Jay Johnson

15/02/2026

High School Track Coaches - Stop using the term "speed work" and use the term "race pace work" instead. Here's why.

04/06/2025

New page, new photo! 😀

02/06/2025

We all know that great October and November races start with intelligent summer training.

I'm sharing some of the exact training from my paid XC Training System for free this week. This gives you solid training plans you can use immediately while showing you what's inside the whole program.

In the link below, you get five weeks of training plans for varsity athletes running solid mileage. Later this week, I'll share free training for the athletes who did not run track or play a spring sport, as well as middle school XC training.

Today's article covers my approach to XC training, including the car analogy your kids will easily understand, how to progress strides over the summer, and the strength and mobility work they need from day one. The article includes a PDF with everything you need for varsity athletes for the next five weeks.

To be clear, this is completely free and contains the exact same training as the first 5 weeks of my XC Training System.

June is go-time for XC training. The level of sophistication keeps rising, giving you proven methods to keep kids injury-free while getting them fitter than they've ever been.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Let's go!

This cross country training PDF includes daily training for a varsity runner, for five weeks. It includes the post-run strength routines a runner needs to do to stay injury-free. Also included are

31/05/2025

High School XC Coaches - Are you doing strides on the first day of practice?

13/05/2025

State Meet Tip

Simply run the time you ran to get to the meet, and you’ll beat a lot of people who are ranked ahead of you.

And if you can run an “A-” race - not an “A” race or an “A+” race - you’re going to beat even more people. You don’t need a heroic day to leave the meet excited and proud.

Soak up this experience and simply race to the best of your abilities.

Finally, if you need one word that captures all of this, here it is…

"Compete!"

13/04/2025

Be honest that...

* In the 800m it’s going to hurt from 500m to the finish.

* In the 1600m you’ll have to cover a move if you want to race to your fitness level.

* In the 3200m you can’t let the pace slow on laps 5, 6, and the first half of 7.

“Be comfortable being uncomfortable”

Article - 12 Tips for a Breakthrough Performance in Outdoor Track - link in bio

04/03/2025

High school 1600 meter runners and track coaches:

Here's a concise video where I walk through the mental skills needed to be a great high school 1600 meter runner. The mental skills you need in track are different than what you needed in cross country, and we cover that in this video.

You'll hear from four experts: Niwot's Kelly Christensen, Northern Arizona's mental performance coach Shannon Thompson, coach John O'Malley, and Nike athlete Sinclair Johnson.

This is a concise video and well worth your time.

At the end of the video, I briefly mentioned my Mental Skills for High School Runners course. To learn more about that, click the link in my bio.

13/02/2025

I shared several PDFs last week with the Michigan Track and XC Coaches Association. All of those PDFs - including six free chapters from my book - are available here: https://www.coachjayjohnson.com/blog/michigan-coaches

The second class I covered a 1600m workout that will help your kids dial in the "fast, faster, fastest" approach to racing. Plus I shared splits that can get kids to break 2:20 or 2:00. Obviously they need to have the fitness to do this, yet it's important for both you and the athletes to do some "race modeling" in practice.

If you have any questions about this just let me know!

11/01/2025

“The best book for high school distance runners”

Consistency Is Key is a simple and "to the point" book that clearly explains the essential concepts high-school runners need to implement into their training and lifestyle to improve as an athlete.

The book is entertaining, tells great stories, and paints a clear picture of "what to do" to become the best distance runner you can be.

While this book is meant for the high-school reader, adult distance runners, and coaches will learn tremendously from it as well.

- Chris Knighton

“A tremendous resource for young runners, their parents and coaches”

I love this book. Our athletes have responded really well to this book.

Jay Johnson has built a knowledge base that allows him to convey the essentials of what it takes to be a better runner. Without arguing the nuance of workout specifics, Jay speaks to the greater picture of what it takes to improve.

It's a quick read that can serve as a reference to be read multiple times.

Athletes can use it as a guide for asking questions, understanding the full picture of improvement and building base knowledge for training.

Parents can use it as a guide to understanding the demands of young runners and gain perspective on why their athletes do more than just run. Coaches can use this as a guide for developing the base principles of training.

We ordered 50 copies to share with our team and the response has been amazing. It's a great resource for every team.

- Thor Esbensen

11/12/2024

Discover how to safely enhance your aerobic capacity with strategic running techniques. We explore the benefits of varying run lengths and paces to optimize performance while minimizing fatigue. Join us to revitalize your training regimen!

11/12/2024

We’re rethinking long runs to enhance performance! Discover our training approach, which balances volume and intensity, ensuring improved aerobic capacity and efficient post-run recovery. Unlock the keys to making every run count!