Coach Mathew Scott

@CoachDistance Reading it myself

Finished The Norwegian Method by Marius Bakken & loved it. If you read his website, take that information and multiple it x1000. Here are my personal takeaways ➡️ - I think there are some programs that do their general training runs at a pace that's probably at the lower end of threshold pace - don't clutter or overcomplicate your easy/recovery days with "stuff" - on easy runs...I think with the density of workouts in the Norwegian method (T-Th-S) the easy runs must be easy / if your workouts are spaced further apart, you could get away with faster endurance runs, but why? - intensity control...INTENSITY CONTROL📢 - IMO, it would be hard to implement double threshold in a large group setting without blowing some people up - there is still an element of race pace or faster training that needs to be done, but FAR LESS than we think - he also talks about a 45/15 workout that is a version of the Billat 30/30 workout. These are the kinds of workouts Mihali Igloi was doing 50 years ago. All that being said, I still REALLY LIKE Dr. Jeff Messer's concept of "Distributed Threshold" training for HS runners. coachingdistance.com/team-2/distrib…

@CoachLayOS DM me

Current unsigned seniors I coach looking to compete in College! Skylan Hunter - 48'1 Triple Jumper Demetrius Burnett - 48.99 400m Angel Pellot - 50.6 (400) 22.39 (200) Greg Boyden - 48'6 Triple Jumper Please reach out if you are interested!

@CoachDistance This statement has truth in other cases as well. We have a gentlemen who has run 8:10 3km which is a little slower than 8:34 3200m ,but not much. He has done alot of over and under with small amounts around that race pace. So there is some validity to this.

3200m pace is a difficult pace to train at for high school runners. It's hard to get a lot of volume at that intensity when doing longer reps (800m+) and difficult to reign in the intensity on shorter reps. As an anecdote, I coached a 8:34.10 2 miler and we did ONE 3200m pace workout all season (300's w/ 100m jog). Most of the work was over/under 3200m pace.

Proof that consistency compounds. 💪📈 Months of quiet work, daily discipline, and belief in the process. 🏃‍♂️🔥 Proud of this group — Colby Community College National Qualifiers. 🏆🎯🚀 #ColbyCommunityCollegeTrack #DistanceSquad #EarnedNotGiven #TrustTheProcess #JUCOTrack

Important stuff from someone who might know a thing or two.

@cohenaucoin_9 Let's chat about your plans.

Coaches I am a class of 2026 middle distance runner looking for a collegiate home. Last year as a junior, I ran 1:56.00 in the 800, 51.77 in the 400, and 4:35.77 in the 1600. As my senior season progresses, I will continue to post any updates on here. Below is a video of my 800 pr run (white tights).

@AdamKedge Honestly consistency, and workouts that are repeatable over hero efforts.

@AdamKedge Consistency!

@Siemers_XC_TF Well said

You can always tell when a coach’s nerves are louder than their athletes’. One off rep and suddenly we’re changing the workout, the plan, maybe even the season. Relax. They’re not broken. They’re adapting. Average coaches react to what just happened. Great coaches pay attention to what’s building. A sluggish stride today might be a peak forming next week. You just have to look past the watch long enough to see the trend. That’s why calm coaches always seem unshakable in October— they’re not guessing, they’re forecasting. 👉 Takeaway: Good coaches manage workouts. Great coaches manage momentum.

@CoachCannon15 Valid point, ironically they often are passing on an opportunity to coaches who know those big school coaches.

@Coach_ScottXCTF They have to come to reality first

They pass this Eligibility rule at the start of the year!! High school kids are cooked!!

My training philosophy poem: Mostly easy, Occasionally hard, Vary it up, Once in a while, go see God.

@AVCChance @stevemagness I understand that, I've coached every level but division three. You would be surprised at some of the funding at every level.

@Coach_ScottXCTF @stevemagness Those options are there and some of them have great coaches. The hard part for American kids is they grew up with visions of DI schools, swag and travel. Those options are going…gone. Lower divisions are an option but the swag and travel is waaay different.

A behind the scenes look at the craziness of NCAA recruiting in running, and how 3rd party companies are making lots of $$$ to get desperate east africans to the US. It's a mess all around. washingtonpost.com/world/2025/09/…

@coachnatec Yes , and then we review the review of the review.

So we’re reviewing the review now lol

@CoachDistance Same here

It's not the worst problem in the 🌎to have, but a conversation I'll have to have with a couple of kids before the next workout... Workouts are meant to build fitness, not prove fitness.

Everyone wants the magic workout… there isn’t one. What you really want to know is the magic sacrifice. What did you give up to make sure you were ready for today’s session? That’s what makes elite training tough. What you have to give up to get there.

@CoachDistance @stevemagness Exactly what I have been saying! They will also likely get their 400m speed down to around 50 point well being focused on the 800m and mile.

@stevemagness I think the first female Sub-4 will be someone who is national class in the 400m as a teen (52/53) and then over the years develops the tools to run 56’s for 800m & 60’s for a mile.

A few thoughts and a breakdown of Faith Kipyegon's sub-4 minute mile attempt. Let's dive deep. Why'd she fall short? 8 seconds was too much. All the big boosts (shoe tech, bicarb, etc.) had already been used. So the largest boost she'd get would be pacing/drafting. In her official WR, she had pacing to just past halfway. In this event, she'd get it the entire way around. That would give her ~2 seconds. The Nike folks were hoping optimizing pacing with 11 pacers would do more... But it's just not what we've seen in the real world, as I outlined in my pre-race breakdown. In my pre-race breakdown, I basically called it on the nose, that she'd go for it and fade. I thought 4:05 mid, and she faded a touch more than I guessed. But any seasoned coach would have guessed about the same. The mile is a tricky beast to master. The race itself: You could tell by 400m she wasn't going to get close to sub 4. Why? She was 60.2 at 400m. I texted my group chat and said "too slow" and that she wasn't coming close, because it told me...she was pressing to ride that line. And sub 60s was not where that line was going to be. Her splits (roughly from youtube video) 400- 60.2 800- 2:00.7 1200- 3:01.9 Mile- 4:06.4 You could start to see her straining on the 3rd lap to try to stay close...Which is HARD to do. The 3rd lap is the worst. You are far enough out where it's starting to hurt a lot, but not close enough to the finish where you can taste it. So it took a lot of effort to push hard that 3rd lap. And that's partially why you saw the bear jump on her back the last 200 meters. Once that bear gets you, you are attempting a controlled deceleration. Every step you're fighting not to lose more speed/power. And ironically you have to relax and not tense up to do so. It's a hard place to be. That's the mile. It's riding a very tight line of what you can just barely handle and stay smooth at, while not accumulating so much fatigue, and dipping into your reserves so that your body has nothing to give in the last 400-200m. If she even split it and went 61.x every lap, she probably could have run 4:04 high- 4:05 mid today. Which I think tells us good pacing/drafting gives her 2 seconds. Which lines up with everything we know. What will it take for a female to go sub 4? The problem for Kipyegon is that the gap between her 800 and mile just isn't large enough. While she doesn't run many 800s, her best is probably 1:54 high/1:55 low. Even the most endurance based men who go sub 4 are at least 1:53 low. And that is very rare. 1:52 is generally the requirement, and the faster you are the more cushion. The slower your 800, the better your endurance. But that only compensates to a point. The women's 800m WR is 1:53 by someone who was almost certainly doped to the freaking gills. That means we need to somehow have some improvements that get the women's 800 to be faster...with someone who also has world class endurance. So your 400/800 types like an Athing Mu won't do. That's the challenge. It'll eventually get there. But the women's 800 hasn't seen a legit attack on a world record, even with some phenomenol young athletes with supershoes and bicarbonate. That's the hurdle. So what? Kudos to Kipyegon for going for it. That's hard... It's an impressive feat to see someone just lay it on the line. What we learned is that we're still a ways off. And we likely need some more training progress and a new breakthrough (shoe tech, bicarb or nutrition advancement, etc.) to get there. Pacing/Drafting helps. But it's on the level we've seen in normal races (a few seconds), not the magnitude that was hoped for or hypothesized before. It's interesting that Nike couldn't come up with a further jump in breakthrough shoe tech or optimized it individually to Kipyegon. I think part of the reason is we know some people respond better to the new super shoes...but we have no idea why. Researchers haven't tied it to any biomechanical marker. The clothing junk was marketing nonsense. And if I'm honest, the broadcast was cringe. More infomercial than serious breakdown of an attempt. Would have loved more depth and analysis versus the fluff we got. I understand why: It's one big Nike commercial. They need the return. But the gravitas of an effort like this from Kipyegon deserves serious coverage. Women will eventually get there. That's the nature of sport. It gets better. I do hope though that we see the first women get under 4 in a normal competition. So that there are no what ifs, caveats, or asterisks. It's just the barrier breaker being immortalized like Bannister. There you go. Kudos to Kipyegon on the effort.

@isaacegbertwood Agreed!

Sometimes people ask how I coach--this is how we do it. I ask the question, "How did that feel?" more than, "what was your lactate on that?"