Meet Jon Mott

LET’S TALK TRAINING
You’ve been what most runners would call a ‘serious’ runner since college.  When and why did you start running?

Making me think way back with this question! I started running when I was 16 years old. I’m 33 now so that’s 17 years ago. Now I feel old! In high school (Northeast HS) I would’ve considered myself a somewhat athletic person. My only issue was that I couldn’t find a sport that I truly enjoyed. What sports did I try? Swimming. Which was so hard for me! The breaststroke was my main event but I was getting crushed at every meet. Soccer. I had the speed to get across the field but I didn’t possess the knowledge and foot skills to be successful. Baseball. I was recruited to be a pinch runner but I was awful at reading signs from the coach! Bowling. Which I was decent at but I wasn’t it eventually was getting too boring for me. Then one day during PE class, the teacher had the class run a timed mile. I didn’t know what to expect. When it started I just locked onto one of the guys on the cross country team. He dragged me along to a 6:01 mile. Guess what happened next? The teacher went straight to the track/cross country coach and the rest was history! This is where it all began. I started off focusing on the shorter distance in track like the 400m and 800m. My times were respectful but nothing too special. During cross country is when I really started to see my potential. I qualified for State and earned a scholarship to Webber International University. Webber is a small NAIA school in Polk County. I had some success there but I still wasn’t where I wanted to be with my running. It wasn’t until after college where I had my big breakthrough. Once I was able to get my mileage up my body just started responding very well. That’s when I realized I was built for the marathon. The success came shortly after!

What’s your favorite workout? 

The Long Run of course! This is mainly because I favor the longer distances compared to the shorter stuff. Nothing beats running a 20 miler around Lake Hollingsworth on an early Saturday morning! It’s like I can feel my body getting stronger after each mile I click off. And I like doing many different types of long runs (Moderate pace, Progressions, Alt Long Runs, Long Runs with marathon or threshold paced miles thrown in). However, my favorite type of long run is where I run a moderate pace throughout. Since I’m more of a strength-based runner, my body responds very well to these types of runs.

What do you do for cross-training?

To be honest, I don’t do much cross training, unless I’m injured, but that hasn’t happened anytime recently. Not to jinx myself. When I do pick up the occasional injury I like to aqua jog. Aqua jogging is a great cross training method because there’s pretty much no impact on the body. When I do this I use a deep pool.

Deep enough to where I can’t stand up without being under water. Then I’ll strap a pool belt around my waist and mimic the running motion without touching the bottom of the pool. I’ll do this for 45-60 minutes each day until I’m ready to start running again. This is pretty much the only form of cross-training I’ll ever do.

Unless of course, you count strength work, which I do 2-3 times per week. I focus on bodyweight exercises. My routine takes no more than 20-25 minutes. I like to do these sessions the day after a hard workout or long run to allow the proper recovery heading into my next workout or long run. I believe this has allowed me to stay injury-free for so long.

Where does sleep fall in your list of training priorities? Does it change over a training cycle?

This is an area that I do well with most of the time. On average I like to sleep about 8-9 hours each night. Then a few times per week I’ll nap for about an hour. I’m usually pretty consistent with all this. I’m fortunate because I work from home so getting that occasional nap isn’t an issue. Recently, I’ve started sleeping in an Altitude Tent. This is exactly what it sounds like. A small tent surrounds the top half of my body and there’s a generator that pumps high altitude oxygen into the tent. It’s mimicking high altitude since we don’t get that here in Florida. I often get asked why I do this. There are plenty of research studies that prove the benefits of running performance when living or sleeping at higher altitudes. Since there is less oxygen in the air, the body adapts to this and creates more red blood cells. So, when I run at sea level, my red blood cells are maximized, which allow me to run my fastest. This isn’t the most fun as it gets humid and uncomfortable inside the tent but if it’s going to help me be a better runner then I’m willing to do it.

How much time off do you take after a hard race effort? Would it be different for elites vs recreational runners?

Now this is something I could probably do a better job with because I tend to start back running too soon after a big race. Typically, I take about 7-10 days off after a marathon. During this time I’m not doing anything that involves running. I give my body the best chance to recover. However, I’ll sometimes get the urge to start back up too soon and most of the time in these situations it doesn’t work out. For example, after Mississippi I only took 6 days off before I started running again. I thought I was fine until the soreness from the marathon started to creep back into my legs. This caused me to take another 3 days off. However, I tend to bounce back from a marathon quite well for the most part. I will say that I believe a break after a big race is different for elite runners compared to recreational runners. For elite runners, we’re trying to get every single ounce of fitness out of our bodies. Now that doesn’t mean recreational runners aren’t doing the same but the training involved with elite runners is tougher. The mileage required takes a major toll and the faster paces make it harder to recover compared to recreational runners. With all this being said, I believe elite runners need more recovery than recreational runners after a big race. Now I’m not saying recreational runners don’t need a break after a big race, but I do believe they don’t need as much time. As a coach, I’ve found this to be true with the runners I coach. I get jealous that they’re able to bounce back so easily. It’s just how it works.

What advice do you have for the beginner or runner coming back after time off?

This is one of those questions where a runner might be looking for some secret trick to get them back into the swing of things easier or quicker but unfortunately, that’s not the case here. There is no secret when starting back after some time off. You must follow the basic rules in this situation. We’ve all heard them before: be patient, don’t increase mileage too quickly, don’t start quality running too soon, listen to your body, etc. It’s really as simple as that. And the thing is, it’s so simple to follow these rules. There is no having to guess if this stuff works or not. It’s already been proven. The hard part is actually listening to your mind when it wants to jump into things too quickly. We know it’s the wrong thing to do but we do it anyway. We take the risk knowing it’s a bad idea. And most of the time it ends in injury or overtraining. If you can have self control in this situation then things are going to work out for you.

What do you do when you’re not running?

This is a tough one to answer. Running takes up a good amount of my time. And it’s not just the running part where I’m spending my time but also the strength work, nutrition, and spending time each day working on recovery. Some of my recovery techniques are naps, compression boots, and stretching. For my nutrition, I make my own meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Well, most of the time. And then the strength work, which I do 2-3 times per week. When I’m not doing any of this then I’m working with my runners. I own RunnersFix Coaching Services and coach a good amount of runners. The coaching and social media pages take up a lot of my time. It’s actually my full-time job. Other than that I like to go out to eat with David Reiber, Giselle, Heidi, and Pam at Mellow Mushroom, or we’ll go on walks. I’ll also ride the bike with Tri Thornhill during his workouts.

Thanks for spending so much time with us Jon, is there anything you’d like to add?

I would just like to thank everyone who has been there along my journey. Like some people, I’ve had to deal with some tough situations in my life. Things got bad early on in my life. I’ve fallen and gotten back up so many times that it truly does amaze me that I’m able to live the life I’m living today. The people that surround me are the ones who’ve helped me get through all the hardship. The encouragement and support from others have built my confidence and allow me to succeed, not only as a runner, but also as a person. If it wasn’t for all this I probably wouldn’t still be running. And I believe running has saved me. So, with all that being said, thank you to everyone who has been there to help me through all this! It means the world to me!