Office Hours Interview: George Mason’s Andrew Gerard

Andrew Gerard is the Director of Track & Field and Cross Country at George Mason University, where he has established one of the Atlantic 10’s most consistently successful programs. Since the Patriots joined the conference in the 2013–14 season, Gerard’s teams have captured 16 A-10 titles, including the men’s outdoor track and field championship last spring. This past fall, he also guided Susanna Sullivan to a fourth-place finish in the marathon at the World Championships.

Before George Mason, Gerard coached at William and Mary and Stanford University, where he coached the 2003 Cardinal cross country team to an NCAA Championship with the lowest score in the modern era (Stanford placed six runners in the top 13 and 7 in the top 23, scoring 24 points). 

With decades of coaching experience spanning multiple eras of the sport, Gerard is widely respected for his ability to balance training science with athlete development, culture building, and long-term perspective. He is known for a thoughtful approach to program design and leadership that emphasizes adaptability, patience, and fit, both in training and in recruiting.

During this Office Hours session from October 2024, Coach Gerard fielded questions from coaches at the high school and collegiate levels, offering candid insight into how his philosophy has evolved, how he manages athletes day to day, and what ultimately drives the sustainable success of an NCAA program. What follows are some of the most insightful exchanges from that conversation.

Q: “What advice would you give your younger self as a coach?”

Andrew Gerard: “The two biggest things would be to keep connecting with good coaches and to make time to think. We all know the ingredients — most coaches do — but not everyone knows the recipe. If there were one recipe that worked for everyone, someone would have figured it out by now.

I’ve learned a lot by pulling ideas from different places, even outside of track. Sometimes it’s just one workout, sometimes it’s a piece of a workout, sometimes it’s a way of communicating or handling a situation. 

The other big thing is carving out time to think. Coaching gets cluttered with responsibilities, especially as a director, and it’s easy to lose sight of what you’re actually trying to accomplish in a given week or training block. Sitting quietly with a notepad and really distilling things down — that’s been invaluable for me.”

Q: “What has changed the most in your coaching from the 1990s to now?”

Andrew Gerard: “From a training perspective, I don’t think there are many secrets left. The fundamentals haven’t changed. What changes are the emphases. Topics like double threshold or critical velocity come and go, but most of those ideas existed decades ago.

What those trends do for me is force reflection. Am I doing enough threshold? Enough VO₂ max? Enough speed? It’s not about chasing the trend — it’s about using it as a reminder to evaluate balance and ratios. I’ve also learned that application matters far more than knowledge. Everybody knows the pieces. The real work is putting them together correctly for your athletes.”

Q: “How do you approach team culture, particularly in recruiting?”
 

Andrew Gerard: “I recruit fit more than anything else. I want kids who want to be at George Mason and want to be part of what we’re doing. I still look at performance thresholds, obviously, but I’m more willing to take a chance on someone I believe fits our culture than chase a headliner who might not buy in.

Some of our best athletes weren’t heavily recruited out of high school. They came in willing to work, willing to learn, and invested in the team. When those intangibles are in place, development usually follows. I’ve grown more confident over time in trusting that process.”

Q: “Rest and recovery can be difficult to manage. How do you think about it?”

Andrew Gerard: “There’s no perfect formula. Rest and recovery depend on the individual — training age, stress, sleep, nutrition, school, life. I rely heavily on observation and feedback. I’m constantly gathering information from how athletes look, how they talk, what they’re dealing with outside of practice.

Over time, I’ve leaned more toward stopping before that ‘one more rep.’ I use the saying, ‘Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.’ You want progress, but you don’t want to cross the line where fatigue or injury starts to creep in. I’ve become much more comfortable pulling back rather than squeezing out one more effort just to prove something.”

Q: “What do you do to help distance runners stay healthy?”

Andrew Gerard: “We use cross-training liberally — cycling, pool running, elliptical — anything that reduces pounding while maintaining aerobic development. Once athletes understand they’re still improving aerobically, they stop viewing cross-training as punishment.

We also prioritize resistance training, especially eccentric lower-leg work. Tendons and ligaments respond better to strength training than to running alone. Another big piece is exposure: we run fast year-round at appropriate volumes and gradually introduce different shoes, including spikes. Many injuries happen during transitions, when tissues aren’t prepared for new demands.”

Q: “Do you train differently for hilly courses compared to flat ones?”

Andrew Gerard: “Not dramatically. The biggest factor is confidence and familiarity. Teaching athletes how to manage cadence, effort, and transitions on hills is often more important than any physiological adaptation. Learning how to crest a hill and return to normal running rhythm is a skill, and it needs to be practiced.”

Q: “How has your philosophy around workouts evolved over time?”

Andrew Gerard: “I’ve moved away from workouts designed to prove fitness. If the goal is to run 400s at a certain pace, why do one faster rep at the end just to impress ourselves? That extra rep doesn’t change the training stimulus — it just adds fatigue. I’ve become more confident trusting that the work is accomplishing what it’s supposed to do. A lot of athletes leave their best races in workouts because they feel the need to prove something. I’d rather keep that in reserve.”

Q: “With limited staff, how do you manage multiple groups in practice?”

Andrew Gerard: “Organization is everything. I plan at three levels: big-picture season planning, weekly refinement, and daily scripting. I write everything down — who starts when, how groups overlap, rest intervals. Sometimes it looks like hieroglyphics, but it keeps things moving.

The more I plan and script ahead of time, the smoother practice runs. I know high school coaches don’t always have the same time luxury, but even a small amount of planning clarity goes a long way.”

Q: “How do you encourage leadership without naming team captains?”

Andrew Gerard: “I don’t name captains. Too many athletes already come in having been captains somewhere. Naming one or two can unintentionally silence others. I want leadership to be shared.

When everyone feels ownership, you get buy-in from top to bottom. Some athletes naturally emerge as leaders, but others contribute in quieter ways. Creating space for all of that makes the team stronger.”

Q: “What ultimately got you into coaching?”

Andrew Gerard: “It was a lightbulb moment. Coaching had everything I liked about teaching without a lot of what I didn’t. The early years were hard — low pay, long hours — but I loved the environment and the people.

I was surrounded by coaches and athletes who cared deeply about the sport, and that kept me going. Once I realized that, I knew this was what I wanted to do, even if it wasn’t the easiest path.”

Want to hear more from veteran coaches? Join us on the first Sunday of every other month to ask questions and get insights from some of the sport’s most accomplished leaders. Sign up for the next live online Office Hours session here (it’s free!). And if you would like to hear more from Andrew Gerard, consider attending the Ascent Track & Field Clinic at George Mason, where he serves as the Clinic Director.