I gave this presentation at the Day of Distance Clinic at Villanova University on March 16th, 2012.

1. Coaching the 99%
Shaping the team you have
Rob Hewitt
Germantown Friends School
hewitt.robertm@gmail.com

2. Who are the 1%?
• They identify as a runner.
• They are highly talented.
• They have the drive to be better.
• They perform relative to their
talent.
As a result:
• They challenge me to be a better
coach.
• They make great performances
seem possible for others.
• Their success may have nothing
to do with my coaching.
Never forget:
• They are kids who need to be
taught the sport through
coaching and mentoring.

3. In 8 years of coaching I believe I’ve had
one 1%’er…
Max Kaulbach [GFS ‘08, Princeton ’13]
800 m. 1600 m. 3200 m. States VCP 4k VCP 5k
XC
9th 4:35 10:08 18:13.1
10th 4:23.57 9:43.98 16:22.00 16:35.00
11th 1:58 4:17.14y 9:13.26 16:16.81 12:44.70 15:54.50
12th 1:54.7 3:54.48 8:58.69 15:46.52 12:27.92 16:01.50
4:14.70 (BP- NY)
4:15.80y

4. Who are the 99%?
• They aren’t the 1%. Some combination of:
– not identifying as a runner
– undeveloped talent
– undeveloped drive
– undeveloped ability to perform
• Kids who need to be encouraged, mentored, and taught the sport through
coaching.
– They require more energy and enthusiasm
• Can form the personality of my team.
• These athletes might:
– not look like “a runner”
– need a place where they can belong
• Kids we coach. They aren’t a number.
– I can’t just facilitate a workout

5. What are the 99% capable of?
I believe in the hallways of every high school in America
lies a state championship cross country team!

6. How do I shape my team?
• First goal: need to teach each athlete to hurt and run in a group.
– A lot of the initial work is not about running
– Changing their perception is key, identify as a runner
• Look to build a team first environment. Built two ways:
– Fun
– Sacrifice
• Talent and coaching have been constants in our equation for
success. The variable is the relationships formed or not formed.
– Measured through quality time spent together and how much
fun they have
– Build healthy relationships, work to fix toxic teams
I want to build talented runners that race and
train with a drive to perform.

7. Cross Country Camp
•It’s fun
•A great indicator of summer fitness
•Kids identify as a runner first
•Challenged to run in groups
•Gain confidence running with other notable
athletes and teams
-Careful not to let the top kids “race” all
week
-Younger kids can run hard
•Every team is different- a great opportunity
to learn or relearn each other
•Learn the sport from other runners- my
teachings are reinforced

8. Training together with a philosophy
and a purpose:

9. Summer training: championship teams
are built in July and August…
• Train together to win together
• We must learn to trust each other
• Group running by ability (pace and volume)
– 1st year runners: 35-40 mpw
– 2nd year runners: ~50 mpw
– 3rd year runners: ~60 mpw
– 4th year runners: 65-70 mpw
• Weekly emails to hold the athletes
accountable.

10. Tour de Manayunk
• My variation to the Lydiard based approach to hill
running (Livingstone 112-15)
• Done once a week in 4-6 week blocks leading into
cross country camp
• The run builds from 35 to 49min over 4-6 weeks
as does the type of hills and frequency of them
• Goal is to build functional strength over hills
– Focus on form first not speed
– This is our transition work from the base phase to the
Aerobic Efficiency Phase

11. Tempo/Threshold Running:
• I believe in efficiency first when writing workouts.
• Tempo Tuesday is a staple of our work.
– Dual meets are great if you can convince your team to not race
it. Teaches pack mentality.
• 85-87% of Vo2 Max, 2-mile race pace or 5k race pace
(course consideration). You can also use a Daniels V-Dot
Chart or a McMillan Pace chart.
• Teach them how a great tempo or threshold w/o feels: first
1/3 comfortable, second 1/3 building from comfortable to
uncomfortable, last 1/3 uncomfortable.
• Looking for 20-30 minutes of work. Depending on ability
anywhere from 2.5-5 miles.
• My go-to last workout for boys before a championship.

12. Tempo/Threshold Running…
Examples:
a) 4 mile tempo at 5:45/mi (23min) or 3 mile
tempo at 7:00/mi (21min).
b) 4 mile tempo/fartlek with 5x1min on/off in
mile 1 and 4-6x30 sec on/off in mile 4.
i. Teaches athletes to change gears
c) 4x2k with 25% recovery for strong athletes,
5x1000 with 25-33% recovery for weaker
athletes.
d) Threshold Pass-through.

13. Sunday Runs
• Long Run
– 20% of our weekly volume
– Meet together for an optional team run
• Wissahickon Valley Trails
• Lloyd Hall behind the Art Museum
– Run as one group
– As a result Monday is an “easy” day since this a
glycogen depleting run. 48 hour recovery.
– If you want a 24 hour recovery athletes must run
at 70% of their Vo2 Max, 2mile RP or 5k RP. You
can also use a VDot Chart or McMillan Pace Chart.

14. Putting the pieces together…
Cross County one week block of training
Monday Recovery run: 42min, strides, hurdles, stretch
Tuesday 2 mile warm-up and cool-down. Tempo/Fartlek: 4.5miles. 1st mile:
3x1min “on”/”off”. Last mile: 1x90 “on”, 1x60 “off”/“on”, 1x45
“off”/“on”, 1x30 “off”/“on”, 15min core, stretch
Wednesday Moderate Long: 70min, strides, hurdles, stretch
Thursday Moderate run: 49min, 3x300 barefoot with 2-3min recovery, 15min core,
stretch.
Friday 2 mile warm-up and cool-down. Threshold Pass-through at Belmont:
Mile on front loop with 90 sec recovery followed by 5-6x3min with 1 min
recovery over the 5k course.
Saturday Moderate: 49min
Sunday Long Run: 84min
Total ~59 miles

15. Early Season Miler/ Half-Miler 10 day block of training
Monday 35min + Max Velocity: 3 sets of 4x30m. fly's with 90 sec recovery and
8min between sets
Tuesday 2mile warm-up/ cool-down. 2-mile race pace workout: 5-6x1000 with
1:1 recovery
Wednesday Moderate Long Run: 63min
Thursday Moderate Run: 42min + 5-6x150m. @95% 400m. RP with 2-3min
recovery
Friday Lactate Tolerance: 4 sets of 4x200 with 100 jog and 1 lap between sets
at 800 RP or 3 sets of 5x300 with 100 jog/1 lap btwn. sets at 1600 RP
Saturday Recovery run: 35min
Sunday Long Run: 77min
Monday 2mile warm-up/cool-down. 4x400 at 90% 400m. RP with 4-6min
recovery.
Tuesday Tempo or Threshold workout
Wednesday Moderate run: 49min
Total 7 day total: 51 miles. 10 day total: 71 miles.

16. Early season 2-miler one week block of training
Monday Recovery run: 42min, strides, hurdles, stretch
Tuesday Tempo/threshold, 15min core, stretch
Wednesday Moderate Long: 70min, strides, hurdles, stretch
Thursday Moderate run: 49min, 5-6x150m @800m RP with 2-4min recov.,
hurdles, stretch
Friday 2-mile race pace workout or lactate tolerance workout at Mile RP
Saturday Moderate run: 49min
Sunday Long Run: 84min
Total ~59 miles

17. Improving our ability to perform
2008 Penn Relays COA DMR Champions

18. • An athlete’s (or team’s) poor self-perception is our #1 problem.
– They aren’t identifying positively as a runner(s)
– It eats away at talent, drive, and our ability to perform
As a result:
• Self perception management is needed:
– Make any race or effort say what I want it to say
• Good races are uplifted
• Bad races are made into teachable moments
• Praise their efforts even if the watch doesn’t match.
• DNR List
– Reinforce efforts with the transitive property
– Remove sensory data perception
• Workouts based on time not distance
• Have athletes workout without a watch

19. Failures lead to our next success…
Following our NXN-NE ‘07
failure we split up our top 3
athletes and created
separate MD/LD groups.
• It was the same
philosophy for both
groups but with a
different look.
• Hidden benefits in
change: new
relationships built on
runs leading to new
successes.

20. MD vs. LD training in 2008
My goal was to train them physically similar but psychologically different
MD training: Isaac LD training: Max/ Jake
Monday Recovery: 5 miles Monday Recovery: 5 miles
Tuesday Long Interval Day Tuesday Long Interval Day
Wednesday 3.5 mile Track Tempo, Wednesday Moderate long: 10 miles
4x200 Thursday 21min + 4 mile Track
Thursday Moderate: 7 miles Tempo, 4x200
Friday Short Interval Day Friday Short Interval Day
Saturday Moderate: 5 miles Saturday Moderate: 6-7 miles
Sunday Long run: 70min Sunday Long Run: 84min
“It is the principles of training and conditioning that are important. The
detailed schedules are of interest only and never can be considered
dogmatic, even generally applicable to others” –Percy Cerutty (Borg and Joyce 1)

21. “You can’t save everyone” but…you can build racers!
2008 NSIC All-Americans 17:34.25 4xMile
unofficial PA State Record

22. 2008 GFS Boys 1600 m. Performance List
Name 1600 m. Name 1600 m.
Max Kaulbach, sr. 4:14.70 Cameron Mactavish, fr. 4:56.5
Jake McKenzie, sr. 4:16.93 Sam Ebert, so. 4:57.1
Isaac Ortiz, sr. 4:19.41 James Kelly, jr. 4:59.4
Tom Waterman, so. 4:24.78 Drew Daniels, so. 5:00.20
Gus McKenzie, so. 4:24.87 Max Anderson, jr. 5:01.0
Eddie Einbender-Luks, jr. 4:37.05 Graham Barrett, so. 5:02.8
Evan Caldwell, fr. 4:37.8 Henry Blood, so. 5:03.7
David Waterman, fr. 4:38.2
Will Marshall, jr. 5:09.6
Fenn Hoffman, jr. 4:38.2 Charlie Beiser, jr. 5:12.2
Ross Wistar, so. 4:39.8 Jackson Walker, so. 5:27.2
Sam Butler, so. 4:45.8 Reuben Wilson, jr. 5:37.1
Chris Allen, jr. 4:48.1 Alex Morales, fr. 6:00.9
Zhewen Zhang, fr. 4:51.62 Ian Longshore, fr. 6:18.9
Ben Finkel, jr. 4:55.4

23. Ancillary Work:
Hurdle Mobility Core work
• Done 2-3 times a week • Done 2-3 times a week
• Goal is to strengthen • Goal is to strengthen
the hips and hip flexors the core region
while getting a good – Hips, hip flexors,
stretch reflex. hamstrings, lower back,
abdomen, etc.
• Focus is on form not
speed • Form and duration of
– Reinforces what is each exercise must be
learned on the hills considered

24. References
• Livingstone, Keith. (2009). Healthy Intelligent
Training: The proven principles of Arthur
Lydiard. Auckland: Meyer and Meyer Sport
Ltd.
• Borg, Renee, and Aoife Joyce. (2012). Lydiard
and Canova- a “virtual roundtable” discussion.
Version 2. Ireland:
championseverywhere.com