HomeTrainingAthletic Blog

Mead High School

Bio: Pat Tyson

Born & Raised: U of Oregon graduate 1973 (greatly influenced by Bill Dellinger/Bowerman) Certainly felt connected to a Golden Age of running during the late 60's and 70's.....Ran on three Oregon trophy NCAA teams: First in 1971......Pre was a huge influence on me.......Rooming with him was good for both of us....I've coached for 32 years 10 (junior high/middle school).......22 high school (with a brief season bailing out Oregon this past spring).....I've been successful because I love what I am doing......I work with the greatest kids in the world......I love to plant seeds of success for young people and watch them chase their dreams...... Moved to Spokane in 1986-2005 where we've had 18 state championship teams in Cross and Track with over 25 individual state champions. At one time we won 9 state XC team championships in a row. We've earned 12 1st place trophys/ 3 2nd place trophys/ and 2 3rd place trophys over the past 17 years at Mead.......We've won two national XC titles and this past fall (2004) took a team that was 3rd our state regionals, 2nd in Washington State , to a 3rd at Nike Team Nationals......Thus a legendary team has evolved using the Oregon System of Bowerman/Dellinger...... Today, Mead is loaded with young promising runners......Mead will continue to always be a threat.....One of our goals ist to "always be in the hunt to win a state title".....Always nice to be rated in the top 25 nationally in Harrier too

Philosophy on Summer Training:

Key Workouts: Hard to fit in.....Key workouts tend to be placed at the "right time".......Wow, how vague is that....But it is true.....It is a workout that is given just a handful of times per year that give massive confidence to the athlete......It is defined by the master coach.....The athlete walks away saying, " I am ready to take on the world"......It might be a race like Tim Broe had at USA's where he ran 13:12? and believes he can run under 13:05.......It is magical

Mileage progression/workout progression: Mileage progression is hard to define.....I like to go with minutes......I like a kid to just start to add up the minutes....Go out and run the landscape....Get your body fit to "just run".......9th graders may start between 30-40 minutes and work themselves up to some runs over 60 minutes.......As the kids get to other grade levels, the minutes may add up, but more importantly, the pace gets more intense....Some of this connects into the progression question....I do love the Oregon Date Pace/Goal Pace Progression charts.......Test a kid early and they run 5:00 for 1600 meters and start their date pace at 75 and gradually tie in goal pace stuff (let's say 68-70 seond pace)....It is an interesting cycle.......

Next Page