Welcome to this week’s Friday 1 on 1 Angriest Trainer podcast with Vinnie Tortorich and guest Jaden Merrick. Jaden Merrick is a 7 year old runner who is an extremely competitive runner with a true love for the sport.
RUNNING HISTORY
- Jaden started running at 2 or 3
- Ran his first 5k at age 5
- Jaden wouldn’t stop until his father made him
- Inspired to run by his father
FIRST 5K
- He got a lot of looks because he was the youngest runner
- Jaden was running faster than his father
- Ran slightly under 30 minutes
RANKING & SPEED
- Now he places top 50 out of everyone in races of ~1000
- Jaden runs mid 20’s for 5k
- 180-186 steps/min
- His zone 2 is 170-175
RUNNING FORM
- Children naturally know how to run properly
- Explained in Born to Run book
- Jaden has absolutely no issues with form and stride
- Running coach films Jaden sporadically and cannot find flaws in his running style
SHOES
- Runs in Brooks PureFlow most often
- Occasionally will run in the Altras which have zero drop
THE DIET
- Jaden is not eating any sugar
- Brent is NSNG which inspired Jaden
- Breakfast is generally bacon and eggs
- For lunch he had some fish and cheese snacks
- Dinner is pork chops and cauliflower
- Jaden feels that he has more energy while running now that he doesn’t eat sugar
JADEN’S PARENTS
- Parents think the Merrick’s are crazy because of their son’s running
- Jaden is the one who wants to run, and while his parents encourage it, they don’t over-push it
- They have to follow him on a bike when he trains because he runs so fast
- They do pump him up with some rap music (Snoop Dogg especially)
TRAINING
- Jaden’s ultimate goal is to go to the Olympics in 2024
- He is currently training for a half marathon
- Meb is his hero/inspiration
- Scouts will start looking high school so Jaden should work for that
- He has no overuse injuries and the trainer says he is good to run as he is
- Jaden does squats, lifts some weights, etc
- His coach gives him lots of exercises to do in addition to his running
