From Jersey Roots to Athletic Triumphs: Mike Larkin's Journey and the Essence of College Sports

Join us on a nostalgic trip down memory lane with Mike Larkin, as we traverse his early years in New Jersey to his defiant track career at The College of New Jersey, and beyond. Mike's leap from his home state to Notre Dame College, peppered with tales of regional food shocks and the bold choices that shaped his future, paints a vivid picture of perseverance and the vital role athletics play in personal growth. Feel the Garden State charm as we recall the close-knit bonds formed through team sports, and the life-altering impacts of those unorthodox decisions that set us on unexpected paths.

Have you ever wondered about the gritty, unseen side of college athletics? Mike and I share the raw truths of the sweat and resilience it takes to compete at the collegiate level. From the thrilling rush of game-day to the trials of training with injuries, our discussion reveals the mental and physical battles athletes endure. The conversation doesn't shy away from the importance of knowing yourself, balancing the push to excel with the wisdom of listening to your body, and the lessons learned through pain and pressure.

In this heart-to-heart episode, we also give a nod to the inspiring figures in sports, while we open up about our coaching journeys across various disciplines. We unravel the symbiotic relationship between football and track, uncovering how cross-training can be a game-changer for athletes. Our "Fast Fiddy Five" segment brings a fun twist, answering rapid-fire questions that unveil more about the off-track preferences and musings. So, whether you're a sports aficionado or just love a good story of triumph and camaraderie, this episode has something for you.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 2:18

Welcome everybody to another episode of the ride home rants podcast. This is, as always, your host, mike Bono. I have a great guest for us today. He's coming to us. I believe he's up in Notre Dame College as well. He knows the wonderful manager of the podcast, johnny Fitty Falcone. We're gonna get into all of that and what he does, but Mike Larkin joins the show. Mike, thanks for joining me.

Speaker 2: 2:45

Oh, thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1: 2:46

Hey, not a problem, and I know some of the guests know that these are pre-recorded. Thank you for being flexible with the three schedules that we've had. We've been trying for a couple weeks now to get this recorded. Glad we can finally sit down and have a little chat here. So, first and foremost, for the listeners out there you know where did you grow up and you know go to high school and all that.

Speaker 2: 3:07

Oh, so I grew up in New Jersey. I went to, went to high school out there and went to college out there, ran out there and then I moved, moved south down to Williamsburg, virginia, to get my graduate degrees and then I Apparently didn't have too much of the snow. So I moved back up to Erie, pennsylvania, for a couple years and then and have landed in Cleveland. So never thought I'd be out here out in the Midwest. But you know, the pizza is not too bad. I still haven't found a decent bagel yet, but you know.

Speaker 2: 3:43

I'm happy where I'm at, yeah really excited to be here.

Speaker 1: 3:46

We're not gonna compete with Jersey and the New York is hard when it comes to bagels, I get it. I've been to Jersey. They make. They make a phenomenal bagel up there. I can't complain about that. But so you know what was it like growing up in Jersey. I've only visited a couple of times, so what was it like for you. You know, growing up in Jersey, what was there to do in New Jersey.

Speaker 2: 4:11

Oh man, I so. I mean, there's walking the train tracks. That's always fun to do, but now I it's just like anywhere else, there's always stuff to do. There's a lot more people, I will say, but there's always like.

Speaker 2: 4:27

It has the name the garden state for a reason. I mean, everybody who drives through sees, you know, all the like Newark and all the cities and things like that along the turnpike. But really I mean there's got beautiful wild life, beautiful mountains. I've actually hiked the whole Appalachian trail in New Jersey, which you know it's only about 70 miles, but it is. It is gorgeous, rocky, rocky for sure, but gorgeous. That whole part of the state, I mean, is way less developed than you would expect it to be. And then obviously you know your standard Jim Tam laundry, which is the you know down the shore aspect of it, but there's. And then you know New York and Philadelphia are like right there. So, depending on where you grow up, in New Jersey I was a Taylor ham and a New York person, but if you were south you were pork row in Philadelphia. So I I got, I got the lucky end of the bargain there.

Speaker 1: 5:26

Yeah, I can't. I say I can't root for anything from Philly. I grew up an hour outside of Pittsburgh. I can't root for anything Philly.

Speaker 2: 5:34

Nor should you Philly's trash 100% we.

Speaker 1: 5:37

We could have a whole show about that. I Can have a whole show about how Philly's trash Been there a couple of times too as well. But you know it's yeah, it's quick, in, out, do my comedy show and out as fast as possible. But so you said you went to college there. You know what, what college did you go to and you know why did you pick that college?

Speaker 2: 6:01

so I went to the College of New Jersey, which is a small division 3 school, and, funnily enough, the reason I went was because it was the only school that told me I couldn't run for them. There was a couple schools that I'd reached out to and I was a walk-on at every school. I wasn't a spectacular high school athlete by any means, but I reached out to TC and Jay and asked you know if I could walk on to their team and they said that, like my times and like where I fit, they're like just didn't see how I would, you know, meet up with their team and I just kind of I Don't. It's a terrible idea. Like if you're really, if you're a kid going through the recruiting process and the coach tells you you should not be on the team, go somewhere else. You're probably you know we'd be able to find a place that wants you on their team. But I heard that I was like well, screw you, man, I'm gonna run for you. And I ended up doing that Walked on to the team, made the team.

Speaker 2: 7:06

But yeah, I wouldn't recommend that path, but I had a really good time With it. This is my best friends are from there. All of my college roommates ran track and we're all still really close and we see each other, you know, more than a few times a year. So I wouldn't change anything for the world About that. But I will say the reason I picked the school was dumb. You know it all worked out. Sometimes you got to do something stupid and it's gonna end up being, you know, the best decision you ever made. So I get it.

Speaker 1: 7:45

I mean, I was a swimmer In college and if it wasn't for an unfortunate injury, actually, my senior year of high school, yeah, I had my pick of the litter where I wanted to go just with my times and everything like that. But Bethany college was nice enough, knowing I had a shoulder injury, yeah, being a swimmer, that's kind of like it. No, no, like we're, we're done, we're not gonna do this. I I almost Pulled a you because I WVU was had me. You know, I was the dream school growing up in West Virginia.

Speaker 1: 8:20

Huge Mountaineer fan was gonna go to West Virginia and swim and everything was gonna be hunky-dory and they found out about my injury and they passed on me and I was Almost gonna be like, well, like you, screw you, I'm coming anyways, I'll just walk on it. I'll show you that I've done the rehab. It's, it's fine, we're good shoulders, healthier than ever. Well, kind of glad I didn't do that because you know, bethany college kept their their scholarship, went there, ended up hurting my shoulder in the middle of a race there too as well. So it probably wouldn't have been good going D1 and trying to compete with it, is it? It's?

Speaker 2: 8:53

time. I'm sure swimming is the same way. I mean we're just. It's such a divisionless sport because the time is the time, like. I mean you can compete against nobody's or you can compete against the Olympians. I mean it's always, it's always. You pick of the litter of it out of those invite needs. You never know. Yeah, but if you swim A qualifying time at a meet with nobody there, it is still counts. If you swim a Great, if you swim a bad time, when everybody's there, everybody knows.

Speaker 1: 9:28

Yeah, yeah, I trust me. I know that all too well Because the race that I hurt my shoulder and was the hundred backstroke yeah, I had had recruiters from Nike and Speedo that have gotten wind of my times that Flew out to little old Bethany, west Virginia, to come to watch me swim at this meeting. And I blew it out in the middle of the hundred backstroke. And, yeah, and my coach decides to come up to me because it was only me and one of the guys swimming. So it was, it was a two-man race and it was. It was tough because I mean, I was cooking. I knew they were there. He tried to hide it from me. But a guy walks in wearing Speedo and all this other stuff. It's like, yeah, okay, I've seen that face before, I know who he is and nobody else here swimming times that Me. So yeah, but yeah, and get out of the pool. Obviously I'm upset, climb myself out with one arm trying to get out of the pool. Yeah, walk over, sit down with my teammates and I'm drawing off. And my coach decides to come up and he's like what happened there after that first 50? I was like I really want to talk about it right now, coach and he was like no, no, no, I think we need to talk about it because you know what your splits were. I was like I again, I don't, I don't, why are you talking to me about this right now? Like, yeah, not the time to do this. He goes, well, I'll just tell you and then we'll end it. But if you would have kept that pace, you'd have broken the school's backstroke record by a full second. I Was like, yeah, that does it. Stick the knife in and twist it a little bit there. Yeah, it's just out of place, we're fine, don't worry about it, we're fine.

Speaker 1: 11:09

So, but me, being the hard-headed 19 year old that I was, I had one of my buddies who is now. He was a. He was a Marine. He's since retired but I was like, hey, dude, my shoulders up, do you know what to do? He goes, come with me, went into the locker room, popped it back in place myself and finished the meat. Hey, I was, because we all win. I swam there counting me. There was four guys on the team, yeah, so it was a smaller building program, you know? I mean, I was one of four, so all the relays we were gonna have at the end were gonna be DQ's and I just wasn't gonna. I wasn't gonna do it, but you live and you learn. So yeah, it's it's tough doing stuff like that, but you actually had pretty good, successful college career in track and field. Did you imagine that? What happened?

Speaker 2: 11:59

looking back at it, I probably, being like a, you know, 17, 18 year old, you have like that Confidence in yourself that is totally unfounded and you look at it You're like, oh yeah, I dropped two seconds if I do that every single year and then I'll be great, and it's like that's just not how that works. No, but so I would say, yeah, I probably had, you know, the confidence, like that I was going to have a successful career and I got very lucky, you know, to be surrounded by a lot of like guys. I mean my one of my best friends, laurent. We were training partners for four years so we all got better together and it was never it's funny because there's never a question that like we were going to get better. We never questioned that. We were like what we were doing was going to make us better. It was like I Don't coach the way that I trained, but because I just have a different like training philosophy and things like that.

Speaker 2: 13:14

But I think it was kind of the mentality of that training group Like we beat our head against the wall so many times. Eventually it's going to break, but if you were having a bad meet, it wasn't so much, it wasn't so much. Hey, we're not given the efforts, like, oh, the effort's there, it's going to happen. It's like it was very easy to you know, shrug off a bad performance. It was very easy to you know, take a little PR and turn it into a big one going forward. So that was really cool and, honestly, I think the best part of you know competing in college, especially in track and field and an individual event, is you really get to know yourself and it's you against you.

Speaker 2: 14:04

I mean I got very lucky. I got to compete against you know some ridiculous athletes. Like we went down to Miami and we ran a foreign Gerardle race against some guy from the Bahamas, some dude from University of Miami. I mean we got our doors blown off but at the same time we were like, oh, we can hang with these dudes. Like I did yeah, I never like went to a line even if I was up against somebody who was going to destroy me. I ran a summer meet against two Jamaicans from Zenith Velocity and they would pissed off that they ran 49 in the four hurdles and I was just happy to be there. But like, getting on the line against them, it wasn't like, oh wow, look at these dudes. It was like all right, let's see what happens. Like there's hurdles in the way somebody could eat it. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 15:03

One step, yeah, that changes the whole race.

Speaker 2: 15:07

Yeah, I've seen, I've seen everybody's watched the Olympics, everybody's seen. You know people who are the favorites blow up. It's just in those events it's like it's really you know any given race you could win. And that's just kind of how the training went throughout college. We were all just like, yeah, we're good, we're good enough, we're good enough to win, we're good enough to win, even if we were not.

Speaker 1: 15:38

I think every college kid has that, that mentality, especially a college athlete. Because I was the same way that, even with the hurt shoulder that I swam through for the rest of the season. Because this was like the third or fourth meet into the season when, yeah, this injury happened and my coach was like just take a couple of weeks off. And I was just like, but then what happens to the relays? Like I am the anchor on three of the six relays, like, and I'm the lead in the other three because they're medleys and I'm the only backstroker you have. Like what, what do you want to do now? Like it was just like, well, what are you going to do?

Speaker 1: 16:18

I was like I'll go see the trainer every day before after practice, like I'll do whatever I got to do to be able to swim. He was like Mike, it's a long season. I was like, fine, coach, my times are going to fall there at all. Even with my shoulder being hurt, he goes lifted up over your head. I was like I'd rather not right now. Like you know, like it was like it's fine, don't?

Speaker 1: 16:39

we don't need to test it right now, but it'll be fine come meet day. You know what I mean and like, but I feel like you have to have that attitude sometimes.

Speaker 2: 16:47

Yeah, oh, absolutely. I mean, I always ask it. So it's interesting. I've talked about this with other sport coaches and I think with the exception of football, because all of those dudes will play through a concussion. Yeah, like everybody I've talked to, you know, I was terrible at like real sports. I was good at running in a straight line, making lefts and I can jump a little bit. But you know, like my girlfriend played division two softball and I asked her I was like you know, on game day, like what did you feel? Like, did you feel good? And she was like yeah, you know, most of the time you feel pretty good.

Speaker 2: 17:32

Like I had a little bit of a wrist, you know pain sometimes, you know, towards the end of my career, but for the most part I found that, like ball sport coaches or ball sport athletes feel good on the day of the race and I I don't think that's the case with track and field. And so I asked my kids are like are you hurt or are you injured? Right, like, right, how, how, how hurt are you? Like we're going to train around it because we kind of have to, but like are you hurt or are you injured? If you're injured, we're done and we're taking some time off, and you know I would. I would be like your coach, would be like hey, take some weeks off with a dislocated shoulder, but I have. I can probably count on one hand how many meets I've walked into feeling 100% Right. Yeah, I don't. I don't, especially the end of the season.

Speaker 1: 18:35

Yeah, near the end of the season in our in our conference championship meets, that we had a Grove City every year. Like I don't think like I was ever 100%. Nobody on the team was 100%, especially coming from our school. Like I said, it was four guys on the team. So, yeah, I was one of the main sprinters so I swam individually six events a meet and then all six relays on top of that too as well. So that's a lot of 12, 12 events every meet.

Speaker 1: 19:09

Yeah, like, yeah, near the end of the season, people like how are you feeling? Like I mean I'm walking and I can move my arms, so let's do this, do the thing. You know what I mean. Like let's get after it. And yeah, it was, it's, it's tough, but you know it's, I wouldn't change it. You know I probably wouldn't change anything because you know it led me to where I'm at now, which is comedy and this podcast and everything like that. And yeah, got to meet Johnny Fiddy Falcone, the wonderful manager of this podcast. I wish I had a third. I wish I had a third of his energy at the time. But let me ask you this real quick, before we get into Johnny's stories, because that's a whole another topic Like but how did you get into coaching after everything was all said and done?

Speaker 2: 19:53

Yeah, so when I, when I graduated, I had no eligibility left, right I was, I graduated before 2020. So I, it was four years. You had four years. You don't have six years or seven years or eight years or whatever they're doing now. But yeah, so I used up all my eligibility and I knew I wanted to go to grad school.

Speaker 2: 20:15

I was in between, like, so I'm a licensed school psychologist and I was looking at schools, that one had the school psychology program that I wanted to be in and two words going to let me coach, I got into, I got into. I had the choice between three schools. I got into a fourth but I was never going to go there. But one was Fordham, one was Seton Hall and one was William Mary. Fordham was a good program, unbelievably expensive, so it was not really in the price point. And I emailed their coaches and asked if, like, I could help out. They were like you're going to be up in the Bronx and we're in midtown, because the graduate school is a totally different spot and I'd be commuting from New Jersey and I was like, okay, so I can't coach there. And then Seton Hall didn't have track, doesn't have a track team. So I was like I can't coach there.

Speaker 1: 21:11

I didn't know that, yeah, that's, I don't know Seton Hall didn't have a track team.

Speaker 2: 21:15

Yeah, and I called William Mary. I called their interim director at the time. Now he's the director, alex Haycock amazing mentor and friend of mine, and he had just gotten the interim director job, like that week, because the director had, you know, moved on. And he was like I don't have time to answer this question, reach out to Nate, who was the first coach I worked for under there. Nate said yeah, that's totally fine, I just got to interview you when you get down here. So I accepted the admission to William Mary, went down there, met Nate at a Chipotle. The interview lasted about five minutes and he was like, yeah, this was really just to make sure you weren't weird, like we're gonna, like we're not going to pay you anything but we'll give you some like gear so you look like a coach it needs. And I was like that's all I want, that's all I want to do. So did that? Had a great first year. Nate moved on. He moved up to Cornell. My really good friend, tommy, came in and then Forrest, who's the distance coach there now Tommy's still there. He's the Jumpson Maltese coach.

Speaker 2: 22:43

They came in that second year. Alex was promoted to full time director At the time. Lizzie Hissy was then moved to director of operations and we had some a lot of coaching changes. Basically At the time, I believe in December of 2017, yeah, december 2017, because I was still in my volunteer assistant role I was the longest tenured staff member of the William Mary track appeal team. In their current role, like everybody else, had like moved as a part of like you just come in or moved around, so it was like it was just funny.

Speaker 2: 23:32

And then like seeing how Alex, as the director, you know, brought in just such high quality people, high quality coaches, but, first and foremost, high quality people how he brought in high quality athletes were also good people and really built a program I mean, william Mary has a history of being a great program, especially a great distance program, but the way he's built that into such a dynamic across all of that groups at such a difficult college to recruit for is just incredible. And that's really how I got into coaching and seeing Alex, how he ran the program, how Tommy coached his athletes, how Forest coached his athletes, how Omar Brown, how Scott Jones, how everybody on that coaching staff that track staff, you know, was first and foremost for the athletes was all about image, making sure that the culture was good, making sure that everybody was doing things the right way, and then also giving Alex specifically giving autonomy to his coaches, like, hey, you're the expert in your area, you do this and you do it well. Seeing that, I was like yeah, oh yeah, this is what I wanted. It was an incredible experience.

Speaker 2: 25:11

I was there for four years and you know I wouldn't change in. They were unbelievably welcoming to me. They were the greatest teachers and mentors I could have possibly had. I truly think that is the best coaching staff in the NCAA for the money You've got. You've got, you know, elite coaches, elite human beings on salaries that, like all of their salaries combined, you know, would be one assistant at like Texas A&M or something, and they're absolutely crushing it. During that time, you know, there was an athletic director who was no longer there, who attempted to cut seven sports, including track and field, men's and indoor and outdoor track and field, attempted to cut swimming, attempted to cut volleyball, attempted to cut gymnastics, failed spectacularly at all of those, and I truly believe that the reason why they failed was because of just how powerful every coaching staff in that building is. I mean swimming, I think, raised a million dollars in 12 hours.

Speaker 1: 26:36

Wow.

Speaker 2: 26:37

I mean, they've got the benefit of you know 1693 money where you can call up the estates of alumni from the 1700s. But it was. The response to that announcement was unbelievable. I mean the way that the community rallied around, all of the sports, all of the student athletes, I mean it was overwhelming while I was there. It was like I found out I had just finished playing golf, I was sitting in my car and I got the news and I was just devastated. And then within eight hours I was like, oh, this is never gonna happen.

Speaker 1: 27:29

There's no way.

Speaker 2: 27:30

We're fine. It was incredible. It was incredible to work for them. It was incredible to see how that program developed and is continuing to develop, and that's how I got into coaching. Those were my coaching mentors, where they were like you do things the right way. If you do things the right way, you are rewarded. You're rewarded by having a super solid foundation of people that support you. You're rewarded by times and performances and you're rewarded by having great kids to work with, which makes everybody's job so much easier. I always say this I'm very proud of all of my athletes that I've ever coached because of their performances, but I'm way more proud of how they've turned out as people. It is so unbelievably rewarding to see them when they are either coaching themselves at like a high school or a college level, or seeing them do anything in their lives Working for nonprofits, working at things that they love to do and seeing them be successful post-athletics.

Speaker 2: 28:55

It is, and I want to shout out a couple people. So we've got JP Trojan. He was a 5K and 10K runner at William Mary. He got his JD from Syracuse and now he's training with Minnesota Elite. He is racing this weekend at Olympic Trials for the marathon. It'll be his debut. So big shout outs to JP. I wish him the best of luck. One of his training partners is considered the dark horse to make the team there.

Speaker 2: 29:30

I would say that we're overlooking JP. I think that kid, I think he's got what it takes. Just an absolute gem of a human and I'm super excited. I'll be watching Saturday morning. I'll be having, you know, we've got a meet at Ashland this weekend, but I know I'm gonna be, you know, watching the film, making sure that you know he's racing. I've got no doubt in my mind he's gonna put his best foot forward. I hope I. Hopefully you know shows what he's made of. That we all, everybody at William Mary, knows what he's made of already. Another shout out Chris Short. He was an athlete for us 1500 runner. I think he's still the 1000 meter record holder. Ran a hell of a race at IC4A's at Boston that year. He's coaching at VCU now with one of my other volunteer assistants, austin. So a big shout out to them. They're doing great things down there and I'm excited to see him Trying to thank you. So those are the two major shout outs of you know past athletes that I'm a huge fan of.

Speaker 1: 30:41

So that's phenomenal. I dabbled a little bit in swim coaching a couple years ago and it was just like summer leagues and the YMCA here in Zanesville was like, hey, we've been trying to bring back a swimming program here, but nobody's ever been. We've had this post up looking for a head swim coach for three years and you're the first applicant. I was like I'm sorry what they were like yeah, so I mean we still have to interview you though, but it's been three years. I mean, do you want the job? Like that's kind of like you. It was more formality and I went in there like, so what makes you think you'd be a good coach? I was like well, I swam from the time I was eight years old, through college, so I've lived in a pool for the better part of almost three decades now. Like let's call it spade of spade, and I had a chance at the 2012 Olympic trials. Had it not been for an unfortunate injury, I'd be doing that. So, but long short of it is they had zero funding for it. So it was raising the money for myself to hire an assistant coach, to get the equipment, to pay my salary essentially, and everything like that, and like it was getting to the deadline and they were just like, yeah, you know what, we just don't have the funding for this man, so we have to shut it down for now.

Speaker 1: 32:18

I was like, for now or for good? Like I mean, I've been fired before. Like I'm a comedian, I told you that at the beginning I've been fired before. Like you can just tell me, no, we're done. Like I'm cool with that. Like don't sugarcoat it. You know what I mean Exactly. You had that post up for three years. I took a chance Sorry, I failed. You know what I mean. Like it is what it is, but you know you being you're the head cross country coach too as well, there at Notre Dame College, what has it been like for you in the first year there. You know how has the indoor season gone for you and you know what do you expect to get out of the outdoor season.

Speaker 2: 32:55

Yeah. So I mean, I got hired in July. I was a little bit late on the recruiting game for July, but you know so most of the kids you know we've picked up from other sports. You know that either they've done track in the past or you know they didn't do track in the past. They were just, you know, on the sidewalk and I was like, do you want to run? And they were like I don't know who you are. And I was like that's totally fine, you don't have to know who I am. You look kind of athletic, I think I can make you, you know, better at running. And they were like I don't know what I just signed up for, but now I'm on the team. So I was. You know, I was just offering anybody right, anybody who wanted to, and I'm still offering anybody, anybody who wants to come on out. We are more than welcoming. And I told them hey, I'm not going to promise results, right, I promise that you're going to be a national champion or a national qualifier, but I'm going to promise that you're going to get better, right, and you know they've really rallied around that.

Speaker 2: 34:05

We've got a small team, thankfully, representing all the vent crews, which is great. We've got throwers, we've got sprinters, we've got jumpers Nice and we got distance runners. And you know, thankfully, thankfully I found coach Kindle, david Kindle, he was a coach at Aurora beforehand. He's come on in a volunteer status and he's been working with our distance runners. Because my background is not in distance. I can put together, you know, a program that's going to get you from point A to point B, but anything beyond that, you know, there's a reason why distance coaches are great at their job. Yeah, and he's awesome. He's done. He's just taken that distance program. He's really running with it and opens up my mind to you know, focus on recruiting, focus on the sprint programs, jumps program, throws program and they are, they are crushing it.

Speaker 2: 35:02

You know, they've really bought in to the fact that like, hey, this is hard, like you're going to work your butt off and then you're going to show up to this first meet and you're going to be 10 years behind. Some of these kids yeah, kids who just do track all through middle school, all through high school, and you know, they're running D3, but they're slide, and that's what they said. They showed up at our first meet in December and everybody kind of looked around. They were like some of them are, you know phenomenal athletes in there in for division two in their respective you know main sports and they're like yeah, no, I'm good, I am very competitive in division two, I'm a great athlete. And then they showed up the track and they saw division three, division one, division two didn't matter.

Speaker 1: 35:58

These kids fast. It doesn't matter, I've, I had that, we were. It was a meet against Westminster when I was back in college and I'll never forget this because it was a distance only meet. Yeah, so 200 and above. I'd never swam a 200 in my life. It was a hundred and done. Like I'm, that's me, yeah, I remember that's, that's what I did.

Speaker 1: 36:23

And I still remember my coach at practice because I was going through my sprinting workout and he was just like well, are you ready for your two and 400 next next meet? I was like I'm sorry the hell. Did you just say to me Like, yeah, no, I'm not. Like that's that, we're gonna? I was like I'm gonna be frank with the coach, we're gonna lose that one, we're gonna. I'm gonna lose that one because I've never swam over a 200 in my life.

Speaker 1: 36:50

Yeah, and you want me to do the four? I don't even know if I can count that many laps. Like that's, I don't. Even I can't, I can't do that. And like, but he was like well, we don't really have a choice because it's a distance meet and we have one distance guy, so either he swims every single event or you guys chip in. I was like well, I mean, I get it, I'll do it. I'm not gonna like it, but I'll do it. Like so, yeah, and we had, we had a distance coach there and I see why. But yeah, he was just like. He was like you're coming out of the gate way too fast. He's like that's all I know how to do is.

Speaker 2: 37:24

All I know how to do is go fast, go like that's, that's it.

Speaker 2: 37:28

Well, I'm a big. I'm a big four by four guy. I love a four by four, right? I joked when I was in college. You know I wasn't the fastest guy in the world. But any given day, any given day, it could be raining, it could be snowing, it could be beautiful and sunny. I'm gonna give you a 51 one. Right, you're gonna get. That is the time you're getting.

Speaker 2: 37:49

But I ran a four by four every week and so I've always taken that, you know, into my coaching experience. I don't care if you're a jumper, I don't care if you're a 400 runner, I don't care if you're an 800 runner or a mile or a 10 K runner, you're running a four by four. You know, if you're a 400 runner, you're running it every week. If you're a 10 K runner, you're running it every other week. All right, the weeks you don't run the 10 K, you're running the 400, 100 meter runners. And I say this to my athletes and you know, the first time I put them in it, they complained about it, and then the second time they're like, coach, I wanna be on that relay. And you know they fight each other for it. I'm like, yep, you got it, you got it. You got it Because it's just like the epitome of competitions. I think it's the closest thing to team sport that you get in track. Yeah, and you know we're running four by fours every week.

Speaker 2: 38:41

I've put you know I've got a kid, dante, on the team right now. He's a, he's a 60 hundred guy. I mean he is, he's built, but he is you know who run a good four eventually. He started off he wasn't super happy with his 54, but I know he's going to get down to 50 points. Like he's just built like that and he just competes like that. And you know he's run 50 point in high school. So getting him back to that it shouldn't take too long. But you know he's four years separated from that and about 25 pounds heavier because he's he's built like a football player now. But it's the aggression, it's the speed and all of that's the same. It's just getting used to running that far with 20 pounds extra. Like I'm not trying to get him lighter. He's not going to get any lighter but he's going to get better at, you know, sprinting the four.

Speaker 2: 39:41

And then you know my distance runners are coming down to it and they're they're gutting it out and they're doing really well right now. So I'm excited for them. And then you know, my 400 runners, my sprinters, they're all, they're all looking forward to it. They all go after it.

Speaker 2: 39:55

The growing pains of running a four by four early and running a four by four now, I think you know, looking towards the end of the season, they're, they're moving really well. They're moving in the direction that I want them to be in. We don't have an indoor championship. We're not going to go to mountain East conference indoor this year, but outdoor we're looking. So that just gives me more time to develop them and take them to all these meets indoor, take them to all these meets outdoor and really put on a high quality product at the end of April. So I'm real excited. You know, every week there's little PRs here and there, little PRs, little PRs, really setting them up for some big PRs. Right, I think we've got I mean, I know we've got unbelievable athletes on this team and it's just going to take, you know, a couple months for them to become unbelievably good track athletes as well.

Speaker 2: 40:56

And I've said this to their sport coaches and I am more than grateful for them sharing their athletes with me to help get this program off the ground, but they are. You know, I'm not going to return them hurt. I'm not going to return them, you know, in any worse condition than you gave them to me, but I am going to return them faster, I'm going to return them stronger and I'm going to return them just better. Athletes overall. Now, you might have to, you know, reteach them how to hit a volleyball, or, you know, put on a couple pounds of you know fat to make sure that they can take the hits that you see on a football field. Yeah, but they're going to. They're going to hit so much harder, they're going to be so much faster, they're going to be so much springier. Like I always promise that, like anytime I've worked with a dual sport athlete, which I've been lucky enough to do my entire career, I'm like track just makes you better, it just makes you better.

Speaker 1: 42:07

That was my biggest issue in high school because I played football and I swam and my football coach was like, why are you swimming? I was like, do you realize the muscles that you use swimming that I don't use on the football field? I'm a receiver. I'm like I'm building my legs up and my shoulders so now I can take a bigger hit, I can go up and get a ball. You know, like it's just going to correlate and make me a better football player. Because now I got endurance. Because if you can swim, for heck, I did the calculations every practice. I was swimming five to six miles a day practice. That was just not the island I was.

Speaker 1: 42:54

But that's practice, that's what we're talking about, practice. And you know that's that's what it was. And but, and I was like so I'm coming back in shape, because it goes from winter to spring and then, by that time, now back into the lifting program and then we're into summer conditioning and I'm there, I'm ready to go. And they were like I wish this was fitting when we were at college, because it wasn't, but it was one of his teammates on the football team that would always rag on me. We're still good friends, you know, but we always rag on each other because we were always at the complex. He's like oh, you know, that's sissy sport. You know what I mean. You know, no, nobody goes to swimming. I was like all right, so you're a football player, you'd be able to go through one of my workouts in right. He was like oh, say, bet. I was like all right, let's go to the pool. He was like what do you mean? I was like I just finished practice. I'll go back and do another one with you to make it, to make it more fair, and we can go through the workout we did today for me as a sprinter. He was like oh, I'm gonna eat this up, okay. So I asked.

Speaker 1: 44:00

My coach was luckily still in his office. I said hey, coach, can I have the workout for him today? He was like well, I was like I'm going to put my man here through it, I'm going to do it again with him. He goes, you're gonna do two workouts in one day. I was like can't hurt me, can't it Like? I mean, that's not. Yeah, I'm an athlete coming for extra work, coach, so he gives it to me.

Speaker 1: 44:20

We got through the warmup. He's like oh man, that was intense. I was like that's to get us ready for what we're about to do. And I've already done this once today and you're helping him puffing already. Oh, by the way, that's time we got to go and like. And it was just like. And the next day it was such satisfaction for me See he blimping around campus because he was sore, because he had used muscles he never knew he had. Like I was like now, imagine if you did that in the off season or even on break times during the season. Imagine how much better of a football player you would be. And he became an all American because he would come in after we were done, like hey, mike, you got that workout from from today. Here you go, man, have at it. Coach is cool with you doing it. There you go, like it's all you my guy Like, but yeah, he became an all American. So doing two people like rag on two sport athletes. But that's. It's only going to make you better for your main sport.

Speaker 2: 45:20

Yeah, and like I mean, I look at it, you know, especially mostly most, most football players would make great track athletes. Here are, football players are ridiculous athletes. They've got unbelievable power, they've got unbelievable speed and they're really well developed. You know, musculature was like they can take a hit, they know how to lift, they know how to do all these things and it's great. It's great, they would make great track athletes. And then, you know, they go into the spring and obviously there's the skill work that needs to be done around football learning plays, learning the playbook, all that stuff, and I have immense respect for that. But you know, if you're trained for a pro day or a combine, what do you have to do? Right, you've got to run a 40 yard dash, right, christian Coleman ran 4.12. Wow, and he's a track athlete exclusively. But you know, jonathan Ross was 4.23. Devon Allen, you know, is an Olympic hurtler and he's, you know, on the practice squad for the Eagles. There's a reason why he's on practice squad is probably because, but you know, they might help the Eagles a little bit. You know, philly still trash, right, but you know that speed is invaluable, right, if you're a borderline kind of guy and you're trying to.

Speaker 2: 46:53

You know, go to a pro day and you know, look great for some pro people. They're not seeing you run plays necessarily, they're seeing how good of an athlete you are, right. Okay. So in season, say, your vertical tested is 36. You know, you run a track program. Even just to prepare for the combine, you can go from 36 to 42. Right, you can get six inches of vertical without losing so much. There's skill involved with testing vertical.

Speaker 2: 47:27

Your broad jump Okay. So your broad jump is 2.8 meters. Right, that's not very good for a track athlete. It looks pretty good for a football combine. But hey, if I get you over three meters, which you're capable of doing, you just got to do it a little bit more. If I can get you from a four six to a four five or four seven to a four five, right, just because you're training track a little bit, maybe that pro day they're looking at you like, oh, I've seen he's pretty decent. Like I'm at his bro to him, looking at him because I think he's a good football player. Oh, he's pretty decent. Oh, he's a real athlete. Right, it's like you can kind of Play that system a little bit. I mean, you don't think any of those guys that show up to the combine have been practicing football For the weather. They've been practicing, they've been trying to bench as much as they can.

Speaker 1: 48:25

They're. They're trying to run as fast as they can.

Speaker 2: 48:29

They don't know the playbook, they don't know who they're going to. They're just trying to show. Oh, look at how great of an athlete I am on top of.

Speaker 1: 48:38

What I've proven, what you see on film, right, yeah, yeah, that's, that's huge. You know, yeah, I Respect track because a I mean I couldn't do it. I was always that slow white kid you know what I mean. Like that, like, even as a receiver like Mike, I mean you're six, five. I don't understand how you're this slow. As a runner, I was like I don't know to get these Long, lanky legs moving on a field. It takes a while. You put me in a pool. I'm cooking. Everybody, though, like I don't understand, like why it's this correlation? But but it is what it is, and even my Reaction time from jumping off of the blocks when the horror went off and the race was starting Helped me with my vertical leap.

Speaker 1: 49:27

Yeah, they were like they were like you came in and you could barely, you barely had a 30 inch vertical. I mean you're six, five, you don't really have to jump that high anyways, but you know it's. They were like Do you want to know what, what it is? Now I was like I mean you're gonna have to tell me eventually. Though, like you're at like a 36, 37. Yeah, from it's, from swimming.

Speaker 1: 49:52

I was like, yeah, well, I got that reaction time off the block. That's a lot of quick twitch, it having to react and jump. And they're like we just found our new goal line threat. Like your a, your six foot five, yeah, be Nobody in this state of West Virginia. Their cornerbacks, I think the tallest one is five, nine. So right, there's an advantage. So when we get into the 20, fine coach, like you're going in, yeah, chance or not. And I was like, all right, I might not be a starter, but I know my role and it. I credit that to swimming, because it was always just jump balls at the back of the end zone. That's all I had to do. I I had one route I had to learn fade to the corner, like that was. That was it. I needed to know. Five yards, head to the corner. The back quarter is that was it.

Speaker 2: 50:40

And it's. It's so funny because, like my first week that I was at William and Mary as a grad student, you know I'm doing it, I'm doing an act like a track workout and I, you know, not there with the team, yeah, like the team's practicing later. So I'm just getting my workout in and the old coach there, jimmy Laycock, came, was, happened to be out at the field and he was just like you got any eligibility left. I was like for what? Like he's like for football. I was like I've never, like I haven't played football since like Sixth grade and I would have been a terrible football player. But he's like, well, you can jump and you're tall. And it's like, okay, you can't make me a football player, but I bet your ass I can find a six foot five, you know, wide receiver and make them a good track athlete, which will then make them a better football player. Right, and you know, that is that is my pitch to them and they've been so, you know, receptive and helpful with all of that, which is awesome, because I really, I really think it like makes my program better and it in turn makes their program better and if we can just have that cyclical right nature.

Speaker 2: 52:02

Everybody, everybody's getting better. Everybody has a better opportunity and you know, these kids played three sports in college. Every single one of them are in high school. They played three sports in high school. They know what it's about, right, and if not, it's never a burden on the athlete. All right, the athlete knows how to do it, they, they just follow directions. It's a. It's a scheduling problem for coaches, which I Know. We get 20 hours a week of practice for for in season sports. I have never touched 20 hours, is you, don't?

Speaker 1: 52:42

need it for track. The same thing with swimming get in, get your laps in, get out, get done. Like you know, every now and again my coach he really he tried to turn me into a breaststroker and I just I told him from day one, coach, I cannot do that stroke. I don't know what it is, I cannot do that stroke. And the doctors told me I can't do the butterfly. So you have me for freestyle and you have me for backstroke. Line them up, I'll do all of them. But he was like well, what's your issue with the breaststroke? I was like I don't know what it is, I can't get my legs to make that motion. I don't know what it is, I can't. Yeah, I can't get that motion just doesn't work for me. And I don't know why it was. We're gonna fix that.

Speaker 1: 53:28

Well, he would make me stay after practice, hang on to the deep end wall and do a hundred breaststroke kicks, just hanging on the wall. And it was brutal. I mean, I'm almost 35 years old, I still can't do it. I, even after every day of doing, I still can't do it. I was like I try to tell you I'm not, I'm not blowing smoke up you here, coach, I can't do it. It's just not gonna happen. Pick somebody else. And I know what he was trying to do was trying to save my shoulder, because that's an easier, more natural motion for Swimmers. And yeah, and I was just like coach. It's just. I know I'm on borrowed time as it is.

Speaker 1: 54:09

Just let me go out my blaze of glory here and we'll have will be all right, but, mike, we are running down near the end of the episode. We actually went a little longer. Fine, I can sit in talk sports all day though. So, yeah, it is what it is, but I do have to get this segment in, because if I don't, the wonderful manager of the podcast, johnny Fitti Falcone, will kill me. And that is the fast Fitti five. Five random questions from the wonderful manager of the podcast, johnny Fitti Falcone. For the new listeners out there, this is kind of rapid fire, but you can elaborate if you need to and If you know anything about Johnny. These are the most random questions you're gonna come up against. So if you're ready, mike, I'm ready, all right. Question number one what is harder to trade for an Iron man race or a full marathon, and why?

Speaker 2: 55:01

Full marathon faster. Iron man yeah, you got Iron Man's. Just time on your feet, time on your feet and Time on the bike. Like it's boring and you probably want to. You know, take your Take a pipe to your head by the end of it, because you're training six hours a day. But a full marathon is faster. It's harder because you've you've got to actually do speed work. I'm training for a half marathon now. I didn't even realize that. You know that was gonna be difficult. I'll finish it, that's for sure. But I know Full Iron man Well, like I would say, the time commitments more Full marathon is like if you're trying to go fast, it's the whole marathon way harder.

Speaker 1: 55:52

Okay, question number two what is better, sled riding or ice skating, sled riding? Sled riding has a toss, absolutely. I feel like that one was.

Speaker 2: 56:02

I prefer to bust my ass, and you know land in snow rather than ice.

Speaker 1: 56:06

Yeah, yeah, I've done both. It's not fun. Question number three if you can live in either Costa Rica or Japan, which one would you pick?

Speaker 2: 56:17

Japan, japan, you got, you know proximity to like warm places and then you got really good snowboarding out there.

Speaker 1: 56:26

Okay, all right. Number four name a food that closely resembles your personality.

Speaker 2: 56:39

I'm gonna go to the New Jersey answer and everything bagel. You know just a little bit, a little bit of everything Crunchy on the outside. I'm just a big old pushover on the inside. Yeah, I really like breakfast sandwiches. So there's that.

Speaker 1: 56:53

I'm, I'm, I'm about it, I'm not. I'm not mad at that answer at all. Number five is vitamin water overrated or underrated? I?

Speaker 2: 57:03

Have never had a vitamin water in my life.

Speaker 1: 57:07

So they're overrated. Got it yeah.

Speaker 2: 57:09

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 57:10

Yeah, yeah, I drink a modification. You know, you know long night out after a comedy show and you know, at a comedy club people feed you drinks and doing two shows a night. Sometimes it's like, yeah, give me that vitamin water in the morning and like it. Well, we're gonna rehydrate this and Pedialyte Gatorade guy yeah, in between the catfarm.

Speaker 1: 57:32

Yeah, that's that's. That's a good choice. But yeah, it's very rare that I'm a vitamin water. It's trash, I'm not gonna lie. Yeah, so, mike, like I said, we are running down here at the end of the episode. That was the fast 55, but I give every guest this opportunity at the end of every show. There's anything you want to get out there, anything you want to promote, anything that you want, or even if it's just a good message, I'm gonna give you about a minute floor is yours.

Speaker 2: 58:00

For sure. First of all, I just want to, you know, thank everybody who's gotten me to this point. Thank NDC for you know Supporting me and the team and, you know, giving us this opportunity to build something that I think's gonna be great. Shout out to my my team, shout out to all the athletes for working their butts off and, you know, getting after, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they Can do in this outdoor season. I shout out to you know, these high school kids who are, you know, reaching out to me. I'm trying to get back to you guys as fast as I possibly can, obviously just apply. You know, get in and we're, we'll find a place for you. We're a great team Already and I hope to be even better next year. But yeah, thank you guys so much and yeah, I really, really appreciate you having me on.

Speaker 1: 58:53

Hey, not a problem it was. I feel like this could have been like a two-hour show. Like I Can talk sports and everything sports all day like a two I. I just like looking at the clock I was like, yeah, we're over time, it's fine, all right, it's what it is. I don't mind you get on a show called the ride home rants. There's gonna be long-winded discussions, it happens, but that is going to do it for this week's episode of the ride home rants podcast. I want to thank my guest, mike Larkin, for coming on. There's a lot of fun to talk to you, man. This was a very easy show for me to do, talking sports. I could do it all day. But, as Always, if you enjoyed the show, be a friend, tell a friend. If you didn't tell him anyways, they might like it just because you didn't. That's gonna do it for me and I will see y'all next week.