Episode 5 | Nick Symmonds

"I'm a gamer. And anyone who trained with me in my 12-year [professional] career would laugh when I say that I'm really bad in workouts. Because they used to say, 'I would kick your ass every single Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, but I can't beat you in a race.' And it's true. I was really lazy in workouts but when it came time to race, especially if something mattered, I just could take it to that next level. Some sports psychologists would argue that that was my secret weapon—that I only dug deep maybe four or five times a season. I could give you a 90-percent effort, maybe even a 95-percent effort, but I really only dug deep the few times that it actually mattered, and that saved me both mentally and physically, and allowed me to have a much longer career."Two-time Olympian, six-time national champion, and 2013 world championships 800m silver medalist Nick Symmonds comes on the podcast for a candid conversation covering a wide range of topics. We discuss his retirement from track and field, his recent foray into marathon training and racing, and the similarities and differences that exist between the two pursuits. We also talk about entrepreneurship, the origin and mission of his company, Run Gum, reflect on his progression from decent college runner to world-class athlete, and dive into how he has dealt with pressure and overcoming nerves throughout his career."The one commonality was that on both the 800m start line and on the marathon start line, the thought is, 'this is gonna hurt really bad.' And they do, in different ways, but they both really really hurt and there's no way around that," explains Symmonds. "But there's another aspect on the 800m start line that was, 'this matters.' That was extremely important for my career, my family. There's sometimes potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line. It matters—it's really important that you have a good showing. In the marathon, I was just doing it for myself. I wasn't doing it for sponsors or for money or for anybody else. I wanted to go prove to myself that I could run 26.2 miles. So it was a lot less pressure and pressure equals nerves in those kinds of situations. It was just fun."Also in this episode, Symmonds and I get into the sponsorship and marketing side of the sport, we attempt to unpack the antiquated ways of governing bodies, and talk about who—and what—is exciting him in running these days. Additionally, we look back at his relationship with coaches Frank Gagliano, Mark Rowland, and Danny Mackey, what he learned from each of them, how he'd like to be remembered as both an athlete and a person, and much, much more.This episode of the morning shakeout podcast was edited by John Isaac at BaresRecords.com.Complete show notes here: http://themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-5-nick-symmonds/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered directly to your inbox every Tuesday morning: http://themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout

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