Salty Talks
Training science for high school XC and distance coaches, minus the fluff. Real athletes, real data, and the methods behind 31 state champions from a USATF Level 2 coach who’s still on the track every day.
Season one is complete · All sixteen episodes live now, plus a bonus
The full season. Built like a training block.
Sixteen episodes, released weekly, sequenced to match your season: build the athlete through summer, develop and protect through the early season, then race and peak straight into the championship weeks.
31 State Champions: What Actually Works
The moment at Derryfield Park that changed how I coach, and why 31 state championships came from everything around the workout, not the workout itself. What Joe Vigil’s Adams State dynasty teaches high school coaches, and the three things that separate programs that win once from programs that win for decades.
How Many Miles Should a Freshman Run?
The number is the wrong question. Why volume rarely breaks freshmen (intensity does), why running age beats the birth certificate, why strides are mandatory, and how to build mileage with step cycles instead of the outdated 10% rule.
How Josh Kerr Broke the Mile World Record on 70 Miles a Week
3:42.66. The first human under 3:43, on 65 to 70 miles a week, two workouts, no doubles, and no lactate meter in sight. Why consistency beats volume, why a 1500m runner should train like a 5K runner, and what the blueprint teaches every coach.
How Katelyn Tuohy Trained
A pure case study: the real training data behind one of the greatest high school distance careers ever. What her mileage actually looked like, what most coaches get wrong about it, and what you can borrow for your own athletes.
Running in the Heat Without Wrecking the Season
Dew point, not temperature, is what’s cooking your athletes. Why sweat only cools when it evaporates, exactly how much to slow down, the hydration math nobody actually runs, and the safety line no workout is worth crossing.
Your Freshman Class Is Already Decided
The team you inherit in ninth grade was built two years earlier by somebody else. Why middle school cross country is not high school training with the mileage halved, how to run a hard workout eleven-year-olds don’t turn into a race, and the practice structure that handles grades five through twelve on one field.
The 4-Year Burnout Crisis
A junior with real talent stopped wanting to run, and the blood work came back clean. Why burnout is an intensity problem and not a mileage problem, what Zone 2 actually builds inside the cell, and the four-year ratio that gets a freshman to a senior season she still wants to run.
Coaching Female Runners: RED-S and What Coaches Miss
The topic most coaching resources skip. What RED-S actually is, the warning signs that show up in your training log before anything else, why the male development model fails girls at exactly the wrong moment, and the conversation to have with a parent when you see it.
The Speed Reserve Nobody Talks About
Last meet of the season we needed a body for the 4×400, and somebody said the fatal sentence: he’s in shape, put him in the relay. My best miler split 64. Why your 5K runners are slow because they can’t sprint, the math that proves it, and how to fix it without giving up a single aerobic mile.
The Pre-Race Warmup That Actually Matters
First invitational of the year, everything going right, and then the meet runs twenty minutes behind. What a warmup is actually doing physiologically, the one phase almost every program skips, why teams that know the protocol still execute it badly, and how all of it connects to your 5K race plan.
The XC Workouts That Actually Build a Championship Engine
A junior came through the first tempo rep eleven seconds hot and ran eighteen seconds slower on Saturday. Three high-ROI sessions: the threshold run, critical velocity intervals, and short hill sprints, that build a championship-ready engine without overtaxing a high school runner’s limited recovery.
Why Even Splits Are a Myth: 5K Race Strategy
One of my best runners went through the first mile in 5:45 on 6:05 fitness, and our number two finished as our number seven. What the world record pacing data actually shows, the four phases of a 5K, why five seconds fast costs more than five seconds slow, and the fifteen minute meeting to hold before your championship.
The “Michigan” Is Not for You: Why Famous Workouts Backfire
Nick Willis says nearly everyone fails the Michigan on their first try, and he was talking about college runners. What Ron Warhurst’s famous workout actually is, what it does inside a sixteen year old, and the Wolverine Lite: the same intent, rebuilt for a high school engine.
Sleep Is the Cheapest PR: Recovery for the Championship Push
The hardest worker on the team ended her season with a stress reaction in her tibia. The training load was fine. Her sleep was not. Why athletes get fit overnight, the difference between one bad night and the debt that ends seasons, the ratio Josh Kerr built his mile record around, and the team norms that make rest a scheduled skill.
Reading the Course, Racing the Hills
Runners who raced Derryfield in 2022 and again in 2023 got slower. The kids didn’t change. The course did. Why times belong to courses, the five things to learn on a course walk, how to spend and save on the hills, and why Derryfield reads the receipts.
The Taper: Peaking for the Meet That Matters
Nine runners, three different final weeks. The ones who rested got slower. The ones who cut the miles and kept the speed lasted 22 percent longer. What a taper actually does, the three rules (cut the volume, keep the intensity, keep the frequency), the four mistakes coaches make every fall, and a 14-day championship taper by athlete level.
Team Culture and the Championship Mindset
Read the speeches your seniors give at the team banquet. Not one of them mentions a workout. Why culture is a training variable, four habits that build it without costing a dime, why “I’m excited” beats “calm down” on the start line, a job for every kid on the roster in championship week, and the Joe Vigil lesson that started this show.
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