Logan Storie And His Journey Of Being An Elite Athlete - Ep. 9

Merging Wisdom Okay. Well, welcome to Merging Wisdom podcast. I'm Joel Hubbard, I'm here with Dan Heroy and also with a guest today, Logan's Storie. Super excited to have you with us. You're a phenom, a physical phenom. You've done all kinds of things and accomplished all sorts of things. Things like you were Division one swimmer at the University of Florida before competing for team USA in the modern pentathlon, and that itself is quite impressive.

I'm curious about, sort of mixing these different trials together in one system like that. It requires so much from us to be able to do that. So curious to get into that with you. And then you joined the Army where you've served as an officer. You've climbed the ranks there. You competed in Best Ranger competition. So there's been a lot that you've done, and I'm super curious about some of the stuff.

And feel free to talk more about, you know, what you've done. And, what I also came to understand is that you are you push yourself, but you're also very interested in, in in lifting others up and having others succeed around you. And maybe even that might bring even more joy, as some people certainly find that to be true for them.

But, but before we dive into all of that stuff, I'd love to hear a little bit more from you as to like to do all of this. To get into this, it had to be an interest for you from early on in life or was it not? Some people tell me these stories like no, never was interested in music.

And suddenly at 18, I decided to pick up the guitar. And ever since then, you know, it's been a phenomenal player who's traveling the world. But it tell me about your sort of your starts to your life. And was that something always interesting to you or does that come later on? Yeah. Well good morning Joel and Dan.

For me and Lisa, I know it's nighttime there. So growing up, my my parents were athletes. My dad did Iron Man. My mom was a runner and swimmer. And then I'm one of four kids and all of us. Gram and ran was our primary sport throughout high school. But we grew up doing every sport, whether it was volleyball, flag football, soccer, ball.

We grew up doing everything. So I think it was just part of a lifestyle in our family. We were very athletic. And then the competitive nature naturally came from one always being around sports, the pool. And then I think two, having the three other siblings, I'm the, the third of the force. And then my, my parents as well were the high school swim coach.

So always around athletes just kind of in the nature. And then to me it was always fun. It was kind of a game. Whether it was swim practice or running or whatever to chase people, to beat them. And that kind of is what drove me as a, as a child. So are you driven by 1 to 1 company?

I'm always this is one of the questions that I've been fascinated by because I love competition, but it's also stressful. Like I like to compete against people and I'm very much a 1 to 1. So if I play like racquetball now, I start a racquetball, about 7 or 8 years ago. And I absolutely love the sort of like one on one when it gets to, like, too many people in the court, like it's doubles.

That's a lot harder for me. And I started thinking, I tend to be more 1 to 1 in my competition. So I'm curious about you. Like, what were the things were you driven by? Like, I'm competing against myself because some people say that or am I competing against another person? What's the what's the competition for you? I kind of agree with you.

I am probably more one on one athlete. I think it just happened to be that way for my family because of running. And swimming or being the main sports before going to to college. I wasn't in so much of the team sports. It wasn't that I wasn't a team player. It's just those are the things that I think because of our parents had done that before us, we knew more of it. We accelerated quicker.

I was at the pool probably 8 to 12 hours a day as a child. But to me, the the individual sport, the one on one is the most honest because you have for like gymnastics or diving where you have judges and there's regardless of what you think or believe, like there are opinions and history between judges and athletes where you might score higher or lower based on what country and who the judge is and who you are as a person.

Sports. It can be tough because you could perform, but your team might still lose. But when you are racing yourself, the clock or you know, handful of other people like there is nothing more honest about if you touch second or you cross the line second, that that is what it is. The time is not lying. And I think that is the most honest feedback you can get as an athlete.

And those results directly dictate and change how you're going to train for the next event. And like I said, I didn't I didn't choose that. But, I wouldn't have changed that growing up. Because I think that has helped develop and guide me throughout my life. Yeah. Out of all the things you've done athletically, physically, what do you love the most?

Some people, it's like there's a particular sport or particular event that that's the thing that they highlight is like, that's the thing that I love the most. Other people, they talk about the process. It's more of like, I'm the, the preparation, the, the, the training. All of that seems important to them. Some other people point to like the camaraderie.

Like, I just love being on a team with other people. And I happen to be really good at what I do. It could be another of those three. It could be beyond that. But anyways, just curious as to what comes up for you. So I, I've done this a couple of times just, you know, thinking back, you know, now that I've, I haven't competitive swam in 14 years, obviously there have been periods of my life that I have gone through.

I feel like I've lived like three times. I had my swimming career through college. Kind of between 2012, 2016 time and then as a enlisted soldier doing pentathlon and now is a, a, a father and an officer in the army. And whenever I talk to people about moments or things that I am super proud of, there's always somewhere between 3 and 5 and it kind of shifts.

As a young athlete, I would say going to the Olympic trials, one of the most memorable, and impactful times, specifically the 2008 Olympic trials. I was 21 and not a nobody, but I wasn't gonna make the team. If you were to talk to a coach in my mind, obviously, like, that's what I was there for to make the team.

Yeah. Competed in three events, and the two that are my best were the mile and 400 freestyle. Both got best times, and I finished ninth and 11th. Which in any other event for Olympic trials, you'd go, you would go to a finals and swim again. Not to say that if I swam again, I would have made the top two, but I didn't get a second chance.

Where most top 16 from again and very young dropped a lot of times, surprised a lot of people and it was just an amazing feeling. Swimming in Omaha, Nebraska. It was, one of the first times they had built up a pool inside of the, a basketball arena. So it was more of kind of a professional, high level atmosphere.

And the other thing I would add to that is the Olympic trials. Qualifying times for the United States are the Olympic qualifying times for any other country. So outside of maybe Australia, China, you know, handful of elite countries, I could have potentially competed in the Olympics. But in the US you have to qualify to go to trials and then you have to be top two or make a relay team.

That was important to me because that was a performance based achievement that I will never forget. Obviously, getting married and having kids are, you know, the two other top things that I would talk about. But then as I transitioned to pentathlon, and competing in VRC for the Army, my mindset as I got older changed too. We don't always control the outcomes of events.

Also, they are more team events or more events involved. And so then I became more process driven, enjoying the journey and knowing and understanding that just because you're not seeing something doesn't mean it's not going to happen. And, you know, you listen to your coach, listen to your body, continue to push through. And then, you know, 8 or 9 times out of ten you're going to have a positive response or outcome from that.

So Logan, I was a little bit nervous about this happening and I feel like it might you're going to make me feel really bad about myself and my fitness. I was taking a very easy hike the other day, and there was a slight incline and I started to get a little winded. So, you know, I'll try to get through this.

I do love fitness and exercise, even though I'm not. That's not my world. It's not my lifestyle. I love talking about it, and I love being inspired by people like you, even if it makes me feel a little bit bad about myself. Maybe there's something good in that too, for all of us to be motivated by. I want to get back to the to the, the Olympic thing, and more to like the emotions and feelings and lead up to that because this is like a wisdom podcast.

A lot of times what we're doing is kind of pulling threads of wisdom and kind of seeing, what people learned on their journeys. And that is an incredible journey to, to get where you got. And, what's the goal always to at that point in your life? Was that a huge goal, like a mountaintop goal, make the Olympics?

Was it everything in your life like, kind of give us some context for like how much that consumed you or motivated you and inspired you at that time and then getting so close, like kind of walk us through that part of your journey. I'm really interested in that aspect. Yeah. So growing up obviously always had aspirations of going to the Olympics.

All my other siblings had, you know, gone to Olympic trials as well, had done well, Wait, but all your other siblings, so your, your three other siblings went to the Olympic trials.

So we all swam in college. That's incredible. Yeah. Brothers, family, USC older sisters, women. Organ state for two years and younger sister swam in West Virginia. So that was one of the things I had originally written down to talk about as growing up, like very competitive. You know, some of the siblings were a little smarter, some were more athletic.

But we all got ships to swim, which opened doors. And, you know, then you don't have to pay as much for tuition and things like that. So I think that helped with the competitiveness. Everyone is achieve great things in their own and their own right. And I think a little bit of the like, rivalry and stuff was, you know, who, you know who can beat the other one.

And so, I know my brother had made three Olympic trials. He's, he's five years older than me. So he went to think it was 2004, 2008 and then 2012, I believe, so that I was always chasing him. You know, he was one of my two heroes growing up. I even got a a bazooka gum wrapper. And on it, it said, you will be a great swimmer and may make the Olympic team one day.

And I, I kept like, that's. Yeah, they're generic things, but like to be a swimmer already and to get it, it's on my wall back home still I would say I didn't get super serious until maybe sophomore junior year in high school. Would that be considered late for your peers and people in that field trying to compete for the limpets?

Is that kind of right on the mark? No. Not at all. And I think it the the mark is continuing to shift to the right. When me and my siblings were growing up and swimming pretty much after college. Like, if you didn't make the Olympics like you were done, there wasn't a lot of pro glimmers outside of Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte.

Like, unless you were the number one guy, that was it at the college. I would say almost immediately following my senior year, that's when protein and more athletes began getting sponsorships and swimming after college. So I made my first junior national team. I think sophomore year I'd been, I want to say, struggling, but I was not struggling.

It was more just like teenager dealing with school sports. I finally had a breakout and then starting to look at colleges and stuff, and that's when I really started to focus in and narrow more on the Olympics versus just practicing lots and being really good at the sport. Did you ever did you rely early on? You talked about like, did. You, you know.

The the sort of like coming, coming into yourself a little bit here. Did you rely more on your athleticism or was there sort of like, you know, not as serious about the practice or was that always true for you? Like you were always loving the practice, doing the practice. What what evolved for you? I think one, being consistent as a kid, like, our parents worked at the pool in the school.

So, like, we were always going there. We didn't have, like, the excuse to not be there. So. Not just going more because. Right, you have to put in the effort or you're going to, you know, you can train 10,000 hours poorly, or you can train 10,000 hours aggressively with purpose, stuff like that. So having the competitive drive with the family, having the access to the pool and other athletes, I think, I would say I was a little bit of a goofball growing up.

And so I like to play in practice. I started doubles earlier, like in sixth grade and continued that, which helped excel. But I think I stopped playing around so much in practice. And then it was more goal oriented times and things I wanted to hit in practice. And then obviously trying to see those results in me, it's.

Yeah. So like I said, I started excelling junior, senior year, got a scholarship to go to the University of Florida. I would say I was a big fish in a little pond when I was in high school. Corrals. Sorgen. One of the reasons I went to the University of Florida, you know, 3000 miles away, couldn't have been further from the family.

But University of Florida at the time had the Olympic head coach, Ryan Lochte, was training there, as well as 15 other Olympians from other countries. So I didn't want to be the big fish in the little pond. I looked at some other colleges. I wanted to be pushed. So I chose University of Florida and from day one.

Just constantly pushed, whether it was doing dry land, doing weights or in the pool. So many amazing athletes are at that school. There were there was no way you couldn't get better. Let's see. So that was my freshman year was 2007, 2008. I trained throughout the school year. I went to and C to A as a freshman, which is a big deal.

And I remember what place I got them, I think 15th, got a best time. And then I made the decision that summer to go back home and train with my club coach for the Olympic trials versus my college coach. I wasn't seeing as much improvement as I wanted. There was definitely improvement at University of Florida, but I wasn't seeing some of the leaps that I had seen before.

And so I just wanted to go to a place where, I knew the process a little bit more. So I went back home for the summer. Did great. We, you know, coach Rick Gunther and I started hitting some of the similar sets that I used to do some of the workouts, but obviously at a higher intensity, looking to hit faster paces.

Did the normal meets throughout the, the summer, and then went to the Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska, like I said. And one of the things that we would always do is you try to do a time trial or an event that you're not used to prior to your first event. One the the main reason is to kind of shake off the cobwebs, so that you're not nervous or questioning anything going into the race.

And then to you, you can also do the off of it, just because you don't do it during the season and you're more likely to go a best time to kind of boost some of that confidence as well. So the first event that I had was the 400 meter freestyle. I had the cut. The Olympic trials cut to, to swim it.

But I was not by any means a name or an athlete who was going to make top 16 or or make the Olympic team. I previously gotten nervous before races. Sometimes you'll see athletes who talk a lot or not talk a lot. In the ready room. This ready room specifically was under the stadium, and you've had 16 chairs and a TV to watch the heats in front of you.

And then they would walk you up before. And I just remember being so quiet and just kind of taking it all in. And there were some other athletes are standing up, you know, some won't shut their mouths. And good or bad, I don't know. I don't know why I was quiet. They, they, you know, the heat in front of us finished.

You know, they did okay times. Nothing spectacular. They walked us out and just having, you know, 10,000 people at a swimming event, which is was unheard of back in 2008. It kind of like this. Why did my whole body, you know, they they got us on the blocks. Take your marks. Beep. So start swimming. I get 200m in, you know, the first part, you try to kind of relax, but you're still going fast and then pick it up.

And I remember pushing off the wall at 200m and looking over and being like, what am I doing? We're all we're all like, even. And I was like, you're at the Olympic Trials. And I just took off as fast as I could. And so, I started getting the lead going into 250, 300, 350 died a little bit the last 50.

But I finished in a 353, I think I dropped like four seconds, which is a huge amount of time. It's funny, I go back every once in a while and I'll watch this terribly videoed 400 meter and hearing the announcer, Rowdy Gaines, former Olympian, and knowing what was going on in my mind during the race is just is so interesting to me.

And I finished and they said, you know, Logan Storie 353 I think it was like 83. And then they go, that's the top time so far. And I was like, oh, man. And I, I go into the cooldown after and I think there were four heats after me. And so when you get to the top three heats, those are third seeded.

So the fastest heat has the number one guy, obviously the second number two. And then they just rotate, the heat behind me I think like I don't think anyone beat me. And I was like, okay, so now there's 24 guys left. And then the, you know, third the last heat, maybe 2 or 3 guys. And I was like, oh my gosh, like, what's going on?

Because I wasn't expecting anything. Obviously at the end of the day, I finished 13th in the 400, but I was just like, Holy crap. And I think that gave me so much confidence. Because you have people that go into these big, like Olympic trials is the biggest competition you're going to go to other than the Olympics. And the and people related the energy to a as a more competitive.

Event than some Olympics, but definitely in the Olympic trials because you have Olympians from every country representing a college. Whereas Olympic trials, you only have US athletes. So I'd already been at, you know, another highest level event. And I think the calm before the race was my body being like, you've been here, you've put in the reps and training like just execute.

Some people either taper too much going into a big race, maybe complacent or, you know, there's a multitude of things. And when I got there, you know, being able to talk to myself in the middle of the race was kind of the weirdest thing. And I was just like, go for it. And I built, built that, the confidence off of that going into the mile and same thing, you know, no expectation to make the Olympic team in the mile.

There's a bigger gap between the the top guys from where I was, but I was in the fastest circle seated heat, with Eric Vint, who was a two time Olympian at the time. He actually swam with my brother in college, and I, he didn't lap me, but he was probably 50m ahead. And what I didn't know at the time is when he finished, you know, I was just swimming my race.

But when he finished, he had the top time in the world after that event. And so you, you really have to keep like, blinders on and focus on yourself. And then maybe if you can see your coach of the clock to know where you're at. Because if you're solely racing for a place versus a time that can throw anybody off specifically in swimming or track. So, finished.

Same thing. I've finished 11th in that event. You know, no real expectations to make the Olympic team. That was a dream and a goal. Overall, I was over the moon, at that Olympic trials. And then I went back in 2012. I did the mile 402 hundred. Same thing. Didn't make it. That was okay. I would I would say that the higher level of competition you go to, you understand it a lot more.

I think when you're watching sports, you're hoping or looking for the upset all the time, and people get shocked, but what they don't see is if you're a teammate or a player or whatever, it's like you're probably seeing that player or athlete do those repetitions, and it isn't so much a shock for a coach or an athlete.

So I was going to prove a point that I was still at that level. I think in 2012, I knew I wasn't going to make it, so that it wasn't emotional for me. I was happy to be back at Olympic trials and then going into pentathlon. I'll start by explaining the events, because I'm sure you guys didn't know.

Nobody really ever knows. But. So pentathlon, it is five sports. Fencing, swimming, horseback riding, running and shooting. It was created for the military. It was essentially the decathlon for the military. It was to create the perfect soldier, similar to the perfect athlete. So, you know, 100, 100 in I think 12 years ago, it was supposed to be for specifically, officers.

Cav officers. So if you were to deliver a message on the battlefield, you would, you know, general says, hey, you know, I need more troops, whatever it might be. You take that message and you grab the first horse on the line, which I'll explain where that comes in later. From there, you're writing across enemy lines. You would shoot the enemy, you run out of bullets, you go to your sword.

And then if you're a horse gets shot or dies along the way, you have to be able to run or swim across land or water to deliver the message. Interesting. I appreciate you clarify that. Excellent. Yeah, it always seems so. It seemed very random to us now, how we live now and how we view sports now. So I really do appreciate that context. Yeah, that's really cool.

So it is more times. Than they would like. Used to be real pistols and change the laser pistols that used to be a 4K run across country. That was a three K, then three by one K was shooting in between, then four by 800. Now they do it more on a track, kind of zigzagging so that it's more spectator friendly with the laser pistols.

So yeah, they've changed it for views. They actually just took out horse riding after this last Olympics because of had a two part one to explain what I was saying earlier is you grab whatever horse you can off the line when you go to the events, they, they demonstrate the horses so you can see how they are.

They have to be able to jump all of the the obstacles prior to the start. And you don't know which one you're going to get. Do they do a random drawing? So you have to be competent at horse riding, similar to grabbing the, the first horse versus like maybe going to your horse because you're trying to deliver the message.

During competitions, every nation provides the horses. And there was a event during the Olympics where a pentathlete got a horse and it was refusing to jump. They were having issues with obstacles. And the frustrated soldier or, well, soldier athlete, ended up hitting the horse, which everyone hits the horse to to get it to go. But it the intent was more malice than just like, hey, go.

So part of it is you can't just, like, hit somebody else's horse because, you know, it'd be like driving a Lambert to somebody who's Lamborghini instead of your car like, that is somebody's horse. But then on the athlete or soldiers perspective, is horse riding or equestrian. Infant Athlon is the only event of chance when you fence your you're better or worse than other person and you get a point or you don't.

Running and shooting, you're faster. Your time, you get more points, you're a better shooter, you're going to get more points. But there have been times where. Men or women in the top three who have meddled at the Olympics before, draw a horse at the World Championships, and all of a sudden they're knocked out of the top 16 or they don't make a final. So I understand the frustration that, you know, there's money career on the line.

And when that happens and in the moment, like you're you're probably super frustrated. But you also have to understand that, you know, if somebody is.

Donating or let you borrowing their Lamborghini or their, you know, 200 to $500,000 horse, and then they see you hit it like that's it's just not a good look for the sport. So in this last year or two, they actually got rid of horse riding. And they have now changed it to obstacle course racing, which it was a huge deal.

The the sport just continues to evolve. It is one of the original, historical like sports for the Olympics. And it's frustrating as an athlete to see a change. But I also say that, you know, if you want to keep it in the sport, in the Olympics, then you have to get views, you have to make it spectator friendly.

And so they are constantly trying to evolve it to keep it relevant. So it's, it's it's a really tough. Fine line for them I think. Interesting. Yeah, it's quite a history. That's a I, I didn't know any of this. I appreciate you sharing that. Yeah. And, yeah, I can understand those sort of purist mindset of we need to keep the horses in, and, Yeah.

Then you have the others who are more practical at, you know, what's going to what's going to keep viewers viewing this and, and so on. Yeah, it is a multidisciplinary kind of thing. Right. So you go from swimming and doing that to this talk about the shift in terms of, not just the physical, and that's a component, that's a major component, but also the mental, like the mental component of, entering into that.

You already mentioned, I mean, the horse isn't moving. You're, you know, that is that is just extraordinarily difficult. And sometimes athletes get get stuck. You know, it's sort of sort of like mentally stuck with the problem that they're confronting. And so they might lose their ability, their creative ability to figure out how to get around those things.

But as much as possible, obviously the sport needs to be fairly consistent, fairly predictable, and so on. But talk about what it's like for you. How was the shift to go from something where you were pretty much this is what I'm doing. There's not much to no, not many other distractions at play here or crowds and all of that.

That's a major distraction as well as you mentioned. But, talk about that part. How did you make that switch and what goes into being able to do something like a pentathlon? Kind of interesting. I, you know, had no plans to do pentathlon. Never would have thought about it. Didn't even know about it until maybe junior or senior year in high school.

So it kind of started back. I was a made a either junior national team or maybe open water national team. And any time you make a team, you get invited out to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado. And it could be anywhere from a four day weekend to maybe a three week camp. And while we were there, one of the high performance coaches, coach G, as we call him.

Was working with pentathlon at the time, and I didn't really know, but on one of the weekends, they just wanted to introduce us to the sport. After a swim practice, they took us down to the fencing hall where they fence and they shoot. They kind of showed us, build us a little bit about it, and then they let us shoot and they let us fence that day.

That's when they were doing pellets, in the pistol. I happened to shoot a ten on my first shot. Lucker talent. You know, I'll let you guys decide. They did get worse after that one, but, they got they got pretty excited. After that, they had us fence and skills. I didn't have infancy, but I was aggressive. This comes into play after 2012.

It didn't make the Olympics in swimming. And, coach G reached back out to me and asked me what I was, what I was doing with my life. I was like, get a get a job, I guess, and, work in a cubicle. And he's like, why don't you come out here for a month and do pentathlon and see how it goes?

Like, okay, you know, twist my arm. So in the US, people don't typically grow up knowing or training up pentathlon. So the US philosophy is find runners and swimmers who you can teach skill sports too, because you kind of close the gap a little bit in Europe, Eastern Europe they are very good at pentathlon, but they grow up doing pentathlon their whole life. And there are clubs, fencing is very big horse riding like all that stuff.

And so that is kind of why I got invited to go out there. So I went out for a month. I competed in nationals. They just didn't have me ride because I wasn't, certified in writing. And I got enough points in my running, swimming, fencing and shooting, that they asked that I would come out and join the team after joining the Army.

The the Army has the world class athlete program where you can join the Army. And if you're on the national team or you're high enough caliber athlete, that is your full time job. So everyone has they have their MOS. But while you're in the program, outside of Army requirements, you're just training at the Olympic Training Center, or they're at Colorado Springs, at Fort Carson, whether it's resting, boxing, bobsled, shooting, pentathlon, pretty much any sport has a qualification and you can be on the team.

So I decided to join the Army. I did that back in November of 2012. So next month it'll be 14 years. Got out of basic, and I was just training there full time. So, the swimming and running, I had no problem with, I had to drop some weight after basic training. Partially stress. But the other part was I wasn't training as much, and I was just eating, so I had to get back and running and swimming shape.

And then I had to pick up the shooting and fencing and horse riding. I kind of going back to team sports versus one on one. That's where I had to change my mindset. And also understand that progress isn't always linear. With fencing, it is the only event where you have a competitor. You're going against every event you compete in.

You get points based on a time, but in fencing, it's based on your percentage of victories. Nearly impossible to get 100%. But I had to be good enough at fencing, where I could be competitive. Because my my swimming, I would max out two points. I would get extra points in running. I would typically get close to maxing.

Then shooting it was combined. So the way they did it. So it's the main horseback riding. And then based on your points after those three events, they do a staggered start for the run shoot. So let's say you have 1200 points going into the final event, which is the run shoot. You go first and then if the next person has 1196, you're going four seconds behind them, and then 1190 you're starting 10s. So whoever crosses the line first at the end of that event is the overall winner.

And that's where pentathlon differs from decathlon. I've watched decathlon a number of times, and sometimes it can be boring when they get to the mile, which is always the final event. I've seen Bruce Jenner back in the days when he competed, or more recently, somebody like Ashton Eaton, who competed for of Oregon, and they could have so many points, and then they get to the man, they're like, oh.

Ashton Eaton just has to go a a 705 today to to win. And that's a little bit boring. Whereas if they had a staggered start it would force people to be competitive and to, to have a visual to see that, okay, I need to run this fast to potentially move up a place. Yeah. Well, this whole. Your transition from swimming to pentathlon, brings up an interesting observation. That. Is not unique to me.

But with really good athletes such as yourself are the ones that, you know, we might think of, Bo Jackson or Michael Jordan or even, like a LeBron James. There seems to be a malleability with, with athletes, that they can actually be proficient at multiple sports. You know, Michael Jordan kind of transitioned into baseball, and he was actually better than most people think because of his training, his discipline, his his attitude.

You know, Bo Jackson was great at multiple sports. LeBron James could could probably be a fantastic tight end for a football team. Why? Because you can't take other people. You can't take Jerry Seinfeld. And just because he's really proficient at comedy, say, now, you know, go be a shortstop. It doesn't work that way. But it seems like if you're an athlete, you can actually switch sports.

You can switch disciplines. Because of just that mental outlook and just the training and the discipline and the regiments you go through. So is there something to that where it's like you just need to kind of be pointed in a direction and you can kind of be good at it, not because you know, that one sports, but because of your body, the training, the attitude and the the discipline that you go through.

Is there something there? Absolutely. I think it's it's not even physical. You know, when you talk about competitions, people will say it's 10% physical, 90% mental. Because when you get to the that top level outside of Michael Phelps is prime when he was the only one in the world training every day for five years. Since then, everyone has changed the way they train.

And if you look at across the collegiate athletes or the Olympic level athletes, they are all doing similar sets that they have gone to seminars where the coach speaks and everyone writes that down and the athletes are all doing that. They're all doing, and it's so that they mentally know when they go in like, oh, I've, I've put in the work, I've done that, or I know my competition is doing a similar thing.

It's it's the mental edge you have in knowing that you can accomplish it. So being athletic helped me stay on a horse. But it is it is the mental ability. And open mind is like listening to coaches, and following the process. I think that that allows a level soldiers or athletes be successful in anything, and you'll see that a little bit.

I think women are sometimes the most successful people outside of swimming, and it is the discipline and the number of hours you are looking at a line at the bottom of the pool. I think it is more monotonous than probably any other sport. And you see that success in the, in the business world outside of that. But I think boards there is so much, correlation between athletes and success afterwards.

It's not what they're doing. It doesn't matter. Doesn't matter if you're a financial advisor business, whatever. It's it's that mindset and you're just constantly doing it and you're willing to put in more work and to ask questions and do stuff and make connections. Then somebody like anybody else who maybe just went to school to to get that degree.

Well let's talk about that a little bit because I think there's so much there that that really translates to being, you know, it's what we, why we have this podcast. This because we do want to pull the wisdom out of things, not just the sort of like here's how you you know, your step one, two, three you're talking about is, is a bit more deep, deeper than that. And and there is a, a mental, component, as you talked about, this is a mental component involved in what we're doing.

I don't know how much you've listened to or followed stoicism. But but that's a big thing for for stoke philosophers of like, you know, it's it's the repeated practices of trying to do this thing called the virtues. You know, that's the stuff that creates character. Right. So, so they have this, this belief that if you repeated your, you know, these practices that you would get and and by the way, they even I mean, their schools were a mix of, you know, education but also wrestling.

So there was like a a mixed disciplinary approach to forming the human, and and a lot of it was can you maintain that middle ground, that balance and some of the virtues of like things like, like, you know, like courage. Courage isn't one extreme, which is recklessness, nor is it the other extreme which is which is fear, like doing nothing, just being frozen.

It's that ability to maintain that, that like mental balance, that kind of, you know, that you described their, you also mentioned something about, you know, in the pool when you're had that moment of your swimming, you had that moment of saying, what am I doing here? And then you turned it on. But there was something about your body being very still as well.

So that's a curious thing because it wasn't like, what are you doing? Hurry up. Go go go. It didn't sound like that was what was driving you, but that there was something else. And so I'd love to for you to share a little bit more, particularly again, like Dan had said there. Yeah, there are people that are this is good for anything.

This is good for work. This is good for whatever it is that we're doing. Like how do you maintain that mental, you know, state of mind that, that not rigid but not too flexible like it's that sweet middle? I would say as an athlete, there have been a number of times when people always talk about like flow state, and I so many times throughout high school and college, I would get into the flow state where my coach would give me a set and it, you know, could be ten, 1000 or 2500, which is a pretty crazy set as a high schooler.

You know, a lot of the top athletes are doing that, and that set alone is going to take two hours. And you just get into the rhythm of these are the paces I'm trying to hit, or maybe the stroke count per stroke. I'm in a flip turn, do so many kicks off the wall, I'm going to get to the wall and I might only have 20s or less.

And then I'm going to go and do it again and again and again and again. And I've always been a person to I don't care what I'm doing. I like the to gum and I like to listen to music because I believe it just distracts me. It allows me to do whatever I need to do. So that my brain doesn't start thinking.

Because like you said earlier, like in action is like one of the worst things you can do. It'll literally will kill people if you don't do something right or wrong. And then as I transition to pentathlon, I saw flow State again in once I understood fencing and got better at shooting. You as an athlete don't speed up, and I've heard this a number of times in baseball is you don't wing the bat faster, you begin to see the ball coming at you slower and you can recognize, you know, if it's a, going to be a strike or a ball and then you're making that decision in like, oh, eight seconds, which is ridiculous.

There were times when I would fence and, you know, you're, you know, this is like a six or a four, and there's different ways to turn your blade, and you have to use the bars and extension of your finger. And it's a fine motor skills. And once I got into the flow state, I could actually see what the opponent was about to do.

And so I could do the opposite to counter and attack, or with the the movement of my feet. I could bring myself in, as you would in boxing, to invite an attack to set them up, counter and attack them. And then the other thing for flow state and shooting is, once again, if you hesitate, you're going to miss to make it more complicated in pentathlon, as you're running 800m between every five shots.

Do you have any you you. So couple of things is you have to have blinders on again because it doesn't matter if the guy to the left or right of you're shooting well you need to focus on yours or you're going to start thinking heart rate's going to raise or going to shoot worse and you're going to run worse.

But you practice raising your hand, catching your sights mid and then pulling the trigger. And when I was first learning, I would, you know, bring the, the sights up to my eye and then just hold it there. So you have my hand moving, my heart rate going. And then I'm trying to trigger speeds. And you would train yourself to.

As you're pulling up, get the the sites in line with your eye and you're pulling trigger like right as you get it there, boom, boom, boom. Because as soon as you hesitate, we've there's a system, the mantis system, where they use it in the military as well, where you can record the laser on. And we would do whole drills, or you do like a star, a box around the circle where you're trying to aim at.

And every time you would see that the longer you hold, all of a sudden your hand just starts going all over. But if you bring your hand up and shoot the likelihood of it hitting the target, you know, maybe eight out of ten versus trying to get the perfect shot, because that is your brain. That's right. Seeing something that's not happening and you just have to don't let your mind trick you.

Yeah, yeah. You know, put the sites in line, pull the trigger. It is that simple. Yes. Yeah. Your heart rate's in 160. Are you are you pulling the trigger from the meaty part of your finger? Is your hand moving like there's a hundred things? But if you do the basics, it works every time. And once you get into that flow state, it's just like boom, boom.

Okay. And you can't ever think a good or a bad shot. Just like baseball, golf, you do that swing, you forget it. Good or bad, you can't. You can't let it emotionally affect you. Because if you miss 2 or 3 times and I didn't explain it earlier, is you have to hit the target five times, and in biathlon you hit it and you get a penalty if you miss.

Or is it the more times it takes you to shoot the target, that is your penalty because it's typically 1 to 2 seconds between shots and you're the guy next to you could do five for five and be running and you could take eight shots. So that that is the only penalty because then guys will try to run faster.

And so to shoot and go. And as soon as you start thinking if you hit, if you see three red lights and you're like, oh my gosh, okay. And then all of a sudden you start slowing down. Now you're slowing down, you're adding time and you're you're holding at the top and now you're missing. And it's just this snowball effect. Yeah.

It's so spot on. I mean, this is one of the things that I wish I had learned when I started playing racquetball was how many times my buddy would say to me, because you're in your head again, like to see you're in your head again. You're not. You're running, you're rushing the shot. Let the ball come to you.

You know, it's all this stuff that they sound cliche, but it is so true. And a lot of it is, you know, in my other job, part of my training as a coach is talk about, you know, head, heart and body and really knowing how to have those things function and balance with each other. But one of the things I can always tell is when my mind is getting the best of me, it's like, oh, now you're thinking about the previous shot.

Even if you're not thinking about the previous shot, you're anxious. And so now you're you're you're you're too hyper, you're too jittery, you're too reactive to the, to the ball coming at you. And, and it's like, how do you drop back into your body and into that trusting what you know, the shot should be just trust your body and and then move, move in that rhythm.

Move with the ball. It's almost like a dance with the thing that is happening around you. And I think that the self conscious mind, and this is the bit of wisdom that I just, I've reflected on so many times and still, still it's still screw up all the time. But it's like the, the self conscious mind is the thing that gets us though all the time.

It's like you're you're you're now concerned about how you're showing up. You're not concerned about your performance. You're now. And that ruins it. Yeah. I wanted to get into maybe a little bit of diet and exercise. You know, your world class athlete. You've also served a lot of time in the military. You've taken care of your your body as well as your mind in those pursuits.

What's something that you could give us? What's some wisdom you could give people? Layman like myself and most of us who are not training to be Olympic athletes or world class athletes. But what did you learn in your journey about diet and exercise? That would just be good, practical, useful information that we should, you know, start to incorporate?

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I don't know. I did get a haircut recently. I had a gray hair come in here the other day, so it's starting to not work. I'm 37, so I don't know what's happening. That's that's wisdom. Yeah. I'll start with exercise first. I think the most important thing throughout my entire career that I've seen for myself or anybody else is consistency.

It doesn't matter if you're doing 15 or 30 minutes or if you're doing two, two hour practices. It is the constant every day discipline to do it. You know, if you do it once, it's whatever twice. You're building a pattern. But when you make the decision to not do something, whether you're taking a flight, you have a busy day.

You've you've led this negative thing into your mind, allowing you to think it's okay, and it absolutely is if you're sick or whatever. You know, if there's something wildly important, but you can't ever make the conscious decision the second time to let something interfere. For me, growing up swimming, it gave me that discipline. And then probably is what helped me in the military.

Like it is the only job in the world that you are dedicated 90 minutes a day to, to get to, to work out. And I used to do that during the week. And then on Saturdays I would usually work out and then Sundays would be kind of my own time, do whatever. But now, as a parent, I cannot start my day without doing something in the morning.

It allows me whether I'm working out with a friend, coworker I it allows me to think through any issues or problems that are ongoing or that are going to happen. And I can use that time to either talk to a friend or I can let my mind work it out. It decreases my blood pressure. And it works ten times greater than coffee every day to get the blood flowing for me to start the day.

And if I know my coworkers know it, my family knows it. If I do not work out even for 30 minutes prior to doing something with them or going to work. I'm going to be much more frustrated than I would if I have worked out. So whatever you do, I would say consistency. But it prevents the injuries.

It usually keeps you loose, feeling good, all the endorphins, all of that. And then obviously you increase the intensity depending on what your goals or aspirations are. As far as nutrition, I'm probably a little bit different than some of the very, very elite athletes. I think part of that is swimming background. The other part is being in the military don't always have the ability to eat the best foods.

Lot of mistakes or meals in the field or limited, nutrition. So biggest mix conception that I've seen one of them endurance athlete typically is people under fuel. People think that carbs are this bad thing. That's that is the reason for X, Y, or Z. And from what I've seen is the more I eat, frequency and volume, it's typically when I lose weight.

Once again, I'm 37, so my metabolism is slowed down in the last four years pretty drastically. But if I eat less or skip a meal, I gain weight because that's your body's natural response to store food, because it doesn't know what it's going to get fed. But if I do five meals a day and I increase working out, I'll instantly start losing weight.

And it's just the constant burning metabolism. I think people are afraid to eat carbs. And then it also fuels for the, the longer, events training, which then once again increases the metabolism for a longer period of time. Yeah. What was it famously Michael Phelps, when he was, you know, one of the top athletes in the world? Was he eating?

Was it 10,000 calories a day? It was like 10,000 or 20,000. Some insane number. I don't know if you remember hearing that statistic back then. Yeah. So, I mean, on my typical days, I was doing like right now I do 4 to 5000. When I was filming, it was 8 to 10. Eight. I think his max day was it was either 14 or 20,000.

You know, you broke it down. Somewhere like that. Yeah. And that's swimming is a resistant like you're fighting the water the whole time, and then you're also doing dryland and weights as well. He was obviously doing a little bit more volume but at a higher intensity. So that's also going to increase. You know, during his peak as a 26 year old male.

So wow. That's incredible. I deeply appreciate your your time, Logan. And yeah, the, the the wisdom that that was brought here I thought was really good. It was very insightful. I enjoyed hearing about the about these different sports and, and what you've been involved in. So. Yeah, big thanks to you for making time. I know we're two different, very different time zones right now.

And so I really appreciate you taking the effort to make this happen. Yeah. And I want to say thank thank you for your service as well. We really appreciate that very much. Yeah. Welcome. Thank you guys for having me on here. But I appreciate it. It's it's always fun. I, I rarely take the time to stop and look back.

You know, maybe every couple of years now that I have kids a little bit more, but even thinking about, like, I guess the other thing I would say about real quickly about, competition, exercise, all that stuff is for me, like, if I don't set a goal, I just become, in my mind, just this lazy, useless purpose person.

And I do that in work as well. I always try to, whether it's an event or something, and that keeps me, me going forward. And that's just one of the things that I've recently thought about, as a soldier, as an athlete and as a, as a father, which has helped me tremendously. Yeah. You know, I really appreciate you ending on that because it's such an important point for, for all of our mental well-being as humans is you do have to have something that you're pursuing, something that's pushing you.

Because I find that there's too much of the opposite today, and you're finding more depression and more anxiety and more meaninglessness. And I think having something that you think this is worth my time to invest in and in and along the way, learning how to deal with adversity. You know, I've started to really tune into that a lot more these days.

Like versus is important. Like, imagine if we don't have adversity, we're not, you know, we're not well, we're not mentally well. And and but too much of it obviously is too much. But you you have to have that in your life. So I really appreciate you you saying that because it's critically important these days for, for all of us to really hear and to practice.

Yeah. And on that note, you know, hopefully this is the last thing and I'll let you guys go. But, man, as an athlete, I myself have dealt with anxiety and depression, as I have seen numerous athletes at the Division one level, which you never hear about. And one I would say it is okay to have, but like what you're saying is like getting help, or understanding.

What causes it? And then moving on because, like, I, I was on, some medication early in my freshman year because I didn't know what was going on. It was a lot moving, swimming, high level. But once I realized what was causing it, I was able to break it down. I also chose to get off medication as well, because I understood it and I understood that, you know, some of the anxiety or depression, was, was all in my mind and that I, you know, once you can overcome that or control it, that you're fine and you don't have to worry.

You know, for me, it was a lot of, I would say the anxiety, like, not sure of outcomes. And that is living in the future instead of in the present. And. Right. And I remember that terrible, you know, feelings. But once you understand that and like, I haven't, I haven't dealt with that in years and I've, I see it happen to people still.

And it's just like you need to be able to take that breath, clear your mind. And then whether, you know, for me, having goals, is what keeps me focused because I have had times where I have nothing in front of me and I'm just like, what am I doing? I'm going to work. I'm I'm working out because I tell myself I should, but there's no end state.

And so it's like, I will sign up for a race, you know, if it's with the family, we have outings planned and if it's for work, you know, I want to reach this mark. And so I will always, for that reason, keep things in front of me, basically to distract my mind. And then through that, the journey and process, learn something new or excel in that field.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Learning to enjoy even, you know, for all of us, just learning to take care of our mental health as well as our physical well-being. And so it's just like, what are the what are the things I can do to enjoy right here and right now? Right. Because the past is a lot of regret, a lot of shame, a lot of pain in the past.

Future is anxiety and all of the unknowns. It's like, but can I enjoy right now? And I hear you talking about that. I read some of your posts recently too, and it's like it's in the it's in this present, like doing the things right now and learning to even enjoy the things that you're doing in this moment while also having something that you're aspiring towards.

And I think that's a that's a balance to live with. So yeah, again, thank you so much. I really appreciate you being with us. Yeah yeah. Thank you guys. Merging Wisdom