Ben Rosario Show

Northern Arizona Elite coach Ben Rosario is joined by high school coach Dean Ouellette and some of the top big and small high school coaches in the country. They talk culture, training and what it takes to make a winning program.

S3E8: Tom Rothenberger 01/03/2019

S3E7: Justin Leonard 12/11/2018

S3 E6: Dan Iverson 11/26/2018

S3 E5: Dave Van Sickle 10/31/2018

S3 E4: Dave Frank 10/23/2018

S3 E3: Sal Gonzalez 10/16/2018

S3 E2: Timo Mostert 10/09/2018

S3 E2: Timo Mostert Introduction to Coach Timo Mostert Great up in Illinois and ran at BYU 1998 moved to American Fork 8 State Championships over last 9 years 8 NXN trips with an average place 5th and lowest 8th, 2nd place 3 times in the last six years School demographics 2400 students in 3 grades In our school district 3 other schools who have made it to Nike Cross Team averages 30 boys, 40 this year is the largest ever When did you decide you wanted to coach? Very early had great coaches After the freshman year in college got into education with hopes of being a coach What do you want to talk about in this podcast, what is important to building a program? Did coaching clinics the last few years How we changed from a good program to national contender Going back to basics (Lydiard) Develop aerobic engine How do we develop a good aerobic engine? Good base in summer Need to work on all phases of training all the time, just different emphasis Early in base still doing stride laps Aerobic speed can be developed and can still have a kick You have a first-year kid where do you start at and develop the newbie June may start out 4 miles a day and build up no more than 10% a week Saturday run do one more mile than the longest run of the week By August can do 10 miles Still hold back daily miles Do you give them specific paces or do you run by feel for beginners? Do what you can early Friday's do mountain runs in summer to get them in nature What 2 track workouts do you during the summer? The week before the first race will do 16x400 start 3200 pace and get faster 2:30 rest Rest walk around, jog around, clear legs Newer kids do less than 16 Build aerobic engine and less anaerobic work Get them to feel the pace and after 3-mile time trial they get paces to hit You focus on taking out some of those faster 400 workouts and doing more aerobic. Your goal is to increase the long run Varsity kids coming out of track will pick back up quickly where they were Our goal for veterans are 750 miles from memorial day to labor day with top end about 60 Capillary runs are 70-90 minutes for a long run develop more capillaries into the tissue It is the oxygen transportation system Longest run used to be 10 miles but were not getting to 70+ minutes What else are the veterans doing for a harder workout? Grinder 3 miles to a mountain, 1.3 miles up 500 feet in altitude Awards for under 9 minutes July after camp start incorporating a longer repeat workout like 4x1200 or 3xmile Lydiard called time trials, we call power runs, AT runs not a real time trial in August For your veterans are you getting more than the one run over an hour? 6-8 miles is a typical day Do you assign paces on easy and recovery days? Varsity boys know we are trying to hit aerobic threshold pace Varsity boys average 6-6:15 per mile, recovery 8minutes per mile Doubles? Doubles all year long Double at recovery run pace Morning recovery run helps them get ready for the run later in the day How much do you talk about things outside of running like sleep and nutrition? Summer camp we have classes We talk about our philosophy and what is expected Day before a meet we will talk again about preparing On a race day, what does your race day prep look like? We will do a morning run and then we will go through the visualization When we get to meet have boy in charge of warmups and cooldowns in each race 1-mile warmup, do pullouts (working on perfect form), high knees After a race 2 mile cool down and team stretch Good mix of old school and new school. What do you do about form? Form with pullouts Run a lot of hills Try to land midfoot Heel strikers are usually hips tilted forward and work on that and strong core A week in mid-September Race Friday Monday 3x1mile with 5:00 rest negative split it start 3-mile race pace and negative 7 miles and strides on Tuesday Wednesday 2 mile warm up and 2-mile power AT run with 2 miles cooldown Thursday 4.5 miles of jogging Friday race Saturday ran 6 miles and easy Plus 30 minutes every morning Total 60 miles What is your hardest session and when does it fall? 16x400 slight negative splits (12x400 for newer kids) Tough fartlek on mile loop 3 miles of :30/:30 hard easy You are doing what most coaches are doing, but you have all this success, what do you think you are doing differently? Coaches do too many intervals too fast with too little rest We always preach negative splits even on steady runs out and back Practice over and over again negative splits so second nature in race To get the job done at a national level there has to be a race strategy, how do you deal with that? You race how you train NXN not a speed course Have to have confidence you will work up when everyone else goes fast Even-keeled first mile, know where you can pass and make moves Teach them to run hills Follow /episode/index/show/benrosarioshow/id/7145155

S3 E1: Colin Altevogt 10/02/2018

S2 E9: Jonathan Dalby 12/15/2017

S2 E8 John O'Malley 12/02/2017

S2 E7: Trina Painter 11/24/2017

S2 E7: Trina Painter Trina Painter Won both the boys and girls State Titles for Arizona Division 2. Trina talks about both State meet races for the girls' team and the boys' team. Trina talks about her running history which included several Olympic Trial qualifiers. Trina talks about her experiences at the Olympic Trials in 1996, 2000 and 2004. Flagstaff is a D2 school with 1600 students total. They typically have 75-80 total athletes on the cross country team. With a successful program that wins so many state titles in a row, how hard is it to make sure that fire stays lit and the kids stay motivated to win the next one? Trina talks about how it has been coaching her own kids. How much of a benefit is it for the high school students to be training at altitude? Flagstaff needs to run their state meet in Phoenix, where it is often 100 degrees in the first week of November. How does she get her kids ready for that? She mentioned that she has club soccer players on her team. How does she balance it with the kids who want to be part of the State team and play club soccer? As a successful runner in everything from the 3k up to the marathon, how does that translate into a running philosophy as a coach? What does a training week look like in the middle of the season, what are the workouts? How they keep summer running interesting and keep participation high with fun activities. Trina discusses what it is like to train in Flagstaff with all the world-class talent that makes their way there. Teams down in Phoenix head up to Flagstaff in the summer for team camps, what do Flagstaff teams do for summer camps? Trina shares her experience of running with the team at Buffalo Park. Does Flagstaff have a staple workout they do a few times during the season? How often do varsity race? What type of race strategy does she have with her athletes and does it differ in a regular meet vs. the State meet? How often does she run with the kids? /episode/index/show/benrosarioshow/id/5976740

S2 E6: Chris Hanson 11/14/2017

S2 E5: Larry Weber 10/26/2017

S2 E4: Joe Porter 10/18/2017

S2 E3: Adam Kedge 10/10/2017

S2 E2" Mark Ellington - Carmel 10/03/2017

Mark Popp Wayzata High School 09/26/2017

012 Dennis Barker 12/21/2016

011 Tim Cox and Brent Tkaczyk 12/08/2016

010 Eric Heintz 11/29/2016

010 Eric Heintz Marist, a smaller school in Georgia in the last 9 years on the girls have won 9 state titles and boys 6 with a few 2nd place finishes, we want to dig into what you are doing to have this much success… first let's start out if you could give us a background of how you got involved in running and how you ended up the coach of Marist? Is this your first coaching gig, or did you coach before Marist? You have a small kid with under 1000 kids, and you have 80 girl runners on your team and 140 total. How has recruiting played a roll in what you are building there? You also coach adults, how much is getting kids hooked on running the same as getting adults hooked on it. You have a huge team for a school your size. You talk about the girl trying to earn their varsity letter and the girl trying to win state.. but I’m sure you also have the other, as head coach what do you do to make a connection to each of those kids vs just working with the better runners? Being in Atlanta what training challenges do you have? One of the great things about these episodes is hearing from different programs. You mention you have very tough academics, and are at a smalls school. Small school kids may be in the band, year book club and want to do cross country. How do you balance the athletes that want to do multiple activities? What did you think the results were for this year with getting rid of weights, and will you go back next year? Let’s jump into the training and your training philosophy. What are your expectations over the summer on what your athletes should be doing? During midseason, what does a typical week in maybe late Sept look like? You mentioned some of the things you changed over the years. What is the biggest thing that has changed since you started? You mentioned the miles are higher than they used to be, is that because other teams are doing more work so you do it to stay ahead of the other schools or why do you think the reason the change happened? You mentioned you do more core than you used to, where do you work that in and what does that look like? What are your plans for NXR this week? During that period between State and NXR do you hit the reset button or coach it as more of the same? One more training question, after NXR when your season is done, what do you focus on during the winter to get ready for track? /episode/index/show/benrosarioshow/id/4870053

009 Matt Gabrielson 11/22/2016

008 Doug Soles 11/18/2016

007 Jeff Messer 10/25/2016

007 Jeff Messer Coach you won 6 state titles in a row in Arizona with the Xavier girls xc team then the next two years, you won back to back titles at Desert Vista. Last year you just missed your 9th state title in a row, but you are back on top this year ranked 3rd by Flotrack. How does the team look this year? With the girls used to winning state titles and falling a little short last year, what did you need to do differently this year to get them ready? How do you balance the science that you know with teaching the kids but not overwhelming them? What does your HIIT training look like? How often are you doing HIIT’s and how many do you do? 6x150 with full recovery 3x in a 22-weektraining cycle. After a moderate intensity or recovery distance run. One key is full recovery. You need full recovery so you can recruit more muscle fiber. As soon as any coach becomes successful the peanut gallery starts talking about how the team is overtraining, recruiting or any other excuse for a teams success. In a few selected cases that may be true, but Ive talked to you enough about training to know that is not the case with you, can you talk about the type of volume your athletes are doing? You have had a lot of runners who went on and had a lot of success at the next level and as professionals. How rewarding is it to see them go on and have success? We are coming toward the end of the season where you just had City, getting ready for sectionals, then state and then two weeks later Nike Cross Regionals. How do you manage peaking and maintaining it for that long? If you have a 20-week training cycle, how do you space out your workouts and how varied are your workouts over those 20 weeks? 2-week cycle will try to get in a tempo run, a progression run, two long runs and 2 repetition sessions. If we get in five, that is fine. At most six. in the Phoenix summer it may be 2-4. What pace is your repetition workouts at? 7+7=7 workout, 7x800 plus 7x200 is 7,000m of work. Those 800s will be cut down pacing and the average may be 2:43 for a varsity girl. And 200s may be 34-35.5. Somewhere around goal race pace average on the 800s and faster on the 200s. 5600m of the 7k will be mostly aerobic. On the 800s will cut down pace and cut down race so may start with 3:00 and end up 1:45-2:00 rest. Compare your reasoning to what Tinman does with the CV pacing. - Early in the summer we spend a lot of time close to that CV range, the faster stuff will be later and we get there with the cutdown start 2:52 and end 2:35 Does this workout play into your race strategy of negative splits and how does a race strategy change for someone who is a mid-pack runner who’s strategy may not change based on who is leading the race? - Last mile, best mile, fastest mile. How has it worked over the years when you get to a big race where position becomes so important and you may need to be more aggressive? How big is your team? Can you talk to us about the structure of your program and how you deal with those many athletes? Talking to the coaches over the last few weeks what we notice is the coaches and the programs that work hard and have high goals and love to win and do hard workouts are the ones that end up with big teams, not the ones who relax and always only focus on fun. The kids seem to want to work hard, what are your thoughts? You mentioned warm up routines. Most teams have a set of drills that they do, you have multiple sets, why do you change it up so much? No one I know reads as many research studies as you do. You do it for your career as well as for your coaching. what have you learned in the last 6-12 months. that is new you have incorporated? We all learn from each other, so talk about some of your influences in the coaching world. /episode/index/show/benrosarioshow/id/4772180

006 Gaylerd Quigley 10/18/2016

005 Joan Hunter 10/04/2016

005 Joan Hunter Coach of Loudon Valley in Virginia. Drew Hunters mom. Her and her husband Marc coach the team. Took over cross country program in 2014 so going into third year. Never had a state title in 50 years of school, won last year and second on girls side. School about 1200, have 120 kids now on team. We know you as a successful coach and the mother of some successful runners. How did you get started in running? You mentioned you used to be high intensity, low mileage. When did that change? You had a lot of success as a masters runner, tell us about your achievements with this training. You took over the XC program at Loudon Valley in 2014. What lead you to wanting to get into coaching? How was it taking over with Drew on the team, was he on board with it? You took over a program and turned it around quickly, what were some of the things you changed when you took over the program? One of the things we are seeing from doing this podcast, in people taking over programs you are getting a good bump in the number of kids coming out, tell us about your numbers? 120 kids is a lot to deal with, can you tell us how you structure your workouts with that many kids? Last year your boys won the first ever state title for the school and the girls were second at state. For those wondering if all that success was just because of Drew you opened this year at Great meadows invitational which had 28 teams this year your boys won and to compare that you were a distant third last year. Walk us through what your team did this summer to get ready to defend the title. What type of mileage did your boys and girls get up to over the summer? Can you walk us through what a typical week may look like? Were you happy with your Great American meet results from last week? When you are #1 in the state, you have your eyes on the Nike Regional meet, how do you structure training for what will hopefully be a long season. You mentioned critical velocity, can you explain it a little bit as it is the backbone of your training plan? You mention you are doing them most of the year, what is changing, is it volume or duration? And what does your add on speed look like? Do you run CV workouts on a track or a course? So Drew decided to not run at college and turn pro, what is he up to right now? Talk about how Adidas has handled the decision for him to go pro and how they are supporting him. Going forward will he remain with Tom Schwartz and maintain the same coach? You coached Alan Webb at one point and remained friends with him. He has served as a mentor with Drew. Was he an influence at all in making this decision? When you were working with Alan and Drew, what was the moment you knew they would be really good? Having 120 kids on the team is a lot. And then you have 9 of your own kids. How do you work on that time balance? Where do you see Drew’s future, more of 800-1500 or more 15/5k? /episode/index/show/benrosarioshow/id/4718682

004 Jonathan Dalby 09/27/2016

003 Matt Lincoln Chandler High 09/20/2016

002 - Sean McCafferty CBA 09/13/2016

002 - Sean McCafferty CBA CBA training in depth, pressure of taking over a solid program. Let’s start out with getting to know you a little bit. You were a successful runner at Princeton, can you tell us about your high school years and what you learned from those years that you are using now? Coach Tom Heath was the long-time legendary coach who won 26 state titles, an NXN title and 343 dual meets in a row. He has announced his retirement and the program is now under your helm. You had a successful coaching career yourself before joining CBA a couple of years ago, so what is going to be the biggest challenge in carrying on this tradition? What will you change and keep from tradition Dual meets are interesting because while they are going away, it is a great way to learn how to race for younger kids without as much experience. Run the same 1.5 mile loop every day for your distance runs? A lot of the preseason writeup have you as one of the favorites in the NE this year. How did you train this summer to get ready for those expectations? - Great conversation about his training philosophy. Your daily runs have a fairly good amount of quality to them, and if you are asking your kids to run that hard on the daily runs are your ‘workout’ days less intense or what does that look like for a program that goes pretty hard every day? Can you walk us through this time of year when you may have a weekly meet what your week looks like? Have you found that this type of training is better preparing them for college running? You guys seem to be fit all year round with your training. Does it make it easier to always be ready for a big meet like a national meet and postseason over those who vary their training more? How big of a school and how big of a xc team do you have? - Their freshman story and when they start is really interesting. You have over 10% turnout, what unique are you doing that may help build the team? Do you still do your big 2-mile time trial and how does that work? If that went so well, what are the goals for this year? To be successful year around you need to stay healthy, so what are you doing for core, strength work? /episode/index/show/benrosarioshow/id/4664592

001-Charlie Kern York High School 09/05/2016

001-Charlie Kern York High School Host and Coach Joe Newton decided he was going to make this his last year, how did you hear about the news? - Coach Kern talks about how this is not the first time Newton has talked retirement. How has the news been received among the York community? Are there any big farewell events planned at upcoming meets so Newton gets the Jeter/David Ortiz treatment? The Chicago metro area has to be one of if not the most competitive metropolitan area in the country. With that landscape how hard is it for you guys to going to go out on top? It is getting harder and harder to win in Illinois. You will be taking over a legendary program. What changes may be coming or what is your vision for the future of the long green line? - Coach Kern focuses on rest, course workload and some of the training will change because his training philosophy is a little different. You mention rest. Some of these high school kids are not getting enough rest and are getting sick. What do you do to encourage them to get the rest they need? - Coach Kern does a great job in talking about how legacy plays into this. You can have fun doing the things you do for the next 70 years of your life. This is going to be your one time to achieve whatever you achieve this year. So let’s sell out and work on that now. By creating this culture and legacy you have affected all those around you. Talk about how good things are right now in central Illinois. - Any one of the top 4 from our conference could win the state championship. Do you think the reason that things are flourishing there right now is because the notoriety that York has achieved? You mentioned your son who is one of the great runners in that area. A lot of coaches end up coaching their own kids what advice do you have for coaches who end up coaching their own kids? With him being into running and you obviously being into running how do you step away from it at times with your son? The college recruitment process will start soon with him. Do you see him staying around home or going away to school? For your runners who are not your son, what advice do you give them about heading off to college with academic vs. athletic considerations? Part of the success has been because you have a large team. With that are challenges. So can you tell us what a week may look like at York under Coach Kern. - He uses groups to organize 168 kids on the team right now. Each group has their own coach. He also talks about some of the changes he is making after Newton. You talk about the importance of the long run. What is a long run for York. Was there a time in the 70’s-80’s when York was doing 100 miles a week like the rumors have it? How did the 1000 mile club really work at York over the summer? A big part of what we do is injury prevention, so what is your strength/core/plyo routine like? One of the reasons kids can’t handle the mileage they used to and one of reasons need more strength and core work is because kids don’t play as much. Do you agree or what do you think? Are you going to continue the nicknames? It seems almost like a family atmosphere, is there anything you plan on doing to keep that culture at York. /episode/index/show/benrosarioshow/id/4644372

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