1.   How long have you been coaching? Who else besides the Running Republic of Boulder do you coach?

DD: I have been coaching since 1988, so this is my 16th year.

I have my coaching business called Boulder Striders, which is for anyone who is looking to follow a schedule and train for a specific goal. 

There are three training sessions in the year which last between 13-15 weeks. We typically train for Bolder Boulder in the Spring and Half/Full Marathons in the Fall and Winter.

2. You have had a lot of recent success with both elite athletes, like your wife Colleen and Katie Blackett, and with everyday runners in your Boulder Striders’ groups. To what do you attribute these successes?

DD: There are three types of Coaches; Command, Submissive and Co-Operative(* see below).  I'd say I'm right there on the border with Command, but very Co-Operative.

If you believe in the athlete and the athlete trusts you 100%, that goes along way in achieving goals and having a successful relationship.

3. As coach of the Running Republic of Boulder, what is your main objective? Do you want to keep the group at a certain size? Do you meet with each runner to lay out a specific training schedule for each member? If so, how often?

DD: My main goal or objective is to have an active group of runners doing something they enjoy immensely.

Many clubs are formed and become huge, but there is only a core group that is active. The Running Republic of Boulder is going to be unique in the sense that all members will be involved in the club.

I'd like the club to grow, but an exact figure right now is hard to say. I will say this though, if we start getting bigger, I'll get an assistant to help out with the coaching.

I try and meet with each individual 2-3 times in the year, where we evaluate their progression, see if they achieved their goals and talk about future goals. More importantly though, I want to make sure the individual is happy and enjoying the training and group cohesiveness.

4. Do you focus on specific mileage, or on key workouts, or on cumulative time spent running in a week, or on target heart rate training, or maybe some mixture of all of these approaches?

DD: Specific mileage works for some, but not others. It also depends on what the individual is training for.

In the perfect world, I'd like all my athletes to own a heartrate monitor and use it during workouts specific to the given session. Typically, we have three different types of sessions: Tempo/Intermediate, Sustained and VPR. The first two are heartrate orientated and the third is not. If you wear your heartrate monitor and stay in your zones, I'm working to make the athlete more efficient, and then on VPR days s/he can focus on running more anaerobically. 

Differentiating between easy and hard is also very important. Taking easy days is just as important as the hard days.

5. RRB promotes itself as a cohesive group that seeks friendship as well as running excellence. How do you encourage this group camaraderie?

DD: Our meeting twice a week as a Group promotes us as one unit. We encourage and support each other during workouts and at races.

Team Meetings are held quarterly followed by a social gathering. Sometimes after Tuesday workouts we'll go out for a beer.

The Group we have right now is great and so not much has to be done to promote camaraderie.

6. Have you recognized any specific or unusual challenges in coaching the RRB?

DD: Because most of the runners have similar goals, it has been very easy coaching the RRB.

As we grow, the challenge may grow, but it's something to Iook forward to.

* Most coaches lean toward one of three coaching styles: the command style, the submissive style, or the cooperative style.
Command Style
In the command style of coaching, the coach makes all of the decisions. The role of the athlete is to respond to the coach's commands. The assumption underlying this approach is that because the coach has knowledge and experience, it is the coach's role to tell the athlete what to do. The athlete's role is to listen, to absorb, and to comply.
Submissive Style
Coaches who adopt the submissive style make as few decisions as possible. The coach provides little instruction, provides minimal guidance in organizing activities, and resolves discipline problems only when absolutely necessary.
Cooperative Style
Coaches who select the cooperative style share decision making with their athletes. Cooperative style is providing the right balance  between directing athletes and letting them direct themselves.