no$baby wrote:
I have very similar thoughts. Honestly Sage is also this way: smiles sparingly, always very intense looking, and lately also having some sub-par performances (that aren't bad but they're not overly encouraging either). Having all that stewing in a team environment, not to mention marriage could be difficult... there's no release from it at any point in the day. I also wonder what Dathan is telling him because I don't think Joe is coming up with AR half mara talk on his own; I've got to think it's coming from the coach.
Perhaps a bright spot: Dathan's obviously seeing something that is giving him these kinds of ideas from Klecker in training. We haven't seen it on the race course quite yet but I've got to believe that based on Dathan's own experience as an athlete that his judgment is at least somewhat sound (even if he is a bit biased in favor of his athletes because he wants them to do great things).
This is 100% projecting and meant to be funny, but I follow both of them on instagram, and even their goldendoodles seem intense sometimes and that's saying something! It's like "Guys where's the fun? You have goofy dogs!" I *suspect* that Sage and Joe are very hard workers--that's just what it seems like, and it would be easy for a coach to embrace that and foster it, and if Dathan also has that quality, it would be even easier to endorse it--but I wonder if what is actually needed for them to get better is challenging them both to learn about how to practice moderation and relaxation in ways that are natural and authentic to them. They both always just look a little overcooked to me, and my gut tells me it's because no one is actually pumping the breaks anywhere.