Episode 67: Coach Jonathan Marcus on the Art of Coaching and Improvement

Jonathan Marcus is to running as Charlie Munger is to investing: a coach that uses “elementary, worldly wisdom” to mold his athletes into high-level runners.

His past coaching and running industry experience includes:

• Assistant track coach at Portland State University
• Division I / NAIA / post-collegiate club / Oregon High School levels
• Involvement with the Portland Track Festival, USA Track & Field, NIKE’s Bowerman Track Club, and the Run Portland/Team Athena running clubs

He was appointed USA Track & Field High Performance Coordinator for the men’s middle distances in 2011 and his national role with USATF included serving as co-meet director for the prestigious USATF High Performance track meet held annually at Occidental College.

Currently he’s the Director of High Performance West, an elite training group in Portland Oregon. He also has an incredibly enlightening and action-packed podcast with fellow coach Steve Magness called On Coaching that I highly recommend.

What I most respect about coach Jonathan Marcus is that he’s a lifelong learner: always reading books, learning, educating himself, and connecting with others to improve his ability to perform at a high level as a running coach.

Our wide-ranging discussion might surprise you because we talk about some interesting topics that, on first examination, don’t appear to be truly about running or coaching!

Issues like:

• The books that Jonathan is reading (and why they’re not all running books)
• Empathy and bias (and why these are crucial traits for coaches)
• Vision (and how this relates to your success as a runner)
• “Cognitive coping skills” for racing and challenging workouts

For those who want to transcend beyond an elementary understanding of running, this conversation is a fantastic primer on the nuances of high-level running achievement.

I think you’re going to love it.