Introducing Coach Skool: A Season-Long Community for Cross Country Coaches
Coaching cross country looks simple from the outside: write workouts, start the watch, send kids down the trail.
But coaches know the real job is much bigger.
You are planning training, recruiting runners, communicating with parents, organizing meets, teaching beginners, challenging experienced athletes, building culture, managing nerves, and trying to keep the whole season moving in the right direction.
That is why I am creating Coach Skool.

Coach Skool will be an online coaching community for high school and middle school cross country coaches, kicking off in June and running through November. Each month will include an online team meeting, short video lessons, downloadable PDFs, reflection questions, and practical tools coaches can use right away with their teams.
I will also be sharing lessons from my 30+ years of coaching experience at East Carolina University and D.H. Conley High School, including what I have learned about training, communication, team culture, athlete development, and building programs that kids want to be part of.

Spots will be limited so the group can have quality discussions, meaningful interaction, and practical conversations around the real challenges coaches are facing during the season.

The Problem Coach Skool Helps Solve
Most coaches do not need more random information.
They need timely support, clear systems, and practical ideas that fit the actual rhythm of the season.
Coach Skool is designed to help coaches feel more prepared, organized, and confident from summer training through the final meet.

What We’ll Cover
June: Summer Training
Building consistency, fitness, and buy-in before the season starts.
July: Communication and Organization
Creating better systems for athletes, parents, schedules, expectations, and team logistics.
August: Fall Training Plans
Planning the first part of the season without doing too much too soon.
September: Racing Skills
Teaching athletes how to pace, compete, manage nerves, and race with purpose.
October: Championship Preparation
Helping runners sharpen, taper, and trust their training when it matters most.
November: Season Reflection
Wrapping up the season, evaluating the program, celebrating growth, and preparing for next year.

Why It Matters
Coach Skool is not just about workouts.
It is about helping coaches build better programs.
Programs where athletes understand what they are doing. Where parents are informed. Where beginners feel welcome. Where experienced runners are challenged. Where the team culture is intentional instead of accidental.

The goal is simple:
Help coaches lead better, communicate better, train smarter, and build teams athletes want to be part of.

You can have the smartest training plan in the county, but if your athletes don’t trust the voice delivering it, the workouts never fully land. That’s the coaching puzzle: some kids buy in and train like they own the mission, while others drift or do the minimum. And it’s frustrating when the same approach that worked with one team falls flat with another.

Often, it’s not the mileage or the workout. It’s the connection.

Over the years, I’ve learned this the hard way: how you deliver the message can matter more than what the message is. The right words, delivered the wrong way, miss the mark. The right tone and timing can shift confidence, effort, and trust fast.

Athletes build trust in different ways, and they’re motivated by different kinds of communication:

• Some respond to direct challenge
• Some need clear reasons and structure
• Some need relationship and encouragement
• Some need ownership and freedom to experiment
  
  

When your message matches what an athlete needs, they don’t just listen, they believe. And belief turns a plan into consistent effort and real buy-in. 🏁
Understanding communication styles helps you:

• Build trust faster with more athletes
• Deliver the same coaching point in a way that actually motivates
• Create buy-in that lasts past a bad workout or tough race
• Inspire athletes to train with purpose, not just compliance
  
  

Why communication styles matter in XC

• Coaching is constant communication: instruction, motivation, correction, leadership, conflict, race-day decisions
• Style mismatches create confusion, resistance, or missed development
• Style awareness helps you adjust delivery without lowering expectations
  
  

Where this comes from

• Built from my 50+ years in running and coaching
• Shaped by my experience as an educator and management consultant
• Similar tools are widely used in business to improve leadership and teamwork
• Tailored specifically for cross country coaches and teams with sport-relevant takeaways
  
  

It all starts by understanding your own style, then learning how to flex it for the athletes in front of you.

Take this free assessment to reveal what communication styles you naturally default to when you coach and how they’re likely to come across to athletes.

I am always getting asked the question "How can I get faster".  It's usually asked from the context of a runner looking to improve their 5k times.  When asked, my first response is to geek out with training theory and other scientific sounding stuff about mitochondrial development, lactate threshold, blah, blah, blah.  But runners are usually looking for a just a few quick tips that they can remember with having to read a book! 

So, sparing you the scientific mumbo-jumbo, here a few simple adjustments to your weekly routine that can make you a faster runner.

1. Slow Down!  What?  That sounds crazy!  Research has shown that if 80-85% of your training is done at a conversational pace you will see gains in your fitness.  Slowing down allows to you to run for a longer period of time, which will improve your fitness level.  Running slower also reduces the risk of running related injury.
   
2. Increase your total mileage.  For all the types of training you can do, increasing your total running mileage is by far the most proven method for improving fitness and getting faster.  20 miles will benefit you more than 10 miles. 40 miles will benefit you more than 30 miles, pretty simple concept. Once again, most of this mileage needs to be done at a conversational pace.  RULE OF THUMB - Never increase mileage by more than 10% a week/month
3. Run more often.  Runners who train consistently tend to increase their fitness at a greater rate than those who train sporadically, so running everyday has benefits.  Don’t train hard everyday, as mentioned before slow running has benefits, so turn those days off into short easy run days. I have days where I get out the door for an easy 10 minutes or a mile around the block.
4. Run less, take a break.  Wait a minute, you just said run more, run everyday??? Every 2-3 weeks you should take a few chill days, back your mileage off,  even take a couple of days off to let your body rest & catch up, then resume your normal training
5. Do a long run every 1-2 weeks.  The term long run is relative to whatever you are used to doing.  If you run 3 miles everyday, take one day a week to stretch your run to 3.5 or 4 miles (or add 5-10 minutes to the length of time). eventually you want to build up to 1-1.5 hours of non-stop easy-running, once every couple of weeks. 
6. Add variety to your runs.  Don’t go out and hammer 3 miles everyday.  As mentioned before, slow down, vary the distances.  Some days go long and slow, some days go short and fast.  Find new routes to run. Run with others.
7. Speed up!  Ok, I told you to slow down, now I am telling you to speed up, but not every day.  Once a week (or once every 2 weeks) add a day where you do run fast.  This could be a fast 20-30 minute tempo run, fartlek (look it up!), hill repeats, a race or sprints, all count for faster running.  Adding a little bit of fast running with your casual running will pay big dividends.
8. Start slow - regardless of the speed or distance of your run, you should always begin with 5-10 minutes of very very slow easy effort running to allow your body the opportunity to warm up

Try to incorporate one of these concepts into your training each week.  First get used to slowing down, then get used to running more, then everyday, etc.........  Be patient, don't overhaul your training all at once.  Do this and in 2-3 months you will see significant long lasting improvements in your running.

We've discussed the importance of "Base Training", logging many miles to build up our aerobic system.  Logging a lot of miles in the off-season is the surest way to get fast during the xc season!

BUT it's one thing to write down 50 miles a week or 200 miles a month, and an entirely different thing to actually "Git'er Done"!

Putting in the miles is a challenge.  It is physically demanding as well as mentally challenging, but the rewards are great if you can accomplish it.  But be aware, lots of running will make you tired, and make you more susceptible to injury, so we have to be smart about putting in the miles.

Here are some tips to help you through the drudgery of weeks of mileage training.

• PLAN!  Having a written plan to follow takes some of the mental stress off of you, you don't have to think, you just do! Each week you should make a quick plan as to which days are going to be your long runs, and which days are going to be your easy runs and recovery runs.
• BE PATIENT! Gradually increase your weekly mileage (avoid increasing your weekly mileage by more than 10% over what your body is used to doing).  After increasing for a couple of weeks, take a week to cut back on mileage and recover your legs.
• ADJUST AS NEEDED! Adapt your plan!  While we want to be disciplined, sometimes we have to adapt.  When our body is extremely tired, or you feel an injury coming on, it's smart to back off a few days to let your body recover.  Once your body is healthy or recovered you can bounce back to your regular training.
• START SLOW!  Ease into your runs and allow your body to loosen up.  Easy Mileage is good mileage! Easy mileage accomplishes the goal of logging miles.  Do not worry about your speed, that will come later!
• DIVIDE AND CONQUER! When it is hot, or when you are tired you can split your run into 2 runs (one in the morning one in the afternoon/evening).  This is mentally easier to tackle, and physically accomplishes the mileage!
• EXPLORE! Find new places to run! 
• SOCIALIZE! Find friends to run with!  This will help the mental challenge!
• EAT! Make sure you have fueled before you run.  Running on an empty tank is hard.  Obviously you want to allow time for your food to digest!  A light snack, or an energy bar/gel before a run can make accomplishing your run much easier
• DRINK! It is critically important to stay hydrated throughout the day, and especially before/during your run.
• RECOVER! Eat/drink with an hour after running.  Your body recharges it muscles the most with the first 2 hours after exercise.
• SLEEP! Tired running is hard running, so get your rest! 7 hours a night minimum, but 8-10 is best!