Paul S.

I am currently coaching as a volunteer assistant track and cross country coach at Concordia University Texas. I graduated from Texas Tech in 2024 and have been coaching at Concordia since August of 2024. Because I am relatively new to coaching, I have only worked with D3 college athletes. I do not currently have any certifications in coaching but am looking to get my USATF coaching certification.

I ran track and cross country for Texas Tech University for 4 years. While there, I earned 2nd-Team All-American honors by competing at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field National Championship. I also ran at several Big 12 Championship meets and helped win a conference championship by racing the 1000m and the Distance Medley Relay. Before that, I was a TAPPS State Champion at a small, private school called Summit Christian Academy and also an AAU All-American in my youth.

Here's an example of what a typical practice could look like. To start, the athletes will run a short warm-up jog to get their muscles activated and to raise their heart rate gradually to be ready for more intense running. They will then do some dynamic drills to make sure their muscles and tendons are loose, active, and ready for movement. After this, they will then start the actual workout. These will change based on the athlete and/or phase of training they are in. If we are in a speed development phase, we will do shorter interval repetitions at a higher intensity (200s, 400s, etc.). If in our base building phase, the focus will be on volume and increasing lactate threshold so the workouts will often be continuous or we will do longer interval repetitions at a lower intensity (mile repeats, tempo runs, fartleks, etc.). After the workout ends, the athletes will do a cool-down jog to gradually slow the heart rate down and flush out any lactic acid that was built up. Before each session ends, athletes will do some static stretching to help their muscles recover faster and prevent injuries.