About Mike
Mike Keohane is a competitive long distance runner, coach, and sports pedorthist. His focus over the last 30 years has been the marathon, competing in 17 marathons in that time, twelve of them under 2:31:00. His best marathon time is 2:16:24, set in 1989, earning a ranking of 20th in the nation.
His coaching career started at Columbia University in 1993, where I assisted the head women's track coach, working with the distance runners until 1996.
In the fall of 1996, Mike became a USA Track & Field Level 1 coach and started conducting his own running class in New York City. The runner's class accommodates a wide variety of abilities ranging from 2:30 marathoners to 5-hour marathoners, triathletes, and Ironman competitors.
He is the head coach of Front Runners New York, the world’s largest LGBT and ally running club of 700+ members. The club’s workouts include hills, threshold and cadence work, dynamic stretching, and time at the track.
Over the last 25 years, he has also conducted running and marathoning classes at New York Sports Club and the Muscular Dystrophy Association of New York, and coaching clinics for various local running clubs, such as New York Road Runners, the New York Flyers, and the MetroSports Triathlon Series. He was the co-founder and head coach of Citytrack, an instructional track & field program for local youth.
Mike is also a certified pedorthist: "a person trained in the design, manufacture, fit and/or modification of shoes and foot orthoses to alleviate foot problems caused by disease, overuse or injury." This additional credential compliments his 10 years of experience in running shoe fit and technology.
Running the Front Runners New York LGBT Pride Run® with Lisa, who was new to the club at the time.
Mike’s Training Philosophy
Be conservative in your approach to training because reaching your goal will take time, determination, and perseverance.
Take a universal approach to your running. Work on your weaknesses as much as your strengths.
Use my training recipe, a balance of equal parts: Rest, stretching, strengthening, nutrition, and race-specific training.
Be realistic and honest in your goal setting. Take into account your current fitness level and lifestyle, the amount of improvement you are expecting, your living environment, etc. Change is good, but too much change will annoy your family, friends, coworkers and maybe even your body.
You can't train all-out all the time: be sure to build in some fun, and take a break when you need one.