Michael Hammond and Jeff Gaudette: How New Virtual Tools Will Transform Your Running and Racing 07/22/2020

Michael Hammond and Jeff Gaudette: How New Virtual Tools Will Transform Your Running and Racing Some big changes have been happening this year at RunnersConnect. You may or may not have noticed that company founder Jeff Gaudette has been a little quieter than usual while working on a mystery project and Michael Hammond has stepped up as CEO. Coach Claire interviews them both to find out what's been going on and what RunnersConnect members can expect to see going forward. First, Head Coach Michael Hammond tells us who he is, what big changes were happening in RunnersConnect heading into 2020, and how the company has pivoted in response to the pandemic. How does an online coaching platform focused on training runners for races stay relevant during these unprecedented times when essentially every race for the year has been canceled? Next, Jeff Gaudette discusses his exciting new company he's been working on behind the scenes to help you stay motivated and at your running best during this new norm of virtual racing. He's come up with a great new way to make individual racing fair, fun, and more engaging. There's definitely a lot to look forward to! Jeff Gaudette is an elite marathoner who founded RunnersConnect in 2011 as a better way to coach his personal clients. He was a two-time Division-I All-American in Cross Country at Brown University and competed professionally for four years afterwards. He has competed internationally in numerous marathons with a personal best of 2:22:02, and has recorded Olympic Trials qualifying times in the marathon and 10,000 meters. Jeff's coaching career started in 2004 when he was a member of the Hansons-Brooks professional team. He's had success at all levels of coaching; high school, college, local elite, and everyday runners. Under his tutelage, hundreds of runners have finished their first marathon and he's helped countless runners qualify for Boston. Jeff has been featured in Running Times magazine, Endurance Magazine, as well as numerous local magazine fitness columns. Michael Hammond is the Head Coach and newly appointed CEO of RunnersConnect. He competed in cross country and track while at Virginia Tech, earning two ACC titles and four NCAA All-American honors. His individual efforts led his team to four ACC team championships: one in cross country, two in indoor track, and one in outdoor track. Post-collegiately, Michael has competed formerly as a member of Furman Elite in Greenville, South Carolina and currently as an independent athlete. He now trains at his alma mater while also serving as a volunteer assistant with the team. Michael's passion for helping athletes succeed began while counseling high school runners at cross country camps. Since then he has coached several local athletes of various ability levels while continuing to gain experience at the college level. You can catch him every Friday on the Team Update segments of the Run To The Top podcast. Questions Michael and Jeff are asked: 2:35 2020 has been a historic year, to say the least, with everything that is going on in the world. Big changes were going on in Runners Connect before the pandemic hit and we expected an exciting year, but obviously nothing like this could have been predicted. If we can rewind to December 2019, what was your vision for Runners Connect in 2020? 6:24 Most of our listeners do know what RunnersConnect offers, but for those who don't, could you just give just a quick elevator speech of exactly if you go to RunnersConnect, what are you looking at? What would you get if you go to RunnersConnect? 8:31 Let's get into all the races being canceled. Traditionally, RunnersConnect has always been race-oriented, meaning that most of our athletes sign up with a particular race in mind, so obviously RunnersConnect had to make some changes. What were the changes that RunnersConnect made? 13:45 Speaking of getting fitter and stronger, you have been doing something a little special with strength training. Do you want to talk about what you've been doing pretty much since the pandemic started to help people get strong? 22:00 You mentioned that you and Jeff came up with this idea for live sessions, so we're going to hear from him at the end of our conversation, but I would love to talk about Jeff while he's not here for a second. We at RunnersConnect never really made a big splash or a big announcement about where is Jeff and who is this guy Michael? So I'm going to give the ball to you and talk about that. What on earth has happened to Jeff Gaudette and who are you, Michael? 28:57 We've got some great things coming up for our RC members, and I will ask Jeff when he comes on about some of those exciting new features, but before we wrap up with you, Michael, what do you see happening in the future of RunnersConnect? I know it's hard to see so far with nobody knows when this pandemic's going to end, but anything you'd like to share about how we're moving forward? 40:18 Jeff, can you talk about your new company Fitually, how it started and why it's so special? Questions I ask everyone: 33:39 If you could go back and talk to yourself when you first started running, what advice would you give yourself? 35:16 What is the greatest gift that running has given you? 37:49 Where can listeners connect with you? Quotes by Michael and Jeff: "We want to provide every single resource we possibly can to give you what you need to run your best." "So much of RunnersConnect in the past has always been like a utility. You want to run 'X' time or finish 'X' race or run 'X' distance, you come to us; we help you achieve that. Bam. That's it. Whereas there's so much more to it than that. People desire so much more to it than that. So I think that's been a huge learning point to me in doing live sessions." "We're definitely going to do everything we can to improve the running lives and just the lives in general from a holistic standpoint of everyone who's one of our athletes or one of our listeners." "I started to think, is there a way that we can make virtual events better? Is there a way we can bring some of the elements that make in-person races exciting to a virtual event?" Take a Listen on Your Next Run Want more awesome interviews and advice? Subscribe to our iTunes channel Mentioned in this podcast: email Michael RunnersConnect Fitually Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community RunnersConnect Facebook page claire@runnersconnect.net Follow Michael on: Instagram We really hope you've enjoyed this episode of Run to the Top. The best way you can show your support of the show is to share this podcast with your family and friends and share it on your Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media channel you use. The more people who know about the podcast and download the episodes, the more I can reach out to and get top running influencers, to bring them on and share their advice, which hopefully makes the show even more enjoyable for you!