Ok.  The long work day is done. The lawn is mowed,  the weeds weeded, the kids are in bed, the bills are paid.  Now read about how America's best hopes for serious international hardware are working on their dreams.  And note how clever and inexpensive this all is.

With three stopwatches around his neck, Frank Gagliano is timing four shirtless runners on a warm afternoon. How three fits into four isn't important. What is important is that the runners are being encouraged in their workouts, inthis case four separate 1-mile runs, by the sharp report of Gagliano's voice,which can be heard throughout Cobb Track on the Stanford campus.

The runners, all with defined abs suitable for display on a late-nightinfomercial, take frequent water breaks as the 65-year-old man known as Gags provides a nurturing nudge to what might seem like drudgery. "There's no better place to be for us to do what we want to do," said ChrisGraff, one of the shirtless four.

Graff is one of 45 athletes on the Farm Team, a post-collegiate group of middle-and long-distance runners based at Stanford and coached by Gagliano andfinancially supported by separate donations from Nike and its chief executiveofficer, Phil Knight. The budget for 2002 is $200,000. The intent is to develop runners from 800 meters through the marathon who cancompete on the national level and then internationally at distances nowdominated by runners from Kenya, Ethiopia and Morocco, among others. Winning medals at the Olympics and World Championships is the ultimate goal.

Nobody said it would be easy. "We have to catch up to the rest of the world," said Gagliano, who spent 18 years at Georgetown before signing to coach the Farm Team through the Athens Olympics in 2004. "You can never say never. We have to catch up to the rest of the world. A club like this is a very positive atmosphere."

That's for sure. In addition to Gagliano, whose specialty is the 800 and 1, 500meters, the Farm Team relies on two other coaches, Vin Lananna (head man at Stanford) and Jack Daniels, for the longer distances. Daniels, no relation tothat amber fluid found in whiskey bottles of the same name, also works at the Stanford Myofascial Institute, where Farm Team runners go for blood profiles and oxygen tests to maximize their performances. The Farm Team also has access to training table meals on campus three nights a week. "I couldn't be more grateful to Vin for putting this together and keeping an eyeon us and getting us a guy he knew we'd all be happy with," said Michael Stember, a 2000 Olympian in his first year out of Stanford. "I know Gags has been an extremely positive influence on my life and my transition to the next level."

Most of the Farm Team runners work part-time during the day before gathering asa group for workouts every afternoon at 4:30. Stember works as a manager at a Cuban restaurant in Palo Alto, La Bodeguita del Medio. Former Cal runner Bolota Asmeron, a 2000 Olympian for Eritrea, works with an autistic student at Gunn High School in Palo Alto. Nicole Teter, who recently broke Mary Slaney'sAmerican indoor record for 800 meters, works at Copeland's Sports in Palo Altoand Santa Clara.

A small number of Farm Team runners, like Brad Hauser and Matt Lane, are supported by their Nike contracts and choose not to work as they try to develop further as runners.

The Farm Team is one of several distance-running enclaves around the country; in fact, Gagliano formerly was in charge of the Reebok Enclave based in Washington,D.C. Other concentrations of long-distance runners can be found in Chula Vista(San Diego County), Colorado and Minnesota. The Farm Team draws its runners from throughout the country. Graff went to William and Mary. Lane went to St. John's. (ed note:   I think Lane went to W&M) Teter attended Arkansas. Stember is the most prominent Stanford grad, but fellow Cardinal and 2000 Olympian Hauser is on the team. Runners like Asmeron and Elissa Riedy from Cal break up the maroon monopoly.

The Farm Team should be in full force at the USA Track and Field ChampionshipsFriday through Sunday at Cobb Track in distances from 800 to 10, 000 meters.Though 2002 is considered an off year in track with no major internationalchampionship at the end of the season, being a national champion is stillimportant for athletes who earn their abs the hard way -- through endless lapsaround the track as a man called Gags makes things palatable. "It's going to be a lot of fun to run in the national championships here athome," Gagliano said. For nearly four dozen runners, home is down on the Farm . . . the Farm Team, that is.

Another note:  Frank Gagliano used to coach Roselle Catholic High School, in New Jersey, in the 60s.  His teams competed well against the National-class Essex Catholic HS. 

And still more notes:  Jonathon Riley (Brookline HS and recent Stanford U grad) and Mary Cobb (Western Mass HS, Stanford grad, and current Stanford Law student) are both training with the Farm Team. Maurica Carlucci (Franklin HS class of 98, Globe HS Runner of the year in 97,   and Stanford student) has plans to join the team upon graduation.  Jason Cullinane (Falmouth HS class of 1988, Fitchburg State grad, and former CMS member) is also training with the team.