Interviews: Brian Falk of UW-Eau Claire
(Photo courtesy of the UW-Eau Claire cross country team)
Coach Falk is in his first year as the head coach of the men’s and women’s cross country programs at UW-Eau Claire. At the 2006 Midwest Regional the men’s team finished 13th and the women’s team achieved an at-large berth to Nationals by placing 4th. At the 2006 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships the women’s team finished 12th.
By: Derick Lawrence (11/09/2006)
What made you want to become a collegiate cross country coach and what steps did you take in achieving this goal?
Collegiate coaching was in the back of my mind when I graduated from college, but I didn’t pursue it right away because I got a job teaching and coaching cross country at Susquehanna Township High School in Harrisburg PA. For a long time, I was happy doing only that.
Then in 1994, I saw an ad looking for track assistants at Dickinson College and decided to apply. Tracy Yengo hired me to coach the distance events, and when she moved on to UW-Eau Claire in ‘96, I stayed on as an assistant to Craig Penney.
In 1998 I was thinking about a career change, so I resigned at Dickinson to take some grad classes. I enjoyed them, but I missed the athletes and the atmosphere of college running much more than I thought I would.
Fortunately, I was able to get my foot back in the door at Dickinson in 2001 as an assistant to Don Nichter (xc) and John Hartpence (t&f). Shortly afterward, I got my masters and started sending out resumes. I could not get so much as a rejection letter from most of the places I applied, but finally, this fall I got a chance to coach here at UW-Eau Claire.
Who has influenced you the most in your coaching?
When I was an undergrad at Temple, John Chaney gave a lecture to a group of us phys. ed. majors on the enormous positive influence teachers and coaches can have on athletes. He’s a great speaker, and for two hours, we were transfixed. But what I remember most was not what he said, but the humble, decent way in which he addressed us, and the way it made us feel. Listening to him speak, asking him questions, answering his, I felt for the first time like I was training for an honorable profession, and was no longer just a distractible kid stumbling through college on the 5-year plan. Even though I had a lot to learn, starting that day, I felt I had something to offer. And of course, the feeling I carried out of the room proved the point of his lecture. Those two hours with a great teacher gave me a real gift of inspiration and confidence, and what coach doesn’t want to be able to affect athletes that way?
You graduated from Temple University in 1988 as a member of the cross country team. You’ve also competed in many marathons including a second place finish in the Harrisburg Marathon and third place finish in the God's Country Marathon in 2003. Tell us about your running career (most memorable experiences, progression of your training, what you learned, etc.).
I should point out that by 1988 there was no cross country team at Temple because the program was cut following the ‘85 season (it was reinstated in 2005). That was the only year I competed. The high school I attended had no cross country program, and I didn’t become interested in training until my sophomore year at Temple. The coach, Chuck Alexander, let me walk onto what was a very solid D1 team; for that I will always be grateful. I ran as a JV and improved quite a bit, but then the program was cut and I was on my own. I’d like to say I learned a lot from that experience, but truthfully, it ended too soon for me to get much out of it other than a few good races. And though I was running faster, I really didn’t understand why.
After that, I never took my own running seriously again until my late 30’s, when I became curious about the marathon. I began running more than I ever had, my greatest total being 4800 miles over a 12-month stretch from 2003 to 2004. I wouldn’t consider this noteworthy, except that it was roughly double anything I’d done since college. This led to numerous (modest) PRs from 20k to the marathon, but also enough injuries to put an end to my fun.
But it was a worthwhile experiment, and I have no regrets. I learned a lot about how my own body responded to hard training, and how important volume is. I also learned how much harder a careful lifestyle (sleep, good diet, lack of alcohol, etc.) allows you to train. If I had been younger I probably could have used what I learned to run some times I could be proud of (hopefully faster than a 2:43 marathon), but that was not to be. So I suppose the biggest lesson in all this is, don’t wait; train hard when you’re young!
Tell us about your coaching history prior to arriving at UW-Eau Claire.
As detailed above, I’ve done two tours of duty at Dickinson that totaled nine seasons, all of them as the primary distance coach in the track program. It was a great experience, as I got to plan the training of many excellent male and female athletes, including seven All-Americans, and NCAA qualifiers in every event from 800m to the 10k. I was privileged to coach at 15 national meets in track alone, which is a huge benefit coming into a tough conference like the WIAC. I also got to work under four excellent head coaches, who taught me most of what I know about being in charge of a college team. All of that makes me feel well prepared for what I am doing at Eau Claire, and I will always be grateful for my experiences there.
You’ve been the head coach for the UW-Eau Claire men’s and women’s cross country programs for about two months now. Tell us how the transition to a collegiate head coaching position has been for you.
It has been a tremendous challenge both personally and professionally, but I have enjoyed every day of it.
In mid-August, I was preparing for another year of high school teaching and assistant coaching at Dickinson. Then I found out my friend Tracy Yengo had suddenly been offered a 100% teaching position at Eau Claire, and a new coach was needed right away. Tracy had been telling me for years what a great place this was, so I contacted Scott Kilgallon (the A.D) and asked him to consider me for the job as an emergency hire. Thankfully, I was able to convince him to do so.
So on one week’s notice, I resigned my job of 16 years, packed whatever I could fit into my car, and set out for Eau Claire on September 1st. They were a week into the season when I arrived. I believe I was about halfway between Tomah and Black River Falls when it finally hit me what the heck I had done, and yes, I was nervous. I’m 41 now- a bit past the age at which people tend to uproot themselves from a secure career on a whim. But my fiancée Amy encouraged me to do it, because she knows how much I love coaching. And this was while we were planning our wedding, for which I flew back to PA on October 7th. Talk about a keeper!
I felt the transition was a delicate situation initially, because I was replacing two effective and well-respected coaches in Chip Schneider and Tracy Yengo. Considering the suddenness of it all, it was tough on the kids, too. I tell the kids I’m recruiting now that I will know them about 100 times better when they get here next fall than I knew any of the current athletes at the start of the season.
However, the bottom line is that everyone here has been supportive and welcoming. So after two short months I really feel like this is the start of something great. Amy is still back in PA, but has visited Eau Claire, loves it and will be joining me soon.
Would you briefly describe your program's training philosophy (volume, intensity, frequency, etc.)?
We aim for gradual progressive volume increases within the limits of what an athlete’s body is ready to do, over the course of four years. What that means for this year’s team is that our varsity men run between 55-85 miles a week, and the women run between 45-70. There’s nothing special about those numbers; that just happens to be what these particular individuals are ready to handle.
Our quality sessions are mostly conducted at the stamina end of the training spectrum. We don’t do a hard VO2 max session during a week we’re racing. Though the numbers are really just estimations, I like to plan workouts based on percentages of VO2 max, and we do more hard work in the 80-90% range than anything.
Could you give us an example of a typical microcycle in your training program from September to mid-October of a cross country season?
This was a “hard” week for us in October, possibly the hardest week of the season:
Monday- Progression run of 6-9 miles, topping out at about 80-85% of max in the final 2 miles or so.
Tuesday- Easy runs of 5-10 miles
Wednesday- 14k of “step-downs,” alternating reps that are roughly 80% and 90% of VO2 max. The faster reps, run at 90%, begin at 2k and cut down to 1600, 1200, 800 and 400. The “recovery” intervals in between are 2ks run at 80%.
Thursday- Easy runs of 5-10 miles
Friday- 4-5x 1500 (women) or 1 mile (men), 5:00 recovery jogs.
Saturday- easy 30-60 mins, or off
Sunday- Easy/long…10-17 miles
A few easy morning runs would bring the total for this week to as much as 85 miles.
What are 2 key workouts that you incorporate into the peaking period of a cross country season?
For the Wednesday workout above, I change the “90%” to “95%” and cut off the first 2k rep and recovery. This shortens the workout to 10k, and brings the faster reps a little closer to race pace.
Another one we might do is 2k threshold reps with short recovery, followed by 3-4 sets of 1k hard/200 jog, 200 harder/400 jog. All of this is done while keeping overall volume as high as possible, for as long as possible.
Is there any running related training material (books, scientific journal articles, etc.) that you commonly refer to throughout a cross country season?
There is no one title I rely on, and every year some new book or article finds its way into my plans. I’ve adapted workouts from just about every print or internet source mentioned previously on this blog.
Tell us about your men’s and women’s teams this cross country season? What are your goals for both teams heading into regionals?
2006 Men's and Women's Cross Country Teams
(Photo courtesy of the UW-Eau Claire athletics website)
Our men are still quite young, with only one senior and two juniors among our top 10. The fact that I am operating with a full roster is a credit to Chip Schneider’s unceasing effort to rebuild a roster that was becoming depleted when he took over the team two years ago. He’s provided me a core group of young guys that I have confidence in, and we can build around. I also have high expectations for myself, and have been working tirelessly since arriving so that we can continue the momentum we started this year.
The women’s team I inherited from Tracy Yengo is a bit more of a veteran group, and has improved each time we’ve raced. They are very self-disciplined, and they race with a lot of poise. We had an enormous number of academic conflicts with the women this season, and it is a testament to their maturity that so many of them were able to train at a high level on their own. That is not something you can take for granted as a coach.
The goals for both teams all season long have been consistent improvement, and we have been able to accomplish that, despite two key injuries on the men’s side. Both teams are running well enough to improve on their 2005 regional finishes, but the focus will be on getting the individual athletes into a place psychologically where they can just relax and run. Anxiety kills at big meets, because it leads to bad decisions and wasted energy. If we keep it loose, I am confident we’ll get a good result. [Editor’s Note: The women’s team finished 4th and the men’s team finished 13th at the Midwest Regional. The women’s team went on to finish 12th at Nationals.]
What are your thoughts about the new qualifying procedures for the 2006 NCAA Division III Men's and Women's Cross Country Championships?
I’m just glad the field has expanded. I think that is an improvement. I think we have to be careful to select courses that can handle a field that size, however. I know the plan is controversial, but I want to see what happens this year before I complain.
What concepts do you believe are necessary for success of a collegiate distance runner?
Obviously, both self-discipline and patience are a necessity. And sobriety is underrated- alcohol interferes with recovery, period.
One overlooked factor is communication. I think the quality of day-to-day feedback between an athlete and a coach is a limiting factor in long-term development. Show me an athlete who communicates poorly or dishonestly, and I’ll show you someone to whom I cannot always give the best possible advice. That catches up to you eventually.
Do you use different techniques when coaching men and women (motivation, leadership, etc.)?
For this job, I’ve had to learn the personalities of 50 strangers in a matter of weeks, and I am just scratching the surface of what I need to know to motivate them at a level that will satisfy me. And that is irrespective of gender.
I think you have to tailor your messages to your team’s collective personality, and gender is part of that. But it’s only one part of what makes them who they are as a group. I probably do handle the teams slightly differently, but I don’t have any purely gender-based motivational strategies. I do feel the athletes are generally easier to “reach” when the men and women meet separately.
For those that are aspiring to become a collegiate cross country coach, what would be the best piece of advice you would give them?
I think the best way for a young coach these days is to go the G.A. route, rather than go into teaching as I did. That way you get the full-time experience out of the way early, which I believe held me back for a long time. That is not to say that coming from education does not prepare you; in fact, I think the experience of dealing with thousands of personalities in the classroom prepared me better. However, that does not reflect the reality of what is effective in terms of getting an interview.
But having said that, I would not change my own course, because it has led me to the lives of many wonderful friends, not the least of which is my new wife- whom I first met when she was an assistant on the staff with me at Dickinson in 1995.
It took 10 years from that season for our paths to cross again, but this time I was smart enough to hang onto her. Therefore, I suppose I would also advise aspiring coaches to stick tight to anyone who looks like they have the patience and wisdom to be the spouse of a coach!
Thanks to Coach Falk for a great interview.
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