the morning shakeout | issue 492

Working through pre-workout nerves, doing things quietly and on your own terms, taking a load off, and a lot more.

Good morning! Christine and I got away for a few days over the weekend to celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary, and I leave Thursday for Boston, so these next two issues of the newsletter might be a little shorter than usual. Let’s get right to it.

Quick Splits

— Later this morning I’m going to hit the track for my first chunk of 1500m specific work in a long time (i.e. 400s and 200s at or slightly quicker than race pace) and, admittedly, the thought of faster intervals are making a little nervous (and I’m sure that I’ll pull a few tricks out of the bag to get myself through the workout). So, it’s somewhat comforting to watch a video like this ahead of time with multiple world and Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen and be reminded that the best athletes on the planet work through the same bullshit as the rest of us ahead of a similar type of session (400s and 300s in his case).

— I really enjoyed this profile of Natosha Rogers by Emilia Benton. Rogers kind of came out of nowhere early last month to run 2:23:51 at the Nagoya Women’s Marathon in Japan, a huge personal best and one of the top-15 U.S. women’s marathon marks of all-time, I believe. But what I appreciated most about Rogers’ approach is how she did it: quietly and on her own terms, a lesson that, to be fair, she learned the hard way. A year ago she was burned out, injured, and trying to meet the expectations others had set for her, instead of doing what was in her best interests as an athlete and a human. And while Rogers is a professional athlete, her struggles aren’t much different than what many non-pros (i.e. most of us) contend with in today’s fast-moving, social media-driven world. “People had really high expectations of me in my marathon debut, which wasn't realistic for me,” she explains. “This time, I really needed to approach it with some humility, just be quiet and let my work do the talking.”

— Austin Kleon is someone whose work has had a profound impact on my own, and I’ve linked to many of his blog posts here over the years on writing and the creative process in general. Kleon was recently profiled by Rebekah Brandes for Nice News and I loved what he had to say about being an amateur (“Being an amateur at something just means that you’re more interested in doing it for the love of the thing,” he explains, “rather than the making money of the thing.”) and the importance of showing up every day, both ideas that apply as much to art as they do to running or anything else in life that’s important to you. “Just showing up over and over again is kind of my way that I get over everything,” he admits, “over my laziness, over my apathy, over my despair at what might be going on in the wider world.” (This reminded me of a line from the writer—and runner!—Haruki Murakami: “Maybe working on the little things as dutifully and honestly as we can is how we stay sane when the world is falling apart.”)

— I was recently a guest on the Löw Tide Böyz podcast, hosted by my right-hand man Chris Douglas and his swimrun partner in crime, Chipper Nicodemus, to talk about habits of highly effective athletes (based on my e-book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective Runners, which you can download for free here), and how we can apply these principles in both sport and life. Here’s a little except from near the end of the episode: “These are endurance sports—it's right in the word: endure…What did you endure? How did you show up when shit the fan? That's what it's about and those are the things that are going to carry over to other aspects of your life. That's why endurance sports, I think, are one of the best teachers for life—like, we are in the greatest endurance race of our life, just as human beings. You're going to have many good days, you're going to have a lot of bad days, you're going to kind of have a lot of ho-hum type of days, but as an endurance athlete this is just what we do every day….Who gives a shit if you cross the line first or 50th or if you don't cross at all? Did you learn something? Did you overcome something along the way? How did you show up when adversity was looking you in the face? Did you back down or did you find a way through? In a long race something's going to go wrong. Did you throw your hands up and just say ‘I quit.’ Or did you say, ‘Alright, well how can I find a way?’ Oh, you can't run? Can you walk? OK, let’s walk. Can’t walk? Can you crawl? You figure it out, and that's life, because you're going to have those moments where you just feel completely stopped in your tracks, or you don't think that there's a way forward, and there almost always is—you just gotta be able to find it for yourself.” This was a fun one, which we recorded live in “Studio G,” and you can watch/listen to it right here on YouTube. (Or wherever you listen to podcasts—just search for “the Low Tide Boyz.”)

— “The Michigan Rattlers” sounds more like the name of a minor league baseball team than it does a rock band, and I’d never heard of them until they popped up on a playlist a few days ago, but I instantly fell in love with their moody sound. “Gridlock (Just The Sky)” is the song that got me hooked and it kind of felt like a throwback to an earlier time (there’s even a sax solo!), but with a more modern day, folksy influence, if that makes sense. Give it a listen and your ears will know what I mean.

— From the archives (Issue 179, 6 years ago this week): Take A Load Off: “We’re never satisfied, of course, which is why our culture isn’t stable,” writes the almost always on-point Seth Godin. “We regularly build systems to create habits that lower the cognitive load, but then, curiosity amplified by greed and fear (plus our search for connection and desire to love) kick in and the whole cycle starts again.”

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The New Balance ​FuelCell Rebel v4​ is the trainer I rock for nearly every workout I do and they recently dropped it in a fresh new colorway: hot mango​. As fast and fun as carbon-plated shoes can be, it’s important not to be overly reliant on them for all your track sessions, fartleks, hills, and tempo runs. The Rebel v4s allow your feet to do what they want to do while providing plenty of protection underfoot when you’re putting a lot of extra force into the ground. They offer a responsive ride in a flexible, lightweight package that will fit a variety of foot types (n.b. my wider-than-average forefoot really appreciates them!). The FuelCell Rebel v4 is available at your favorite run specialty store or at newbalance.com (men’s sizes ​here​, women’s sizes ​here​).

Are you going to be in Boston on marathon weekend? Come check out the New Balance Marathon Relay at The TRACK on Saturday, April 19, beginning at 3:30 PM. Cheer on the runners (especially the morning shakeout racing team!), enjoy food and drinks in the infield, take in some live entertainment, get in on some giveaways, and be part of an exciting night in Boston. Attendance is free but a ticket is required for admission. Get yours right here!

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Workout of the Week: The 3-2-1 Cutdown

My favorite workouts are pretty universal in nature, meaning you can go to them whether you’re focusing on something as short as a 5K or as long as a marathon. The 3-2-1 Mile Cutdown session fits that bill. Here are the details.

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The bottom line. 

“So you just cannot start that process of negotiation because you will wind up in a compromised position, right? And so athletes get very good at just shutting off that negotiative pathway. We're like, ‘Oh, maybe we could just back it off a little bit because this really is hurting an awful lot.’ Right? And you're not going to be a good runner if you give in to that impulse. I mean, you have to be wise and tactical, but you can't be sort of blackmailed into taking it easy on yourself, either in training or in racing. And there's something about that [non-negotiable] stance that I've used my whole life in, when I'm on deadline and I'm tired and I'm sleepy or whatever. Or anything, even emotional pain, right? It's like, no, I can get through this. Like, don't give in because in the long run, it's going to be worse.”

— Sebastian Junger, bestselling author and 2:21 marathoner in the most recent episode of the morning shakeout podcast

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That’s it for Issue 492. If you enjoyed it, please forward this email to a friend (or five!) and encourage them to subscribe at this link so that it lands in their inbox next Tuesday.

Thanks for reading,

Mario

P.S. Join me at the Trackhouse in Boston this Saturday, April 19 at 9 AM for my favorite event of marathon weekend—the morning shakeout! We’ll head out along the Charles for an easy 3-5 miles followed by coffee and casual conversation. The event is free but please register here so we can get an idea of how many people to expect.

P.P.S. If you need something to do after the shakeout (there are no shortage of options), stop by Marathon Sports, 939 Boylston Street, at 11 AM. I’ll be on stage until 12:30 or so with Tim Tollefson, best known for his ultrarunning and race directing exploits, but a pretty damn good marathoner in his own right, for a live conversation about, well, I’m not really sure just yet. We’ll likely talk about running and mindset and all manner of related topics, but given that Tim and I are good friends and have worked together in a coach-athlete capacity for over 10 years now, who knows where we’ll end up. The event is free but please register here to reserve your spot.