The Athlete/Coach Relationship

The Athlete’s Viewpoint. By Chris Lukezic. Chris Lukezic, Georgetown '06, has run 3:33.28 for 1,500 meters and 3:54.46 for the mile. My mother wasn't exactly thrilled that day in October 2000 when she discovered that I had carved numbers into the drywall next to my bed. It wasn’t just a bunch of numbers, though. It was my goal for the spring track season of my junior year in high school -- 4:08 for the mile.
At the time, I don’t think she really understood, but when I ran that fast, less than eight months later, she came to see why it was important enough to carve into the wall. That was the first time I began to set concrete goals for myself, and carving “4:08” into the wall was a way of giving my goals permanence. It was an ever-present reminder of what I was working toward in my training. Every morning I would wake up and that “4:08” was always there. And all my hard work paid off on June 3, 2001, when I ran 4:08.83.
Since then, I have been consistently building volume and intensity in my training every year, while at the same time working to strengthen my weaknesses. I began running in high school with the intention that one day I would be the best miler in the world. That's still my goal.
When I was a freshman at Georgetown University I sat down with my coach, Juli Henner, to discuss my goals both for the year and for my career in general. It was an odd discussion -- verbalizing for the first time all my dreams and aspirations. I told her that whatever we did, I wanted it to advance me toward that goal of becoming the best miler in the world. That's what we've worked toward in the past and that's what we'll continue to work toward in 2008 and beyond.
Juli had the foresight to see that I wanted to achieve things that wouldn’t come until well after my college years, and she structured my training around that fact. Right from the start, she told me I'd have to be patient and wait for my time to come. Greatness in middle and long distance running is a long, slow, hard journey that doesn't happen overnight. It comes only after you put in the work.
Five years after we started, Juli still constantly reminds me that it takes time and patience to get to the level I want to be at. The human body needs years of training to improve performance by even 1%. I am 23 right now and I know
I might not reach my full potential for another 4 or 5 years. People have always told me that anything worth achieving in life is worth working for and waiting for. No one ever told me how difficult that theory would be in practice.
Reaching any goal involves setting both long-term and short-term goals to help you keep improving. Sometimes I find myself getting sidetracked by my dreams and forget to focus on the short-term things I need to accomplish day to day, week to week, and year to year.
I've come to realize that fulfilling my dreams is merely a matter of continually training harder and training smarter by working to correct my weaknesses
and exploit my strengths. I continually evaluate and assess what I am doing to make myself a better athlete on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. It is an endless process of evaluating and honing my abilities. There is always room for improvement in running. However, it only comes by working harder. The blessing of being a professional runner is that I am now able to spend more time on this process.
To facilitate my self-evaluation I sometimes set daily goals -- a list of things I need to do to become a better runner. For example, in my freshman year of college I was battling some shin problems. I had very weak lower legs and ankles, and I needed to strengthen them to remain injury-free. So for a month I did a series of exercises every day to strengthen my ankles and legs. After that I continued to do them 3 days a week and still do to this day. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, one item on my list of things to do is to carry out this series of balance and Thera-band exercises to strengthen an area of my body that wouldn’t get stronger simply through running.
At the time it was difficult to see how those exercises were going to make me a better runner. But as time passed, I could see that my legs were now stronger, which meant I could train harder without injury. It was easy to see how the accumulation of my efforts paid off in the future. The same can be said of every other facet of my training regimen.
Besides the daily goals, Juli and I set weekly and monthly goals to focus on the specific physiological components of running that need to be worked on. For instance, we will spend December building leg strength and aerobic capacity with a more focused approach to weight room sessions, an increase in training volume and more threshold running. January might be the introduction of race-specific work and muscle explosiveness while still gearing everything towards building aerobic fitness. Each month is used as a gauge to monitor progress towards my yearly goals while each year is a gauge to monitor the progression
towards my career goals. Training in this way is learning to balance the micro level details with macro level goals and expectations.
I've made huge progressions every year and I thought naturally that 2007 would be the year I would continue my progression into the realm of the truly world-class. That didn’t happen, and it's something that frustrated me no end throughout the season. I was unwilling to let go of the fact that greatness is a struggle and not a gift, while reminding myself that anything worth achieving in the sport was worth working
harder and waiting longer for.
Until 2007, each season developed in a similar fashion; I would set a goal and then go about training my body to push itself as far as it could go and then, voila! Mission accomplished! This past year was the first time I had to deal with the disappointment of not meeting my expectations and goals. I finished 4th at the US Outdoor Championships and missed making the team for the World Championships by one place. Even worse was knowing that there was nothing else I could have done to get myself ready.
I never missed a run or a weight room session. Every week and day of training was like clockwork. For the first time in my life I had the confidence that I was training harder or as hard as anyone else in the world. I knew that barring injury there was nothing that would keep me from reaching my goals. I remember crossing the finish line at the US Championships in fourth place and having tears involuntarily flow down from my eyes.
I had put everything into my preparation for that race. It was as if the world had collapsed in front of me that day and all the hard work I had done since the beginning of my career seemed fruitless. I was in the best shape of my life and I held onto the notion that if I was in shape that it was all that mattered.
It took me a long time to let go of that race and to move my focus towards the future. Within a few days my body would make it apparent that I was fighting a nasty bronchial infection that wouldn’t get better until August and didn’t disappear entirely until November. In August I flew back home to Washington, DC from my training base in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, where I was faced with the decision of whether to continue to race or call it a season. I followed the old adage that the only thing that would make me forget about the preceding
months was getting back on the veritable horse.
I chose to continue racing even while not racing at my best. And it was at my last race of the season, the Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile, that I was finally able to forget about the past and come to the conclusion that what happened in 2007 was only a temporary misstep on my path to reach even larger goals.
I was so excited just to be out there on that day that I led the race and pushed the pace from the start until the last 200m. Ultimately, this ruined my chances of winning the race, but it gave me the confidence and sense of freedom that I hadn’t experienced the entire year. I find that it is so easy to become consumed by my success and my failures that I forget the bigger picture of the sport and life in general.
I love this sport for everything it has to offer. Good days and bad days are just part of the drama. Even the best athletes in the world have bad days. Hicham El Guerrouj’s triumph in the 1500m and 5000m at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games would not have been so inspiring without his failures in 1996 and 2000. As a fierce competitor, I needed 2007 to give me the extra motivation as I begin training for 2008 and my ultimate goal of making the Olympic team in the 1500m. Juli always says that no matter how great or how poorly you run in a race, the ultimate goal is to take something away that you can learn from and perfect so that the next time is always better.
I am now in my third year as a professional runner, having now finally adjusted from the collegiate lifestyle. I'm able to focus more of my time and energy on training, but at the same time I am often faced with exhausting workouts carried out in complete solitude instead of having teammates to suffer with me. Since my life is now completely focused on running, it also becomes a challenge to leave the workouts on the track and not bring the bad workouts and races home with me.
Being a professional runner does not change the coaching relationship I was used to in high school or college, but it does increase the importance of the role the coach has in keeping me focused -- and sometimes getting me to focus less.
A good coach will view the process as a partnership, not a dictatorship, where both athlete and coach come to the realization that it is truly a collaborative effort towards our common goal.
Juli and I have been working together since my freshman year at Georgetown. She competed at the 1996 Olympic Games in the 1500m so she brings a great deal of perspective to my training, which at this level is about so much more than just the workouts. The amount of traveling I do in the summer often makes it easy to feel stressed about everything unfamiliar. Juli has been in that position before. My first summer racing in Europe was navigated with relative ease because she was able to help me find the mindset I needed to be prepared to race under any circumstance.
Her experience provides insight for me on every aspect of the sport, not just the workouts and races. She knows the pressures runners can put on themselves, and she tries to Keep me from making those mistakes. She kept me from digging myself into a hole this past summer when I was battling bronchitis, but at the same time she urged me to continue looking forward to racing again. If it hadn’t been for her guidance I never would have continued to race, and never would have been able to let go of the frustration I faced throughout the year.
No matter how good you are, there must always be a commitment to finding your limits and never being satisfied with mediocrity. This sport is unrelenting. There will always be someone who can run faster, jump higher, or throw farther than you can. Track and field is a stage set for some of the most dramatic performances imaginable. Every athlete will sooner or later face adversity similar to what I faced in 2007. When you watch an Olympic final you can bet that every runner on the starting line can tell you a similar story of disappointment and struggle on the way to glory and fame.
The Coach’s Viewpoint By Julie Henner Julie Henner, a 1996 U.S.Olympian at 1,500 meters, coaches middle distance runners at Georgetown. Although I am coach and no longer a competitor, I can still clearly recall the sense of urgency I felt every single day as I went out the door to train. I had very big goals, but I had no patience, which can be a lethal combination for an athlete. I could not see the big picture, nor imagine the long career I might have in track and field.
I wanted it to happen now.
This immaturity I had as a runner now fuels the fire I have as a coach. My aim is to instill in my athletes the patience that is absolutely crucial to success in track and field.
I've only been coaching for a few years, but I'm pretty sure that there are few athletes as coachable as Chris Lukezic. Chris has every ingredient a coach looks for in a young middle distance runner: tons of talent, discipline, and most importantly competitiveness.
Chris and I have been working together for more than 5 years, and we have an extremely good partnership. Chris allows himself to be coached, and gives effective, thoughtful feedback.
However, if there is one weakness that will raise its ugly head from time to time with Chris, it is a lack of patience. Chris wants to be the best 1500m runner in the world and he wants it yesterday!
Chris’s fast track to success has been a direct result of his extraordinary ability to focus. In 2002, Chris’s freshman year at Georgetown
University, we sat down to set some short-term and long-term goals for his running career. From that point until June of 2007, Chris has either met or surpassed every short-term season goal that we set. As a coach, this was an exciting time, but I did sometimes worry about what Chris’s reaction would be when, inevitably, he would encounter some bumps in the road.
I recall a conversation in 2006 while sitting in the stands with Chris’s father, Rich. He asked me how I felt about Chris’s development up to that point. I told him I was thrilled, but added that for Chris to get to the next level, there would likely be a plateau, or even some steps backward, before another big jump to a new level could take place.
That day, I told Mr. Lukezic that the way Chris would handle those inevitable hurdles could define his career. I am now learning that overcoming obstacles can not only define an athlete, but also the type of coach I can become as well.
Our main goal for 2007 was for Chris to make the American team for the World Championships. During the winter and spring, I was very impressed with Chris’s fitness level. I was positive that we were exactly where we needed to be as we approached the national championships in Indianapolis, where the top three finishers would become the U.S entrants for the Worlds 1,500 meters.
But it didn't happen.
Looking back to that day of the USATF 1,500 finals, I wish I had reacted to and addressed the high anxiety levels that Chris was showing as we spoke in the final minutes before Chris went to the starting line. Remembering to Chris’s demeanor in Rome in July of 2006 minutes before he ran 3:33.28, I recall that he and Kevin Sullivan were both happy-go-lucky minutes before that race. Chris even did the Macarena on the warm-up track before he and Sully began their pre-race jog. A little embarrassing for me, but I knew that he was relaxed and confident.
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Why didn't I put two and two together? At the 2007 USA Track and Field Championships Chris was more physically prepared than he had ever been, but his anxiety level was too high for a peak performance. He finished fourth, and spent the rest of the summer battling both mental and physical demons, including a terrible bronchial infection, and was never able to show the world how hard he had worked all year long.
It is imperative for Chris to reach Eugene’s Olympic Trials at his most fit, fresh and hungry, and as his coach I must do my part. I need to remind myself of the path he has taken to accomplish what the great progress he has made in five years.
2007 aside, Chris has spent each spring racing and racing well. Specifically, in 2005 Chris spent the month of May racing for Georgetown and it was very exciting to watch his confidence grow. Although the 2005 NCAA championships were a disappointment, Chris was so confident in his racing and his fitness that he rebounded to finish 2nd at the USA Outdoor Championships. We need
to design a “pre- Olympic Trials” racing schedule that breeds this confidence in Chris.
Chris’s training and racing environments need to be both focused and relaxed, something that was missing from last year. Looking back, at times Chris and I lost sight of the fact that track and field is a sport and not a stressful, pressure-filled job. Finally, Chris and I must also commit to proceeding through this year without getting caught up in the “Olympic Hype”. To the layman, the Olympics
mean commercial hype and extraordinary athletic feats. To track and field athletes, the Olympic Games should be, first and foremost, simply another opportunity, albeit on a highly visible stage, to compete with the best athletes
in the world.
I do not need to prescribe “special” workouts for Chris because it is an Olympic Year. Chris and I need to stick to the plan that has led him to the successes he has had; working extremely hard, very intelligently and racing with confidence, patience, and relaxation.
So here we are, already into 2008. On the afternoon of
June 24, 2007 I am not sure that either Chris or I would have ever said that his fourth-place finish at the USA Championships would EVER benefit his development as a world class athlete. However, after Chris as the athlete,
and I as the coach, having spent last summer reflecting on the disappointment of the season and learning from each of our mistakes, my confidence in his ability to rebound and move forward is high.
Chris has entered 2008 a wiser, very hungry and relaxed, athlete.
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