Hannah Long is the assistance track/cross country coach at Virginia Tech. This is her second time on our show! Her first interview with the MBM show can be heard here: https://youtu.be/Hj8SJ-xQab8?si=V7cPtJ2vLiGMoMJA

In this conversation, Dr. Leo Kormanik engages with Hannah Long, the assistant coach for the Virginia Tech track and cross-country teams, to explore her recent transition into this prominent coaching role. Hannah shares her experiences and insights as she acclimatizes to the new environment, emphasizing the importance of empathy in coaching and the value of understanding athletes' perspectives. Throughout the discussion, she reflects on her own athletic journey, highlighting how her experiences in the NCAA have shaped her coaching philosophy. The dialogue also delves into the dynamics of team coaching and the significance of fostering a supportive athletic community. Ultimately, this episode serves as a profound exploration of the intersection between coaching and competitive running, illuminating the pathways that lead to personal and collective growth within the sport. The dialogue featured in this episode presents an insightful examination of the coaching profession through the lens of Hannah Long, who has recently embarked on her journey as an assistant coach at Virginia Tech. As a distinguished guest making her second appearance on the podcast, Hannah articulates the nuances of her transition from a competitive athlete to a coaching role, expressing her enthusiasm for the opportunities that lie ahead. Her relocation to Blacksburg, Virginia, marks a significant milestone in her career, as she takes on the responsibility of guiding both the men's and women's track and cross-country teams. Hannah reflects on the importance of this role, acknowledging the challenges and rewards inherent in coaching, particularly at a prestigious institution like Virginia Tech. Central to the conversation is the intricate dynamics of the coaching staff, comprising Coach Thomas, the head coach, and Coach Sykes, another assistant. Hannah delineates the contrasting personalities within the team, noting how Coach Thomas’s reserved nature complements Coach Sykes’s more extroverted approach. This diversity fosters a collaborative environment that enhances the coaching experience for both the staff and the athletes. Hannah describes her own role as one that balances these dynamics, allowing her to relate to the athletes on a personal level while also contributing her insights from her recent competitive experiences. Her active involvement in training sessions serves as a testament to her commitment to understanding the athletes’ needs, providing her with valuable insights that inform her coaching strategies. The episode also delves into the significance of empathy within coaching, as Hannah shares her own experiences navigating the challenges of competition and training. She emphasizes the necessity for coaches to comprehend the psychological and physical demands placed upon athletes, particularly in a sport characterized by its intensity and rigor. The dialogue concludes with a reflection on the culture of Blacksburg, where the community’s unwavering support for Virginia Tech athletics fosters a sense of belonging among athletes and coaches. Hannah’s narrative, rich with personal anecdotes and professional insights, underscores the themes of empathy, connection, and community, illustrating the multifaceted nature of coaching and its profound impact on the lives of athletes.

Takeaways:

1. Hannah Long expresses her gratitude and excitement about being the first non-employee guest on the podcast, indicating a strong rapport with the host.
2. As an assistant coach at Virginia Tech, Hannah details her responsibilities working with Coach Thomas and Coach Sykes, emphasizing the collaborative nature of their coaching team.
3. The discussion highlights the importance of empathy in coaching, as Hannah reflects on her own experiences as an athlete and how they shape her approach to mentoring others.
4. Hannah shares her journey through the NCAA, highlighting the unique challenges she faced, including a lengthy career that involved a medical redshirt and the impact of the Covid season.
5. The conversation delves into the significance of training at elevation in Blacksburg, Virginia, and how it offers a competitive advantage for distance runners.
6. Hannah emphasizes the necessity of understanding the 'why' behind training regimens, advocating for athletes to engage in open dialogue with their coaches to enhance their performance.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. runningrehab
2. fasterwithoutfail
3. amazon

Companies mentioned in this episode:

1. Virginia Tech
2. Akron
3. Nike
4. Brooks

Foreign.

All right.

Yo, yo, everybody.

Here we are on another episode of the Mind Body marathon.

And on today's show, we have Hannah Long, which is kind of incredible, actually, because, Hannah, I think you're the first guest of ours to be on here twice.

Oh, yay.

That's exciting.

I'm honored.

Like, we've had, like, workers here on multiple times, obviously, like Dr. Matt and Zach and Jared and all that, but I think you're the first, like, non employee to actually, like, be on your toys.

Sweet.

I just.

Don't go away.

I just keep coming back.

There we go.

You can't get rid of me.

Well, you are actually doing something cool now.

So you were living in Akron, and now what are you doing?

Yeah.

Yep.

So now I live in Blacksburg, Virginia, and I am a coach at Virginia Tech.

So I'm a assistant coach for their men's and women's track and cross country team.

So I started there this fall.

And, yeah, it's.

It's been.

It's been awesome.

It hasn't been very long, but I've.

I've learned quite a bit since I've been there.

Yeah, I'm sure.

So you were kind of helping out a little bit with Akron, and then this is your first, like, legit coaching job?

Yes.

Yeah.

My first freaking Virginia Tech.

That's so cool.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, I'm.

I'm honored to get an opportunity like that because I know most people don't get to just jump into the big leagues like that, so it's.

Yeah.

I'm just trying to soak it all in and learn as much as I can from the sport and.

Yeah.

So who are you working with?

Yes.

So I work with Coach Thomas, who is our director, and then he's our head men's and women's track cross country coach.

And then we have another assistant as well, Tim Sykes, who also coached at Akron.

I met him when I was coaching.

Coaching at Akron.

So we have a really good team.

I think all three of us, very different personalities, we balance each other out really well.

And work.

Work really well together.

So I've enjoyed it.

What's everybody's personality like?

I would say Coach Thomas is a.

He's a man of very few words.

Yeah.

And this is the Ben Thomas.

This is Ben Thomas.

Yes.

So, man, a few words.

But when he does say we words, you want to listen.

And then Coach Sykes is a man of many words, but it's good because he balances out Coach Thomas and he's.

He's got a great personality.

And he connects really well with, you know, all of our, the people on the team.

So.

And I would say maybe a little more in between.

Yeah, a little more.

I'm more on the reserve side for sure than, than Coach Sykes, but definitely have a little more to say sometimes than Coach Thomas.

Yeah, I think you got, you're a little bit connected more to the athletes, I would say too, from like an age perspective, but also like from a competitor perspective, I would say.

Yeah, yeah.

Because you're actually still training fresh.

Yeah, fresh out of the ncaa, but also still training as well.

So I've seen many, many sides of the sport.

For those of you that don't know, I was in the NCAA for quite some time.

I was the seventh year, so how.

Did that even happen?

I had a Covid.

Covid season and then as well as I had medical red shirt too, so spent a lot of time in the NCAA at two different schools, so had a lot of unique experiences and that was kind of the reason I wanted to get into coaching is because I, I did feel like I had some, some really interesting experiences that I could share and hopefully help improve, you know, for other athletes in the future.

And if I can do that for just one athlete, it's totally worth it to me.

Yeah, I think empathy is the strongest thing within coaching.

You know, understanding what the athletes are going through and you know, just.

And having a fresh in your mind, you know, because for me, like, I think back, like, you know, college for me was 20 years ago and like.

It'S a little different now.

I don't know if, you know, you definitely.

And, and you like, you inflate things in your head for sure.

Like.

Yes.

You know, you talk a 70 year old and they ran like 20 touchdowns a game and it's like, you know, they played football.

It's like, no, you didn't obviously, but like, you just inflate things in your head and I look back and I was like, oh man.

Like, I kind of like exaggerate a little bit on some stories and I could see how that happens.

Yeah.

Memory is a funny thing.

It is definitely funny.

Like you think your childhood was all awesome the whole time and like, you know, you just, you forget the bad stuff along the way and only the good stuff.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

But yeah, being so closely connected, I think is, is pretty cool.

And Virginia Tech is a great facility.

Right.

It's like a great program and, and absolutely, yeah.

Long history of just a great middle distance distance program.

So I'm very honored to be a part of that and hopefully help improve it in.

In some sort of way.

What do you think of the town?

I've never actually been to Blacksburg.

Yeah, it's very much a college town.

It's a.

It's a small town.

Yeah.

But I.

The really unique thing about it is that everyone is a tech fan.

Like, whether they went to tech or not.

Like, they love tech.

Like, they go to every football game, the basketball games.

Like, you'll go to a women's softball game and it's packed.

Like, it's full.

Like the soccer games, they were full.

Like, everyone just lives and breathes tech.

And I love it.

Like, yeah, yeah.

What, like, what else is there?

Like, is there any industry?

Is there.

You know what I mean?

Like, yeah, there's.

There's not a whole lot.

It's pretty much centered around tech there.

But it's a beautiful area.

It's in the mountains.

You're at elevation, which took me.

So I'm getting used to.

Like, what elevation.

Want to butcher this?

I have to look at it.

What is our elevation?

I don't know.

We might have to look it up.

I don't want to mess it up.

That would be bad.

But it's.

It's not anything crazy, but it's enough to where like, you first get there and you know your first few runs are going to suck.

But it's good, but because you benefit from it.

Um, so it's a great training advantage to be able to, to train at that elevation but not be too jarring.

It's.

2000.

Okay.

Yeah.

So we, we can do that on a weekend.

We can go up to.

We went up to like Mountain Lake is a famous area.

Actually.

Dirty Dancing was filmed there.

No way.

So, yeah, we, we went up there a few times and we'll do some longer threshold stuff.

And that's hard because you're.

You're up extra like thousand feet.

So that's kind of cool.

It's literally like a 15 minute drive from campus.

But yeah, in the mountains and I, I love the culture there.

Like, everyone is like just, just super kind.

Like your best friend, even though you just met them, like, they're just willing to do anything for you.

It's that kind of that Southern culture, but not in your face Southern culture.

And I like that balance.

Like, it's nice.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I've been.

I lived in Atlanta for four years and.

Not in your face.

Southern culture is definitely on the outskirts of Atlanta.

Yeah.

Yeah, Atlanta proper, not so much.

It's highly international city, but okay, very quickly.

It happens on the outskirts.

Yeah, I could see that.

Yep, yep.

But yeah, so, so you're, you're running still, right?

You're running with the pro group there.

I will jump in some workouts every now and then.

Yeah.

With them or, or with my women's team.

Just, I, I still enjoy the sport and like, I, you know, if I can do it, I'm gonna do it.

So you're like a true alley fighter, you know, like, you just, like, you just like the process.

I do, I love the process.

And that's how I learned too as a coach is still being in the process.

And like, you know, I also am a firm believer of, you know, you gotta like, as a coach, like, it's good to feel what you're delving out.

I guess.

So, like, I get a lot of feedback by, by running the workout myself because it's, it's one thing to write it on paper and you can kind of guess and you know, somewhat what it should feel like, but until you actually do it.

Yeah, it's like, oh, I actually got a lot of feedback from that.

Maybe that was, you know, too hard or, or maybe I could have amped it up a little bit.

And then also it allows me to see how my athletes are feeling and, and know how they're feeling throughout the workout when I'm running next to them and list their breathing and that kind of stuff.

I mean, of course there's some workouts where it's best for me to sit back in time, but some of like the longer runs and stuff, I've enjoyed running with them because it gives me more feedback when I'm actually in it.

Um, but it's a double edged sword too.

Like I actually, as I'm, I'm watching them work out, it's actually like inspirational.

Like it gets me pumped up.

Like when they're hitting their splits and they're running like, you know, a super sexy fast workout, I'm like, oh, oh, hell yeah.

Like I want to go do this.

Like, this is awesome.

Like it gets me fired up about the sport and then like I want to go do the workout later.

Yeah.

And sometimes I forget, like, I just worked a 12 hour a day on my feet.

I probably should not go do like a super hard, you know, speed workout on the track.

So I think my body has paid for that.

Yeah.

Which is why you're noticing a little of the niggles that you have now.

And yeah, a little Bit.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I also think there's a ton of benefit, too, because, like, a lot of times when you see a workout on paper or you as an athlete show up to the track and the coach is like, hey, you got X, Y, and Z today.

And you're like, you know, your mind immediately goes to, dude, what's going to be the hardest part of that?

And then a lot of times it's the.

It's the part of the workout that you're not even really thinking of.

You know, sometimes, like, it's like that middle repeat.

Like, it's really rough.

And so you can just kind of, like, have that mindset of, like, hey, guys, like, you know, this is the area that's going to kind of snag some of you.

So, like, lean into this part of the workout, like, really embrace this part of the workout, and just kind of genuinely coaching them through the nuts and bolts of how to execute a good, solid workout.

Yeah, exactly.

And there's been a few times, too, where I'll run the workout in the morning on my own, and then I'll have them do the workout in the evening.

And then that way I can kind of, like you said, warn them a little bit, like, hey, you know, make sure you don't go to go out too hard, you know, on this.

This portion of the tempo, because you'll pay for it later.

Coach Long did that this morning, and she felt it, so.

But yeah, exactly.

It gives you some extra insight that you can share with the athletes and make it an even stronger workout.

So who's all in the pro group?

Yeah, so it's.

It's a small group, but we have.

For ladies, we have three.

We have Rachel MacArthur and then Lindsay Butler, who's a VT alum, and then Grace Boone, also VT alum.

Um, they are awesome milers.

They just opened up, I think.

Let's see, Rachel, I think red Ford 26.

Oh, geez.

It's a nice opener.

Yeah.

As well as Lindsay.

She's on 427, I believe.

They're gonna kill me if I got this wrong, but.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then Lindsay just ran a nice.

I think it was a 202 opener in the eight the other day this weekend, so, um, yeah, they.

They're.

They're a great group, and they've got some range, and it's been fun watching them and timing them as well.

And then on the men's side, we have Cole Hawker.

I'm sure most people have heard that name.

Yeah, yeah.

Cooper Tier as well.

A Few other guys, too, that jump in every now and then.

So do they keep that group pretty select?

Yes.

Do a lot of people, like, try to apply?

Because I imagine Cole draws, like, an insane amount of names.

Yeah, I. I think there have been quite a few people that have tried to join, but.

But, yeah, Coach Thomas intentionally keeps it very small because he's also balancing, you know, the collegiate side of things, so he doesn't want it to get too large, and he wants to make sure he can give everyone his individualized, you know, full attention.

So that's why it is so small.

Yeah, but it's.

It's a great, great group and, you know, they've all had a lot of success on the, you know, us stage and the global stage.

Oh, definitely a global stage.

Really cool.

Yeah.

Do they.

Do you guys travel often to, like, you know, out to do camps at all, or do you guys just mainly stay local?

We mostly stay local, but we'll do a few little trips here and there because we just have.

There's just a lot of great places around us that we can go to with elevation.

Like, we did a.

A trip mid cross country season this year to Boone, North Carolina.

Yeah, I've been to Boone.

Yeah, I ran a training camp there.

Okay.

Yeah, it's a really cute little town and.

Yeah, great, beautiful places to train.

So.

Yeah.

Do you remember Zap and stuff?

Were they over in Blowing Rock?

They're over, yeah.

Blowing Rock.

Yep.

Yep.

So, yeah.

Great voices.

Well, Jack Daniels used to work over in that area in Hazen.

My college coach was really good friends with him.

Okay.

In my freshman year, we did our training camp there at Malone.

Okay.

And that's where I initially butchered my ankle really bad.

Oh, no.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Boone is a wild place.

We had some great times there.

Yeah, no, it's good.

I. I enjoyed it, and they seem to really enjoy it, and we got a lot out of it in just a couple days, you know, a short trip.

So.

Yeah.

So no major trips or anything like that.

We like to just, you know, get the best out of what we have in the area.

Um, so.

Yeah.

So what's it like being close to and training so it's in similar proximity to an Olympic champ?

Yeah, it's wild.

I mean, I'm.

I'm used to it now.

You know, you just casually walk by him and, you know, I'm timing his workouts.

I, you know, took his splits when he ran the American record in the 2K the other week, which is, you know, just a casual day at Work.

Hey, nice job.

Yeah.

You know, it's hard not to be.

Be a fan and forget, you know, there's a job to do and I gotta.

Yeah, there's a job to do.

But, no, he's a very humble, humble guy.

They all are.

Very humble.

You know, despite all the accolades they have, which it's.

Know most runners are, which is amazing, what I love about the sport.

But it's.

It is really cool to just be in proximity and watch some of these workouts that they're running and take those splits and it's.

Yeah, yeah, it's pretty phenomenal.

I'm sure to see it firsthand.

But what I'm always interested in is, like, you know, everybody in the world works hard, you know, and it's like, why is he so good at closing?

Like, he's just a brilliant tactician.

In the last, you know, lap or half a lap of a race, I mean, he's just absolutely brilliant.

He's a great feel for that.

Yeah.

Do you see that in workouts?

Is that actively coached through with Coach Thomas?

Is that.

It is actively worked on?

Yes.

Though, if.

If you saw the workouts he runs, you would say that makes sense.

Like, I know why he had, like, that's his superpower.

Because Koschomas develops that intentionally.

He's very intentional with his workouts and the types of things we're doing.

Just sets him up to be able to have a gear like that.

Yeah.

So, yeah.

Which is.

That's cool seeing, like, how that develops, because when you're watching as a fan.

Yeah.

It seems so mystical.

You're like, how.

How does he have the skill?

Yeah.

Or like he stumbles upon it, you know, like, he's got this special secret power.

Yeah.

He's born with it.

Like, it's just magical.

And it's like.

No, actually, he.

He's.

He's developing it every single day with the little things he's doing.

The.

The little frequency drills we do, the very specific warmups, you know, and then with.

With the harder workouts, the specific types of reps we're doing, like, it prepares you to be able to make those moves in a race.

So it is cool to see.

Like, actually, like, this is not some mystical thing.

It's something you develop on your own.

Yeah.

And he's.

He obviously came in with quite a bit of a gift for it.

Yeah, obviously, there is a gift there.

Yes.

You know, it's like really understanding what you come to the table with and then excelling at that.

Like, I felt like that was one really good thing that happened in Clayton's career.

Just kind of being a little bit more firsthand with Clayton Murphy's career.

It's like, I watched him as a freshman sophomore, and he knew how to close.

He just was really good at that.

Yeah.

And then I, all of a sudden got to get to a little bit more of their workouts and kind of how they would do things, and I was like, oh, wow.

Lebane is actually actively training what he's very good at.

Yeah, it was pretty cool.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Learning how to capitalize on that.

That n. It is a natural instinct at some point to be able to know when to make those moves.

But, yeah, being able to capitalize that, like, as a coach and developing a workout like that, that is a.

That's a skill that I hope to one day have.

That's what I'm learning.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What would you say was some of your superpowers that you came into the sport?

My superpowers?

I don't know.

I think.

I don't think I had, like, some crazy natural ability or anything like that, but I did always just have the desire to, like, put in the work, like you said earlier.

Like, I love the grind.

Like.

Yeah.

I could push myself, like.

Like, insanely, like, on my own.

Like, I didn't need a training partner.

I could push myself to the point where I was puking or passing out, like, you know, which obviously don't do that all the time, but.

Right.

I could get to that.

That edge and find that.

And I think that was maybe.

Probably my biggest asset was just being able to push myself, and I can put my head down and grind through that.

Those hard training seasons and in the off season, I think that was also my skill was like, I excel in shitty conditions, I guess.

Yeah.

Like.

Like whenever.

And in high school, I had my best season after we had the worst winter of all time, because I was like, okay, I know my competitors are not putting in the work.

I'm gonna put in the extra work.

Like, I'm gonna be at the gym doing all the cross training and all stuff.

And that stuff, like, that kind of stuff excites me.

Yeah.

In a weird way, I don't know.

Maybe there's something wrong with me.

I know.

I remember I was.

When I was young, and when Maurice green won the 100 meter, I think he won the Olympic trials, the one where they brought out the fire extinguisher on his feet.

And the interview prior to that race, he was like, oh, I'm going to win the race.

And he was just, like, so cocky about it.

And they're like, well, why do you feel that?

When he's like, nobody loves the process more than me.

And it was just like, it just creates this massive confidence because you're just like, dude, I just.

I did all that.

Like, I'm.

I'm good.

Like, I. I love the process.

Like, I'm going to execute this properly.

Yeah.

And I think that's so cool.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, like, you.

When did you realize that about yourself?

Is it pretty early in high school?

No, I would say maybe, like, junior year.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Where I just really started to enjoy the.

Enjoy the grind.

And I also always had, like, a love for the.

The technical side of the sport as well.

Like, I love just learning about it.

Like, I would write my own workouts, like, in the off season.

And, like, I had a. I was lucky.

I had a really great relationship with my coach to where it was more of, like, a partnership.

And she would allow me to, like, talk about the workout.

And I wanted to know the why, like, what.

How is this specific workout gonna benefit me in a race?

You know, what system are we working on?

And things like that.

And I think I really started to develop that, like, going into my junior year and.

Yeah, just kind of ran with it.

Yeah, I love that know your why concept.

You know, that's such a David Goggins thing.

It's like, you know, when.

When you go into battle, it's like, you know, your why, you know, like, that's, that's.

That's ultimately what allows you to dig quite a bit deeper.

And I, I was very blessed in my.

My little career to have a coach that was the same way where I could feel like I could bring anything up to him.

And, you know, if I wasn't feeling a workout or if I was feeling a certain workout or if I on runs, I could tell where I was, like, missing some, you know, some data points were a little bit lower than I like them to be, and I want to be a little bit more, you know, whether it be lactate base or Max v2 base, and just kind of tinker with that stimulus just based on all that.

Yeah.

But it's good to have the conversation, huh?

Yeah.

I always encourage, like, all my athletes to ask.

Ask why?

You know, because at the end of the day, like, once you leave the NCAA and if you're not fortunate enough, like most people to get some huge contract or be coached by a big name coach, you're going to be on your own in the sport.

And if you want to continue the sport, you need to be able to understand how to develop a workout on your own and understand.

Yeah.

The why behind things and why things work and how they work and what works best for you.

And so you learn by, by asking those questions.

In college, and I see this so much too, with, like, high school and college kids that they come in and they're complaining about their coach, they're complaining about their situation, and I'm just shaking my head.

I'm like, man, it's gonna be a long season.

Like, yeah.

You know, and it's especially hard in college because, you know, in high school you could just.

You can.

Nowadays it's very common to just hire a coach.

Yes.

And kind of just have somebody do that.

But again, I don't even love that unless it's a really egregious situation.

But mainly because you're just like, you're just not.

You're just creating doubt within yourself.

You know, just lean into what system you have and just kind of genuinely try to have a good conversation with your coach and try to understand what's actually happening.

Yeah, but in college you definitely can't do that.

Like, if you're going to university or they're giving you a scholarship, like, you're not going to be coached by somebody else.

And if you don't believe in what's happening in that system, like, you're just not going to run well.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

There comes to a point like, yes, it's good to, to ask questions and ask why, but at the end of the day, you need that trust in your coach.

And sometimes, like, you have to let.

Let go a little bit and just, you know, lean into what, what they're doing.

Even if you don't fully 110 believe in it, like, if you lean into it, like, you will benefit more from it.

That doesn't really make sense, I guess, but.

Well, I think it does actually.

Like, yeah, sometimes you almost need, like, a blind faith in someone.

Like, instead of, like, constantly question.

Like, I have some athletes that will constantly just like, question what we're doing and be like, why am I doing this?

Why am I doing this?

In high school, I did this.

Why am I doing this now?

And it's like at some point, like, you do have to just kind of blindly trust someone because that allows your body to relax and you can actually focus on the important things and doing what you're doing well, you know, and at the end of the day, like, you Know, tweaking one little thing in the workout isn't necessarily going to make a huge difference, but if you're like second guessing it and you're not believing in it, then that's going to add stress to your body and you're not going to get the benefit out of it anyways.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I think, like, you know, you've definitely said it best.

I think, you know, anytime that you can, you just want to be able to.

To It's.

You can dig deeper when you trust the system, you know, when.

And what we're really trying to do.

It's like, ultimately, when I'm working with a lot of athletes, it's like, I think, and I've said this before, not numerous times on this podcast, like, I feel like motivation and I feel like belief and emotion are such an underrated thing in our sport now.

It's not like Everybody in the 70s and 80s had the workouts 100 nailed.

No, they just.

They were tough and they just believed in what they were doing.

And nowadays with like the Internet and social media and Strava and everything, people are so aware of what everybody else is doing.

Yeah.

And if somebody runs a little bit faster than you, you're thinking, well, I got to start doing their kind of workouts.

And like, they're doing this and they're already doing this.

And instead of, like, really trusting the process and trusting the coach and it's like, you know, we just had the super bowl recently.

It's like, if any one of those teams would have looked at any given week in the middle of the season, you would have been able to pick apart all of their issues.

But, like, they're peaking for the end of the year.

Just.

Just give it time.

Let it bake.

Like, we're working on these systems and, you know, you just.

You just got to be patient with the whole thing.

Absolutely.

Yeah, definitely.

Information overload in this day and age.

And I. I think motivation is absolutely underrated.

I think that people just think there's magic workouts.

And it's like, like, I was just talking to you.

It's like, what's Cole doing?

Like, what's Cole Hawker doing?

And why is he so good?

It's like the dude just believes in himself.

Like, he.

They're obviously very good at executing, and he just, He's.

He just.

He's very savvy and he's very smart about it.

But, like, in the end of the day, like, he.

He is in Blacksburg with Ben for a particular reason, because he believes in the process.

And he believes he.

There's not one ounce of doubt.

And you can see it when he races, you know, he doesn't get to that final lap, the bell lap, and then he, you know, you don't see this trepidation, oh, I should have done this workout or I feel a little off here.

Like there's a hundred percent commitment.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, for sure.

And you see it every day in practice too.

It's the same thing goes in, it goes into it with the same mindset.

So yeah, you're exactly right.

At the end of the day, you kind of have to release the rain reigns a little bit.

And remember, there's no magic, magic formula.

It's just time, the game and.

Yeah.

Having someone you can trust.

Yeah.

And, and I think like everybody's on this like double threshold kick right now and bicarb kick and yeah, there's like, there's like, it's, it's kind of becoming this.

There's a perfect way to train.

Yeah.

Idea.

And that's just not true.

That's definitely not true.

But you know, some people are going to just continue to believe in that and some people are gonna kind of feel that there's like, there's a little bit more of an art to the sport.

You know, taking what the athlete has and then crafting it up.

You know, that's kind of the art and science blend.

So.

Yeah.

And so do you guys actually do some like functional tests?

Do you guys do like Max VO2 stuff?

Like what are some of the hard parameters that you guys do to figure out what your athletes need?

Good question.

We don't do any sort of VO2 max testing or anything like that.

We just have, I mean, Coach Thomas definitely has a staple workouts where you kind of know where people are at once we start digging into those.

But it's, it's very much a, a long term process.

Like we're, we're very, very much focused on, on outdoor track season.

So you know, all of us coaches have the mindset of like, you know, we're gonna, obviously we want to perform an indoor, but the, the long term goal is to, you know, win an ACC championship and outdoor and, and have athletes, you know, as many athletes as we can make it to outdoor nationals.

So it's a very like deliberate and kind of slow, slow process.

So we don't do a whole lot of like, like testing or have like any massive like staple workouts or anything like early in the season.

It's just kind of like we have just this progression, I guess, throughout the season where we're kind of measuring little things as we go.

Yeah, we were talking a little earlier about NIL and in the sport and, and all that, how, you know, you were, obviously was a super senior and so you got to experience the sport for quite so many years.

How is it different now that NAL has kind of makes.

Made its way into track and cross versus when you first started at Stanford?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I'm.

I'm actually glad I missed out on all that.

And I also, like, it's kind of a crazy world now, and I think we're still navigating it.

Schools still don't know exactly.

You know, we're still figuring out rules and regulations for it, so some of us coaches are still even in the dark on some things, so.

Still figuring it out.

But yeah, it's definitely complicated things a bit.

It's made recruiting kind of tough.

You know, students, you know, coming out of high school definitely have different expectations as to what, what they want and what they need when they are signing deals.

So it's, yeah, definitely a whole new world.

And I honestly don't really know exactly where it's going and how it's going to affect teams, but it's definitely.

Yeah, it's made the.

Made the recruiting process very interesting, I will say that.

Has it positively impacted the sport?

Yeah, I mean, I think it definitely has.

I think some of these, these NIL deals with brands are great.

You know, some of our athletes on the team have some deals now and they seem to benefit a lot from it.

Not just in the cool gear and things like that, but like, for example, one of my athletes, Christian Jackson.

Jackson, he has an NIL deal with Nike and he does a lot of just really great cool events, giving back to the community using his NID NIL money.

We just did a little, little kids race where we had a bunch of kids under age 8 run a 200 and a 400 on our track this past weekend.

And Christian was able to work with Nike to bring them a bunch of cool Nike gear.

They got some cool, like bicarb bars and like, things like that.

Like that most kids probably have never even seen before.

They don't even know what it is.

But no, it was, it was really cool.

So, like, little things like that I think have been really cool and helped our sport grow and also help, you know, young kids grow interest in the sport as well, and you're able to connect to the community.

So I think there are definitely a lot of Positives to it, but yeah, still kind of navigating.

Yeah, I love hearing that story because one, one of the things I fear is that if I was given a decent amount of Money as an 18 year old, I probably would have got a ridiculously big head for no reason.

Yeah, I know, I know.

And I feel like, yeah, I mean that's gonna, that's hard to navigate.

And I mean, I get it, like, and I'm all about athlete empowerment and stuff like that, but sometimes you got to take your knocks, you know, like if you get that early, kind of reward it.

How does it take away from some of your interest to work hard?

Does.

Do you feel like you've made it quote unquote and you've not got that blue collar mentality?

And how do you navigate that and how do you navigate the pressures of injury instead of it just being like an isolated thing where you can tuck away your freshman sophomore year and just like take the knocks on volume, take the knocks on workouts, and you're not healthy 100 of the time.

But then if you conquer it, you know, junior senior year, you pop, you know, like, how does that navigate, you know, sometimes you, you force success a little bit too early.

Does that make sense?

I agree.

Yeah, I think there definitely is a lot of pressure and stress involved when you have, have that amount of money because they're developing athletes and.

Yeah, you know, like an 18 year old kid on an NAL deal is going up against like 23 year old kids like that are just.

Yeah, fully grown.

Huh?

Yeah, so absolutely.

Yeah, definitely a different, different world than I grew up in.

Yeah, I know a lot of questions.

I was just curious on how you guys are sort of navigating that.

And is there like, is there people at the university that helps, like liaisons that helped athletes kind of, you know, sports psychology becoming a little bit more of a thing like, like what does that look like?

Yeah.

From a landscape perspective, we definitely do.

Have a great sports psychology staff and a lot of the athletes use it.

Like the majority of my team uses that resource, which was something that I don't think was really a thing when I was in college.

Yeah, it's definitely grown quite a bit.

So that's good that we have that tool to kind of help, you know, with all that extra pressure and things going on.

But yes, we do have a lot of the athletes will have, have an agent when they're making an nil deal.

And so the agents help them navigate the financial piece of that and things like that.

So they have they have resources to assist them with that kind of stuff?

For sure.

That's cool.

Do you.

Is there.

Do the agents talk to you guys at all?

Not really, but I actually did.

I met Chris's agent when we did that event for the kids.

So I got to speak with them, and it was kind of cool to kind of hear his, you know, his side of things and.

But yeah, not normally.

I.

The coaches don't really deal with that.

So it's kind of weird because it's kind of se.

A separate process, like, separated from us.

So even.

So that's why we don't even know a whole lot about it because we're kind of removed from it.

So.

Yeah, it's just.

Yeah, it's weird.

I kind of appreciate how siloed it all is because that.

That's a theme in the pro world.

It is like, you have, like, you know, coaches don't really get involved with the agents.

Agents kind of have their job.

The coach has their job, the trainer has their job.

You know, the strength and conditioning coach has their job, and everything's siloed pretty well.

Yeah.

Communication can happen between the parties, but it's kind of like, you know, you just know what you're good at and you know what your role is and you execute that role and.

And that's, I think, a proper way to do it.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

It's interesting.

I don't even know a whole lot about some of the nil deals that my athletes have.

Like.

Like, we have one guy on the team, Nick Plant, he has an nil deal with Brooks.

So he shows up.

He's an Ohio guy.

Brooks gear.

Yes.

Yeah.

He shows up in Brooks gear to practice, and that's okay because he's got his deal and.

And that's all I know.

What is.

So how does that work with Virginia Tech having a brand new.

Yeah, so, I mean, you guys signed.

What's your main brand?

We're Nike.

Nike.

Yeah.

So we all wear our Nike Virginia Tech gear at practice, but he's allowed to wear.

Wear that at practice.

He has to wear the Nike uniform for racing, though.

Yeah.

And shoes as well.

That's it.

He doesn't technically have to wear the Nike shoes.

I don't think he could wear Brooks if he wanted to.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

But has to just wear the uniform and that's the only stipulation.

Yeah.

So that's pretty cool.

I know.

Yeah, that's definitely different.

Like when I was.

Yeah.

In college, it was like, very strict.

You had to always Be in your Nike stuff no matter what.

So it's very different.

So what about you personally?

Any.

Anything you're looking at, racing wise this season or anything excitement on the horizon for you?

Yeah.

Nothing plans.

No, I'm.

I'm just enjoying, you know, getting in what I can in terms of workouts.

Maybe later in the summer if I have some time, like after college season is over.

Maybe a couple road races.

I love.

Yeah, I love my road miles.

So if I can hop in a road mile or two, that would be nice.

But nothing, nothing planned right now.

Is there a down part of the year for you?

Good question.

Not really, no.

I was gonna say because there's probably no point where you could be like, yeah, I can get away for a couple races here and there.

Or like, how do you do vacation?

Like how does that work?

There's.

Yeah.

No vacation.

Yeah.

Because it's three season.

You know, you got fall and then you roll right into indoor, indoor into outdoor.

And then, you know, outdoor go so late, you know, early June, especially if.

You got good athletes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then if you have like USAs or things after that, so.

But it will slow down at least, like you'll only have, you know, a few athletes you're focusing on in the summer likely.

So I'm.

We'll see.

I don't know.

I guess I'll find out.

This will be my first.

First summer, full rotate rotation.

Yeah, we'll see.

Maybe if I get away for at least a day.

Sneak one in.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Well, I think this is kind of rounding third in the episode, so thank you for stopping by at the studio and glad you were able to make your way back up to Ohio and visit us.

Of course.

Only here for like 12 hours, but I would love to spend it.

No other way than to be on the podcast.

Yeah, that's awesome.

I'm glad we got you in the studio.

So, of course.

Any final tidbits for the listeners?

Oh, good question.

I don't know.

I mean, we talked a lot about a lot of different things.

Yeah, we did.

In the sport.

But I would just emphasize that there's so many ways to enjoy this sport.

You know, I've got to see.

I've been fortunate enough to see many different ways through coaching, running myself, or just being a fan and watching the pros run.

So, yeah, I would just encourage any athlete, you know, even after college or, or high school to continue to just love the sport in whatever way fits you best.

And it's a cool sport.

It gives back in many ways.

So we are in the middle of a running boom right now.

So there's multiple ways to enjoy the sport.

So.

Yeah, even in the winter time when it's tough.

Yeah.

On the treadmill, I promise it gets better.

So, yeah, it really makes you appreciate.

Appreciate spring.

Yes.

You know, we got 40 degree day coming up here and like everybody's getting out their suntan lotion.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah, Yeah, I feel it.

I haven't seen this on quite a while.

Yeah, looking forward to it.

Awesome.

Well, thank you, Hannah, for joining us.

Yes, thank you.

Hopefully maybe a third time.

Yeah, let's do it.

Always, always open.

All right.

All the best.

Thank you.

Dr. Leo here.

If you want to catch me in another setting, be sure to check out my YouTube page, Running Rehab, where you will find exercises on how to stay healthy with running, how to improve your running form, and a bunch of other tips and tricks on how to get over common injuries.

Dr. Leo here.

Be sure to check out my new book, faster Without Fail, your guide to overcoming injuries and running faster than ever.

It is now available on Amazon.

You could read reviews on Amazon, you can check out what other people have said about it.

But basically, if you want to revolutionize your running form and better understand how to stay injury free within the sport, this is your guide.

Feel free to reach out and let us know what you think of the book.

I would love to hear your feedback, but again, please check it out on Amazon.

Faster without fail.

Appreciate it.

It.