Mark Thompson is in his second season as head coach of cross country powerhouse Shenendehowa, after 10 years as an assistant under legendary coach Matt Jones. Thompson has helped guide Shen to four state championships and five state federation titles in cross country.
ArmoryTrack.com caught up with him for this edition of the Coaches’ Corner.
AT: Briefly describe your coaching philosophy.
MT: I would have to say that I believe in under training. An athlete that is overworked and broken down is an athlete that will not help your team at championship time. I would rather that a runner completes a workout feeling great and hungry for more. It is a good day if I have to tell a runner to pull back the reins.
I also think that patients are extremely important. Misty May-Tranor and Katie Walsh were quoted at the Summer Olympics as saying “we wanted this so bad that we committed ourselves for four years”. I spoke at length about that quote in practice the next day to all of our 9th graders.
All cross country coaches know that running can be a brutal sport. It is of my belief that we go very easy on the 9th grade and gradually increase mileage as well as workout intensities at each grade level.
AT: What’s one of your staple workouts and why do you do it?
MT: Four or Five x 1200-meter Intervals (vo2 max) with equal time recovery which includes at least a 400 meter recovery jog.
For an athlete, vo2 max based training is the best possible body system training to receive the optimal benefit for future racing. This workout is usually done 10-14 days prior to any big quality race such as the Eastern States Championships.
As a Coach, this type of training gives me the most valid information on each individual athlete’s current fitness level.
Editor’s note: Vo2 max is defined as an individual’s maximum capacity to transport and utilize oxygen during incremental exercise (such as sprint intervals) which reflects the individual’s fitness or endurance.
AT: How do you decide your race schedule?
MT: I determine our racing schedule year to year. I totally agree with Bart Sessa about the maximum number of races an athlete should have. I really try to limit the number of pure quality races as I can until the championship part of the season.
At the collegiate level, I ran in 6 meets plus nationals if you were fortunate enough to make that meet.
At the High School level we are committed to a league obligation (6 meets), sectional, state, and federation championships before we can even consider NXN Qualifier or Nationals.
With that being said, I added 3 meets this year for our top 7 because I was lucky enough to have depth at the JV level so I could hold out some of my top 7 in a couple of our suburban council league meets.
AT: What would you say your biggest challenge is as a head coach?
MT: The biggest challenge as a head coach that I have had to deal with so far is all the other things a coach has to do besides coaching the athletes themselves A Head Coach has to attend booster club meetings, communicate with parents, administration, transportation, college coaches, deal with discipline, and check on interim reports and report cards. The paper work seems to never end. I can only hope that gets much easier over time.
AT: Most teams struggle to put five runners on the starting line that can all be vastly competitive on the same day. Last weekend at the Section 2 championships, you fielded 10. How do you do it?
MT: A long gradual progression over time and a little LUCK!!!
I preach the little things to the kids every day. Eat right, Hydrate, Stretch, Rest, Ice, Try to get to bed at the same time every night. My college coach once said that it in not the number of hours of sleep a night that you get, but it is the consistency of getting to bed at the same time each night that will keep you healthy. I bought into that hook, line, and sinker. I can only hope that a high school athlete will believe in that as well.
AT: Shenendehowa has been the best team in the state all season. With the championship season now in full swing, what are the team goals this year? How good can this team be?
MT: Our Team Goals this season has been to take the season day by day and meet to meet. I do not like to look ahead. When the first national poll came out, I was really afraid that the team would start to take things lightly. We had a very good wake up call at the Eastern States Championships, not only on how we performed that day, but the way the press was all over the place and how that race eventually made us drop in the National Poll by 7 spots. This team took it personally and really started to get back together as a group to re-establish themselves as a top team nationally.
AT: Coach, the state meet is days away, what do you expect at Sunken Meadow Park on Saturday?
MT: As for the State Meet on Saturday, we will try to compete to the best of our ability. Hopefully that will be good enough to keep us where we are currently ranked. There are some very good NYS teams such as Fayetteville –Manlius, Warwick Valley and Burnt Hills who would love to win it all as much as we would like to. Those 3 teams have a great tradition, have excellent coaches. And will absolutely be ready come race day.
Good Luck to each team racing in Saturday's state meet.
-Christopher Hunt