Julian Florez, Assistant Coach, Brooks Beasts Track Club: Three Questions, Three Answers, Making Hydration a game and Keeping Easy Days really easy!

Making Hydration a game and Keeping Easy Days really easy!

Three Questions, Three Answers

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Julian Florez, Assistant Coach, Brooks Beasts Track Club

One of the huge issues in cross country for high school athletes is injuries, and the truth is, most can be avoided. RunBlogRun spoke with Julian Florez, Assistant Coach at the Brooks Beasts Track Club, on hydration and recovery days. Here is how it went:

RunBlogRun, #1: How do you get high school athletes to take hydration seriously?

Julian Florez: You have to make hydration part of the culture and keep it fun. My high school coach in New Mexico kept it fun. Please encourage them to drink water each day, all day. Get a bottle, put some stickers on it, own it, and carry it through school and through a workout. Daily hydration keeps you healthy, helps you recover, and prevents injuries. My coach kept it fun, and we did too.

It’s going to be a hard day for the Brooks Beasts TC! photo by Zeth Pekestra for Brooks Running

RunBlogRun, #2: How do you approach recovery or easy days for high school athletes?

Julian Florez: Easy days need to be very, very easy. Slow down the pace and do the entire recovery run at a pace where you can have a conversation! It has to be easy for your body to recover from hard days (long runs, threshold or speed days, and race days).

Brooks Beasts TC getting ready for workout, photo courtesy of Zeth Peterka Photography

RunBlogRun, # 3: How does Josh Kerr, an athlete you have run with for over a decade, handle recovery days? (Josh Kerr is the World Champion at 1,500 meters in 2023, World Indoor champion at 3,000 meters in 2024, Olympic bronze medalist in 1,500 meters in Tokyo 2021, and Olympic silver medalist in the 1,500 meters from Paris 2024).

Julian Florez (laughing); We keep a record of our slowest recovery miles! I remember, after one particularly tough workout, Josh Kerr’s first cooldown mile was 13 minutes and 52 seconds! Many times, Josh Kerr will not wear a watch at all on his recovery runs, and I will keep track of our whole time running, and that’s about it. Recovery is meant to be taken seriously.

Watch for Julian Florez’ interview, to be posted shortly on #RunBlogRun as part of The Brooks Run Guide Interviews series.

The Brooks Beasts TC warming up, photo by Zeth Petarka for Brooks Running

Author

Larry Eder

Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys.

Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."

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