Daniels' Running Formula

Explains how to determine one's ideal training pace, provides pacing tables for individual races, suggests race strategies, and offers guidelines to protect against injury

Jack Daniels has been head track and cross-country coach for both men and women at the State University of New York at Cortland since 1986. Under his guidance, Cortland runners have won seven NCAA Division III National Championships, 24 individual national titles, and more than 110 All-America awards. Called "The World’s Best Coach" by Runner’s World magazine, Daniels’ has advised some of America’s finest runners, including Jim Ryun, Alberto Salazar, Joan Benoit Samuelson, Doug Padilla, and Ken Martin.

Daniels’ first sport of interest was swimming, which he competed in at the University of Montana. He got involved in running while serving in the army in South Korea in 1956, when he began participating in triathlons involving swimming, pistol shooting, and running. In his first competition, he placed last in the run but second overall. Continued success in these events led him to compete in the modern pentathlon in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, where he won a silver medal, and the 1960 Rome Olympics, where he won a bronze in team competition.

In the years between Olympics, Daniels studied exercise science at the Royal Gymnastics Central Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, under Per Olof Astrand, one of the world’s best sports scientists. Daniels went on to earn a doctoral degree in exercise physiology at the University of Wisconsin.

In addition to serving as a consultant to the U.S. Olympic Track Team and Sports Canada, Daniels was coach of the Peruvian National Track and Field team for one year. Also, he has twice been named NCAA Division III Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year. Daniels currently lives in Cortland, New York.