A chat with coach Greg Mueller
Greg Mueller is the commander-in-chief at Innovative Endurance, a team which boasts a handful of successful pros as well as amateurs, and is based in South Bend, Indiana. Sal Farruggia had a few words with Greg.
Slowtwitch: There are coaches like yourself and Victor Plata who are ‘retired’ elite athletes and now are coaches. Do you think coaches with elite level experience make for better coaches?
Greg Mueller: I think that experience always helps someone do their job better. You can have a great coach with no “professional” experience, but having been there is certainly an advantage.
ST: What certifications do you hold?
Greg: I hold several including coaching certs from USAT, ITU, USA Cycling and USATF. I am also a certified youth and junior coach and volunteer as the Mideast Athlete Development Coordinator.
ST: How do you keep your professional education current?
Greg: I vigorously seek out new information and a deeper understanding of what works and what doesn’t. Having said that, there is no end to my journey of “understanding”. I will never be done trying to comprehend how the human body works and how to guide it. I have traveled extensively to work with coaches all over. Last year I was honored to be selected by USA Triathlon to represent the US at a one week ITU coaching conference and certification in Canada. Listening to my athletes is always a learning experience and trying to filter what I see online is always interesting.
ST: What are some of your coaching philosophies?
Greg: Communication is the lost piece to effective coaching. It’s what you hear in someone’s voice, it’s how they move or what their attitude is. It can be phone, email or text, but I describe my job as getting in the athletes head so I know what’s going on. A book cannot tell you anything about effective coaching. For me it comes from experience. In application, I believe that we cannot treat each sport separately in triathlon. Athletes usually come with knowledge from at least one sport. That’s dangerous because they know what it takes to compete at that one sport. Triathlon is different; each sport compliments and supports each other. This can be active recovery or additional aerobic development. I believe that there is a real danger in treating each sport separately. Lastly, nothing, nothing is more important that being consistent. Once you have good movement patterns and you understand how to train, you have to look for a program that you can maintain and build on in years to come.
ST: Where is Team Innovative Endurance based out of?
Greg: Team IE is physically based out of South Bend, Indiana but it exists in the hearts of athletes all over the World. Cheesy, but its no joke!
Last year I bought a 3,000 sq ft building that has our offices, an athlete apartment, personal training studio, massage therapy space, small locker area, computrainer studio, powercranks, spin bikes, vasa and halo trainers, recovery area and we offer nutritional guidance, bike fitting and yoga. I wanted to bring together the best people I knew in each area and have it available to people in one location. It is in historic downtown South Bend. There is more we can do to utilize the building but it is a great space and a huge recourse.
ST: Do you think teams, similar in fashion to Innovative Endurance, will become more attractive for pros and age groupers in the future?
Greg: We have something very special that I worked hard to create. It’s a feel and a shared passion that is wonderful. It is an energy that embodies commitment and integrity first. I am not sure that all athletes want what we have. It is very clear that some people only want to win. This is a lifestyle that we all share, but it is certainly not appropriate for everyone. Our team seems special to me. I don’t get the feeling that there are many like it, but I really cannot say as I only know ours.
ST: What other roles aside from coach do you assume?
Greg: Oh man, running a team is tough. Interaction with sponsors, race directors, clothing orders, running a facility and staying ahead is time consuming. In most cases I am also a manager to my professional athletes, and I try to mentor their growth in some way.
ST: What pros do you have on your roster?
Greg: We have 7 pros on Innovate Endurance; Nicole Kelleher, Kaleb Vanort, Kyle Lee, William Huffman, Jason Smith, Lisa Mueller and Nick Early
ST: Let's talk about your athletes. Your wife Lisa, who never competed past the high school level, went pro this year. Is she your testament that everyone can progress with proper training?"
Greg: Well, first it’s likely a testament to her patience to live with the coach. I deeply believe that if someone has the commitment to be consistent, the desire to win and the willingness to trust me 100% I can take them to any level. Lisa, my wife, played softball and volleyball in high school but she came to me with no endurance background. She is very slight at 100 lbs and people don’t give her the credit she deserves, but she won her first race four years ago. The next day she road her first century so I knew something was up. She watches other athletes, listens to what I say to them and she blossomed last year winning both sprint and Olympic races at Memphis in May and then placed fifth amateur at Lake Placid. I didn't think that she would make it to this level but she continues to improve and I look forward to her first pro season in 2012.
ST: What happened to Kaleb at Mooloolaba? I saw he was a DNS.
Greg: Unfortunately he came down with some serious stomach issues that kept him in bed from Thursday to Saturday. It sounded identical to what Emma Snowsill and Macca had. It was frustrating but we refocused and we are looking to the rest of the year rather than dwelling on what could have been.
ST: What is the flow of most of your workouts?
Greg: I know that most athletes are fine with execution. I like to focus on the small pieces that are easy to forget. The warm-up is a huge piece. Dynamic warm-up and neuro- activation are essential to a good workout. We all tend to do a lot of sitting or laying, so it can take a while to neuro-muscularly wake up. Warming up is critical! Having hydration and appropriate nutrition during all workouts is a key component as well. Lastly, a good cool down with stretching and foam rolling, and immediate recovery nutrition to follow. It’s the athletes who can most thoroughly execute the small things that will succeed. As for the workout, I almost always progress the effort if the body allows.
ST: Neuro-Activation, that sounds mystic and secretive, what are some examples of that?"
Greg: So for instance it takes awhile to awaken muscles in the morning, you have to make the connection from brain to muscle movement (activation). This is what adolescents lack when they seem to not have control of distal limbs. The activation is simply a method by which you touch the muscle to draw a connection between the brain and limb then use the muscle in the way that it will be used. This "activates" the connection and helps you use the right muscle. For instance, a lot of people simply do not ever use their glutial muscles. They tend to use their weaker hamstrings, but if you tap your butt than extend your leg straight back, you will see in fact that there is a very strong muscle there.
ST: As a coach I’d imagine you have an educated opinion on hotly debated topics. Where you stand on stretching and weight lifting for endurance athletes?
Greg: I treat each athlete as an individual, and I indentify where their strengths and weaknesses are. Stretching and strength are effective tools for development, but they have to be used and applied in a certain way at certain times. For instance, stretching pre workout is something we now know is ineffective and likely unsafe. Dynamic warm-up is a highly effective tool that is safe. There is a process of education for me and the athlete to unlearn what we knew – and become more familiar with the new warm-up. With strength I prefer movement that applies to a specific sport. I work to create good movement patterns than stabilize and mobilize joints for stronger, better movement. Athletes tend to do a lot of moving that is low quality and low engagement and this engrains poor patterns. My example is riding down a mountain and soft pedaling, you cannot feel pressure on the pedal but you are moving. If you actually engage the pedal you begin to do work and that is what we need with swimming for instance, engage the water!
ST: What do you think the average triathlete is doing wrong?
Greg: Athletes push way too hard. It is so important that the athlete find a way to measure exertion beyond just feel. I deeply believe that listening to your mind and body is important, but very few athletes can actually self-pace effectively for long periods of time. The ego can be overwhelming. It is essential to find tools that help us effectively measure our effort and have a deeper understanding of the work we are doing. Tools like Quarqs, heart rate monitors, measuring sleep quality, etc. Lastly, ask yourself if the movement you are doing is effective. Seeking professionals in each sport to identify good form is a huge help. Understanding how to move is essential but overlooked. Bobby McGee is the very best at what he does with running form, and I highly recommend his guidance. We come from a background of “harder is better,” so more of anything is better. Ingraining poor movement is way too prevalent!
Start the discussion at slowtwitch.northend.network