Olympian Joe Klecker on Training & Preparing with Purpose - UCAN

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Episode Summary Olympian Joe Klecker, who competed at the Tokyo Olympics for the U.S. in the 10,000 meters, shares how this first big experience is a stepping stone towards more big moments. We chat with Joe about the support network he's created with his coach Dathan Ritzenhein and On Running, and how he navigated the previous year to set himself up for this year's success. “Now that I've been running for over a decade, I could just keep adding things and adding things. And by the end of the day, I would be training 24/7, adding all these new exercises. And I do gain a lot of confidence from doing these things, but then I like to assess what's actually helping me."

Episode Notes:

(3:25) Continuing an Olympic legacy…

(5:43) A couple of tricks that worked for Jon…

(7:16) Key advice to make the 10,000-meter team…

(11:12) Making all the right decisions in the last portion of the race…

(14:31) “I got a lot of confidence in where I ran my 10k PR, the conditions were a bit warm and I knew that I was well in shape to run the standard.”

(16:32) The power of a Coach’s belief…

(18:37) “You're not just running as hard as you can to hit that pace. You need to be relaxed.”

(23:15) A team dynamic and an effective training approach…

(25:26) How has Covid impacted training, and what does strength training look like?

(31:24) What ancillary activities do you feel are important?

(34:42) “I mean, obviously, my whole career has been surrounded by my mom being an Olympian. When I'm at cross country meets in high school, that's kind of what people know, like, ‘Oh, that's Joe, his mom's an Olympian.’”

(36:27) A few words about reaching a career goal early…

(39:35) Preparing for Tokyo…

(43:47) “Every day, your training doesn't need to be perfect. But if you have a purpose every day when you go out, I think that it makes it a lot easier to see improvement, even on easy days.”

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