Editor’s Note: Coach Mark Coogan was an Olympian in the marathon, a one-time 5,000-meter World Championship team member, and a member of the US World Cross Country team for several years. Mark Coogan also won the silver medal in the 1995 Pan American Games Marathon.
Mark Coogan is the founding coach of the New Balance Track Club Boston, which was begun in 2014.
It has been my pleasure to watch Mark Coogan build World Champs teams, Olympic teams, and World Cross Country teams. Each year, at the New Balance Indoor, I try and catch up with this fine human being and coach.
Mark Coogan has coached many athletes, including Elle St. Pierre, an Olympian, American record holder, and World Indoor Champion. Mark coaches athletes with a long-term approach.
I asked Mark Coogan to provide some of his suggestions for our high school cross country coaches and coaches.
The truth is, Mark Coogan‘s advice is good for athletes of all ages…
RunBlogRun, #1: How would you handle long runs for 14-18-year-olds in cross country?
Mark Coogan: I think every team is different in high school. For a lot of young kids, a 6-mile run would be considered long, so I think you need to be careful how you assign long runs. If you have a serious team and the kids ran during the summer, I would encourage a long run once a week. I would consider the long run a workout day, so you need to be careful you are not doing too many workouts in a week without proper recovery.
RunBlogRun, #2: How would you do fartlek for high school cross country runners?
Mark Coogan: When I coached high school, we would have a loop that we would run. It was about 1,000 meters long. As the season progressed, we ran the loop faster with less rest, and the team could see they were getting fitter by watching their progression.
RunBlogRun, #3: Do you use tempo runs for high school athletes?
Mark Coogan: I think short tempo runs are good for high school kids. It’s important to keep the workouts under control. It’s easy to go too fast on tempos, and then you defeat the purpose. If you have an easy dual meet, maybe the top runners can use it as a tempo session if they are smart.
RunBlogRun, #4: How do you program easy days, and how do you communicate that idea to high schoolers?
Mark Coogan: Recovery days are massive. If you don’t recover from races or hard workouts, you won’t recover properly or gain fitness. You will always be tired. Let the training effect take place while you sleep and have a recovery day. It’s probably a good idea to have two or three easy days after a hard race.
RunBlogRun, #5: Many high schoolers have 2 meets a week; should those days count as hard days?
Mark Coogan: Anytime you race, it’s a hard day. Remember that, and make sure you have some easy days after dual meets. Hopefully, in some dual meets, you don’t have to go the whole way. So on the weekends at the big meets, you feel fresh and can really race hard.
RunBlogRun, # 6: Do you suggest weights for high school XC runners?
Mark Coogan: I would rather see high school kids do bodyweight exercises than lift heavy. You can do a lot of good stuff with your own body weight. I’d rather see kids do drills than be in the gym lifting in high school. Running matters more than being in the gym.
RunBlogRun, #7: Do you have a secret sauce for getting kids in shape who did not train over the summer?
Mark Coogan: I think you have to go slowly if the kid didn’t train over the summer. I might supplement some runs with cross-training to help prevent overuse injuries. It seems to me so many kids get start-up injuries, and that’s just their bodies saying they are not ready for this new stimulus you are adding. It takes time to build up your mileage.
RunBlogRun, #8: What are your favorite memories from high school cross country?
Mark Coogan: Massachusetts was a powerhouse state when I was in high school. We had very good coaches all over the state, and we seemed to look out for each other when we went to big meets like Foot Locker. It was called Kinney when I was in high school.
RunBlogRun, #9: What race did you run when you knew you could be an elite athlete?
Mark Coogan: I guess running fast at Van Cortland Park when I was in high school told me I could run well in high school or college. I played high school basketball, so I never ran indoors, and it took a while to get back into shape in the spring.
Ondoro Osoro with Mark Coogan!, photo from Mark Coogan
RunBlogRun, #10: How did you get into coaching?
Mark Coogan: Bob Rothenberg was a great coach at Brown University in the 80s and 90s, and he thought I would be a good coach and mentor to some of the kids at Brown. Bob asked me to coach the men’s team. I jumped at the opportunity, and I just kind of knew this was what I could do well once I stopped running professionally. I have been lucky to be around some of the best coaches and runners in the world over my career, and they have all helped shape my coaching philosophy.
Special thanks to Mark Coogan for his time and the photos for this article!
Mark Coogan has written a book with Scott Douglas, Personal Best Running: Coach Coogan’s Strategies for the Mile to the Marathon, which you can purchase here!
