the morning shakeout | issue 467
A PSA for fall marathoners and ultrarunners, "earning your miles," the last 5 books I've read, and a lot more.
Good morning! I’d like to open up this week’s issue with a PSA for fall marathoners and ultrarunners everywhere: it’s OK, even advisable, to unplug from training after racing hard for a few or more hours, whether you hit your goal or not. Just because a couple of your favorite pros or Instagram influencers are doing ridiculous things within a week of finishing the same race you just did doesn’t mean you should be too. I’ve seen more stupid shit on my Strava and social media feeds of late that my head hurts from shaking it so much. Who is everyone trying to impress and/or what are you trying to prove? Take some time to enjoy your accomplishment or even sit with your disappointment for a bit. Either way it’s OK, and good for you to do, I promise. And while you’re doing that, respect the recovery, not just the allowing of your body to bounce back from the physical pounding of the race itself, but paying back the mental and emotional toll of going hard at a big goal. (Which includes the months of accumulating effort and increased focus that went into it before you even set foot on the start line.) Now, what that unplugging looks like is going to be different for everyone but the key is to get out of “training mode” for a little while. Heck, don’t adhere to too strict of a schedule for a week or two. And for crissakes don’t race again for at least a month. Take some days off, maybe cross-train or go for a walk instead of run, or run less and slower than you normally would, and forget about Track Tuesday, Tempo Friday, or Church of the Sunday Long Run for a couple weeks, longer if you dare. However you do it, the main idea is to give your body a break and shut your brain off for a bit. The 1-2 weeks after a long race is the time to rest, repair, and recharge, not crush workouts or slay long runs or chase the dragon because you’re riding high from a recent PR, shit the bed last Sunday, and/or have another race coming up in six weeks. To quote my Nana Fraioli, who never ran so much as a mile but knew a thing or two about playing the long game of life: “Don’t be afraid to work hard, but know when to take a rest. Otherwise you won’t last very long.”
Quick Splits
— This feature about On Athletics Club coach Dathan Ritzenhein and his “long fix” coaching philosophy, written by friend of the shakeout Devin Kelly, is wonderful. It paints the picture of a coach, who, perhaps because he often came back from things too quickly in his own career as an athlete, really wants to keep his charges healthy so that they can thrive over the long haul—not just as athletes, but as people too. Ritzenhein cares deeply for those who train under him, he isn’t afraid to say “I don’t know” when he doesn’t know (not as common amongst coaches as you might think), and he’s careful to make sure that he always leaves room for growth. “It’s why he will be there for each of his athletes, beside the track and alongside them for a run and in the driver’s seat of the car,” Kelly writes, “reminding them again and again — no matter the result — that there is time, that they will figure it out, and that there will always be somewhere to go.”
— I enjoyed this Fast Women feature on Susanna Sullivan, who ran a personal best of 2:21:56 at the Chicago Marathon last Sunday to finish as the top American women, placing seventh in a stacked women’s elite field. The 34-year Sullivan, who works as a sixth-grade math teacher in Virginia, finally got a good one under her belt after injury and illness affected her last two marathon buildups (she finished 58th at the 2023 world championships and a DNS at this year’s Olympic Trials). There are a few good nuggets scattered throughout this one but my favorite was what Sullivan had to say about what her coach, Andrew Gerard, told her when they first started working together—advice that athletes at all levels of the sport would be wise to heed. “He looked at my [training] and was basically like, ‘Yeah, that’s not our problem. You’re not overtraining. You need to do the strength work and you need to sleep and eat in a way that supports a higher workload, but you also need a higher workload,’” she told Fast Women. “That was a perspective shift that I hadn’t anticipated, but it has clearly proven to be the right answer for me.” In short: You have to earn your miles.
— I was recently a guest on the RunAlive podcast and spoke to hosts Ed Perry and Gill Bland about how running is the lens through which I view and navigate life. They asked great questions about my relationship to running and how it’s evolved over the past two-plus decades, my approach to coaching and the importance of making sure running is occupying a healthy space in my athletes’ lives, the importance of curiosity as a driving force in my own life, having the confidence to quit when something isn’t working for you, and a lot more. This one is available wherever you get your podcasts (just search “RunAlive podcast) or at this handy link.
— Clayton Young and team did a heck of a job documenting his buildup to and through the Olympic Marathon in Paris and they’re at it again as he prepares for the New York City Marathon next month. Episode 1 (“Into the Lion’s Den”) just dropped and it’s fantastic. You get a classic Ed Eyestone 8 by a K on grass workout, a gym session, some great chatter and gentle chiding amongst training partners during the in-between moments, some honest introspection from Clayton (and Conner Mantz), and a lot more. It’s really well done and motivating/inspiring/informative stuff for athletes and coaches at any level. (And, not to ruin anything, but I got a big kick out of Conner Mantz’ reaction when someone off camera asks, somewhat rhetorically, “Wait, no pacers, who’s going to set the pace early?”)
— Here’s a phenomenal live acoustic version of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine” from Matt Anderson that had me glued to the screen for six minutes straight. The guitar work. His voice. How he hits and holds certain notes throughout the song. The unique rhythm of this particular rendition. Make sure you watch all the way through to the end. The soul Anderson puts into this one would make Withers proud, I’m sure.
— Trying a little something new here and sharing the last 5 books I read, along with a 3-sentence review of each:
+ In My Time of Dying, by Sebastian Junger: This was my favorite. It’s a captivating front-line account of Junger’s NDE and simultaneous exploration of mortality, the afterlife, and the mysteries of the universe. I couldn’t put it down.
+ Draft No. 4, by John McPhee: This book kept appearing in my orbit so I finally gave it a shot. I was underwhelmed and probably need to read it again. I did enjoy some of the anecdotes, in particular how he approaches interviewing, note taking, etc.
+ We Need to Hang Out, by Billy Baker: If there’s a target audience for this book, i.e. middle-aged men who value their friendships but often struggle to prioritize them, I’m squarely in it. I picked this up after reading the 2017 Boston Globe article that inspired it and knocked it out in a couple days. Baker combines his personal experiences with relevant research and expertise into an important but entertaining read.
+ How to Do Nothing, by Jenny Odell: I had a hard time getting into this one. The introduction was promising but the rest of the book was kind of all over the place. The “how to” of the title never really materialized for me.
+ Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself, by David Lipsky: This was essentially a transcript of Lipsky’s road trip with David Foster Wallace while DFW was on book tour in 1996 for his best-selling novel Infinite Jest (which I haven’t read). I’ve long been intrigued about DFW as a person after reading and listening to his 2005 commencement address at Kenyon College, as well as his magazine pieces about tennis, which was one of his passions. His exchanges with Lipsky, who he didn’t really know prior to the two of them taking this road trip together, really help paint a picture of the man, his complications, and also what made him so brilliant.
If you’ve got any reading recommendations for me (nonfiction and non-running only, please), just reply to this email or leave a comment below.
— From the archives (Issue 311, 3 years ago this week): There’s a quote from Hamilton Holt I like that says, “Nothing worthwhile comes easily. Half effort does not produce half results. It produces no results. Work, continuous work and hard work, is the only way to accomplish results that last.” This recent post on effort by Seth Godin, one of my favorite thinkers and writers, reminded me of it. He writes, “Insufficient effort creates work that’s wasted. If you do a slapdash job, then the roof leaks, the food is inedible, the car doesn’t start. Insufficient effort is a shortcut that wasn’t worth taking…More effort creates beauty and magic and remarkability. Perfectionism is a false hope and a place to hide. Effort, on the other hand, is our best chance to do work that matters.” I love this idea. Even though he doesn’t use these exact words, Godin frames effort as an act of caring, which is how I like to view it, whether it’s an athlete digging deep at the end of a race, a writer refining their work until it’s just right, or a store owner going above and beyond to make the customer happy. Insufficient effort tells me that you’re lazy and don’t care. Sufficient effort means that you care enough to get the job done. Extraordinary effort shows that you care about the work.
— A big thank you to my partners at New Balance for supporting my work this month (and throughout 2024). Last week they released the Fresh Foam X 1080v14 and I am super stoked to put some miles on this shoe. The 1080 has been my go-to daily trainer for the past 5 years—it’s the shoe that I run 75% if not more of my weekly miles in—and this latest version looks to pick up right where the v13 left off. (Around here we call it the official unofficial shoe of the morning shakeout.) As the workhorse in my stable, the 1080 is durable enough to handle the daily pounding underneath my feet but lithe and responsive enough to run fast when I feel like it. (In fact, it’s the only shoe I took with me on vacation a month ago.) The Fresh Foam X 1080v14 is available at your favorite run specialty store or at newbalance.com (men’s sizes here, women’s sizes here).
The morning temperatures are lower now. 50-52 degrees most days, high 40s if we’re lucky. Still t-shirt weather, to be sure, maybe light gloves if there’s enough of a chill. It’s my favorite time of year. I love seeing my breath as I set foot outside, a reminder that I’m still alive and a signal to my body that it’s time to move, like a steam engine getting ready to make its way down the tracks. It’s just before 7 AM. The sun isn’t up yet but there’s a glow emanating from the east. We run toward it in anticipation of what lies ahead. Nothing is quite clear at the moment but there’s a feeling of hope rising over the horizon.
Journal reflections, October 2024.
Workout of the Week: 1 mile, 9 x 400m
This workout was introduced to me by coach Kevin Curtin when I was running for New Balance Boston—now Battle Road Track Club—about 18 years ago. We would use it early in a training block as a sort of reintroduction to track work but he’d also pull it out later in the season to sharpen us up for a goal 5K or 10K. The paces we tried to hit for the 400m reps differed depending on the training focus at the time. It's been a go-to session for me and my athletes ever since. Here are the details.
The bottom line.
“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master."
—Ernest Hemingway, The Wild Years
That’s it for Issue 467. If you enjoyed it, please forward this email to a few friends and encourage them to subscribe at this link so that it lands in their inbox next Tuesday.
Thanks for reading,
Mario
“A Walk In the Park” by Kevin Fedarko. Highly recommend. I’ll write a capsule review of it in my newsletter tomorrow.