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Feeling Fatigued? 3 Strategies to Combat Overtraining
My new book The Passion Paradox is on sale for only $7 (61% off!!) on Amazon today. If you haven’t yet, consider giving it a read! Overtraining is one of those nebulous catch-all terms that coaches and athletes fear like the plague. After all, with highly competitive and slightly obsessive compulsive runners the issue is…
Read MoreNot Hard, Not Easy- The In-between Training Day
Since Bill Bowerman popularized the idea of alternating days in which we do a hard workout and follow it up with a recovery day of, runners have fallen in love with the back and forth nature of intervals and then going for a distance run in the subsequent days. It’s no wonder that this…
Read MoreThe Real Struggle for Athletes: Moving on from their Sport
In June 2003, I ran the fastest mile by any high school runner in the country. Four minutes and one second. A hair shy of one of the most important barriers in sport. Awards and accolades soon followed. A proclamation by the Houston Chronicle as one of a handful of “Houston’s next generation of superstars”…
Read MoreAll of Your Questions Answered on the Caster Semenya Controversy
Last week, a woman who is the poster athlete for perseverance and grit had her career and livelihood ripped away from her. She did nothing wrong. She did not use performance enhancing drugs like many of her competitors. Instead, she has had her private life blown open, with details about her inner organs discussed around…
Read MoreEpisode 93: The Biggest Mistakes Coaches Are Making Today
It’s time for a moment of reflection on the coaching profession. What are the things we are doing well? What can we improve on? What are some of the things we are doing now that we might look back upon in 30 years and wonder why we did that training? Coaching is a process of…
Read MoreStop Helicopter Coaching
Think back to elementary school when you’d be assigned some big project. Maybe a diorama or the big science project. You’d walk in proud of the work that you achieved. Only to look over and see young Suzy or Johnny with the most complex and impressive looking things you’ve seen. No offense to little Johnny,…
Read MoreHow Do You Judge Success?
Imagine you just started coaching a high school cross-country team of 20 athletes for the next season. This isn’t your first go round, so you feel confident that you can take your squad and get them ready for a fast 5k at the end of the season, maybe even making the state championship. Seven athletes…
Read MoreUnderstanding Interaction: The time I learnd how to coach at a bar.
I’m an introvert. I grew up eschewing high school and college parties for the sake of my 10 pm bedtime and the 15-mile run I had the next morning. At that point in my life, I would rather get sleep than go through the college tradition of bar hopping. That scene was not my comfort…
Read MoreIntroducing: The Scholar Membership Coaching Program
I’d like to introduce a program that I’m now offering. An opportunity to join a small group of coaches looking to get better at what they do: coaching. A mentor is indispensable. They generously pass on their knowledge and wisdom to you, so that you can apply that to your own craft in your own…
Read MoreIs Coaching a Science or an Art?
“This workout is going to make a difference. Start with 100 meters, lengthen out the rep distance by 10 meters, increase the speed by…” was in full workout mode. A master of his craft, a man who was always pushing to learn more, Joe Vigil is the epitome of a lifelong coach. I’d heard the…
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