How Do You Train an Elite High School Runner?

What changes when you have a superstar high school runner on your cross country or track & field team?

According to coaches Jesse Coy and Eric Dettman, the answer may be much simpler than you think.

In this episode of Coaching Distance, Jesse Coy discusses his experience coaching Simeon Birnbaum in high school and shares insights from Eric Dettman’s coaching of elite runner Ellery Lincoln. The central message is simple: elite high school runners don't necessarily need completely different training- they simply do the same things, but at a higher level.

This episode explores how coaches can train elite athletes within the same team training system while still making appropriate individual adjustments for pace, volume, recovery, racing, and training precision.

The episode covers:

• Why superstar athletes don't necessarily need completely different workouts

• How to train elite runners within a team-based system

• The importance of consistency over "secret" workouts

• Why elite athletes may need more precise training paces to avoid overtraining

• Managing race schedules for high-level high school runners

• Why recovery, sleep, hydration, nutrition, and consistency matter

• Why elite runners should remain part of the team

• How to avoid changing your training philosophy because of what you see on Strava, Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube

• Developing athletes for long-term success beyond high school

Eric Dettman shares how Ellery Lincoln trains within the Lincoln High School program, including threshold training, speed development, moderate mileage, team training, and the importance of consistency and execution.

One of the biggest takeaways is that the goal isn't to make training look impressive, the goal is to make athletes better.

If you coach high school cross country, high school track & field, middle-distance runners, or distance runners from the 800m through 5K, this conversation provides practical ideas for developing elite athletes without abandoning the training system that helped them become successful in the first place.

Topics: High School Cross Country Training • High School Track Training • Elite Distance Runners • Distance Running Training • Threshold Training • Speed Development • 800m Training • 1500m/1600m Training • 3200m Training • 5K Training • Training Philosophy • Team Culture • Athlete Development • Long-Term Athlete Development • Coaching Elite Runners

Learn more about Coaching Distance and access the full webinar library, training plans, coaching resources, and training tools at CoachingDistance.com.

How do the aerobic and anaerobic energy systems actually work together—and what does that mean for the workouts we give our athletes?

In this episode, Jesse breaks down the science behind energy system interaction and connects it to the training coaches use every day. He looks at how aerobic and anaerobic contributions change across events from the 800m through the 10,000m, why even short, intense events rely heavily on the aerobic system, and why training for different events has much more overlap than we sometimes think.

Jesse also walks through a lactate curve and his approach to organizing training intensities, from easy running and Sub-T through tempo, lactate threshold, 10K, 5K, 3K, mile, and 800m pace. He explains how he uses these intensities with his athletes and how the Coaching Distance Pace Calculator can turn those percentages into actual training paces.

Finally, Jesse shares a simple analogy coaches can use with their athletes: think of the aerobic system as the gas tank and engine of a hybrid car and the anaerobic system as the battery. One provides enormous capacity, while the other can provide a powerful short-term boost—but at a cost.

Whether you're coaching middle-distance runners, distance runners, or a team that competes across the 400m–5K range, this episode provides a practical way to understand why different workouts matter and how they fit together.