How Rocky Hansen Trains to Beat the Best Field in NCAA History: Sleep, Fueling, Ego

Rocky Hansen spent the offseason quietly begging Habtom Samuel not to turn pro.

He lost to Samuel twice—the NCAA cross country final in November and the outdoor 5,000 in June—and his reaction to Samuel leaving wasn't a relief. It was a feeling of disappointment at losing the rematch. That instinct sits at the center of this conversation, recorded a few weeks into Rocky's final collegiate season.

They get into the race he's proudest of, which he also lost. Samuel got him by a second and a half, and he calls it the best tactical race of his NCAA career.

There's a lot here about the margins: the heat stroke at ACCs that finally sent him to a nutritionist; sleep and naps around 6:30 a.m. practices; the slowest summer buildup he's ever done; and six weeks in Europe not being Rocky the Runner. He also makes the case that the happy runner is the fast runner, by way of an engineering professor who once assigned him homework to have fun on purpose.

He's candid about last fall, when Wake Forest returned most of a seventh-place team, assumed the podium was theirs, and watched the fire go out. And he's thoughtful about what the NCAA has become: a pro league, in his words, and one he loves competing in while recognizing the high schoolers it has squeezed out.

Plus: Terre Haute, mud, and why he won't put a number on November.

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