Marc and Joan Hunter are the co-coaches of the Loudoun Valley cross country teams. Their boys program enters the season ranked at the top. They are also the proud parents of high school sub-4 miler Andrew Hunter.
High School Harrier: Your boys squad is entering the season as an early favorite for the NXN title. How much does the out of state postseason play into your season preparation and how much of a focal point is it?
Marc and Joan Hunter: From a training perspective, the post-season has everything to do with preparing for our season. We have already adjusted the volume and quantity of our workouts and will not line-up the top 7 for a race until 2 or 3 weeks into the season. The group of kids that we feel have a chance to be part of our Top 7 at NXR have just now reached the same weekly mileage as most of our other veterans and we have yet to do any intense workouts. We expect our season to push to the right so we are pushing our training to the right.
HSH: Do you have any runners who you feel are prepared to have a breakout year?
MJH: Not really, although Jacob Hunter made the biggest jump in outdoor track last year so I suspect that he will be a bit closer to the front pack this year in Cross. We coach for gradual improvement for the kids throughout their high school career so we don't necessarily look for a breakout year from anyone, however many sophomores tend to make the lead from freshman year.
HSH: Are there any fun traditions your team has or anything specific that your group really looks forward to each year?
MJH: We hold a 24 Hour Relay once a year in the mid-summer that serves as a fundraiser, a bonding session and an advertisement to the community and to other [potential] high school and junior high school runners. The kids love it and talk about it all year. This year's version was one for the ages. Storms took us to the team room on several occasions and the rain came down so long and heavy that the track facility could not drain fast enough and several of the tents were under water. We called the relay after 15 hours because everything was drenched and the kids no dry place to sleep!
HSH: As a husband and wife duo, is there one part of coaching that each one of you focuses on, or do you both work together in all aspects of team training?
MJH: Joan is almost exclusively the "X's and O's" workout author. She is a consummate researcher and doesn't hesitate to contact people like Coach Messer, Coach Soles and, of course, Tom "Tinman"" Schwartz if she wants to bounce ideas or get specific advice. Marc is left with managing the injured/delicate kids, weight room, planning, logistics, parent communication, and general management of the team. Our other coaches play a big role also. We are able to give them groups of kids to work with so those kids feel some love, and those coaches allow us to break into smaller groups when doing the non-running part of practice.
HSH: How do you handle coaching girls and boys teams together and preparing them both for high level competition?
MJH: We really do not treat the teams any differently. The girls team as a whole typically runs less volume than the boys because we train by minutes, not miles, so comparable boys and girls groups spend the same time on their feet, but girls would run less mileage. Our girls team as a whole is less committed to year round training so therefore we have less than half as many girls in our top volume group than we do boys than we do boys, less depth. We have a small group of girls who have bought in, and are fully committed, and we hope that that group will continue to grow, as we have many younger, newer athletes on our team this year. We are excited to see how they progress.
HSH: For those of us who are not from Virginia, what is the post season qualifying process for state?
MJH: It seems like every few years in Virginia this process changes. In fact, at this time we do not know whether our District meet will serve as a qualifier for the Regional meet...it is left up to the Athletic Directors of each region to decide if the District Meet will be a qualifier or not. If not, all teams will show for Regional meet with the Top 3 teams qualifying for the State meet (4 Regions). This in itself is a change from the system from the last couple years, where we had conferences (not districts) and two regions per state division.
HSH: Are there any big regular season meets that you or your team is excited about competing at this fall?
MJH: Yes, we are excited about all our meets but for different reasons. The 8/26 Great Meadow meet let's us get our first peek at our freshmen. The PXTC meet in Pennsylvania allows us to travel for the first time and expose kids to an overnight quality meet. Oatlands is a huge meet and in our backyard. We often see Regionally/Nationally ranked teams here. Our County meet is very important. Marc has been keeping this meet alive because he feels this is the signature event for our County and every kid gets to race for their level of some type of championship. Great American has a championship type atmosphere and lets us know where we sit in the Southeast pecking order. Our boys programs is at the point where our race priorities look like this: 1) NXR, 2) NXN, 3) State Meet, 4) County Meet, 5) Regional Meet. Our girls program priorities looks like this: 1) Regionals, 2) State, 3) County Meet, 4) NXR.
HSH: What does a typical week for a varsity level athlete look for your team?
MJH: Before the meets start, early season: Monday- steady 50-60 min aerobic maintenance run with either 10x 100 meter reps at 1600 down to 800 pace in the middle of the run, or 10 x 20 second pickups in the middle of the run. Tuesday- Longer stamina focused workout, about 70 minutes total, either CV reps, threshold reps, or a fartlek with longer pickups, followed by some sort of hill reps- either short fast hill reps or longer reps at 1600/800 effort. Wednesday- 45-55 min recovery run. Thursday- 50-60 min hilly run with either 20 second pickups or a progression run at the end for 15 mins. Friday- 40-45 min total easy aerobic run with 8-10 x 60 meter wicket runs (sprints over short hurdles working on efficient sprint mechanics) followed by 10 mins easy running. Saturday- long hilly run (80-90 minutes) followed by light strides with jog backs. Once school starts, the Thursday hilly run will just be a steady aerobic run and Fridays will become a second stamina workout, typically a tempo run followed by faster shorter reps. On Saturday race weeks, most of our varsity kids do their long run on Sunday, with a small group going long on Monday (mostly kids who are LDS or those who only run 6 days a week, but most of our kids in our varsity group run 7 days a week, most weeks). Some of our higher mileage kids also do 20 minute morning runs 2-3 times a week. The varsity squad is in the weight room 2-3 times a week as well, where we alternate between two different routines which include exercises like landmine type deadlifts, goblet squats, suitcase carries, lateral lunges with dumbbell row and press, single leg dead lifts, eccentric heel drops etc. Some pushing and pulling exercises, core work, nothing too radical but helps keep them durable. We also incorporate a lot of injury prevention work as part of our daily warm up, and have short routines that are done after running a few times a week, either body weight circuits, hurdle mobility work, or jump rope.
HSH: Do you have a favorite workout or a tried and true workout you feel helps prepare your athletes for competition?
MJH: As coaches we look forward to our Tuesday combo workouts on a grassy, tight-turned, rolling hill course. We start with Critical Velocity (CV) repeats, which are run at approximately 8K race pace, followed by a set of repeat hills, and then sometimes, fast strides on the flat. Throughout the workout the goal is to not stop running so we consider this a huge stamina day. We are able to learn quite a bit about our kids on Tuesdays; not just the CV splits, but how kids recover, how certain kids handle the grass and the terrain, where kids start to fall apart and which kids like or dislike this workout.
HSH: What do you feel is the most important aspect of training to prepare the high school athlete for a successful season and why?
MJH: Summer Training!!! Cross Country IS a summer sport, we just happen to race in the fall. Trying to get that fact across to kids and parents usually doesn't compute until year two. CONSISTENT MILEAGE BUILD UP AND DAILY RUNNING OVER THE SUMMER.
HSH: How big is your program and how do you determine who makes the squad?
MJH: When we took over the Loudoun Valley program 4 years ago, the program had about 50 kids (girls and boys). Our first year we finished the season with 68 kids, year two saw 88 kids finish the season. Last year we were bursting at the seams at 118. This year 180 kids expressed an interest in running Cross Country!!! We recognized immediately that we could not handle this many kids; the county would not allow us to add additional coaches, we did not have enough uniforms, filtering kids through the weight room would be untenable, we would have to take 4 to 5 buses to a meet, etc. So we announced we would have to have cuts. Within days many of our less dedicated kids self-cut themselves and the team currently stands at about 130 which we feel we can handle.
HSH: What do you do as a coach to make sure your athletes are prepared to compete for two-three racing seasons each year?
MJH: Last year was the first year our County allowed Indoor Track so we are still working through the 3-season training/racing process. We do focus on not over racing and I think if you compare our program to most other high school Track and Cross Country programs, our practice mileage will stand up to most programs but our practice intensity will not. The hope is to keep them healthy and motivated through the three seasons and to focus on, as mentioned earlier, gradual improvement over the life of their season and career. Tom Schwartz always stresses to "keep the ball rolling" and I believe that the athletes who make the State finals, the NCAA finals, the World Championship or Olympic finals are those that have stayed the healthiest, the longest and subsequently are the most consistent.
HSH: I am an incoming freshman in your program. What will my training and racing look like for the fall?
MJH: Training-wise you will start out with very little running. You will start with 15-20 minutes of run- walk, and gradually build from there. Some of you will easily be running 30-40 minute runs within 2-3 weeks, and others of you will take longer to get there. Time-wise you will spend more time on injury prevention, strength, mobility, agility, general athleticism exercises and drills. We do a lot of short body weight circuits. Eventually you will transition to where the time spent running will equal the time spent performing the exercises and drills. Most new runners will keep this ratio throughout the Cross season. Once you have gotten to the point where you can comfortably run 35-40 minute runs, your workouts will start looking like scaled down versions of what the more experienced runners do- shorter warm ups/cooldowns, fewer reps, and slower times. Your long run will most likely not exceed 65- 70 minutes by the end of the season. Racing-wise, you can expect to race about 7 races; the Wednesday tri or quad meets and the couple of Invitationals that do not limit the number of entries.
HSH: You've been able to coach athletes like Alan Webb and your son Drew Hunter. What advice would you give to an aspiring high school athlete who wants to be an elite level runner?
MJH: Do the little things which require sacrifice. Here is my "little things" order of importance: 1) Rest and Recovery - only a handful of kids are willing to make this a priority; 2) Get a pre-season blood test - this will alert you to any deficiencies and give you a baseline to compare to any future tests. For us in the "Lyme Capital of the World", a blood test can also alert us to Lyme Disease, 3) "Basement Routine"/doing extra work - Drew had a routine he committed to every other day at home to keep himself strong, healthy and agile. Alan worked with us in the weight room 3 days per week after practice to work on his lower body strength and injury prevention. 4) Attend practice - seems simple right? Make practice a priority...work your non-athletic schedule around your practice and racing schedule. There is a reason our girls team is not quite up to par with our boys team; our boys commit to attending more practice sessions than our girls do. 5) Observe - watch and emulate what the better runners in your school, Conference, County and State do to make themselves better athletes.
HSH: What advice would you give to aspiring coaches who want to develop a national class program?
MJH: Wow! Not sure how to answer this because we are on the outside looking in, at least until we really show that we belong and can sustain this. I will give this a shot but, on this topic, I would really listen to all the other longer tenured successful high school coaches. I think the important thing is to stick to your guns and what you believe is needed to be a successful coach. There is a culture of success that starts with the coach. Once you get kids, and sometimes more importantly, parents, to buy into that culture you have won half the battle. The other half of the battle is always finding little ways to improve your program; asking other coaches for advice, spending time at the Junior high to sell you program, etc. I will be honest - I have my doubts that we can sustain a national level presence. We were blessed to have Drew during the first three years of the program and I think the growth and interest is because of him...I call it the "Drew Hunter Affect." We are also a relatively small school (~1300). However, we have no excuses for not being a viable contender for the 4A State Championship every year...and every now and then maybe we can make a splash on the National level!
Note: Edited to reflect clarifications from Marc and Joan on certain answers.
Article Photo Courtesy of Milesplit.Com.
Team Photo With Permission of Ed Lull Photography for RunWashington.