Consistency Is Key: 15 Ways to Unlock Your Potential as a High School Runner

How can high school athletes unlock their potential and become excellent runners? In Consistency Is Key, nationally known coach Jay Johnson helps high school runners understand how to realize their potential and race fast. Written specifically for high schoolers—and drawing on Johnson’s twenty years of experience working with high school, collegiate, and professional runners—Consistency Is Key is a simple yet impactful book for any athlete who wants to improve. 

Consistency Is Key focuses on the fundamentals of running, which can be applied to both cross country and track and field training. Johnson explains why high school runners need to build their aerobic engines, while also doing the strengthening exercises necessary to create a strong chassis. He makes the case that “revving the engine” most days is necessary if a high school runner is going to race to his or her potential. 

It’s crucial that high school runners realize there are dozens of ways to structure an effective training program, provided the fundamentals are always in place. Unlike most running books that go into lengthy detail about exercises physiology, Consistency Is Key offers a foundational understanding of key concepts, while giving athletes actionable items to improve. And it includes case studies of eight exceptional programs that show how these fundamentals can be put to work. 

A concise book, Consistency Is Key will help any high schooler better understand what it takes to be an excellent runner.