Check out Pro MTB/Cross rider Matty O’Keefe’s profile on the Cannondale website:
Mind Control
I recently had some fun with Parlee bikes and Toyota, and helped them shoot a commercial for some new technology that they have in the works (I guess they liked my legs). The shoot was an “experience” to say the least. Check it out…
Posted in Uncategorized Leave a comment
Recovery Run 101
My last training tip examined the relationship between running, muscular fatigue and muscle fiber micro-trauma and introduced the concept of the “recovery run” for novice and advanced runners. In today’s training tip, I’ll point out a few of the guidelines you should keep in mind when approaching your recovery run sessions. Although many of the key points addressed below are both simplistic and commonsensical in nature, it is all too often the case that motivated, dare I say, obsessive, endurance athletes fail to heed the following principles when approaching their training progression and, by doing so, compromise their rate of recovery between bouts of high stress training.
When muscle fibers are inflamed, under powered, and overextended, pressing them further is of little to no benefit to the hard working athlete; the exception being pre-planned periods of intensive block training , but that’s a subject I’ll address at a later date! As always, I’ll be the first to promote the fact that advancement in one’s fitness will only occur via a long term commitment to high quality, event specific training that involves heavy doses of work that is not intended for the faint of heart (i.e. you better be willing to suffering during training!). So despite what some of the new-age training philosophies may espouse, there’s a lot to be said for the old saying “No pain, No gain.” However… the principles of nature must also be respected; the tide cannot always be high, nor can the sun always shine. The human body, like everything else in this world, must be in balance in order to operate at its full potential.
Although there are a variety of ways to determine the optimal placement of an active recovery day as you progress through your training plan, the most effective means of doing so is by simply listening to your body. It’s a simple concept, really: When you are tired, take it easy. Keep in mind that as humans, there are a wide variety of variables that affect your rate of recovery. Sleep, nutrition, hydration, stress levels, etc. all impact how quickly you recover from a given workout or series of workouts. That being said, there is no precise pre-planned point at which an active recovery session can most effectively be employed. When your body is too tired to work hard or even maintain its baseline endurance building paces, go with the flow and don’t be afraid to keep your session extra short and very easy.
How easy is easy you may ask? For a hard working endurance athlete, limiting your heart rate to approximately 70% of maximum is generally accepted as being the cut off point for an active recovery session. The bottom line in my book: Run as easily as you’d like on your active recovery days while keeping respiratory rate, heart rate and pace very low. The effort should feel very comfortable throughout; on a perceived level of exertion scale of 1 – 10 (10 being the hardest) you should limit your effort(s) to a “3.” I favor the use of flat to gently rolling cross country trails on my active recovery runs for a few reasons:
- Running off road, on unmeasured trails, negates my ability to determine my pace while running. Being the competitive athlete that I am, I enjoy running relatively fast on a daily basis and have a hard time slowing down to pedestrian like paces while traversing my normal running routes out on the road.
- Running off road allows me the opportunity to immerse myself in nature for a while and provides a degree of tranquility and peace that is hard to find when hammering out the miles out on the streets or local track.
- Trail running provides much needed reprieve from the unforgiving impact that the body is subjected to while running on asphalt, concrete and even the rubberized surface of the track. As a side note, I’ll also point out that utilization of the treadmill can be equally effective for this specific reason due to the decreased shock transmission that a high quality treadmill deck provides. There have been many a tired day where I’ve opted to execute an easy 30 minute jog on my Landice L8 Executive Trainer while listening to my favorite playlist, and my legs thanked me for doing so!
In terms of duration, active recovery runs are typically no longer than one hour for even the fittest, well trained runners. Keep in mind that active recovery sessions are not designed to stress your body in any way. You are using these sessions to help expedite your body’s rate of recovery by very gently stimulating the muscular, cardiovascular and respiratory systems. Running at very easy efforts will help to restore hormonal balance, decrease muscular soreness/stiffness and keep the body from tightening up after blocks of intensive training. A well trained runner will gain nothing, fitness wise, from pushing the pace on their active recovery runs; as a matter of fact, they will only prolong elevated fatigue levels by doing so and extend the period of time they’ll have to stay in low-stress training mode before being able to insert high stress training back into the training regimen.
Active recovery running is an integral, and enjoyable, component of any well thought-out training plan. Although it will constitute a fairly small percentage of the running that you will execute on a week to week basis, its insertion will go a long way in expediting your rate of recovery. By providing yourself with a bit of mental and physical reprieve from time to time on the training front, you’ll remain physically fresh and psychologically motivated for the high stress training that will move you closer to your competitive objectives. At the end of the day, you must remember that if your objective is to get faster, training is a means to an end, and there’s no written rule that says the athlete who never rests will win. All things being equal, smarter training trumps harder training every time.
Posted in Running, Training Tips Leave a comment
Recovery Run Defined
Question: If the act of running induces physiological fatigue, is the term “Recovery Run” an oxymoron?
Answer: Yes, and No.
As I’ve stated numerous times in my articles, training stress is relative; a 4 mile run over undulating cross country trails at 7 minute per mile pace may constitute nothing more than a warm up effort for a very fit, high volume marathon runner, whereas that same session may serve as a high stress long run for someone who’s brand new to running. This being said, the concept of the recovery run session is something that we’ll reserve for novice and experienced runners who have established a solid base of run volume, frequency and intensity.
To better understand what causes training related fatigue, we must first understand how running effectively stresses the body. Although there are a variety of physiological factors at play (hormonal, neurological, metabolic, etc.), in today’s training tip, I will focus upon one of the biggest contributors to running related fatigue: Muscular micro-trauma. As runners, our lower body musculature in particular is subjected to high degrees of both concentric and eccentric stress. Movement of the human body is made possible thanks in large part, to the fact that our muscles attach to the skeletal system. When a particular muscle pulls on the bone that it is attached to (concentric/contraction), the bone moves. A good example would be what occurs during the popular weight training exercise, the bicep curl. Note the following diagram:
In order for the object to be lifted upward, the biceps muscle, which attaches to the forearm, contracts/shortens, and effectively pulls the forearm, hand and the object the hand is grasping, upward. This is but a simple example of how the muscular and skeletal systems work in conjunction to allow movement to occur. With running, we have a wide array of muscles, and the bones they attach to, being pulled in order for movement to occur.
Question: But don’t muscles “push?”
Answer: No.
Although the skeletal system does in fact exert force against the object we are trying to move, or, in the case of running, move over (the ground), the muscle’s only role in locomotion is to pull upon the particular bone they are attached to in order for said force to occur. Going back to our diagram from above for a moment, in order for the arm to lower the weight back to the relaxed position, the bicep muscle will elongate while the muscle found on the opposite side of the upper arm, the triceps, contracts. Complete movement cannot occur unless all agonist and antagonist muscles are working in unison, much like a pulley system, where one side of the pulley pulls down/elongates while the other shortens and pulls up.
When we run, the musculature of the lower body must exert high degrees of force to overcome gravity and move us forward. In order for this to occur, strong muscular contractions must occur over and over again; most runners will average somewhere between 80 – 90 steps per minute, per leg, while running. Over the course of a 40 minute run, this equates to somewhere around 3,500 muscular contractions, for each muscle group, per leg! When was the last time you went to the gym and executed 3,500 biceps curls with one arm?!?!
It is true that muscular contraction, especially when carried out at relatively higher percentages of one’s maximum capacity, can and will lead to muscular fatigue. In the case of running, however, it is not so much the muscular contraction that leads to the soreness and stiffness we experience after a hard race, workout or taxing long run, it is the eccentric loading that the musculature is exposed to every time our feet hit the ground.
During the stride cycle, as the foot makes contact with the surface it is running upon, the body is subjected from anywhere between 3 – >7 times its body weight in force. In order for the body to remain upright and stable, it must counter this force via muscular elongation. Let’s return to our bicep curl example again: If you were handed a very heavy object when the biceps was in the contracted most position, and told to lower it down very slowly, the triceps musculature would not have to work in any way to overcome gravity since gravity was already pulling the weight down towards the ground to begin with. However, in order to keep the weight from dropping out of your hand onto the ground below, the biceps musculature would have to work VERY hard to resist gravity as it elongated slowly while under heavy tension. During the lowering of the weight, the musculature would be subjected to high degrees of eccentric stress; individual muscle fibers would tear and fray very slightly as the weight was lowered down. This micro-trauma would in turn cause the pronounced soreness one might experience 1 – 3 days after the fact.
Now let’s relate this scenario once again to the locomotion that occurs during running: As previously stated, as the foot strikes the ground, the musculature of the lower body is subjected to 3 – >7 times the amount of body weight with each foot strike; for a 150 lb. runner, this means that with every step, the lower body musculature is subjected to anywhere between 450 – 1,050+ lbs. of eccentric force for a split second with every step! No wonder marathon runners struggle to walk for 3 – 4 days after they’ve crossed the finish line!
In the next installment of this training tip, I’ll dive deeper into the science behind muscular fatigue, soreness, and training stress related performance decline. I’ll also discuss the merits of active and passive recovery and how you can best optimize your body’s rate of recovery after hard training sessions and competition. Stay tuned!
Posted in General, Running, Training Tips Leave a comment
John Babcock – Age Group National Duathlon Champion
Not bad for a guy who spent most of the winter sidelined with a foot injury. Bodes well for the 2011 tri season.
To read more about John’s victory in the M20 – 24 division at last week’s USA Triathlon National Duathlon Championship, click here
Posted in Uncategorized Leave a comment
Steady State Training
There’s more than one way to build aerobic capacity and power, and thankfully, not every approach to doing so requires the athlete to work at maximal effort (or, in other words, to suffer!). Sometimes, employing a slightly slower, steady approach to your training can yield not only notable gains in aerobic capacity, but in endurance as well. Competitive distance runners have long gravitated towards high quality, “steady state” running sessions on the days that their legs felt good, and for good reason: These run sessions, typically executed at approximately 80 – 85% of one’s maximal heart rate and/or somewhere around 20 – 40 seconds per mile slower than 10k race pace, can provide a tremendous boost to the athlete’s sub-threshold speed, and to their ability to sustain said speeds for long periods of time.
Steady state training is very popular with marathon runners, long course triathletes and anyone looking to improve their ability to “hammer” for hours on end. With very long (i.e. greater than 90 minutes) steady state sessions being the exception, one of the other benefits of this form of training is the fact that an athlete can recover very quickly from said training practices. By running at velocities and heart rate levels that fall just below an athlete’s lactate threshold, a well trained endurance athlete is able to maintain relatively low lactic acid & hydrogen ion concentrations while still effectively stressing their aerobic and muscular systems. By doing so, they are minimizing the cellular damage that typically occurs within the running specific musculature at slightly higher intensities while still reaping many of the physiological benefits associated with work executed above LT. Steady state work also provides a great opportunity to work on one’s mental focus; after all, anyone planning on competing in events such as the marathon must learn to master not only their pacing, but their emotions as well, for that time when the going gets tough very late in the race. Long, steady state runs and interval sets help to simulate the realities of long course racing in more ways than one.
This week’s sample training session features an introductory set of steady state intervals. In time, you should strive to either elongate your intervals if choosing to execute such work in interval format, or to do away with interval work altogether and engage in extensive, uninterrupted steady state run sessions of 6 – 16 miles in duration, depending upon your training history and competitive objectives. As a general rule, steady state sessions lasting longer than 90 minutes should be reserved for marathon runners, and carried out very infrequently throughout the year (i.e. no more than 1 – 2 over the course of a competitive marathon specific training progression). Keep in mind that your objective with these workouts is to maintain a very constant speed/HR/effort throughout, so resist the urge to push harder, and enjoy the ride!
Steady State Interval Session (Track or Flat – Gently Rolling Course)
Warm Up: 2 miles of running. Gradually build to tempo zone by 1.5 mile mark and maintain through mile 2.
(Drill Set) 10 – 15 sec. walk between drills/sets
- 2 x 10 meters heel walking
- 2 x 10 meters toe walking
- 2 x 10 meters ankle extensions
- 2 x 10 meters knee huggers
- Joint Mobility Exercises (ankles, knees, core, shoulders, neck)
- 2 x 30 meters skipping w/arm swing
- 2 x 20 meters rotating A-Skip
- 2 x 20 meters side Jack
- 2 x 20 meters backward bounding
- 5 – 6 min. of dynamic stretching (leg swings, arm swings, core twist, scorpion, etc.)
- 2 x 20 meters carioca
- 2 x 20 meters butt flicks
- 4 x 20 meters A Skip
- 2 x 10 meters Ankle Springs
- 2 x 60 meter stride outs.
Main Segment: 3 x 2 miles @ 25k race pace.
- 3 minute walk between intervals.
Post set = 1 mile cool down jog.
Post run = Eat, hydrate & stretch.
Posted in General, Running, Training Tips Leave a comment
To Each His Own
A common belief amongst competitive distance runners is that in order to increase one’s fitness, one must run… a lot. Although I will be the first in line to advocate the fact that success in distance running requires a steadfast commitment to a long-term, rigorous training progression, I will also caution that obsessing first and foremost about the number of miles run during a given week can also present its fair share of pitfalls. Unfortunately, many runners make the mistake of correlating weekly mileage to the effectiveness of their training program. The thinking goes something like this: “If I run 80 miles per week instead of 40, my fitness will increase twice as fast and I’ll be much faster, and stronger, come summer.” Let me explain why this thinking, although admirable, is flawed…
A successful training program is one that prepares an athlete to perform in a very specific manner at a specific event/course, under specific weather conditions. For instance, training for nothing but cool weather, 5k events that all occur on relatively flat, fast courses will leave you severely undertrained for a marathon that takes place on a hilly course and features hot and humid weather conditions. Intelligent training design begins with asking yourself the following question: “What am I training for?” Once you know the answer, you begin planning your course of action.
The next step to intelligent training design is to plot the specific training phases that you will progress through as you build towards your key, or series of key events. Despite what some experts may claim, there are a number of training approaches that one can employ when training for a given event, the most effective of which will best meet the individual athlete’s needs. For instance, some athletes may choose to sprinkle a little more intensity into their routine during the early stages of their progression while keeping their total training volume relatively conservative. Doing so may provide slower or newer athletes with an opportunity to hone their speed while also building the necessary endurance base that will carry them throughout the remainder of their event specific build up. Another group of well trained, naturally gifted athletes who already possess a high degree of top end fitness/speed may choose to forgo higher training intensity altogether in favor of a much higher volume approach during their base phase preparation. Although proponents of either approach may vigorously argue the merits of employing one routine or the other, I’ve been around long enough to confidently say that there is more than one way to induce the high degree of event specific fitness that one must attain by the time the big competition rolls around.
This brings us back to our initial discussion on the prioritization of weekly training volume. The number of miles that an athlete runs during a particular training week or block is completely arbitrary and, during the pre and competitive training cycles in particular, nearly meaningless in terms of how the athlete’s degree of event specific fitness is going to be affected. Give me two athletes of equal ability who are training for a local 5k and allow one to run nothing but 70 – 80 miles per week at relatively easy paces while the other employs a more event specific, complex training routine that “only” sees her topping out at 50 miles per week, and I guarantee you that our 50 miler runner will win, by a large margin, on race day.
With the exception (in some cases) of the base phase training phase, total training volume, at least when measured in terms of miles and/or total hours, should never constitute a priority. A very effective, albeit simple, way to the define the uppermost limit of appropriate training volume is looking at it this way: The athlete should strive to train as much as possible until their total training volume begins to negatively impact the event specific training sessions that allow for gains in event specific fitness to occur. This training “saturation” point is going to be different for every athlete of course; many Olympic level athletes may be able to maintain a steady diet of 100+ miles of running per week along with a full load of event specific quality work, while your run of the mill recreational runner may find that 30 miles per week works best. As a general rule, increasing one’s fitness means increasing one’s capacity to train harder and more often, so for those of you who currently train on the lower side of the training volume perspective, don’t despair: as you continue to log the key workouts along with those supplemental base miles, your fitness will increase, and who knows… perhaps someday you’ll be able to boast of the fact that you train like an Olympian too!
Posted in General, Running, Training Tips Leave a comment
James Andrew Munn
On Sunday, March 13th, Jim Munn, writer, coach and political activist, passed away after putting up a courageous six month fight against an incurable case of malignant melanoma. Jim was surrounded by his loved ones at all times during the months, days and hours preceding his death. From the time he was diagnosed with the terminal illness right up until the day that he decided that he was ready to pass on, Jim lived each day to the absolute fullest, and chose to spend his final months celebrating life. The bravery and unwavering positivity that he displayed while facing death head on were typical of the man who was not afraid to fight passionately for what he believed in over the course of 72 years of life well lived.
Jim was born on November 1st, 1938 in Warren, PA. At an early age, he and his family moved to Erie, PA where Jim spent his boyhood. A great storyteller, Jim would often recount tales of grandiose adventure from those formative years when telling bed-time stories to his own boys. Accounts of escape and evasion exploits up upon the infamous “Devil’s Backbone” ridgeline, full-fledged neighborhood BB gun fights and walking backwards, while blindfolded, over the death defying “skinny bridge,” spurred his young sons’ respective sense of imagination and desire for adventure, much to the chagrin of their mother and even hapless local business owners such as Mac Bell who on more than one occasion were cast as the role of “unwilling participant” in the boys’ overly-adventurous endeavors.
Jim’s enthusiasm for all things adventure related paved the way for his love of activities such as backpacking and mountaineering. He had a particular fascination with Mt. Everest, especially the doomed Mallory and Irvine expedition upon said mountain back in 1924. He was convinced that the men had, in fact, summited before perishing on their descent back down the mountain. He was a voracious reader of mountaineering exploits from around the globe; unfortunately, the same could not be said about his regard for school assigned reading literature and, as such, his parents felt that military high school would be in his best interest.
Whether four years at a military academic institution provided any sort of long lasting discipline for a young man who was not overly-fond of following the rules is still up for debate to this very day, but this much can be said about Jim’s relationship with academics; he did manage to graduate high school and subsequently complete his four-year college degree with a dual major in art and journalism. Post college, his love for both writing and art led him to San Francisco where he quickly immersed himself in the local writing scene. Although he soon made a name for himself with folks like Allen Ginsberg, and seemed poised for a successful career as a writer, Uncle Sam had other plans; draft papers sent him packing for a three year stint in the United States Army.
Upon completion of basic and advanced military training, Jim was assigned to the 503rd military police division. His unit was deployed during the 1962 “Battle of Oxford” at the University of Mississippi, when riots erupted due the planned admission of an African-American, James Merideth, to the school. The extreme, and often violent racism that Jim saw directed not only towards Merideth, but also towards his fellow African-American soldiers throughout his time in the military, served to strengthen his resolve to fight for the rights of the oppressed and less fortunate. And fight on he did; upon discharge from the Army, he moved to Boston and pursued work as a social worker and member of the Boston Boys & Girls club while also becoming heavily involved in the progressive labor party movement.
In the early 1970s, Jim and his soon-to-be wife, Lois Ricci, moved to Gloucester. Lois, born and raised in Lexington, MA, had spent many a day at the beaches of Gloucester with her family while growing up, and always had a deep admiration for the beautiful city along the coast. The pair took jobs at Gorton’s of Gloucester, and it wasn’t long before Jim began “being Jim” once more; serving as a board member on Gorton’s labor union and advocating for worker’s rights.
By 1979, Jim’s family had expanded to include three boys, all born within a four year timeframe. To support his family, he turned to a trade that he had been involved in since his college years; house painting. Seventy plus hour work weeks were the norm for the father of three who placed his commitment to family and social work ahead of his own well-being. Although health and wellness ranked low on his list of priorities, things began to change when his oldest son, Janda, took up an interest in running at age seven. Despite his two pack-per-day cigarette habit, Jim jumped whole-heartedly at the chance to help his son with his newfound interest in running and quit smoking cold turkey in order to do so. The two logged countless hours of training together, and Jim drew upon his experience as a high school and collegiate runner to help Janda to prepare. In doing so, Jim also went on to run an amazing 2:52 marathon at the age of fifty.
Jim’s passion for running led to his appointment as the O’Maley Middle School cross country coach back in 1987. A little known fact is that the program was actually slated to be cut from the school’s athletic program due to low participation numbers. Former Principal Anthony Marino was kind enough to give Jim a chance to turn the program around however, and within 2 years, “Coach Munn” had done just that; between 1987 and 1989 the program had grown from just 6 annual participants to nearly 60. The road had been paved for what was to come.
Jim continued to serve as the O’Maley Middle School cross country coach, while also accepting the assistant track coach position at Gloucester High School in 1990. When head coach Bob Roland accepted the athletic director’s position in 1994, Jim assumed head coaching responsibilities for the program and racked up a performance record the likes of which have never been seen in Gloucester’s athletic history: 257 wins and just 10 losses between his indoor and outdoor high school track & field squads and nearly 200 consecutive wins as the longtime O’Maley coach. His programs produced numerous state champions, state records, state and class titles and even a national championship title along the way. The 2000 GHS quartet of Ngai Otieno, Shawn Milne, Josh Palazola and Tristan Colangelo not only won the National distance medley relay title during the 2000 U.S. Indoor Track & Field Championship, they set a record that still stands to this day and remain the only team in U.S. history to ever run under 10 minutes for the distance indoors.
Coach Munn’s greatest attribute was his ability to inspire the athletes under his care to believe that they were capable of greatness. “Why not us?” was one of his favorite rhetorical questions. He challenged his athletes to never settle for anything less than their absolute best and to set the bar high. His support for GHS students transcended athletics; he was adamant that art, music, theatre, and vocational studies, along with athletics, all provided tremendous, life shaping opportunities for young people and that their continued support was an absolute necessity that Gloucester had a responsibility to uphold.
Although Jim’s life came to a close this past Sunday morning, his actions, and ideals, will never be forgotten. He took pride in the fact that his opinions, whether expressed via his writing as a journalist for the Gloucester Daily Times, or in front of the school board or athletic director, encouraged debate. Although some may have referred to him as a “socialist,” “communist,” and, at times, even “radical,” the fact of the matter is that he loved his country, his community and his family above all else and that he gave far more than he ever received, financially and materially, at least. Although an adopted son of our proud city, Jim was a true Gloucesterman in every sense of the word. He will be greatly missed but shall forever be remembered for living an honest and meaningful life.
Jim is survived by his sons Janda, Corey and Kansas Ricci-Munn, his daughter-in-law Michelle Carrancho, and by his ex-wife Lois, who cared for him 24 hours per day, 7 days per week in the months preceding his death. Although his family is terribly saddened by the loss, they are proud of all that Jim accomplished with his life and will always cherish the incredible love and support that he provided. As his sons will attest, it was a great privilege and honor to have Jim as a father.
As per Jim’s wishes and those of his family, there are no immediate plans for a memorial service as the family has chosen to deal with their loss privately. In lieu of flowers and cards, the family respectfully asks that well wishers consider making a donation to the Gloucester Fisherman Athletic Association’s Renewal Newell Stadium initiative.
For donation information, please visit the GFAA at:
http://www.gloucesterathletics.org/
or the Renewal Newell website at:
http://www.gloucesterathletics.com/newell_stadium/
Posted in Uncategorized 1 Comment
Jim Munn: Underdog Coach
by John Barbour
(Photo courtesy of the Gloucester Daily Times)
The view across Gloucester’s Stage Fort Park from its hilltop gazebo to the harbor beyond is spectacular from any angle. Add over a thousand middle school runners on its 1.7-mile cross country course on a clear, cool October day and the sight becomes jaw-dropping. In a turbulent world, the thought arises: can anything, anywhere, be better than this?
At the gazebo’s edge
sits host coach Jim Munn, smiling, cap pulled low against the slanting sun. Jim’s O’Maley School boys will win their umpteenth conference title that day, but joy will be muted, for 12 days earlier Coach Munn learned that he had terminal cancer. The story of how Munn came to be there that day, and how all those middle schoolers came to race at Stage Fort, is a longer tale then can be told here. But here goes.
The Munn coaching record with O’Maley cross country and Gloucester High track speaks for itself, in a word: amazing. It was neither a life he trained for nor one he’d planned, for in a time of specialization, Jim Munn is a throwback, a renaissance individual, part-time ‘gentleman coach,’ house painter by trade, writer; certified at little, experienced at almost everything. It isn’t surprising that he came to coaching not by aspiration but by simply trying to be a good father.
“I came to Gloucester in 1973, and when my oldest son Janda was eight we were walking downtown and saw a sign for the Blackburn Mile. He said, “Dad, I’d like to run that.’ Being a typical parent with too much knowledge I said, “Oh no, you have to train for it.’ Two years later he said, “I really want to run that.’ So he lines up in the 10-and-under division and finishes 19th, his eyes big as saucers. He didn’t care if he was first or 98th, he was so happy. Walking home he said, “Dad, what do you have to do to win?’ That’s when we started to talk about training, and began to run together. It was a good lesson for me because I’d just quit smoking two packs a day. If was going to give any good advice then I’d have to be a good example.”
After starting middle school Janda came home to report that there was no cross country team. ”I thought they had one,” Jim says. ”So I went to see the principal. He said, “Jim, Gloucester’s a football town, you won’t have any luck with cross country.’ To his credit, and I’m forever grateful to him, he gave us a chance,” and the phrase Coach Munn was born. “There was no budget, but they put up some signs and made some announcements, and we started with five boys and one girl. The boys went 5-2 and then went on this long winning streak.”
Born in 1938, Munn harbored two of the era’s great dreams: one was to climb Mount Everest, the other to run a 4-minute mile. He was fascinated by reports that George Mallory may have reached Everest’s summit in 1924, and with 18-year-old Bob Mathias’ decathlon victory at the London Olympics in 1948. Both barriers were broken before Jim turned 16, but the running ideal, and the image of reaching for the highest peak, would be lifelong companions for the self-described underdog.
Underdog is Munn’s recurrent theme, his identity. Despite a middle-class upbringing, fair running success, and a scholarship in college, Jim developed a lifelong anti-authoritarian streak. In first grade the left-handed Jimmy kept smearing the page with ink from inkwells in desks made for righties; the teacher called him up and told him to write an 8: “I want to show the class how a dummy makes an eight.” By third grade he’d had it with school, threw his books in an icy stream, and went home to bed. After moving to a new school and trying out for basketball, Jim was the last cut, the survivor being a pudgy, uncoordinated kid whose father was the town’s top lawyer. Hollins College never had an all-conference cross country runner until Munn did it twice in two years, yet he was never invited to join the Varsity Club, the exclusive reserve of football, basketball, and baseball players.
“I was an underachiever with no self confidence, a classic underdog,” Munn says. But he remembers those who believed in him: the military school coach who saw Jim jogging off his demerits and first got him to come out for track; the athletic director at Hollins who, impressed by Jim’s win in a hard-fought two-mile, called him into the office to offer a tuition scholarship; even Beat poet Kenneth Rexroth, who invited Jim to read his poetry at a San Francisco coffeehouse during a brief post-college, pre-Army-draft adventure there.
And he remembers sitting on a hill that first season telling those kids they should dream of winning a state championship by the time they finished high school—which they nearly did. And despite stylistic differences, Munn knows that his teams’ successes fit hand-in-glove with those of Dave Dunsky, the high school’s cross country coach whose teams won six straight state championships. ”The programs contribute to each other, and Dave’s made a tremendous contribution to our success in track,” middle school feeding high school cross, in turn feeding high school track.
The greatest achievement of a Munn-coached team is also the best example of the underdog-antiauthoritarian persona, and it nearly got him fired. ”Leading up to the state outdoor meet in 1997 I sensed that we could do something special” against favored Brockton and New Bedford. ”Then I saw that graduation was scheduled for the same day. So I went to the AD, I went to the principal who was adamant about not changing, I went through all the channels, I couldn’t get it changed. I was fuming. I knew that if it had been football they’d have made any accommodation. So I wrote a couple of newspaper columns and the heat started to build. Then the school committee overruled the principal and moved graduation to late afternoon. One day as I was headed out to practice the principal grabs me by the shirt, pushes me against the wall, and says, “You’re out of here.’
“Meet day was incredible, I lost all sense of time. We had an upset win in the hurdles, second in the 200 and mile, and the 4 x 800 team came from behind to win and cinch the meet.” Both Brockton and New Bedford coaches offered their congratulations. “The New Bedford coach said, “This is the best thing that could happen to the sport in this state.’ It was tremendous of him to say that.
“The seniors returned as soon as their events were over, and the rest of us pulled in near the end of graduation. I’m stupid and naïve enough to carry this big trophy, and there’s the superintendent and the principal, both looking at me. I probably shouldn’t have done this but I said, “I want to thank you gentlemen for pushing graduation back a few hours and allowing our Gloucester track and field team the opportunity to win its first-ever all-state championship.’ You know what they did? They both turned around and walked away.”
Jim’s grandmother once told him that he’d either be an artist or a minister, and in some ways both came true. ”I don’t believe in separation of the physical and the intellectual, they’re integrated. Then there’s a whole other side, the creative, that’s an avenue for the pursuit of excellence. Once that gun goes off, you’re free. This is our stage, daily practice is our sacred space and sacred time. If you’re the type of coach who’s there to be a servant in the truest sense, your ego begins to decline as you realize the importance of what you might have to offer, and for a program to succeed you have to have all the ingredients in harmony, with the sense that the coach is not above anyone, but a servant.”
Jim Munn’s servanthood, which began with a half-dozen middle schoolers in 1987, now includes the thousand-plus gathered at Stage Fort Park from all over the region, not to mention the new all-state middle school meet, a direct outgrowth of this one’s success. He has nurtured more champions and garnered more championships than most coaches dare imagine, but to Munn it’s always been about team: athletes and coaches together, ordinary people working toward a higher goal. And as the sun dips behind the trees and evening chill begins to close over Stage Fort, this amateur coach and imperfect person thinks about the journey from underdog dreamer to successful coach who just wanted to be a good dad.
Well done, good and faithful servant.
Jim Munn – By the Numbers
While wins and losses are probably the least favorite thing that retiring Gloucester coach Jim Munn likes to talk about, the numbers serve to show that building character and a winning record go hand in hand. And, in the sport where he started coaching, fall cross country, Munn took the program at Gloucester’s O’Maley Middle school from a six runner program to over 100 youth, and amassed nearly 200 consecutive wins during the harrier season.
Outdoor track
- 121-6 record
- 10 Northeastern Conference championships
- 1 MIAA all-state and two runner-up positions (despite not having
the opportunity of competing in the javelin and pole vault)
- 121-6 record
- 10 Northeastern Conference championships
- 1 MIAA all-state and two runner-up positions (despite not having
the opportunity of competing in the javelin and pole vault)
Indoor Track
– 136-4 record (2 losses in same year)
- 13 NEC titles
- One all-state championship, 4 runners-up, 6 State Class B Championships
- National High School Distance Medley Relay record, 2000
- dozens of Globe and Herald all-scholastics
—Compiled by Steve Vaitones
- 13 NEC titles
- One all-state championship, 4 runners-up, 6 State Class B Championships
- National High School Distance Medley Relay record, 2000
- dozens of Globe and Herald all-scholastics
—Compiled by Steve Vaitones
Posted in Uncategorized Leave a comment
Big Wili Style!
Congratulations to Brian Wilichoski: 2012 USAC Cyclo-Cross M 35 – 39 National Champion!!!
Big props to Chandler Delinks for his 10th place finish in the same race.
For more on Brian’s big win, click here