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


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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






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