Jay Johnson

Jay Johnson has coached collegiate, professional and adult runners for two decades. He was a walk-on athlete at the University of Colorado in 1994. In 1998 he was the seventh runner on the varsity team chronicled in Chris Lear’s Running with the Buffaloes. That spring, he was named the Male Scholar-Athlete for the Athletic Department, while simultaneously earning his M.S. in Kinesiology and Applied Physiology.

Johnson started his career as the head track and cross country coach at Pratt Community College in Pratt, Kansas, before returning to CU to serve as an assistant cross country coach, middle-distance coach, and recruiting coordinator. After eight years as a collegiate coach, Johnson transitioned to coaching post-collegiate athletes, three of whom won USATF titles, the most notable being Brent Vaughn, who won the USATF 2011 Cross Country championship.

Johnson is deeply involved with high school running. He is the director of the Boulder Running Camps, which he started in 2002, and is sponsored by Nike. Johnson’s Coaching Runners Podcast and CoachJayJohnson.com are resources that serious high school coaches use to hone their craft. Johnson’s Boulder Running Clinics event attracts coaches from throughout the USA. His popular YouTube channel has close to 2,300,000 views, with runners of all ages using this resource to learn exercises and routines needed to gain the strength and mobility necessary to remain injury-free.

Johnson’s second book, Consistency is Key: Fifteen Ways to Unlock Your Potential as a High School Runner, has been called “the ideal manual for a high school runner.” Coaches have said, “My runners have DEVOURED IT! Many have repeated snippets and phrases back to me as we do our summer workouts.”

A voracious reader and passionate mountain biker, Johnson lives in Arvada, CO with his two daughters.