What I think is so extraordinary about Peter's progression is that the biggest mileage week he ran in his high school career was 33 miles in one week.  To me that's really impressive.  In this podcast Coach McHugh discusses some of the things that went into Peter's training - including his implementation of work suggested by Vern Gambetta - as well as discussing his work with other national caliber athletes he's coached, such as Fran Lord. As always, you can download this podcast in iTunes in addition to downloading it below.

Phil Wharton is one of my heros in the sport of track and field. He's extremely knowledgable, extremely passionate about his craft and his compassion for athletes is tremendous. He works with his father Jim at Wharton Performance, working with athletes from a variety of sports. He and his father are best know for their Active Isolated Stretching (AIS) with ropes - "the rope stretching" - but as you'll hear in this podcast, there is so much more to Phil's approach than just rope stretching. In this podcast we cover a lot of territory, including his work with Matt Centrowitz Jr., the 1,50mm bronze medalist from the 2011 World Championships, as well as insights into his own training, where he is currently coached by Matt Centrowitz. I highly recommend this link which will take you to a list of strength exercises that Wharton Performance has put together. Similarly, check out this video from Running Times where you can see examples of the some of the work that Phil does with athletes.

If you run the marathon then this podcast is a must listen. Dr. Trent Stellingwerff works for the Canadian Sport Centre - Pacific and advises not only runners, but triathletes and rowers as well. He has worked with the Speed River Track and Field Club, specifically 2:10 marathoner Reed Coolsaet. A former 1:53 high school 800m runner, he is married to 4:05 1,500m runner Hillary Stellingwerff, so he knows a thing or two about middle distance running as well. While we talk about various aspects of training and exercise physiology, no doubt anyone who wants to run the marathon well will want to listen to his suggestions on fueling for the marathon event. Thanks for the interview Trent and no doubt we'll have some questions from the readership...so maybe we'll have to do another interview in the future? As always, you can download this podcast (or subscribe) via iTunes.

Scott Douglas is not only an editor at Running Times magazine, he's the co-author of Advanced Marathoning and the author of the new book, The Little Red Book of Running. I remember reading this series of articles on training in Kenya, thankful that someone had taken the time go to Kenya and write that type of series (though Train Hard, Win Easy is obviously a very good resource as well). We cover a variety of topics, from ancillary work to the 2012 Olympic Trials in this podcast...and at one point we both give a nod to football coaches who coach track, so listen for that. Thanks to Scott for taking the time to do this as I really enjoyed the interview. As with all of the podcasts, you can listen to the podcast in iTunes.

In this episode Steve Magness, assistant coach with Alberto Salazar's Oregon Project, and I talk track during some downtime at the 2011 Canadian National Endurance Conference. Many of you know Steve's blog, The Science of Running, but if not, please take some time to check it out as it's a great resource. Not only did Steve run 4:01 in high school in the mile, he's coached many male high school athletes in the Houston area, as he shares in his bio from his blog. A sampling of PR's from my HS guys: 4:13, 4:14, 4:17, 4:18,4:19, 4:20, 4:25, 4:26 and 4:27 for 1600m and 8:55, 9:15, 9:22, 9:26, 9:27, 9:30, 9:33, 9:38 for 3200m. Impressive. I hope you enjoy this podcast and I look forward to your feedback.

As many of you know, I'm a big fan of the work of Dr. Richard Hansen. He's done a great job with keeping athletes that I've coached healthy and I think he's a fantastic therapist. In this podcast we cover a variety of topics and answer questions that the readership asked in this post. You can follow him on twitter. The podcast below is also available on iTunes - just search "coach jay johnson."

I'm excited that Corey Ihmels, Director of Track and Field and Cross Country at Iowa State University, is the first guest on the podcast.  20 years ago Corey won the Kinney (now Footlocker) National Championship. The conversation covers a lot of ground, including a recap of the 2011 cross country teams at Iowa State, Corey's high school training and the influence his high school coach has had on his coaching, the development and accomplishments of collegiate 10k record holder Lisa Uhl, and the career path Corey has taken from a volunteer assistant at Arizona State to his current position at Iowa State. The interview if 85 minutes long. We were shooting for an hour, but we obviously went over. The audio is decent, but will be improved in future podcasts. Definitely user error on my part. If you're a hardcore audiophile, my apologies for the quality of sound. Hopefully the quality of the content will make up for it. Click here to download the podcast in iTunes. If you want to download the file (then import it into iTunes and listen to it that way) that option is available below a the link titled "download." Note: I refer to this video during the podcast where Corey talks about the "the little things" and their importance for runners that want to reach their potential.