Blogs : NCAA Division III Blog

Interview: Will Leer of the Oregon Track Club - Elite

What has your training been like since the USATF Outdoor National Championships this past summer? 

After USA’s I was pretty burned out and in serious need of some down time. A little “R and R,” as they say. I think I took about 2.5 weeks completely off, using that time to gather my thoughts and reflect on having graduated from college and embarking on a whole new period of my life. I worked my way back into training pretty slowly, hitting around 25 miles for my first week back. I steadily increased my weekly mileage (5-10 miles per week) until I finally reached my goal of 75-85 miles. It was definitely hard to increase mileage at such a slow pace but I was constantly being reminded that I am aiming to run well in June, not August.

Since moving to Oregon and beginning to train with the OTC - Elite I have been maintaining 80-85 miles per week, hitting a high of 92, in 7 or 8 runs per week.

On a typical easy day of training, my pace can fluctuate anywhere from 6:00-7:00/mile. We tend to keep our easy days pretty easy with the main focus being recovery. Coach Gagliano works us out pretty hard so we like to be as fresh as possible for the workouts. As far as our workouts go, most of the fall has been dedicated to strength. Lots of 1k and mile repeats and long tempos (or as Gags calls them “Pace Runs“). More recently we have started stepping on the track about once a week but the intensity of the workouts has not gotten too extreme yet.

What options did you consider when you were thinking about running competitively after college?  How did you eventually end up with Coach Gagliano and the Oregon Track Club Elite?

In Division III track and field, unlike in Division I, successful athletes are not groomed to seamlessly roll into their professional careers. By that I mean that our coaches don’t necessarily know the brand reps, the agents, etc. that help you secure a contract once you graduate. Therefore it is a bit more difficult to find out exactly what feasible options exist in the realm of post-collegiate running. Going to school in California I was fortunate enough to race and marvel at the athletes from The Farm Team (now the OTC - Elite). I was always excited and impressed to watch them race. Joining a team like that was always one of those “Oh, man how cool would that be…” ideas in the back of my head. Then I ran my breakthrough race last May, and it just so happened that Coach Gagliano and the OTC were at the same meet. When my college coach and I went up and introduced ourselves, Gags said that he was interested in me as an athlete and wanted me to come race at the Prefontaine Classic B-Section race in early June and the rest is history!

Nick Symmonds is obviously a great example of a former DIII runner who has found great success under Coach Gagliano.  How big of a role did Nick Symmonds' emergence on the national and international stage factor into your decision?

While Nick was basically the reason that I found out about the OTC - Elite program, he only functioned as a reaffirming source in my ultimate decision to move to Oregon. Gags is such a legend in track and field that it is hard not buy right into his program when he says to you, “I would love to coach you. I think I can help make you into a terrific runner!” Additionally, Gags’ record with producing Olympians is almost unmatched in this country so it seemed like the perfect year to jump on the bandwagon.

It seems like you're going to stick with the 1500 as your primary event this year.  You've talked before about how much you love the 800, but you doubled in the 5000 last May.  Do you see yourself as more of a 1500/800 runner or a 1500/5000 runner?  Do you see that changing in the future?

Even though I significantly lowered my PR in the 800m last year, I still think that I have a lot more potential in that event than I have shown thus far. That being said, I know now that it is highly unlikely that I will ever specialize in the 800m. The 5k is a beast that I have yet to be able to tame. Anyone who has run a 5k will agree that its wrath spans both the physical and mental dimensions of running. I have yet to run a 5k up to my potential but I hope to get in a couple of them early on in the season, possibly Stanford and Mt. SAC, to see what I am capable of.

All of that rambling is to say that right now I view myself as a 1,500m runner, mostly because I am not quite fast enough to be competitive in the 800m and not comfortable enough with the 5k.

How did D3 prepare or not prepare you for being professional?

In my opinion, the best part about Division III is that it fosters the development of its athletes as individuals as well as athletes. As a support network, Division III is second to none. Almost no one outside of the D3 track fan base knew who I was this year at the US National Championships. The cheering and support I received at the meet came almost solely from people I knew, and possibly didn’t even know, from D3. It was that kind of support that I found so reaffirming when facing my toughest competition ever.

I believe Nick Symmonds was the first person to mention this, but D3 also taught me how to race. Whether it be pushing the pace hard from the front or sitting in the back, waiting to kick, we race so much in D3 that in order to be successful you have to be comfortable with many different types of race tactics.

Was there any one workout or race last year that really made you believe, "hey, going pro is a real option for me?"

I have never really been the type of runner who produces killer workouts. I am much more of a racer. It is the nervous feeling of stepping to the line and the raw competitive nature of a race that makes me love track and field so much.

Sure there were workouts last season that helped boost my confidence and at least allowed me to flirt with the idea of running post-collegiate, but no one gets picked up by a team or company for saying that they just ran 20 X 400m averaging 62 seconds with one minute rest, running their last 400m in 56s. It is the races that get you noticed.

My breakthrough race, which I mentioned earlier, was at the Oxy Invite on May 12th, 2007. It was the day before I graduated from Pomona, so my whole family was there. I ran the 1,500m in 3:41.98, at the time the 6th fastest time in the country. It was upon finishing that race and hearing my time that I knew I had a real chance at running professionally.

What are your plans and goals for the upcoming year?

As of now my plans extend only as far as the end of the indoor season. I am going to run a 3k and mile in hopes of qualifying for the US Indoor Championships which take place at the end of February. I hope to run under 8-minutes for the 3k and would love to break the 4-minute barrier for the first time.

Outdoors I am looking for PR’s in the 800m, 1500m, and 5k. But ultimately I am focused on running well at the Olympic Trials at the end of June. I think I have a realistic shot at making the finals in the 1500m and if I am there I hope to make a good showing (unlike at USA’s last year).

What type of workouts are you currently doing and what is your favorite workout?

So far this fall we have been focusing mainly on strength work. Only recently have we been starting to throw in moderate speed sessions here and there. Gags has a pretty simple formula for us: strength + speed = success. That sounds about right to me.

I wouldn’t say that I have a favorite workout. At least not that we have done yet in Oregon. I enjoy doing long tempo runs and Michigans, primarily because they put you to the test physically and mentally. Back in school, my favorite workouts were 400m repeats. Whether they were fast with fewer reps or slower with more reps, I always get pretty excited to do those types of workouts.

Similarly, how do the workouts you’re running now differ from the workouts you ran in college?

The main difference so far is that I did not have a cross country season this fall. We were doing a lot of cross country-esque workouts, i.e. mile repeats, etc., but we never raced. Other than that the workouts have been pretty similar. We have our harder, more intense workouts, our easier, less intense workouts, and long runs.

How much do you follow running at the collegiate and/or professional levels?  Would you care to confess to what extent you lurk on Letsrun.com or other message boards?

To be perfectly honest I don’t really follow running that much. I will occasionally drop in on Flotrack and catch up on some videos, cruise over to Letsrun and read the news headlines, but I am not one to read the message boards. Most of the time I find the message boards to be filed with anonymous trash talk and other completely irrelevant banter as opposed to functioning with its intended purpose as a source of shared knowledge about running. The gossip tends to be a bit much for me… All of this is much to the chagrin of my roommate who has to go find other guys on our team with whom he can chit chat about the goings on in the track and field world (which almost all of the time, unfortunately, does not include D3).

If you were to put me in a room with guys reminiscing about their days running D1, 9 times out of 10 I would be totally lost. All I hear in those situations is, “blah blah blah Chris Solinsky, blah blah blah Lopez Lomong, Russell Brown, blah blah Josh McDougal.” To be fair, if you put Nick Symmonds, Ryan Bak, and me into a room together to talk about D3 track, people would walk right out because they wouldn’t understand a word we said.

Are there any other closing thoughts or pieces of wisdom you'd like to share?

 I will take this opportunity to be very cliché.

If you have dreams in running (or anything else, really) go chase them. You will more than likely regret letting them go.

Hard work pays off. Whether you are trying to break 5-minutes in the mile or 14-minutes in the 5k, put in the work and you will reap the rewards.

Don’t give up on running just because you weren’t recruited to run at a D1 school! There is Division III, Division II, and NAIA. The best part about running is that your times do the talking and you will get opportunities to race people from every division.

Always remember to enjoy what you are doing. Hopefully running is one of those things.

Thanks to Trackshark for providing such a positive, fun, and productive online source for track and field news and information!

Thanks to Will for a fantastic interview!

Untitled Comment

6:04 PM, December 29, 2007 .. Posted by Anonymous

solid interview. really like picture #3.

Outstanding interview and subject

2:24 PM, December 31, 2007 .. Posted by Anonymous

I met Will when he was a junior in high school and I began coaching at a rival school. I really enjoyed watching him compete because it was apparent that he was a competitor. The best part, though, was interacting with him after the races and away from the track. He was always respectful to me. I saw Will two years after he graduated and he walked right up to me and struck up a brief conversation as if no time had passed.

Congratulatons to Will on his many successes! I wish Will all the best and look forward to more great results in 2008!

Untitled Comment

12:10 AM, January 5, 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

I cheered for you at the USA championships in Indiana this summer. Way to represent D-III Mr. Leer.