Latest / The CITIUS MAG Podcast | A Running + Track and Field Show / Danny Mackey On Coaching Josh Kerr To The Mile World Record Of 3:42.66

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Danny Mackey On Coaching Josh Kerr To The Mile World Record Of 3:42.66 · The CITIUS MAG Podcast | A Running + Track and Field Show

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  What's up everyone? You are listening to the CITIUS
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  MAG podcast. I'm your host Chris Chavez, and
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  every week we go beyond the results to bring you
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  conversations with the biggest names on the track, the roads,
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  and behind the scenes. From world class athletes and
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  coaches to innovators shaping the sport.
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  If it's happening on the track, we're covering it with real
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  insights that sharpen minds, deep dives into the moments that
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  define careers, and the kind of access to the pros you won't get
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  anywhere. Else.
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  So let's get into it, because we love track and field.
• 2:25
  My guest for today's episode is Danny Mackey, the head coach of
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  the Brooks Beast Track Club. Almost two weeks before we
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  recorded this, Josh Kerr ran 342.66 at the London Diamond
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  League and took 47 hundredths of a second off of Hesham El
• 2:40
  Garouge's mile world record. It was a mark that had been on
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  the books for 27 years. Danny is the guy who wrote the
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  training for it. He's been coaching Josh for
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  eight years now, and this year he's also got Brandon Miller
• 2:52
  running 142 to win the London Diamond League 870 minutes
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  before Josh's race. It was just an epic day for the
• 3:00
  Brooks Beasts and we're going to get into it.
• 3:02
  So this one's a coach's eye reconstruction of how a world
• 3:05
  record actually comes to be. We go back to the workouts in
• 3:09
  Albuquerque in 2024 when Danny first told Josh that he thought
• 3:13
  the record was his. We get into the PowerPoint pitch
• 3:17
  that Josh made to Brooks. Danny walks us through how he
• 3:21
  writes training. We talk about the 90 minute
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  whiteboard meeting where a few grown men argued over tenths of
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  a second for pacing. We get into what Danny was
• 3:31
  thinking trackside with 350 meters to go and how this is
• 3:35
  transcended beyond the running community.
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  The best part, in my opinion, comes toward the end when he
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  reveals who all of this was for. We heard Josh's answer in our
• 3:43
  interview last week when he talked about, you know, doing
• 3:47
  all of this for the 8 year old version of himself.
• 3:49
  So now we get Danny's answer. We last had Danny on in 2023
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  after the World Championships when Josh won the gold medal in
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  the 1500 and so it was only fitting that we got him back on
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  after another momentous occasion.
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  I really enjoyed this one. So without further ado, welcome
• 4:05
  back coach Danny Mackey. And now I welcome on.
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  Brooks Beast coach Danny Mackie. Danny, I guess like it's been.
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  What now? Two weeks and it feels like
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  everyone is still at in some way, shape or form talking about
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  that mile world record. We were at a restaurant not that
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  long ago and our waiter came up to us and like found out that we
• 4:39
  were runners and like, it was me, Mac Kyle.
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  And the first thing he brought up was that he's like, oh, I
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  just saw the guy broke the mile world record.
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  And so it's kind of crazy how this thing has transcended just,
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  you know, outside of the track bubble, which we're kind of used
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  to, but did. There was just something that
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  felt different about this one. So for you, I guess like how's
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  that been where I'm sure every day you're seeing people, you're
• 5:03
  getting the Congrats, but also like, I'm sure it it, it's
• 5:07
  popped up in in surprising ways too.
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  Yeah, it's, it is interesting 'cause it was a little bit of a
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  whirlwind for me because I had to get back to the States for
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  USA is like, right, You know? So I hung out with Josh on
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  Sunday and then got a run in Monday and then we flew out to
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  New York. So it's kind of like one thing
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  after another. But it's funny that you say that
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  cause like with your at the restaurant, 'cause I, I was just
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  at jujitsu before this podcast and I've been traveling so much.
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  So I haven't seen a lot of the guys in like 2 1/2 months.
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  And I've been going to this gym for 3 1/2 years.
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  They, they know I coach runners, but I think they think I coach
• 5:51
  like you and me, you know? And so, so when I walked in, one
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  of the guys is like, he goes, Congrats on the world record.
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  He's like, that's insane. And another guy goes, wait a
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  minute, that popped up on my social media.
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  I didn't know that. Like he he's like lives in
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  Seattle in the US and stuff like that.
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  And he's in Albuquerque And another guy goes, wait a minute,
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  you coach that guy like he's like, I thought he's like.
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  And then another guy told me about how he was at his P TS
• 6:21
  clinic, 'cause he hurt his shoulder and the clinician was
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  telling him about the world record in a mile.
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  And he he was like, yeah, popped up on my 'cause he follows me on
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  social media. He's like, it popped up on your
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  social media. I just thought that you were
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  like a fan of the sport. And then when I was checking
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  out, he's like, I looked and I said, wait a minute.
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  He goes this guy that I've been like training with for three
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  years, like coaches, this guy had no idea.
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  So I, I think if it, if it goes to your waiter and this like 50
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  year old guy who has three kids, his black belt in jiu jitsu, I
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  think the world record has like it's, you know, it's transcended
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  sport. So I, I, you know, I asked Josh
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  this question too when we were hanging out on Sunday.
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  I said this feels bigger than the 2023 win.
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  He goes, yeah, it does. So it's definitely, definitely
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  different for sure. We're going to bounce around,
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  I'm sure, just sort of like in the chronology of how everything
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  happened. But there's one interesting
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  thing that, you know, obviously Josh ends up making his
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  PowerPoint presentation and makes the pitch to Brooks and
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  they they back him. But even going back a couple
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  years, I think you'd said that you believe that he was in world
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  record shape and floated the idea of like, I think you could
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  break the mile world record as early as what, two years ago in,
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  in 2024. I guess what did you, what made
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  you say it back then? And then what did what did Josh
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  say back in that moment? Hard to remember.
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  I think we were in Albuquerque and he's getting ready for Paris
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  and he did 8 by 4 hundreds and it's like a we actually didn't
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  do it this year, which is the first year we haven't done it.
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  But yeah, it's kind of one of the staples.
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  And so he ran it really well and it, it just crossed my mind.
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  I was like, I think he can get the world record.
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  And so I just said it to him and he goes, he's, I, I don't
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  remember exactly what Josh said, but he's probably, he probably
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  said, yeah, probably. And then when we, when he was
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  getting ready for Tokyo last year, he was definitely in
• 8:32
  better shape than he was in Paris.
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  And we were talking about it a little bit more like concretely,
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  'cause this year there was no outdoor champs.
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  So, you know, like him and I were just like, it's just like
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  after workout sometimes in those training camps too, when it's a
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  smaller group getting ready for worlds, like last year in Tokyo,
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  like I'll jog with him on the cooldown sometimes.
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  And so just one of those things like Julian was there and we're
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  just talking about it. And I was like, you know, 'cause
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  he ran this really incredible temple run.
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  And I know everybody can RIP a temple run, but I'm pretty, I
• 9:07
  police those like pretty rigorously in terms of how hard
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  they go. And so Josh was well within I'm
• 9:14
  a comfortable zone and he ran it super fast and he did some one
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  50s after very fast. And like 4 days later he did a
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  1K time trial and like it was crazy.
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  And so I just never seen anything like that.
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  And so I brought it up again and he was like, yeah, definitely.
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  So, and then from that point forward, it was, you know, like
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  he gets hurt in Tokyo and then soon after that, it's like when
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  he in Seattle, he pitched the idea felt like the powerful
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  presentation in Brooks. So the only debate that him and
• 9:50
  I had was where to do it. So I was preferring like a
• 9:58
  Monaco or Southern California situation because of the
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  weather. But he really wanted to go to
• 10:04
  London because he's from the UK and and it's the biggest Diamond
• 10:07
  League stadium wise. And so he wanted that moment and
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  but it was literally like, you know, we we've met about it and
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  he's, you know, he's the one that's got to do it.
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  So if he's excited to do it and London, let's do it.
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  I mean, I love that meat. So it wasn't like, yeah, they
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  convinced me of that. I was just worried about the
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  weather. So yeah.
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  Yeah. In retrospect and in hindsight,
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  I feel like that part of it ends up being so crucial and just
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  sort of like what made this thing as epic and and monumental
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  to the rest of the world. I think because had it been, you
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  know, hidden on a, you know, stream somewhere and just at,
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  you know, one of the old reliable high school tracks out
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  in California, I don't necessarily know if it would
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  have, you know, permeated as much, but it did end up working
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  out. When you saw the first draft or
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  whatever it is of the deck, which he says he's going to
• 10:58
  release at some point. What did you think?
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  It's just classic Josh, like he takes big picture, big goals.
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  Got me really excited. I was just like when he was
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  pitching it to Brooks, I was just smiling the whole time.
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  And so 'cause he was asking for like these really grandiose
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  things and it and it's a big, it's a massive goal.
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  And so and he was like, I'm going to call my shot after I
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  went world indoors too. And so he's just like calling
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  all these shots left and right and I was like in my head, I'm
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  more of a realist. So I was like, this is going to
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  be hard, but I love it. So yeah, I was excited when he
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  pitched it. When you had those moments and
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  you told Josh, like, I think you could break the world record.
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  I mean, he's got enough of a track record at these
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  championships. And, you know, I guess like,
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  with it being in 2024 and in 2025 that those remarks have
• 11:55
  been made beforehand. Like he doesn't seem like the
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  athlete who needs that kind of just sort of like boost from a
• 12:01
  comment like that going into to the competition.
• 12:04
  So like, what is it do you think that he gets?
• 12:06
  Is it just like a affirmation that is just from the workouts
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  or like what what does that do you think for for someone like
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  him? And in the past, I guess, like
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  thinking back to, I don't know, Nick Simmons in 2015, prior to a
• 12:20
  championship like that, like had that been a pattern that you've
• 12:24
  done with with athletes at that level before?
• 12:26
  Oh, no. If if you asked, that is the
• 12:32
  thing I need to have. That's the thing I need to work
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  on. It's a 14 1/2 year work in
• 12:36
  progress. I generally understate things.
• 12:41
  And so I think Josh would say if me saying that is like about as
• 12:50
  meaningful as it comes because I don't, I just don't, yeah, I
• 12:54
  don't like I'm not good at pumping people up sometimes.
• 12:57
  But as, as I feel like listen to like athletes feedback over the
• 13:01
  years, it's like I do have these thoughts about them and these
• 13:04
  thoughts of Josh or Nick where I see these, these these things
• 13:09
  that they do or their mentality. And I'm just like, man, they're
• 13:13
  gonna just kick ass. Like they're ready to go.
• 13:15
  And so, you know, over the years of doing this more like I've
• 13:19
  allowed myself to feel that kind of like raw competitiveness and
• 13:24
  try to project the confidence that I have in them onto them.
• 13:28
  And, you know, for somebody like Josh, yeah, like, I think it,
• 13:33
  you'd have to ask him, but he said some things to me that have
• 13:37
  been in a really nice, really nice way, like jarring.
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  Because like a lot of times I just think that when I say the
• 13:43
  athletes are like, whatever, Danny's just kind of talking and
• 13:45
  and there's some things that I'm like, oh, he like, listen to me
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  there, you know? So, yeah, I think people like
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  him, people like Nick Simmons that I've been fortunate enough
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  to work with, they bring that like excitement out where I
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  think of like for me, I just love competition.
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  And so if I'm feeling in that moment, I feel like I need to
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  say something like I'm I am more confident now than I used to be
• 14:13
  to say that to them. Yeah.
• 14:15
  Nick 2015 it was is a little different.
• 14:19
  I was, you know, 2 1/2 years into my pro coaching experience
• 14:23
  at that point he was already really successful.
• 14:26
  And so there was a lot like of like observing and being a
• 14:30
  sponge in terms of how he did things.
• 14:33
  And you know, I was confident to get him like physically ready to
• 14:38
  compete at the Olympic trials, US championships and stuff like
• 14:41
  that. But the psychology stuff is more
• 14:43
  that I've like, I learned a lot from Nick in that way because
• 14:46
  Nick was such a gamer. Like, he knew how to show up in
• 14:48
  those big moments. And so, yeah.
• 14:51
  Over the last couple years, one of the coolest things to see
• 14:53
  with Josh is just obviously like how professionalized I guess
• 14:57
  he's come, he's becoming just sort of building the team around
• 15:01
  him. So if I think of Josh as a
• 15:03
  company, right, like as the CEO and like you're, you're right up
• 15:07
  there as well in the C-Suite and you probably, you know, work in
• 15:10
  tandem with, with Julian. But I guess like how much other,
• 15:14
  how closely are you working with all these other various
• 15:17
  different parts? Josh is at the core of it where
• 15:19
  he's touching, you know, everyone from the nutritionist
• 15:23
  to, you know, his mom being as fizzy and all that stuff.
• 15:25
  But then I guess like for you, like is it, you know, the, it's
• 15:29
  obviously the training, but then what other parts of it do you
• 15:33
  interact most closely with? So maybe like 12 years ago, I
• 15:39
  was talking to Dan Path and I really like how him and Stu
• 15:45
  McMillan, you know, they how they organize their
• 15:48
  relationships with their athletes.
• 15:49
  And so Dan had like an athlete triad and he said the athlete's
• 15:53
  always there and he said the coach is always there.
• 15:56
  And then this other part is physio, nutritionist, sports
• 16:00
  psych, strength conditioning trainer.
• 16:05
  Who else were the agent beat director?
• 16:09
  So yeah, like I am all those people you listed, like I'm the
• 16:13
  only one I don't talk to all the time is Jamil.
• 16:17
  But I talked to Doctor Kyle a lot who talks to Jamil.
• 16:20
  So but I see Jamil all the time and he's fantastic.
• 16:23
  It's just I don't need to like Kyle manages anymore.
• 16:25
  But I'm always talking about like Jose the really the the
• 16:30
  sports psychologist that Josh works like him and I meet
• 16:33
  regularly. We talk all the time.
• 16:36
  Josh's mom and I talk all the time.
• 16:40
  The strength conditioning coach that we sort of working with a
• 16:43
  couple years ago work really, really closely together.
• 16:46
  And I think that's one of the straw.
• 16:47
  And then Julian and I are like, you know, locked up with stuff
• 16:50
  too. So.
• 16:52
  And then, yeah, Ray and then Spencer from the ME director
• 16:54
  from London worked really closely with them.
• 16:58
  So a lot of it like from a coaching standpoint is for, you
• 17:01
  know, in situations like this, it's like the athlete has so
• 17:05
  much that they need to deal with from just like getting
• 17:09
  physically prepared and mentally prepared to go to do what he did
• 17:13
  where, you know, I'm, I'm a filter for a lot of things and
• 17:16
  just like try to offload it and then like, you know, be a part
• 17:20
  of the athlete triad where I'm, I'm helping manage it and
• 17:22
  navigate it. I think that's part of the
• 17:23
  coach's job is to like wear a couple a lot of different hats.
• 17:26
  For a task like this, right, going after the mile world
• 17:29
  record, did it feel like it was heightened pressure just cause
• 17:33
  Josh was calling a shot so far, so early?
• 17:36
  Like everyone, everyone's role within this, Like, you know, I,
• 17:40
  I guess like, maybe because of the success of, of how
• 17:43
  everything panned out. Like I hadn't heard of Jose as
• 17:45
  much as I did like the last couple weeks.
• 17:48
  And I'm fascinated by just sort of like his approach and his
• 17:51
  job. And I hadn't realized that like
• 17:52
  Josh has been working with him for for as long as he has.
• 17:56
  So it's like with everyone did, I guess like did did everyone
• 17:59
  feel like just sort of like they had to step up in their own role
• 18:01
  for for Josh in this? I think one of the nice things
• 18:05
  about the staff is we'd had a number of kind of like
• 18:17
  opportunities to develop a road map in a system.
• 18:20
  So not, not really, I think like where, yeah, because we've kind
• 18:28
  of done it before, like the Olympics are a big deal, world
• 18:30
  champions are a big deal. This is a big deal.
• 18:31
  It's all like, I think on that, like we were just we started
• 18:34
  this podcast off. I think this is the biggest deal
• 18:36
  so far. But you're still trying to be
• 18:38
  the best in the world or Josh is still trying to be the best in
• 18:41
  the world in those moments. So there's things that we
• 18:43
  learned over the last, you know, I've worked with Josh for eight
• 18:46
  years. So I've evolved like for sure,
• 18:50
  but not really. The the biggest thing was the
• 18:54
  difference in this go around. Wasn't that like we needed to
• 18:56
  step up more? It was, it was like the media
• 18:59
  part was like pretty tricky. Yeah.
• 19:02
  Like I even going in when he won worlds in 24, getting ready for
• 19:07
  Paris, sorry, when he won worlds in 23 and 24, getting ready for
• 19:11
  Olympics in 24. It wasn't like this like, 'cause
• 19:15
  other thing too is Brooks was was really moving fast to
• 19:18
  develop a spike for him. So there was a lot of things
• 19:21
  from like a testing point of view that we had not done that
• 19:25
  intensely. Like after Josh's first race in
• 19:32
  UCLA, the sound running mate, we flew the next day to Denver to
• 19:37
  go to Boulder to do testing and then then went down to
• 19:42
  Albuquerque. And then, you know, like little
• 19:44
  stuff like that. And that doesn't sound like a
• 19:46
  big deal, but when you're like in the heat of it and like every
• 19:49
  little thing that he does can like hurt him or help him.
• 19:52
  Just some managing that was tough.
• 19:54
  And then there was probably 5 weeks straight where we had a
• 19:57
  camera at practice every day. It was insane.
• 20:00
  I'm not, you know, like I'm just not used to that.
• 20:01
  So not that kind of like thing. And then when you get to the
• 20:05
  meet, everybody is talking to you about it.
• 20:08
  You know, it's not like like these the other meets there's.
• 20:13
  What is how many events are there?
• 20:14
  There's like, you know, so there's over 30 Olympic
• 20:17
  champions right between the both genders.
• 20:18
  And so it a lot of people win the Olympics.
• 20:21
  Amazing accomplishment. Maybe it's bigger.
• 20:23
  I think Josh would probably rather have an Olympic title
• 20:26
  than this world record. But this was like one thing
• 20:29
  happening and he like talked about it four months in advance.
• 20:32
  So there's a lot more, lot more eyes than than normal because
• 20:36
  they weren't like spread out anywhere else.
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• 21:28
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• 21:31
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• 21:34
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• 21:38
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• 21:41
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• 21:46
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• 21:50
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• 22:44
  Don't overcook it. So for you, I guess like writing
• 22:48
  out the training for this, like it's obviously not something
• 22:52
  that it's like I wrote this out, you know, here's 16 weeks and
• 22:55
  what it looks like. How did you go about just sort
• 22:57
  of structuring this thing and like how often would you go back
• 22:59
  and review things? So I work backwards from.
• 23:03
  No, no one's asked me this question.
• 23:09
  I work backwards from the day and then I try to think of
• 23:17
  performance indicators that are specific to Josh, specific to
• 23:23
  what he's trying to do and then have these checkpoints along the
• 23:28
  way, these kind of gates that we walk through.
• 23:31
  And so I had a general plan in my head and I've, I've adjusted
• 23:37
  this over the years where, you know, it's a little scary
• 23:42
  because a lot of it's in my head, but I, so I have like a
• 23:48
  general plan and then I wait to see how.
• 23:51
  And then he, he gets everybody else on the team gets us too on
• 23:54
  Sunday or Monday. I ride out eight days ahead.
• 23:59
  So everybody on the team, all 18 beasts get their training for,
• 24:03
  you know, 8 days. The reason why I sent 7 is
• 24:06
  because, you know, if I'm flying after a meet or something like
• 24:08
  that, like it just buys me a day.
• 24:10
  And so, and then, so then I see what he did and what I would see
• 24:14
  what he'd do. And then I would have this kind
• 24:18
  of like a general map. And then I would tweak it based
• 24:21
  on what his response was the week prior.
• 24:25
  And then just start kind of like funneling in more specifically
• 24:29
  to what I anticipated some of the stressors were.
• 24:33
  And we had a couple like interesting.
• 24:35
  Well, I had a couple interesting challenges from a coaching
• 24:37
  standpoint. 1 is he had not run a mile since the semifinals.
• 24:43
  Well, I guess he ran the finals in Tokyo, but he had to run a
• 24:45
  hard mouse in the semifinals in Tokyo.
• 24:48
  So that was like a long time ago.
• 24:51
  And he did the 2 three KS and then he did 2 eights.
• 24:57
  So he just not had to run a mile.
• 24:59
  And there's some metabolic things that happen when you get
• 25:03
  over about 90 seconds of duration.
• 25:05
  And so I was a little worried about that.
• 25:07
  So, so I tried to like adjust things in training from a volume
• 25:12
  standpoint that he hadn't done before to like cover the bases
• 25:17
  that I thought might need to be covered to run 55 second pace
• 25:20
  for a mile. And then, you know, then it's
• 25:24
  like not getting him hurt. That's a problem too.
• 25:26
  And so, you know, like 2 weeks out, I had to really like
• 25:29
  micromanage how fast he was running like 2 hundreds and one
• 25:33
  50s because at that point, yeah, there's, there's something to
• 25:37
  gain. But like if he strained
• 25:38
  something and then he's a high responder to like threshold
• 25:42
  work. And so he was starting to get so
• 25:45
  fit at the end where like I was like, you know, it'd be like
• 25:52
  based on like what he did on Sunday, I'm like on Tuesday,
• 25:55
  this is what we're going to do. Like I'd adjust the pace like
• 25:57
  that day. So yeah, it's, it's kind of hard
• 26:02
  to articulate. Like I, I need to think about
• 26:06
  how I, I know how I think about training and, but it's a little
• 26:12
  tricky to articulate because the other thing too, is I, this will
• 26:21
  sound terrifying to Josh, but he did it, so it's fine.
• 26:23
  And he knows this like, I'll just make up a workout based on,
• 26:29
  you know, I, I've been doing this for a long time.
• 26:31
  I studied Physiology and bio mechanics in grad school.
• 26:34
  So I like kind of know, hope I know what I don't know, but like
• 26:38
  I can like kind of visualize in my head like what he needs to do
• 26:42
  and then write out a workout for that.
• 26:45
  So there is a lot of training he did leading into London that
• 26:49
  he'd never done before. But I was like, well, this is
• 26:51
  what we need to do because this is what the 800 was like.
• 26:54
  Like that 24, the 262 workout. I I wrote that literally on the
• 26:59
  plane ride back from LA because I watched the 8:00 and then
• 27:03
  there was some stuff I saw and I was like, OK, well, we need to
• 27:05
  do this, this and this. And this is about how long that
• 27:07
  would take to get that energy system triggered.
• 27:09
  And OK, so this is what we're gonna do.
• 27:12
  Yeah. What's that?
• 27:13
  What's that one testing that that was that was one that I
• 27:15
  think a lot of people watch and like that's where confidence
• 27:18
  started to grow. But so the 262 workout, like
• 27:20
  what was that testing? Well, one of the things that I
• 27:24
  was concerned with was just the like the load of running that
• 27:31
  fast for that long. And so there's a couple things
• 27:37
  that can break down, you know, and somebody for, you know, like
• 27:40
  3 1/2 minutes. And what, what I know from
• 27:45
  Physiology is, you know, for doing a good view of 2 Max
• 27:47
  stimulus, you know, you need to be about 30 seconds, which is
• 27:50
  nice. It's convenient.
• 27:51
  It's about 200. And then, you know, 9 minutes is
• 27:55
  like a race, 8 minutes is like a race.
• 27:56
  So it's too hard. So there is some some things
• 28:01
  that happen and like around that 92nd duration interval, which is
• 28:04
  about a 600. So I felt like that was like
• 28:07
  just long enough, the minimal duration that we needed to hit
• 28:13
  to trigger some of the lactate levels and and those things that
• 28:16
  I wanted him to trigger. And the 200 before that was more
• 28:20
  rhythm. So I wanted him to be used to
• 28:23
  running about that pace. Then he started to go a little
• 28:26
  faster, which I was fine with. Six was more of like a VO2 Max
• 28:32
  interval. The two on the back end was
• 28:36
  faster than race pace to work on running economy.
• 28:39
  The reason why I went with a six over like an 8 or AK was because
• 28:42
  he's at altitude. It's also hot in Albuquerque.
• 28:46
  The other thing is I, and I stole this from Renato Canova,
• 28:48
  the Italian coach is like, I look at training sometimes as
• 28:52
  like area under the curve. And so what's a maximum amount
• 28:56
  of distance we can get at a certain pace and not have them
• 29:02
  like completely broken down. So he got 4K at work, whereas I
• 29:06
  felt like we did an 8 or AK. The load would mean too much.
• 29:08
  Like he would have started to kind of break down a little bit
• 29:11
  and then we maybe would have gotten 3K work, which which for
• 29:13
  some workouts it's totally fine. But, you know, for the speed
• 29:18
  that he needed to hit for that kind of thing, I thought it was
• 29:21
  better to get the 4K in and have shorter intervals in there.
• 29:26
  You know, and from watching his mile, like, you know, I, I don't
• 29:32
  know, there may be a couple changes I would make 'cause I, I
• 29:34
  thought it's hard to know, 'cause the pacing was not as
• 29:37
  long as we would have liked. They got out a little fast and
• 29:40
  there was some crosswinds in there.
• 29:42
  But I, I thought he'd run like 41 low.
• 29:45
  And so, you know, maybe I messed some things up.
• 29:49
  I missed some things in there with that kind of like area, I
• 29:53
  don't know, yeah. For I think you'd previously
• 29:56
  mentioned 600 repeats with it to like get him ready to this.
• 30:01
  I think maybe as it got closer and just thinking about when the
• 30:05
  pacer drops out, how he's going to be running alone for a good
• 30:08
  chunk of time towards the end. I guess like when did, when did
• 30:10
  you start to write that into the the training anticipating I
• 30:14
  guess you know what could happen with the Pacers.
• 30:18
  Yeah, so I was thinking Kidder was underestimating how hard
• 30:24
  it'd be because he's around 1:44.
• 30:27
  Yeah. So you would think like 0150 is
• 30:31
  no problem, but when you're trying to run 5555 leading the
• 30:34
  whole way, it's very hard. I, I don't know that because
• 30:37
  I've never done it, but like, you know, I was looking, I just,
• 30:41
  I just thought that that'd be harder than he thought.
• 30:44
  So I needed a little bit of like continuously plan if Kidder
• 30:49
  didn't go OK, which he didn't. And then Chapel, the guy that
• 30:54
  was originally supposed to be right behind Kidder, I was like,
• 30:58
  well, he'll go 11 Hunter. But then he like didn't he
• 31:02
  didn't. There was like a little he
• 31:04
  nothing happened. Weird.
• 31:05
  He just like hadn't raced and I was like, oh shit, what if he
• 31:08
  gets hurt? And so insurance.
• 31:11
  So the last one of the last workouts he did, which we'd
• 31:15
  never done before, I had him do 6 Hunter's because I was like,
• 31:19
  well, if shit hits the fan and the smile he needs to be able to
• 31:24
  know he can run a 1, you know, 121 or something like that.
• 31:27
  And so it was a pretty easy workout.
• 31:30
  But before before the day before.
• 31:32
  So the pacing, such app stuff happened Sunday, Monday of the
• 31:35
  race week and we're figuring it out and we get Zan and last
• 31:39
  minute, who's PR is 334. And so and I think his PR is 219
• 31:44
  seven, which is slower than world record pace.
• 31:48
  So Zan is gonna have to like game up super hard.
• 31:51
  Kidder is gonna have to game up. The weather looked a little
• 31:53
  breezy. And so I just told Josh on
• 31:55
  Friday, I was like, the reason why we did those six hundreds
• 31:58
  last Friday was so like, you know, that you can run that pace
• 32:03
  when you're really worn down. So you might have to take over,
• 32:07
  you know, completely at 600. So not too dissimilar to when he
• 32:12
  ran pre, you know, when he took the lead from Jakob and drilled
• 32:15
  him at the end there. I guess I'm, I'm just kind of
• 32:17
  going off of some of the YouTube stuff, but then the 1200 meter
• 32:20
  time trial 242 at altitude. I mean it, it's funny to go from
• 32:26
  my like with the social media side of things and on our side
• 32:29
  with media, like we post just sort of he's going after this
• 32:33
  and the comment section is seeded with doubt.
• 32:35
  Then we post the result of that 1200 and everyone's like, oh,
• 32:39
  he's going to smash it like this.
• 32:41
  This confidence just kind of like really took over for you, I
• 32:44
  guess like what was the actual purpose of that time trial?
• 32:48
  Was it just, I mean confidence data or like what did you sort
• 32:53
  of make make of it? And at that point, just sort of
• 32:56
  getting closer and closer to to the actual race.
• 32:59
  Kind of we, we've been doing time trials.
• 33:03
  We've been using time trials since Doha 2019 for Josh.
• 33:07
  You've done all different kinds. We've done ones where he goes
• 33:11
  out at, you know, cuts down every 200 we've like close.
• 33:14
  We've done ones where he just runs really hard.
• 33:17
  We did AK last year before Tokyo for various reasons, but the
• 33:21
  1200 was kind of back to the point of like he hadn't done a
• 33:24
  mile yet. So I wanted to try to get
• 33:26
  something longer to give him confidence to your point, you
• 33:33
  know, so it's, you know, two 40s getting somewhat long in
• 33:36
  duration. And then I wanted to get an idea
• 33:42
  of like, what if we needed to adjust anything pacing wise, we
• 33:47
  could do that. The big thing was is like, I
• 33:49
  just wanted him to know that he could, he could hammer, you
• 33:53
  know, coming off a 55 pace if he needed to.
• 33:55
  Now I know he'd have another lap to do.
• 33:57
  But altitude, he did a long tempo run on Tuesday before he
• 34:00
  did this. He's a little bit, he's a lot
• 34:02
  fresher for London. And so yeah, that went super
• 34:05
  well 'cause he, he closed in like 146, you know, the last 800
• 34:09
  of him closed in 52. So when I saw that I was like,
• 34:12
  OK, he's he's really ready to go.
• 34:13
  And you don't want to make it too hard either because then
• 34:16
  it's like they burned a match, you know, like, you know,
• 34:19
  getting close to race day. But when he did that on July
• 34:23
  3rd, I was like, OK, I feel like we're pretty good.
• 34:27
  The fun part was then just sort of him talking to to me and Kyle
• 34:31
  just sort of about like what happened after that, which was,
• 34:34
  you know, he didn't think that it was like that hard.
• 34:38
  And I think like his complaint was that it felt too easy.
• 34:40
  He takes that to Jose, who then just kind of with his role as
• 34:45
  like the, you know, mental performance coach was telling
• 34:47
  him like, we have what if it's easy?
• 34:49
  And so that's that's kind of been one of the things that
• 34:51
  we've just been clinging on to over the last couple days.
• 34:54
  But for you after that, when Josh says like it felt too easy,
• 34:58
  is that a green flag, Yellow flag for you?
• 35:00
  Like what? What did What did you make of
• 35:02
  that? This won't be the best like
• 35:05
  that. He's fit, you know, So I I was,
• 35:10
  you know, telling him good because the you got to do
• 35:12
  another mile or 409 meters at that pace.
• 35:16
  So it's good that it feels easy right now.
• 35:18
  But yeah, I wasn't like, we work so closely with being prepared
• 35:27
  for suffering and how hard things are.
• 35:29
  So I wasn't worried about, I think it's maybe what you're
• 35:32
  getting at. Like, I wasn't worried about him
• 35:33
  feeling easy. And that which is this is the
• 35:35
  thing that I deal with with a lot of athletes I coach now
• 35:38
  they're getting fit and they're like, oh, well, I'm going to
• 35:41
  knock this race out of the park because that workout like,
• 35:43
  didn't feel hard. And then Steve Magnus talks a
• 35:46
  lot about this, too. It lowers your expectation of
• 35:48
  pain. And then you get rattled in the
• 35:50
  race. You're like, oh, shit, this
• 35:51
  hurts. And you know, my, my, one of my
• 35:55
  jobs as a coach is to prepare them for, well, you're just
• 35:59
  going to run faster. Doesn't mean the pain's less,
• 36:01
  you know. And so, you know, for Josh, we
• 36:04
  work a lot on that. So I wasn't worried that that
• 36:08
  going so well was going to like skew his like perception of how
• 36:12
  difficult it was to run a mile. It just gave him a lot of
• 36:16
  confidence that he could come off 55 pace and have something
• 36:20
  less left at the end, which which he did.
• 36:22
  You know, he didn't close like super fast, but it's last 100
• 36:25
  meters too. I think it's hard to run, you
• 36:28
  know, 650 meters by herself at that pace.
• 36:31
  Like I think she had somebody with you know, or put the wave
• 36:36
  like a little faster. He probably had a little bit
• 36:38
  more in there, you know, because he said he felt good at 1500.
• 36:43
  He's like, oh, I enjoyed the last 100 meters, he said.
• 36:45
  So that's not like, you know, if you watch him run Paris or when
• 36:52
  he got COVID in 2022, like he was in the herd shop in those
• 36:56
  races. You know, he was, he was running
• 36:59
  very hard at London. But it wasn't like, you know,
• 37:02
  you watch him after the race like he was celebrating.
• 37:05
  He felt good. It was super hard, but it was
• 37:07
  like he felt good doing it. I promise we'll get to actual
• 37:11
  race day, but I'm just fascinated with like the the
• 37:13
  architecture of like everything, but with this whole training
• 37:16
  block. And this is one thing that I
• 37:18
  think we were super curious to hear what Josh would would would
• 37:22
  take away from it. But was there is there anything
• 37:25
  that is different about, you know, from from this training
• 37:28
  for this versus a world championship or an Olympics in
• 37:32
  the past that you're hoping, all right, maybe we do a little bit
• 37:35
  more of that next, next go around?
• 37:37
  Or is it just pretty different because for those championships
• 37:42
  you're training for rounds and all that kind of stuff, or like,
• 37:44
  so like what what, what's one of one of the things that you would
• 37:47
  want to do more of that you've learned from this block?
• 37:50
  Yeah, it's not like there is a rhythm element that Jose and I
• 37:55
  talked a lot about that was unique to this world record
• 37:58
  attempt in terms of like running this pace and just trying to
• 38:01
  feel good running 55 second pace.
• 38:04
  That's a little different than, you know, what most global
• 38:08
  finals do other than like other than Paris and Paris and
• 38:14
  Budapest are fairly quick, you know, so those are pretty very
• 38:18
  fast, I would say for Paris, but not not that much.
• 38:22
  Like I, I look at like from an architectural standpoint, like
• 38:26
  building Josh into being robust and being able to handle chaos.
• 38:30
  And so those fundamental things from like temple runs and being
• 38:34
  being really mindful in the weight room and running a lot of
• 38:39
  lot of reps at at race pace, like none of those things would
• 38:43
  change. The only thing that I think,
• 38:47
  well, we, we adjusted some stuff on Sunday runs this go around
• 38:51
  and it seemed to work pretty well.
• 38:53
  So, you know, maybe we keep that in for, you know, for worlds in
• 38:59
  the Olympics the next two years, but not, not too much will
• 39:02
  change there. Yeah.
• 39:04
  Josh confirmed, I guess, that he uses, you know, bicarb like
• 39:08
  everyone else does, Started taking it about like 18 months
• 39:11
  ago, like wasn't using it at the Paris Olympics.
• 39:14
  Like what is dialing in his bicarb protocol look like?
• 39:19
  Because he'd already run 327 without it before, I guess.
• 39:23
  And then this time around, like how meticulous did you guys get
• 39:26
  into sort of like dialing that in for him?
• 39:28
  Doctor Karl Fafenbach and I and him, he got in meticulous just
• 39:33
  so wouldn't like hurt him because to your point, he'd
• 39:35
  already run 327, you know, and he was he was in lane 2 for, you
• 39:42
  know, a a a pretty significant portion of that race.
• 39:46
  So, you know, it's like you don't he might not be a
• 39:49
  responder to it is what we think.
• 39:52
  Yeah. So we have a dialed in so it
• 39:54
  doesn't, like, mess up his stomach and he's not like, and
• 39:56
  GI issues out there, but that was a big thing.
• 39:58
  So he would use it for some workouts just to make sure that
• 40:01
  the dosage and the timing was like, not a hindrance to him.
• 40:04
  Yeah. Then when it came to like the
• 40:07
  spikes this time around, like what what were you looking for
• 40:10
  in terms of just sort of when Brooks team would come to
• 40:12
  practice and like work with him because these were one of one
• 40:15
  for Josh? Like what did you think like
• 40:16
  over the last couple of years that this needed to be different
• 40:21
  to I guess like fit Josh? Spike stuff was really fun with
• 40:24
  Brooks, their product team and Carson and Danny and Jake were
• 40:32
  super excited and fired up about it, which is like, and they're
• 40:35
  really smart. So when you get some smart
• 40:36
  people that love the sport fired up and then Brooks was willing
• 40:40
  to throw so much resources into it.
• 40:43
  I'm I'm like my friends know this like I'm kind of a tech
• 40:46
  nerd. And so I really, and I used to
• 40:48
  work in footwear when I worked at Nike and Adidas and Puma,
• 40:50
  like I worked with athletes, but I worked on, you know, the
• 40:53
  innovation set of footwear. So I think you know, from a as
• 40:57
  being a coach, I, I appreciate how hard it is to do what the
• 41:00
  footwear team was trying to do. So the thing I was looking for
• 41:04
  for Josh was like, you know, like he has a little bit of a
• 41:09
  tendency to pronate a little bit and get some hot spots on his
• 41:13
  foot. So simply I just want him to
• 41:17
  feel really comfortable in them. And then, you know, if the foam
• 41:23
  would be used in a way specific to his mechanics that we could
• 41:29
  see some sort of like change between sample one and sample 2
• 41:34
  even better. But like, you know, day of my
• 41:37
  head is like like Julian had a what had extra spikes like
• 41:41
  standing with us, like while Josh, because we didn't know if
• 41:43
  a lace would break and he, you know, spike plates crack
• 41:47
  sometimes. So I'm thinking like worst case
• 41:49
  scenario, but the product team is super confident.
• 41:52
  I I asked, I asked, we were worried about the pins being too
• 41:57
  small and I asked Danny or and it was like, I like wasn't
• 42:03
  speaking the same language. He goes, I was like, yeah, I'm a
• 42:05
  little worried if it rains in London that the spikes.
• 42:08
  He goes, we've never had a problem with that, sorry.
• 42:15
  And then, and then at the after party at Brooks, he was like,
• 42:19
  you were so pessimistic. You were so -2 weeks ago I was
• 42:22
  like, I'm a coach, I have to worry about these things.
• 42:25
  But no a lot. Now a couple of the beasts are,
• 42:31
  you know, like, because they're making more sizes.
• 42:34
  So I think the spikes are pretty awesome.
• 42:38
  I put them on and did a couple. I put Josh's on after and like
• 42:41
  strutted around a little bit. I I hurt my calf and earlier in
• 42:44
  the week and you just so I couldn't like open it up.
• 42:47
  Not that I can do that anymore, but they feel good, man.
• 42:50
  Like, I think a lot of, I thought when I when I was in
• 42:54
  high school and Algar Rouge broke the record, and then when
• 43:00
  I was racing in college, like I wanted the spikes that he had so
• 43:03
  bad and it was so cool that I could get them.
• 43:09
  And so I think that Brooks nailed these spikes.
• 43:12
  And I think a lot of athletes are just going to love racing in
• 43:17
  them. I think they did such a good
• 43:18
  job. And I'm very critical.
• 43:20
  You can ask Danny Orr and and Carson at Brooks.
• 43:22
  So they they crushed it, man. Yeah, it was.
• 43:25
  It was really fun working with them a lot on that project.
• 43:30
  Two weeks out, you, you're, you know, pessimistic at times and
• 43:33
  and overthinking things as a coach.
• 43:34
  But I guess like go, is it 4 weeks before where Josh was
• 43:39
  telling me about the white board meeting and it was you, Brandon,
• 43:44
  Brandon, Julian, Drew Windle in Albuquerque, It's like 3 or 4
• 43:48
  weeks out. You guys are talking about
• 43:50
  splits. What paint the picture for me.
• 43:53
  What's what's happening in that room?
• 43:55
  You have a lot of different personalities and it funny
• 44:00
  things that people care about that like the other person just
• 44:03
  doesn't think is important. And so Josh had all this stuff
• 44:07
  written out already. So he had like all these other
• 44:10
  races each split what of those races and what he thought his
• 44:16
  best scenario was. And then scenario 2, scenario 3.
• 44:20
  And so, you know, it's like, OK, what does this mean?
• 44:22
  Kidder's gonna go through? And so you have to keep in mind,
• 44:25
  I, I am, I feel like an idiot. Like I, I don't, I don't like
• 44:31
  rabbits. I don't like time trials.
• 44:34
  It's not a thing that like gets me like fired up.
• 44:36
  I love championship racing. And so, you know, this trend
• 44:39
  that's happened since I've had this job, you know, you have two
• 44:42
  Pacers and pace lights and all these things.
• 44:43
  And so, you know, it's not something that I meet directors
• 44:48
  probably, I don't know if they like me, but I think they like
• 44:51
  working with me is because they'll say here's the pacer,
• 44:54
  here's the pace. And I will say cool.
• 44:56
  And I tell the athletes this is what they're going to do.
• 44:58
  And half the time the Pacers mess up, so and the wavelets are
• 45:02
  just out there doing their thing, you know, And so, you
• 45:07
  know, so I had to kind of like control that part of me, 'cause
• 45:09
  this is really important. Like we have to get this dialed
• 45:11
  in. So it was, it was like, it was
• 45:14
  interesting, 'cause you know, I'm a little bit more, let's see
• 45:17
  what Josh has to say. And Julian, and then, you know,
• 45:21
  Kidder, Drew and I are, I think a similar personality type.
• 45:24
  So we're kind of like sitting back waiting for our opinions
• 45:28
  and then, yeah, but then it was kind of funny, 'cause I was
• 45:33
  like, you're not going to run any of these splits just so you
• 45:39
  know, like, and he kind of didn't.
• 45:44
  So and then, yeah, I, I made a joke about setting the
• 45:51
  screenshot with Spencer and for the wave heights.
• 45:56
  And so I was like, we don't know what we're doing.
• 46:01
  So we did this really big circle just to get back to where we
• 46:04
  started. Like just try to run even splits
• 46:06
  and don't go out too fast. So but yeah, it was it was like
• 46:12
  it just showed how dialed that we had to be.
• 46:15
  You know, Bram, who works for Wave Light was phenomenal, as
• 46:18
  well as Spencer in terms of like helping it because the big
• 46:22
  helping us because the big thing for for Kidder was like he I was
• 46:27
  a little worried because I've been in London Stadium with how
• 46:29
  the sunlight hits things. And so you might not be able to
• 46:32
  see the light, the wave light running fast because he's
• 46:35
  running fast, you know, like 16 miles an hour.
• 46:37
  So so we got in there Friday. Sure enough, he couldn't see
• 46:42
  him. We're like, OK, well, we know
• 46:44
  you can see, you know, the, the, you know, the time at 201
• 46:50
  hundred 400. So just see that.
• 46:52
  And so he was kind of like, what do I do?
• 46:54
  I was like, just don't get out too fast.
• 46:58
  Like you won't be able to see the light.
• 47:00
  It's for the crowd really. And so, yeah, he had to, it was
• 47:04
  hard for him because he had to kind of like watch the, you
• 47:09
  know, the, the actual time. And he could, if he looked down,
• 47:11
  he'd see the light. But you're like looking ahead.
• 47:13
  He couldn't. So getting, getting that really
• 47:15
  dialed for him so he could feel like a little bit comfortable.
• 47:19
  And then if Josh got into a situation where the white was
• 47:21
  getting away from him, like then we had like, you know, we talked
• 47:24
  through the mental strategies for that.
• 47:27
  So yeah, it was the whiteboard meeting was like 90 minutes
• 47:31
  long. It was very, we're talking
• 47:34
  literally over tenths of a second.
• 47:35
  And then we switched it like the week of like by by 2/10 of a
• 47:39
  second. So like I had to talk to Ray and
• 47:42
  Spencer. I was like, yeah, we wanted to
• 47:43
  go on 27 two instead 27 four. And Bram is super like he's like
• 47:48
  engineering man. So he's like got it.
• 47:50
  Like didn't question why we wanted to adjust 2 times.
• 47:53
  He's like, OK, we'll do it. You know, he's just like on
• 47:55
  board with it with it. And, and, and that was more to
• 47:59
  make sure Kidder felt like he could like get out harder and
• 48:02
  get in front of the guys. But 'cause that was the other
• 48:05
  thing too, is like there's racers in there.
• 48:06
  You don't know what they're gonna do.
• 48:08
  You know, there's like, and other guys that want to beat
• 48:10
  him. So yeah, the whiteboard meeting,
• 48:13
  I have a lot of pictures of the whiteboard.
• 48:14
  It was pure. It was very big.
• 48:18
  Josh is super proud of it. There's just numbers and cases
• 48:21
  everywhere. Then the cage door thing, Josh
• 48:28
  obviously I think brought that up where it's like everyone does
• 48:31
  their job. You shut the cage door now, then
• 48:33
  it's on him. Where did where did that start?
• 48:36
  Or I guess when did you 2 start with that?
• 48:39
  So Albuquerque's an interesting community.
• 48:43
  Have you been there before? No, I, I, I've never been.
• 48:47
  Yeah, so it's like, it's really like, it's a very, I was
• 48:52
  thinking about this cause of how good I felt when I got to
• 48:56
  London, just me running like Albuquerque's like this really
• 49:02
  tough environment. Like the people are tough, the
• 49:05
  weather kicks your ass. It's at altitude.
• 49:08
  But The thing is about the people there is they're like, I
• 49:11
  go to jiu jitsu. They're they're like terrifying
• 49:13
  human beings. They're all tatted up, tatted
• 49:15
  up, shaved head, cauliflower ears.
• 49:17
  They will destroy you on the math.
• 49:18
  But then they're like, hey, do you want to get coffee with me
• 49:20
  after? Like it's, you know, they're
• 49:21
  just really friendly and inviting.
• 49:23
  And so I feel like the cities, like the towns like that in
• 49:26
  Albuquerque, like it's beautiful, but if you mess with
• 49:30
  it too much, it will like make you suffer in athletic
• 49:32
  endeavors. And so and the other thing about
• 49:35
  Albuquerque is the MMA community is really big there because John
• 49:39
  Jones, Holly Holm, George, Saint Pierre, all these legendary UFC
• 49:44
  fighters train there. And so Greg Jackson's one of the
• 49:48
  head coaches for these major hubs for MMA and Josh a couple
• 49:53
  time I've had Greg talk to some of the athletes a couple time
• 49:55
  and Greg has an Octagon in his gym, so he locks the cage door.
• 49:59
  And so I think with Josh my because I love MMA and so and I
• 50:07
  think there's a lot of parallels between what fighters have to
• 50:09
  deal with and what track athletes deal with.
• 50:11
  So Josh and I and that resonates with Josh.
• 50:14
  So we talk a lot about that sport.
• 50:17
  And he, we were talking as we're walking to the tunnel and I said
• 50:26
  a couple things to him about the crowd, just to like, make sure,
• 50:31
  you know, his head was in a good place.
• 50:33
  And then he goes, all right, lock the cage door behind me.
• 50:36
  And so like, I just, that was it.
• 50:39
  And so then he, he said it again.
• 50:41
  So to you all. But yeah, that was the I, he
• 50:44
  just came, you know, he just came up with that.
• 50:46
  And I, I think it's 'cause I, I make him listen to me talk about
• 50:49
  fighting all the time, 'cause he'll come over like we all host
• 50:57
  UFC fight nights and stuff like that when there's like fun
• 50:59
  cards. And so a lot of the team comes
• 51:01
  over for that, which is like surprising because I wouldn't
• 51:04
  think most of them would care, but he he always does.
• 51:07
  So I think he just likes that kind of like just raw
• 51:11
  competition. So I liked that analogy that he
• 51:13
  said, yeah. He wanted you on the track and
• 51:17
  and you opted for like staying close by, I guess like in closer
• 51:22
  to stands, right, or like they had you in a in a separate
• 51:24
  place. Well, with with Miller's race,
• 51:28
  we were in like the bullpen for the coaches, Julian and I, and
• 51:33
  Julian was like, I think we can get over to where the high jump
• 51:37
  coaches coach. It's like right, right behind,
• 51:40
  like the digital screens that they have surrounding the track,
• 51:42
  you know, but he didn't want to like he didn't know if we could
• 51:45
  get in. So we didn't want to like go
• 51:48
  there and not be able to watch Brandon's race and like have
• 51:50
  Spencer like say you guys can't stand there, but Miller won.
• 51:53
  So we're like, OK, Spencer likes us now.
• 51:55
  So we're just going to do it. So we went up with, it was me
• 52:01
  and Dom, Josh, the videographer, Miller and Julian.
• 52:06
  And so were like, hey, can we go over there and start?
• 52:07
  Like, yeah, go there. So we were like, literally
• 52:09
  trackside. And London's has all the space
• 52:12
  from where those, like digital things are on the track in Lane
• 52:15
  8, Rick, surrounding Lane 8 to where the stadium seating is.
• 52:19
  So yeah. So I was sitting there, like
• 52:25
  looking calm. Julian and Miller are like
• 52:28
  bouncing around. Brad Ewer is right over here.
• 52:30
  Dom's kind of bouncing around. I'm just watching Josh like
• 52:33
  don't hit the rail, Don't like, don't break, don't like fall,
• 52:38
  you know, like thinking all these things don't happen.
• 52:41
  And then when he and then Yard sitting on him, like yard looks
• 52:45
  pretty good, like shit. And so then when you know, the
• 52:48
  pacer steps off and it's by himself, I'm like, OK, this is
• 52:50
  what we trained for. And then he started to roll.
• 52:53
  And then when he passed us at the 350 degree, 350 meters to
• 52:57
  go, I, I just watched him so much of the last 8 plus years.
• 53:02
  I was like, oh, he's going to do it.
• 53:03
  And then that's when I stood up. And then Miller, Julian and I
• 53:08
  were like little kids that like it was obnoxious.
• 53:10
  We're just running back and forth.
• 53:12
  Miller has like a 40 inch vert. There's this one video where he
• 53:15
  like, jumps over me to hug Julian.
• 53:18
  And so, yeah, so when he did it and then I think as we were
• 53:21
  talking about, Josh came over to us and he's like, I think he was
• 53:24
  yelling at us to get on the track.
• 53:26
  And I was like, I don't want you to get in trouble.
• 53:29
  So I'm not going to do that. You come over here, you know, so
• 53:36
  'cause I, I'm like, I don't think coaches, can you do that?
• 53:39
  I don't know. I just didn't want to risk it.
• 53:41
  So. But that was super fired up.
• 53:43
  So yeah. I mean, morning of and like as
• 53:47
  the meats progressing, you know, you have, you know, a high
• 53:51
  moment with with Brandon's race. But I guess like what, what,
• 53:56
  what what's happening with you internally?
• 53:57
  Like is it nerves? Is it just like a lot of that
• 54:01
  excitement, like a combination of everything?
• 54:04
  Yeah, I like, so my daughter was like, she remarkably travelled,
• 54:10
  like really well, but she still got up early so she woke me up.
• 54:13
  And then my old boss, Matt Weiss, who signed Josh, who
• 54:19
  still works at Brooks, and then my new boss who I coach for nine
• 54:23
  years, Garrett Heath. So we all did a run, like an 8
• 54:26
  mile run. And yeah, like I was, I'd
• 54:34
  brought the weather 50 times in eight miles and then but I
• 54:40
  wasn't that like I wasn't that nervous.
• 54:42
  I was more excited for it. Like I like competition, so and
• 54:46
  I and I just believe in Josh and so and I believe in the team.
• 54:50
  I was pretty excited. Yeah.
• 54:52
  I just like wanted to get it going and and then I got Miller
• 54:56
  first. The only thing I messed up the
• 54:59
  whole day was like I the the big mall is by the stadium.
• 55:05
  So my dumb ass like forgot that this thing sold out.
• 55:10
  So I was like, oh, I'll get I'll get something to eat.
• 55:13
  Get Miller, go to the warm up track and then Josh and Julian
• 55:16
  will meet us there. And so I'm at that mall and
• 55:19
  there's like a million people there.
• 55:22
  So I just didn't eat that day. So I'd been up since 6:00, ran
• 55:27
  like 8 1/2 miles. The race is at 3230 and then
• 55:31
  33330I just didn't eat because I didn't have time.
• 55:35
  I had like a yeah, I think I got like water.
• 55:39
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• 57:12
  Happy running. You've described it, I think, as
• 57:18
  like the most fun you've ever had at a sporting event.
• 57:22
  I mean, yeah, it like what's what's even close?
• 57:29
  I don't know, I mean, I'm a massive Cubs fan and when they
• 57:35
  won the World Series in 2016, that was really awesome.
• 57:38
  I'm a huge Michael Jordan fan. And like I've memories of just
• 57:42
  like watching it at watching the games at the friends houses and
• 57:46
  throwing parties. But this is still the best.
• 57:48
  It was like it was so fun. And I'm old, like, you know, to
• 57:51
  have that much fun and like that was amazing.
• 57:55
  Yeah. I don't, I, I want it to happen
• 57:57
  again. So it was.
• 57:59
  It was so cool. It's, it's not even to
• 58:02
  undersell, I guess the importance of Brandon's race
• 58:06
  too, 'cause it's like, I think that helped set the tone a
• 58:09
  little bit just too for the, the kind of day that that was bound
• 58:14
  to happen. I guess, I don't know.
• 58:16
  I mean, how, where do you think Josh was to what Brandon did
• 58:19
  before that race happened? And then I guess like for you, I
• 58:23
  guess, did that help just, you know, kind of up the optimism a
• 58:28
  bit? 100% So normally if an athlete
• 58:36
  races well, I will tell the next athlete who's competing on the
• 58:40
  team that they did well and here's what they did.
• 58:43
  So Josh was like, because his race was an hour after, so he
• 58:45
  was warming up and Miller was going.
• 58:48
  And so I popped in there, but Julian, watch Miller kick ass
• 58:52
  came out. Josh was like literally getting
• 58:55
  ready to start his job and he's tying his shoes.
• 58:58
  And I'm just reading off Miller's splits and Josh is like
• 59:01
  he's like looking up. He's like he's serious.
• 59:02
  He's like, yeah, he destroyed him.
• 59:03
  And it was awesome. And so that was like, OK, it's
• 59:07
  not that bad out there weather wise.
• 59:10
  So track the London's track is fast, crowd is amazing.
• 59:16
  Spencer does an amazing job at that meet.
• 59:18
  Just so just sort of kind of feeling like, oh, this is this
• 59:21
  is really good. And then it was couldn't have
• 59:23
  been better timing. Like Miller planned it.
• 59:26
  So he was coming out of the tunnel because he had all these
• 59:28
  interviews to give. And so as he's walking out of
• 59:31
  the tunnel, Josh is walking in. And Miller was just so fired up,
• 59:37
  you know, like, he's just clapping his hands, hugging Josh
• 59:40
  and like getting ready to go. And so yeah, that like that,
• 59:44
  like, you know, 70 minutes was was was great.
• 59:47
  And Miller's like, you know, cut from the same cloth.
• 59:50
  It's got Josh. He's just an awesome human being
• 59:52
  to work with. And so, you know, when he came
• 59:54
  in, him and Julie and I are, like, hugging each other.
• 59:56
  We're like, we're going out there watching Josh to do it,
• 59:58
  you know? So it's like, it was fun.
• 59:59
  Yeah. Miller helped for sure.
• 1:00:02
  So yeah, with with with Brandon, I guess like the addition of him
• 1:00:05
  to the team and like, I mean, what, what has he brought?
• 1:00:10
  And I guess like first year, I guess like already starting to
• 1:00:14
  see some of the benefits of, you know, the training under you.
• 1:00:18
  But this year in particular, I mean, like what I guess you have
• 1:00:22
  one year, but then this year, is it just building upon last year
• 1:00:26
  that has really kind of helped him level up to, I mean, he's
• 1:00:29
  arguably behind Cooper, right? Like the second best 800m runner
• 1:00:33
  in the US and also has a chance of, you know, running 141 later
• 1:00:38
  this year. So I think with Miller, you
• 1:00:42
  know, when he came in the end of 2023, he was hurt and he had run
• 1:00:47
  147 his first year as a pro. And so I was really cautious
• 1:00:54
  with how to handle 2024. But, you know, I still thought
• 1:01:00
  he could like, maybe make the team, the Olympic team.
• 1:01:04
  And, you know, so we adjusted things in training that I
• 1:01:08
  thought could be helpful for him.
• 1:01:09
  And Miller's pretty open minded with that.
• 1:01:11
  And so it was a really big credit to him that he just
• 1:01:14
  wanted to trust me with that. And so, yeah, so that year went
• 1:01:19
  well, you know, PRD and then made the Olympic team.
• 1:01:24
  And then in 25, like I, I think I kind of didn't do him a good,
• 1:01:29
  I did a little disservice. I was too conservative with him.
• 1:01:33
  The other thing is like, I didn't, I was just caught off
• 1:01:36
  guard with how the USA is went like, I didn't think that's what
• 1:01:39
  it would would take to make the team.
• 1:01:43
  And it's probably the hardest I've taken an L as a coach is up
• 1:01:52
  there just because like, you know, when somebody buys in and
• 1:01:55
  they like trust you and then they don't do it, you're like,
• 1:01:57
  it's my fault, you know? And so, so I talked to Miller a
• 1:02:01
  little bit and I was like, we're going to have to push it to the
• 1:02:03
  envelope because it could take 141 to make the team.
• 1:02:05
  Not that there's a team to make this year, but we wanted to set
• 1:02:11
  a precedent in the US and globally.
• 1:02:13
  So he was totally on board and you know, he let me do some
• 1:02:18
  goofy things and training that I think would help his kick.
• 1:02:21
  And so yeah, so like, you know, we've adjusted some stuff, but
• 1:02:27
  it's a little bit just doing, he's just training a little
• 1:02:29
  harder right now. But it's, it's a combination of
• 1:02:32
  that and the culmination of like 3 years of doing it that I think
• 1:02:35
  is why he is doing what he's doing.
• 1:02:38
  The other thing is he's like evolved his race strategy a
• 1:02:43
  little bit 'cause he's like when, when last year indoor
• 1:02:48
  World Championships, when he got fifth, he was like, I'm taking
• 1:02:51
  Holly head on. And I don't, I never want to
• 1:02:57
  deflate an athlete, but I was like, I, I think that's not a
• 1:03:02
  great idea that, that you can't beat him.
• 1:03:04
  But like, you know, this is how I think you should beat him.
• 1:03:07
  And Miller is just he's a dog man.
• 1:03:10
  So he just took him head on and he got him and then it cost
• 1:03:13
  Miller battle. And so, you know, I think for
• 1:03:17
  him he was like, all right, I need to like have another tool
• 1:03:21
  in my toolbox. And so he still got that ace up
• 1:03:25
  his sleeve of hammering. I think we'll hope to see
• 1:03:29
  something that was on with that with him.
• 1:03:30
  But the kick was like, you know, he was like, OK, let's like
• 1:03:33
  adjust some stuff and and do that.
• 1:03:36
  And he's a perfect candidate to rate race like that.
• 1:03:39
  He's he's like light and powerful.
• 1:03:42
  You know, he's a smaller framed guy, I mean, and really powerful
• 1:03:45
  and he's strong. Like he PR by I don't know how
• 1:03:48
  many seconds, like 12 in the 1500 ran through 35 last year.
• 1:03:51
  I bet you could run 31 right now.
• 1:03:54
  So if you have a guy that can run that fast in like a 200 and
• 1:03:56
  run a 331, you know, like he should be able to kick if he's,
• 1:04:01
  you know, smart, the 1st 600, it's been fun.
• 1:04:05
  He's like looking good too. Like he had a really good
• 1:04:07
  workout this week. And yeah, we've been nice seeing
• 1:04:11
  my scooper again in New York. His final 100 in London was.
• 1:04:17
  So nasty. Yeah, I, I was reading it was a
• 1:04:21
  David Epstein's, like, newsletter.
• 1:04:22
  And then, of course, like his his book where he talks about
• 1:04:26
  like, you know, age group phenoms and how they pan out and
• 1:04:30
  stuff. And so, you know, even someone
• 1:04:33
  like Brandon where he had all these national records as a
• 1:04:36
  teenager and now he's, you know, better than ever, right?
• 1:04:40
  So it's like when you took him on, I guess, and reviewed some
• 1:04:45
  of his history or have talked to him about that kind of stuff.
• 1:04:48
  Like, what do you think it is that his, you know, maybe his
• 1:04:51
  previous coach's family did right?
• 1:04:54
  That kind of helped keep some meat on the bone that is now
• 1:04:57
  actually like succeeding. Yeah, so his mom and dad coached
• 1:05:02
  him when he was in high school and I think they did a really
• 1:05:08
  amazing job of like teaching him how to compete and not overdoing
• 1:05:16
  it in any one area of training. You know, if it's like volume or
• 1:05:21
  intensity or weight room stuff. Like he had a really good like
• 1:05:27
  even distribution of that. And so, yeah, so he's not, he's
• 1:05:31
  not burned out. Like he's super excited to keep
• 1:05:35
  doing this. He loves his job.
• 1:05:37
  And that's all this stuff too is like, you know, at meeting a
• 1:05:41
  parent now, it's like I think of stuff that Miller's parents did,
• 1:05:45
  you know, like I, I am curious from like the mental standpoint
• 1:05:49
  because he was so good when he was young.
• 1:05:51
  Like how he at 24 is like still childlike with how he approaches
• 1:05:59
  the sport and how much he loves racing in these big moments.
• 1:06:02
  Because sometimes you see that the kids get burnt out.
• 1:06:05
  He's just not mentally, he's not mentally burnt out.
• 1:06:09
  So that's, you know, that's probably more of like what
• 1:06:12
  they're talking about at dinner and if anything then like how
• 1:06:15
  they coached him and just like raising such a, you know,
• 1:06:20
  well-rounded person in that way. With the success Brandon's had
• 1:06:24
  with Josh, of course, like when you show up to practice and
• 1:06:29
  you've got the rest of the team, like what have the vibes been
• 1:06:32
  like? Because I feel like it's
• 1:06:33
  contagious. And, you know, all these people
• 1:06:36
  probably see that kind of stuff in it, and they can feed off of
• 1:06:39
  those performances, too. Yeah, vibes are high right now.
• 1:06:44
  Yeah, it's we, we had a couple days we didn't meet when we got
• 1:06:49
  back from New York because, you know, USA is hard on the
• 1:06:53
  American athletes and it's four days.
• 1:06:56
  It's really mentally draining to get into New York and back.
• 1:06:58
  It's not super easy. You know, quite frankly, like I
• 1:07:03
  just was like pressing so hard. And so I needed like a a day or
• 1:07:07
  two to like unpack my bag. But vibes are high.
• 1:07:13
  Tomorrow practice, we're going to be on the track here in
• 1:07:16
  Seattle, obviously. Yeah, so and some people are out
• 1:07:20
  racing, but yeah, I think it, I think we're in a good spot
• 1:07:24
  there. I think the other athletes that
• 1:07:26
  are, you know, like still in the developmental phase, trying to
• 1:07:30
  get better. Like I think of Tegan, you know,
• 1:07:33
  running her third PR in a row, so and making her first final
• 1:07:37
  ever. I think like, you know, she she
• 1:07:40
  was super excited when when we got to New York and, you know,
• 1:07:44
  learned some of the stuff that these older athletes are doing.
• 1:07:47
  I think it's AI think it's a good spot.
• 1:07:48
  And then we hire, we signed some really good rookies coming in
• 1:07:51
  too. So, you know, they're they're
• 1:07:54
  excited to sign and join, which is always a great indicator of
• 1:07:57
  like how they'll be as teammates.
• 1:08:00
  So yeah, next you'll have its challenges for sure, because
• 1:08:03
  there's like this disparity on the team.
• 1:08:05
  You know, it's like we have these new people.
• 1:08:08
  We have a couple veterans that like, you know, Josh and Miller
• 1:08:11
  might end the year and the one in the world.
• 1:08:12
  And so, you know, getting everybody together from a Click
• 1:08:17
  to a common goal is a little bit probably a big challenge on me
• 1:08:21
  next year. But our team culture is strong
• 1:08:24
  and they like trading together and they understand that you
• 1:08:29
  working with each other is the best way they can be
• 1:08:31
  individually successful. So, you know, they can kind of
• 1:08:34
  foster that healthy culture on their own, too.
• 1:08:38
  All right, some rapid fire ones to close things out.
• 1:08:41
  Everyone probably wants a number here, but what is What does Josh
• 1:08:45
  run for a 5K this season If you built a race around it with.
• 1:08:50
  This 01240. Literally, I think that's
• 1:08:55
  exactly what Mack Fleet said. He's like he's going to say
• 1:08:57
  something absurd like 1240. Yeah, yeah, 'cause he, yeah, I
• 1:09:04
  feel confident with that. Josh hates the 5K, so you know,
• 1:09:08
  he's beat him up. But yeah, 1240 seems reasonable
• 1:09:11
  for him. I mean, he's won, you know,
• 1:09:13
  people, people give him a hard time.
• 1:09:14
  He has won two titles in the world for the 3K.
• 1:09:19
  Yeah, it's not bad at other events.
• 1:09:22
  What's the longest race Josh runs before he retires?
• 1:09:26
  Because he he did have that quote.
• 1:09:27
  I think that they picked up where he they said he he wants
• 1:09:30
  to win the London Marathon before his career is.
• 1:09:32
  Done. Yes, yeah, he, I don't know if
• 1:09:35
  he does that to give me a hard time, but I, I actually think
• 1:09:40
  the marathon, I think he, he said something the other day
• 1:09:44
  like a couple weeks ago and I was like, OK, shit, he's
• 1:09:48
  serious, 'cause I actually love the marathon.
• 1:09:50
  So yeah, that'd be, that's what he wants to do.
• 1:09:57
  If he wants to skip the five and a 10 and just go right to the
• 1:10:00
  marathon, let's do it. If you got to design 1500 meter
• 1:10:07
  record attempt from scratch, and I know you said you hate the
• 1:10:10
  Pacers, the wave lights and all that stuff, but I'll let you
• 1:10:12
  pick. Venue date Rabbits Time of year?
• 1:10:15
  What does it look like? This could be a real thing
• 1:10:20
  because we've talked about this and I've working with Bram, the
• 1:10:27
  the Wave Light founder was really fun.
• 1:10:29
  The guy's just so dialed. Like we got to hire this guy
• 1:10:31
  somehow. Like he's just, he's just so
• 1:10:33
  dialed. I would want to go back to
• 1:10:41
  London next year and do it there.
• 1:10:46
  Yeah. What else did you ask me about
• 1:10:47
  it? All right, so you said date
• 1:10:50
  would be London, London next year Rabbits.
• 1:10:53
  I guess at that point you have, you have Gary probably with a
• 1:10:56
  with some training under under you I.
• 1:10:59
  I proposed Gary this year when Sam went down and we were like
• 1:11:06
  it was like sun. It was like Monday so would have
• 1:11:10
  been still moving. But you know, Gary might want to
• 1:11:13
  be in the race. It's true.
• 1:11:16
  Maybe, you know, Josh have to financially reward him enough to
• 1:11:20
  sell him on taking him through 1200.
• 1:11:23
  But yeah, I don't know the guy that he was that was supposed to
• 1:11:27
  be the second pacer. I'd like to, I I really like his
• 1:11:30
  coach and it'd be cool to have him him help, you know, maybe we
• 1:11:34
  have, oh, I don't even know, Kidder come back and do it, take
• 1:11:39
  it through it again. Yeah.
• 1:11:41
  Pacers that I have to think about a little bit.
• 1:11:44
  The kidder I want to have is the first Pacer again.
• 1:11:48
  Yeah. That's a harder job.
• 1:11:50
  It's like it's hard, like not easy to do what he did.
• 1:11:56
  Yeah. So I think it was a week ago you
• 1:11:58
  told let's run that the 1500 record is unlikely this year.
• 1:12:02
  I guess we're we're chatting another week later.
• 1:12:04
  Has it changed it like or still you think unlikely?
• 1:12:09
  And I don't know, today's Thursday.
• 1:12:12
  So Josh looked good in his round.
• 1:12:17
  Better than he, didn't he? He.
• 1:12:18
  Barely broke a sweat with that 358 and it was it was actually
• 1:12:21
  very. Funny, did you see him stop his
• 1:12:23
  watch? Like, come on, dude.
• 1:12:26
  He, he, he just like did that Like he wasn't, but that was
• 1:12:29
  like cracking up. He looked good.
• 1:12:31
  So I don't know how many opportunities do we have left.
• 1:12:36
  We have like Zurich or something like that.
• 1:12:38
  It's like kind of late. I would think it's like still
• 1:12:41
  under 40% because like I, he's flying pretty close to the sun
• 1:12:48
  right now. And, you know, if there's one
• 1:12:52
  thing I've hopefully done well with Josh over these eight years
• 1:12:55
  is like, I've protected him a little bit.
• 1:12:59
  And so I would be a little surprised if we can fly,
• 1:13:03
  continue to fly that close to the sun.
• 1:13:06
  But he's fit. So he looked good yesterday.
• 1:13:11
  There's the ultimate champs, right?
• 1:13:13
  And there's a wild card path into that, like also maybe on
• 1:13:17
  the table or what? That's that's on the table,
• 1:13:20
  yeah. Yeah, all right.
• 1:13:22
  Final one is Josh said that the reason he did this whole thing
• 1:13:26
  was he was doing it for the 8 year old version in the stands
• 1:13:29
  at Meadowbank on a dark night. So what's the equivalent for
• 1:13:32
  you? I guess like what's who's the
• 1:13:34
  version of Danny Mackie that you know, all of this was was for?
• 1:13:39
  I was asking that you know my path to being a coach.
• 1:13:46
  I've said this before it like before I got the Beast job, I
• 1:13:50
  applied to 217 NCAA jobs and that's cover letter specific to
• 1:13:57
  the university, phone calls, countless emails, and I got one
• 1:14:04
  interview, you know, in in the place, you know, five years I
• 1:14:09
  was doing that applying and I didn't get the job offer.
• 1:14:13
  I still give hell in a hard time.
• 1:14:14
  She was the San Francisco coach and she pushed it Oregon for a
• 1:14:17
  little bit. And so, yeah, so I think of I
• 1:14:23
  think of coaches that are grinding to try to just
• 1:14:28
  honestly, like work with athletes.
• 1:14:31
  You know, like, for me, when I was working at Nike, I started a
• 1:14:35
  nonprofit with a couple other people there.
• 1:14:37
  And, you know, my motivation was, well, we, we we were trying
• 1:14:41
  to put athletes into public schools for physical education
• 1:14:44
  because it's not mandatory in Oregon.
• 1:14:47
  So we're trying to help underprivileged schools just be
• 1:14:49
  active. And then the other thing was
• 1:14:52
  like, I have to coach some athletes then.
• 1:14:54
  And so, you know, Steven Pifer, who now works at Skechers, Yeah,
• 1:14:58
  I could think for a second, was one of the first high level male
• 1:15:01
  athletes and actually the first athlete that ever paid me,
• 1:15:04
  Brandon Griffith, a high school kid out of Georgia, I think his
• 1:15:07
  dad paid me like 40 bucks a month.
• 1:15:10
  That was when I was in grad school.
• 1:15:11
  So I think of those coaches a lot and like people that were in
• 1:15:19
  the situation I was in 20 years ago, I was at GA, at Colorado
• 1:15:23
  State and with Dell hassle. And so I think if there's a lot
• 1:15:29
  of G as out there not making any money working 50 hours a week.
• 1:15:35
  A lot of my high school teammates and roommates are
• 1:15:38
  really like Andy Dirks and John Sipple and Jeff Jenidis are
• 1:15:42
  really phenomenal high school coaches in Illinois.
• 1:15:45
  And they don't get, they just, you know, they, they have their
• 1:15:49
  state championships and stuff like that, but they, there's not
• 1:15:52
  a but with that, they're just really good at what they do.
• 1:15:55
  I, I think, you know, I just got fortunate enough where I saw
• 1:16:00
  Josh running a 300, you know, when I was in Albuquerque and
• 1:16:04
  him and I connected right away. And so, yeah, I hope that I, and
• 1:16:13
  I'm really proud of the fact that I've stood up against
• 1:16:15
  doping for my life and career on the line to stand up for clean
• 1:16:21
  sport. And so I think for coaches that
• 1:16:27
  see the way Josh did it, it's like scalable to high school
• 1:16:32
  athletes and college athletes. And there's just this, you know,
• 1:16:37
  love of the pursuit that even a recreational person that's like
• 1:16:41
  trying to get off the couch and run a 5K can be inspired by that
• 1:16:46
  because you know, Josh is like a very we we were joking around
• 1:16:49
  about it with doctor Kyle, like, like he, you know, he just eats
• 1:16:53
  really healthy. That's hard to do though.
• 1:16:56
  I know that for myself. So I think it represents like
• 1:17:01
  this kind of blue collar approach and grind and, you
• 1:17:06
  know, not leaving any stone unturned.
• 1:17:08
  Like if you get denied 217 times, you know, that's like he
• 1:17:12
  did someone telling you're not good enough.
• 1:17:13
  So it's, you know, to, for me to like go to the US championships
• 1:17:18
  and have all these people say like that I've, you know, quite
• 1:17:21
  frankly, I didn't even know they knew that.
• 1:17:23
  I, they, I just think they think I'm some dude that's around the
• 1:17:26
  Brooks, if they even know about the Brooks team.
• 1:17:28
  And so it's like, I had so many people coming up to me.
• 1:17:31
  It was just like this, you know, that's, it's weird, but you
• 1:17:36
  know, it's, it's still, we're still like this grinding team.
• 1:17:39
  Like, I don't think that will change.
• 1:17:40
  That won't change. And yeah, so I think it stands
• 1:17:44
  for those people that, like are trying to trying to work with
• 1:17:48
  human beings, man. You know, like, it's the hardest
• 1:17:50
  part of the job and it's the most rewarding.
• 1:17:52
  Like you can't recreate the feeling that Josh did for me as
• 1:17:59
  a coach, like in any sort of like synthetic way, like it had
• 1:18:04
  to been done the way that he did it.
• 1:18:07
  And I think that's why a lot of people like coaching.
• 1:18:13
  I just got done from jiu jitsu. Marcel Alonso's the my jiu jitsu
• 1:18:17
  coach. He's was paralyzed at one point.
• 1:18:21
  He's almost 60, so his spine is fused.
• 1:18:24
  And it's like the thing today was 5 dudes, I'm the youngest
• 1:18:29
  one is 39, I'm the second youngest.
• 1:18:32
  And so we're just a group of older guys.
• 1:18:35
  And he is like so passionate about it, just teaching us this
• 1:18:38
  new stuff. And that's what coaching is, you
• 1:18:41
  know, same thing with getting a world record.
• 1:18:43
  It's still, it's just scalable the other way, so.
• 1:18:47
  Very cool. Well, once again,
• 1:18:49
  congratulations, Danny and it you know, I'm sure the
• 1:18:53
  performance from Josh brought so much joy to you and I guess like
• 1:18:57
  all these achievements so far this year from the beast have,
• 1:18:59
  you know, brought a lot of joy to a lot of other people too.
• 1:19:02
  So Congrats and excited for the season to continue and.
• 1:19:07
  Keep rolling. So there's more to come.
• 1:19:09
  Thanks, Chris. I appreciate it.
• 1:19:12
  All right, that's a wrap on today's episode.
• 1:19:14
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• 1:19:17
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• 1:19:20
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• 1:19:23
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• 1:19:26
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