the morning shakeout | issue 505
The trap of competition, Kílian on staying motivated and engaged for the long haul, rethinking consistency, and a lot more.
Good morning! It’s summer time and I’m trying to live a little easier right now because in a few weeks it will be batshit crazy again until the end of the year. Let’s get right to it.
Quick Splits
— I recently came across this post from my friend and mentor Ed Batista on “The Trap of Competition,” in which he shares some excerpts from the book The Courage to Be Disliked by philosopher and psychologist Ichiro Kishimi and his student Fumitake Koga. In one such passage, they write, “The person who always has the will to help another in times of need—that is someone who may properly be called your comrade... Now we come to the important part. When you are able to truly feel that ‘people are my comrades,’ your way of looking at the world will change utterly. No longer will you think of the world as a perilous place, or be plagued by needless doubts; the world will appear before you as a safe and pleasant place.” Their use of the word “comrades” made me think of how Kenyan runners will often refer to their competitors as “colleagues.” I’ve always loved that. To me this suggests that they are intent on working together, not against one another, in an effort to do something special. This idea has informed my own perspective on competition, one I’ve reframed as not trying to be better than the person next to me, but rather trying to get the best out of myself in hopes that it inspires the person next to me to do the same. In that way, we lift one another up. Going into a race I find that this mindset helps take some of the pressure off of the outcome, i.e., it’s not a win-or-lose situation against someone else. I’m just focused on what I can to contribute to the situation in a way that gives all of us a chance to be our best.
— If Kílian Jornet seems ageless it’s because he’s been amongst the best in the world at what he does for two decades now. At 37 years old he just finished third at the Western States 100 in 14 hours, 19 minutes, and 22 seconds, the fifth-fastest time in WS history and 80 minutes faster than when he won the race in 2011 at the age of 23. This post-States video, “15 Years Stronger | The Return to Western States,” filmed and edited by Nick Danielson, provides an up-close look at the day, punctuated by Kílian’s commentary about how he was feeling at various points of the race, as well as some reflections about what it means to be a lifelong competitive athlete in general. Jornet’s accomplishments in sport are impressive by any measure. They’re also unreachable, if not incomprehensible, for 99.99% of the population. But his perspective on what it takes to stay motivated and engaged for the long haul is inspiring and relatable as hell, no matter your speed or sport of choice. “Sport is about health and if you keep in shape for many years [and] the health is there for a long time and that’s the goal,” he explains. “I don’t want to win races and not do anything more in the rest of my life. I’m inspired by, like the guy who just finished at 74 years old. It’s about the journey that all of us dream about, and we prepare for it, and we fear, and we just went for it. And I think everybody will have very different experiences but a bit the same, like, it's somehow a journey that you don't know how it will end, [but] it’s always very special.”
+ In case you were unaware, or maybe just missed it the first time around, back in 2020 Kílian and I spoke for an hour on my podcast about the biggest lessons he learned from taking a new approach to training, his relationship with competition and how it’s changed over the years, and how he thinks about risk these days versus when he was a younger athlete. We also dissected his propensity toward self-destruction and pushing the boundaries of pain and suffering, experimentation and fear of failure, becoming a climate advocate, and a LOT more. It’s a banger if you’ve got some time to give it a listen.
— Robert Wilson isn’t a known name in the running world but his writing on performance is some of the best no-BS stuff you’ll find on the internet. His latest post on rethinking consistency helped give language (“temporal austerity”) to something I experience with a good chunk of the everyday athletes I coach who work irregular schedules, travel a shitload, and/or have lives that are literally and figuratively all over the place. “Temporal austerity is not just a lack of time. It is the unpredictability of time. The fragmentation. The inability to stack routine. It is a state many live in, but few programs are built for,” he writes. “Traditional health and performance models assume: Stable blocks of time. Repeatable patterns. Predictable stress and recovery. But temporal austerity defies those assumptions. For people like executives, first responders, or those in the entertainment industry, schedules are both time-short and time-volatile.” Where I’ve landed from a programming standpoint with many of my own athletes who fall into this bucket is NOT scheduling things on specific days, but rather giving them something along the lines of: Here are our overall objectives for this week, here are the workouts we want to hit in order of priority (P1, P2, etc.), here are some general guidelines (e.g. let’s try and hit somewhere between X and Y # of miles, give yourself Z # of days between priority workouts, if you have even 10 minutes to move in a meaningful way, that’s better than 0 minutes, etc.), eat and rest as well as you can given everything that’s going on, and let’s generally just try to keep the ball rolling even if its speed varies a bit. With these folks, NOT having a rigid structure, and giving them the autonomy to “make it work” for their schedules, has led to better overall consistency. As a coach, it took me a while to get comfortable programming in this way but it’s hard to argue with the results. “Temporal austerity is not a failure of discipline. It is a condition of modern life,” Wilson explains. “Rather than resist it, we can build systems that absorb it with fluid strategies that turn volatility into opportunity. When time is short, aim for clarity. When conditions are volatile, build responsiveness. Because in complex systems—just like in life—the path is rarely linear, but it can still be forward.”
— In a recent piece for Front Office Sports, Dennis Young writes about how the new money that’s found its way into professional track—e.g. Grand Slam Track offering unheard of appearance fees and prize purses, Duael Track (which, to be honest, I’d never heard of until reading this article) trying to do something similar, one-off meets like Athlos creating an incredible experience for athletes and fans alike, USATF’s Grand Prix series attempting to hype people up before the 2028 Olympic in L.A., the Diamond League increasing prize money—has run into the same old problems: institutional disarray, athletes having little say in how the sport is run or presented, and a lack of cohesive storytelling that keeps the sport fragmented and frustratingly niche despite its deep talent pool and running/track’s global appeal. I think the article (and this ongoing situation in general) is best summed up by a quote from Athlos founder Alexis Ohanian. “Nothing could prepare me for the broke-ness that exists in the infrastructure around this sport, and the sort of low-integrity behavior,” he told FOS. “It’s sad.”
— My wife and I are making our way through Season 4 of The Bear, and last week while watching Episode 8, Tom Petty’s “Square One” provided the background music for a compilation of contemplative scenes and, I don’t know, it was just perfect. Anyway, here’s the clip from the show, and here’s Petty in 2006 performing the song live.
— From the archives (Issue 401, 2 years ago this week): When asked by a reporter how much he needed the grand slam he just hit, Jonathan India of the Cincinnati Reds, who has been in the worst hitting slump of his career, replied, “If you’re results driven, if you care about results, and you’re losing sleep over results, you won’t perform in this game,” he explains. “As long as I play the game the right way, I play the game hard, I don’t give up, I fight every at bat, I stick to my process and execute my plan, there’s nothing more I can do. The results are not in my hands.” I’m filing this one away to replay for myself and my athletes whenever the reminder is needed (which is often). Whether it’s running, work, or something in your personal life, India’s outlook holds true: control what you can control, do things the right way, as best you can, and what will be will be. It may or may not work out as you want. At the end of the day you have little to no say on whether or not you win the race, hit the time, or get the promotion at work, just as India couldn’t try to force a ball over the fence a few weeks ago.
I’m spending most of this week lakeside and I’ll be living in Tracksmith’s Run Cannonball Run shorts until we head home. In fact, just yesterday I wore them on an 8-mile run and immediately cannonballed off the dock afterward. These swim-friendly running shorts performed as advertised: they’re lightweight and quick to dry, making them the perfect choice for warm-weather miles and/or a cold-water dip. If you want to try the new Run Cannonball Run shorts, or pick up anything on Tracksmith.com between now and the end of August for that matter, use the code “MORNINGSHAKEOUT20” for $20 off an order of $100 or more. (Note: The code is good for one use between now and the end of August.)
Workout of the Week: Drills and Hills
I love short hill repeats, full stop. Whether you’re training for a mile, an ultramarathon, or anything in between, regular bouts of 30-60 second repeats at a hard effort will help to lay a solid foundation of early-season strength, non-specific speed, and overall fitness that you can build on for a few months to follow. The “Drills and Hills” session is what I call a muscles-and-mechanics workout: 1. It will improve your muscular strength, power, and endurance. 2. It helps promote and/or reinforce sound running mechanics. Do this workout once a week for 4-6 weeks and you’ll notice a difference not just in how much stronger you feel running uphill, but also in how smooth and efficient you are on flat ground. It’s a low-risk, high-reward session that forces you to work but won’t leave you too wrecked. Here are the details.
The bottom line.
“There is no failure, only feedback."
— I don’t have a specific source for this quote, but I say it to my athletes all the time after a tough workout or bad race. It reminds me of the line commonly attributed to Thomas Edison: “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” I like this framing because the word “failure” feels so absolute, like there’s no coming back from it. Rarely is this ever the case. More often than not we just need to take a step back, learn something from the experience, make an adjustment(s), and try again.
That’s it for Issue 505. Please forward it along, pass it around, and/or reply at your own risk.
Thanks for reading,
Mario
P.S. I’ve got less than 20 limited-edition morning shakeout-branded running hats left if you need something cool to keep your head covered during these warm summer months. There are two options available: The first has a plain white panel on the back, while the back panel on the second says “stay on it.” (n.b. This is my go-to mantra, and you can read about its origins in Issue 123.) The hats are completely identical otherwise. You can purchase a cap at this link. The cost is $50, which includes free shipping to anywhere in the United States. (Please note: I’m currently only able to ship orders within the U.S. Hopefully I’ll be able to offer international shipping in the near future.)
Thank you again for your words, reflections, and collating thought provoking topics! My immediate reaction: print the pic.
Thanks for the shout Mario!