Jay Johnson currently serves as the Middle Distance Coach for the University of Colorado, his alma mater, where he has coached for more than five years. In addition to his coaching responsibilities, Coach Jay directs the Boulder Running Camp, one of the premier high school running camps in the country, and develops training materials for athletes and coaches of all ages and levels.

Each week, Jay will be answering the best training questions we receive from you! If you have a question you want answered, email CoachJay@nike.com, and stay tuned to next week’s “Q&A with Coach Jay”!

1. I’m a high school XC and Track athlete from San Diego. Right now, for the off-season, I’m just doing a standard running regimen, six days a week, along with some core workouts. I’ve got some friends, though, who have decided to only run about two days a week, and dedicate most of their time to general fitness, similar to what you’ve described. As I understand it, you say that general fitness can be beneficial to a runner trying to “get in shape”. However, these guys are already in shape - like me, they are just coming off of the XC season. It can’t hurt, I suppose, but will this sort of exercise help them more than actual running would?

First, I love this question, so thanks for posing it. Let me ask you a couple of questions. How good to you want to be? Also, are you willing to add ancillary exercises to your current training 3-4 times a week, starting with just 10 minutes and then getting up to 15 or 20 minutes during the outdoor season?

My guess is that you want to be good or you wouldn’t be taking the time to write. You are most definitely correct in your assumption that if you want to become a better runner you need to run (and while I can’t comment on what the other guys are doing since I haven’t observed them, I would say that just two days a week of running, assuming they’re not doing circuits, is not enough).

I’ll share a story about a Nike athlete, Kara Goucher. Kara and I were at a wedding of a former CU teammate in the fall of 2006 and she and I sat next to one another at dinner and had a very nice chat. She knew that I had implemented Hurdle Mobility with my middle distance athletes and she knew that I was probably getting some strange looks from the distance runners. She said, “I LOVE hurdle mobility and I really think it has helped me, yet when Alberto (Alberto Salazar - Kara’s coach) first had me do it I didn’t think it was going to help my running.” Kara won a bronze medal at the World Championships roughly 9 months later and Kara Goucher does “other stuff,” stuff that IS NOT running, to become a better runner.

One final thought - if you want to do something you’ve never done before, you’ve got to do things you’ve never done before.

2. I have been running for a little over 6 months now. I started to run to lose some weight, have lost 35 pounds, and I am eating good and staying healthy. I have been consistently running since then, no less than 5 days per week, with Saturday being my long-run day of approximately 10 miles. I am averaging 30 miles per week. In the last two weeks, I developed runner’s knee in my left knee. I do all of my running outside. I have been doing the exercises I found on-line, and I recently purchased a tendon strap. Is there anything else I can do to help this? It seems to hurt worse when I’m sitting, or sitting on the floor “Indian-style”, walking up and down the stairs. I am training for my first marathon in the spring in Cleveland.

Very frustrating, especially since you’ve made such awesome gains in your running. First, I must say I’m not an MD, PT, DMC, etc. However, in this case I would recommend you find a good PT. Why? You need to “train” to become stronger in that area and the PT will be able to assign and demonstrate exercises that will improve that weak link. The key here is that you need to view this as part of being a runner. You made fitness gains with your cardiovascular system quicker than your body was able to improve; thus, you need to spend some time getting your muscles, tendons, bones and joints up to the level that your heart and lungs are at. This is why my first post was about general strength because everyone feels good when they first go out and run, yet at some point you basically create a bigger “engine” than your “chassis” can handle.

Finally, value the time with the PT and think of it as training. Most runners don’t like going and don’t like improving their weak link, but it is my belief that those thoughts impede the body’s capability to heal itself.

3. My name is Henry and I have been running with the Nike Running Club for over a year now. I have steadily increased my speed over a year’s worth of training — I started with a 10 min/mile pace, ran a half-marathon at 9 min/mile pace this August, and I ran my last two half-marathons at 7:50 min/mile. Most recently, I ran a 6 mile race at 7:10 min/mile. I didn’t really do any hardcore training, I just ran 3-4 times a week ranging from 4-10 miles each run. At this rate, what training regimen should I follow if I want to get my pace down to 5 minutes per mile in short distances, and 6 minutes per mile for half-marathons? I’m not sure how fast I can get, but I feel like I can be as fast as I want to be, so long as I train right. Appreciate your help!

Very cool progression from running 10 minute miles to running 7 minute miles. No doubt this is another example of “if you want to do something you’ve never done before, you’ve got to do something you’ve never done before.” However, there is one big problem with your current goal - you need to make process-oriented goals going forward and right now you’ve got an outcome-oriented goal. Specifically, you need to run another race and run faster per mile than you did before, yet be willing to enjoy a race where you run 7:01 for 6 miles. The reality is, with any type of training program you can make big time gain in the beginning yet those same improvements are virtually impossible later in your training. By no means am I saying that I know what your genetic potential as a runner is, yet I would say that you’d be better off setting goals of running each race you run in 2008 faster than you did in 2007 and not focusing on the pace per mile as much. Again, you might well be able to run 6 min pace for a half marathon this year, yet running a half marathon at 8 minute pace in 2008 is the next step in your progression.

At the risk of making this too personal, I want to make sure that you understand that what I’m asking you to do in your outlook on running is something I know quite well. My sophomore year in college I ran a 5,000m race on the track in 14:20 on a Friday evening in Walnut, CA. I was ecstatic because it was huge breakthrough for me as an athlete. The next night my teammate and roommate ran under 13:40 (I think he ran 13:36 or 13:35 but I don’t remember) and I was so psyched for him because it was a breakthrough race for him as well. But a few days later on a run back in Boulder I remember thinking “I’m training my butt off and I’m 20 years old and just ran a great race, yet I’m light years away from being a stud like my teammate.” The reason I share this with you is that from that day on I tried to always remember that running for me was a personal journey and that all I needed to do was to train as well as I could to see how good I could be. Plus, the teammate/roommate in the story is Adam Goucher, a guy who has been to two Olympics and hopes to make third this summer. If my goal from my sophomore year on would have been to run under 13:40 I think I had been brutally disappointed, but instead I had a great time the next three years, training as hard as I could to become a better runner…though I never ran any faster than 14:20.

In terms of the actual training, we’ll be posting some training schedules in February on the site that you may find helpful. In the meantime, you will likely improve by running more days per week - say five days a week for the next two to three weeks - rather than increasing the volume of individual runs. Once you do that, then you can add a long run per week and a threshold run per week, with the long run being ten to twelve for now since you indicated that 10 has been your longest run.

Best of luck in your running progression and I wish you the best this year!

4. I ran XC/Track in my last three years of high school. However, in my last year I tore a ligament on my right ankle and didn’t let it fully recover. I mean, I took a couple of months off, running in the pool only, and then decided to start running. Ever since, I have had nagging pains before and after workouts. So, after my first semester of college running I made a decision to stop running completely for a year. I still feel like I will never feel 100%. Can you recommend anything to help the last 5% in the back of my mind subside.

First, I’d see a PT and have them give you some feedback on this injury and how you may or may not be able to train and race on it. Secondly, what are your goals? Do you want running to be a contemplative break from the daily grind or do you want to grind out miles and race fast this spring? I assume you want to race well, but I’m asking because an ankle injury for someone running easy vs. someone trying to run race pace is different because of the importance of the joint when you try to run fast.

Secondly, as a college coach I’ve seen basically two types of athletes in terms of how they deal with injuries. The first is the athlete who does hours of treatment the first week in an attempt to “get back quicker,” but then gets frustrated and stops completely in the ensuing weeks. The second simply does what ever the athletic trainer tells them to do, and while they’re frustrated they can’t run, they NEVER QUIT the rehab. I hate to admit that I was the first type as an athlete, yet we can all learn to be the second type. It’s kind of like the plow horse vs. show horse comparison; it’s not fun and it’s not flashy but take advantage of the body’s ability to heal itself. This may mean weeks and weeks of exercises, prescribed by a PT or MD or whomever, rather than weeks and weeks of big mileage and workouts. We all need to value the non-running work/training/prehab/rehab/general strength/etc. in the same way we value running. Hard to do mentally, yet you’ll reap the benefits in the long run!

*Coach Jay’s advice is provided as general training information. Use at your own risk. Always consult with your own heath care provider for questions relating to your specific training and nutrition.