About the Coach

Coach: Darren De Reuck

Cell: (303) 579-0870, Email: coach@runningrepublic.com

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 20th 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 12-16 weeks. We typically train for Bolder Boulder in the Spring and Half/Full Marathons in the Fall and Winter. I also coach some runners via e-mail. Finally, l work with some elite athletes.

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 a long 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 unique in the sense that all members are involved in the club. I'd like the club to grow some though. I will say this, if we start getting too big, 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, Sustained and All Out. 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 all out 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 have grown, the challenge has increased, but it's something I've been able to adjust and accomodate.