Dr. Jason Saltmarsh

Where This Started

I learned to coach before I knew that’s what was happening.

The summer before fifth grade, my father took me on a seven-mile run. I was ten years old and it felt like a marathon. But I finished it, and I kept going. By the end of that summer I was lining up at local road races, a kid in a field of adults, and the local newspaper ran a feature story on me. My father never treated it like a big deal. He just kept lacing up next to me.

He coached, too, and I grew up inside his gym. As a seventh grader I was playing coed pickup games with his high school players, radio on, my dad right there on the floor with us. He was hard on his athletes. He expected a lot. But he backed every one of them, and they knew it. He demanded their best and then helped them find it. I didn’t understand how rare that combination was until I started coaching myself.

That’s the model I inherited: high standards and total support. One without the other doesn’t work. Standards without support break kids. Support without standards wastes them.

When I took over the program at Winnacunnet, I made a decision that shaped everything since: I would never trade a kid’s junior year for a freshman season. Development takes four years. Sometimes longer. The coaches who burn kids out for early results aren’t winning anything that matters.

That decision forced me to get serious about the science. I earned my USATF Level 2 Endurance certification and my Cross Country Specialist certification. I studied Lydiard, Daniels, Vigil, Igloi, the Norwegian Method, polarized training, and the physiology behind why some programs produce seniors who peak and others produce seniors who quit. I tested everything on myself, and then on my teams, before I trusted it.

All these years later, the results speak in two ways. Being named NH XC Coach of the Year in 2018 is one. The other is quieter, and it means more to me. Four of my former athletes ran in college, then came back to coach on my staff. Two of them now lead programs of their own as head coaches. Kids don’t come back to a program that used them up. They come back to one that built them.

If you coach, that second result is the one you actually want. I can help you build it.

Life Off the Course

I live on the New Hampshire seacoast in a house I bought from my grandmother twenty years ago, back when my kids were small. My wife and I are still renovating and landscaping it, one weekend at a time. If I’m not at practice, I’m probably outside with our two dogs, Odie and Tempo. Yes, one of my dogs is named after a training term. My athletes have opinions about this.

I still run and bike. Not fast anymore, but consistently, which is the whole point of everything I teach. I write, I read training research for fun, and I answer emails from coaches in states I’ve never visited. I learn something from every one of those conversations. And if it helps an athlete I’ll never meet get better at a sport she chose, that’s a good trade.

Here’s what that means for you: I’m not a content company. There’s no team of freelancers behind this site. When you buy a training plan, book a consultation, or send a question through the contact form, you’re dealing with the same person who was standing at the two-mile mark of a race this morning with a stopwatch and a clipboard. I coach real kids every day. That’s the quality control.

What You’ll Find Here

I built coachsaltmarsh.com to be the resource I wish I’d had in year one: a free library of frameworks, calculators, and strategies for high school distance runners and coaches.

If you’re a new coach looking for practice structure, it’s here. If you’re an athlete trying to increase mileage without breaking down, it’s here. Over 80 articles and 15 interactive pacing tools, all built on the same science-based system I use at Winnacunnet. My goal is simple: take the guesswork out of endurance training so you can spend your energy on the athletes.

Clinics & Speaking Engagements

The running community gets better when coaches share what works. I speak at clinics across the country on physiological training models, mental performance, and team culture.

Upcoming: I’ll be presenting at the Nebraska Coaches Association Multi-Sport Clinic in Lincoln, NE, in July 2026. Come talk shop!