The best advice for financial investments: Do the boring basics for a long time The best advice for fitness, health and longevity: Do the boring basics for a long time The best advice for mastering a craft: Do the boring basics for a long time Stop chasing hacks and shiny objects!

Frank Gagliano was a college quarterback. After his career, he was hired to start a football team at a high school. While waiting, he coached track. They never started the football team. Gags went on to become one of the greatest American distance coaches in history: 15 Olympians, 140 All-Americans, 43 sub-4 milers. He passed away this week. We often think that you've got to have done it or experienced it to coach it. Gags was never a runner. He just wanted to coach, the true essence of the word, helping people out. “I don’t have golf clubs. I have a stopwatch." And like the best 'old school' coaches, he'd help whoever showed up. I was a former high school phenom, struggling in college. Then I got a call from an unknown number. "Steve. We've never met. It's Gags with the Farm Team. I just wanted you to know that you're great. Talent doesn't go away. Stick with it. You've got people who believe in you. If I can ever help, let me know." He called a struggling 19-year-old out of nowhere, while running the best professional team in the country. In an era where training got really complicated, Gags kept it simple. His philosophy was strength + speed, consistently for a long freaking time. “Everyone has to be patient in development. Everyone has to enjoy the sport, have a lot of fun, and work really hard.” More than the workouts, his real secret was the one every great coach shares. Relationships. His son Ralph put it best: “As a track coach, you have very large teams, many participants, and he carried over the years very special relationships — not only with the great ones, but even with the ordinary athlete.” He was still coaching into his late 80s. “As long as my mind is in the sport for workouts, so I don’t deprive the men and women that I’m coaching, I’ll keep coaching.” And this summer, at 89, when they named a national championship race after him, “I’m not a cocky man. I’m the guy that just coaches, and the athletes mean everything to me, everything.” He was a coach’s coach. Someone who lost his first meet 112 to 15, and then went on to become an all-time great...despite never having run. Because the point was to help people....even those he didn't coach. RIP Gags.

One of the most important lessons running taught me: How to work hard for a very long for something far in the distance. You don’t build a great Track season in May. You build it in the cold, dark months no one sees. Delayed gratification is one of the most transferable skills

Tip for novice runners: You don't need a gel/gatorade for your 5k or 10k race. It's doing nothing except maybe giving you GI issues. Energy intake isn't a limiter until we get close to ~2hr of racing For ~60-90min, it can help via modulating perception of effort, but not necessary

Why do sports create such tight bonds? You get to see each other at your most vulnerable points. Fatigued, stressed, anxious, exhausted, overjoyed, and overwhelmed. We ditch the facade. Shared stress and vulnerability bring people together. We need more of that in life.

Stop trying to prove fitness, and start trying to do what is best to get you to the starting line fit, healthy, and ready to go. The need to prove oneself comes from insecurity. It’s a lack of trust in the plan and the process.

Under preparation is a coping strategy for stress. It allows you to protect your ego because you didn't 'try.' Actually putting forth effort, requires being okay confronting your limits.

When I was 10, I thought the best way to train was to run an all-out mile every day. That plan lasted a day before I realized it sucked. Whether in running or life... trying to go 100% every day, every hour is a recipe for being miserable. Be deliberate on work and rest.