the morning shakeout | issue 509

Interest versus commitment, Clayton Young's Going East, resilience as a practice, and a lot more.

How I spent my Sunday morning. (Shot on my iPhone.)

Good morning! A topic I’ve been thinking a lot about recently is the difference between being interested in something versus being committed to it. This is top of mind right now as I have athletes preparing for the fall marathon season and I’ve been kicking off a few conversations of late with some version of the following question: Are you committed to this pursuit, or are you merely interested in it?

It’s a jarring inquiry that sometimes leads to an awkward silence. But more often than not, however, I get a follow-up along the lines of, “What do you mean by that?”

Well, here’s what I mean by that. The person who is interested in hitting the PR, or getting the BQ, or crossing the finish line, whatever it is, will put effort in when motivation is high and/or it’s convenient to do so. This means the occasional heroic effort but also inconsistency and insecurity along with it. When the ride gets bumpy things tend to go off the rails and getting back on can be a challenge, if not impossible. With these folks dedication often falls by the wayside when that initial burst of motivation fades away, the work starts getting hard, life gets busy, or some combination of those things. They can take it or leave it.

The committed ones, however, prioritize the pursuit and decide from the outset to follow through no matter what comes up along the way. The effort is consistent but never crazy. They carry a quiet confidence that it’s all going to work out. This involves showing up on days they don’t feel like it, making adjustments when plans go sideways, and keeping the main thing the main thing when distractions threaten to derail them. They’re in it for the long haul.

So be honest with yourself, whether it’s a race, a project you’d like to get off the ground, one of your relationships, or something else you’ve told yourself that’s important: Are you committed, or are you merely interested in it?

Quick Splits

— Twenty years ago, when I was fresh out of college, RED-S, or Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport, wasn’t a thing. Back then, most of the conversation around disordered eating amongst athletes focused on the female athlete triad, defined as “an interrelationship of menstrual dysfunction, low energy availability (with or without an eating disorder), and decreased bone mineral density.” It applied only to women, and there really wasn’t much literature or research that addressed the fact that men could also run into serious problems if they weren’t eating enough to meet their energy needs. I learned this the hard way as an underfueled post-collegiate athlete and mostly kept things to myself because it was considered taboo to talk about it. That changed in 2014, when the International Olympic Committee introduced RED-S, based on research showing it affects both men and women and can disrupt nearly every system in the body. Since then there’s been a lot more research, awareness, and open conversation about the risks of underfueling as an athlete (at any/every level!), along with a growing recognition that this is not just a “women’s issue.” This has helped athletes, coaches, and medical professionals to better spot the early signs of under-fueling/disordered eating so that they can address the problem before it spirals out of control. Leading the charge in this regard is Project RED-S, which has a ton of information and resources on its website. They recently released this new RED-S awareness video featuring two-time Olympian Elise Cranny and 2020 U.S. Olympian Jake Reilly “for every athlete who’s felt lost, unsupported, or confused by what’s going on in their body. AND for every coach, clinician, parent, peer or partner who wants to do better by them.” I wish stuff like this had existed 20 years ago, so please check it out and pass it around your circles. You never know who it might help out.

— If you’re ramping up for a fall marathon (or will be soon), Clayton Young’s latest YouTube series, Going East, which will chronicle his buildup to the world championships next month in Tokyo, should serve as a helpful, inspiring, and perhaps even essential companion to your own training. Here’s Episode 1, which dropped a few days ago, and provides a behind-the-scenes look at how Young prepares for and processes a tune-up race—in this case, the recent Beach to Beacon 10K, where he placed 8th in 27:58—complete with real-time footage from the Ray-Ban sunglasses he wore during it. (Which is pretty wild, and I’m not sure how I feel about it.) My favorite part was the line he shared at the very end, when he says: “It’s time to kind of dig myself in a hole the next four weeks, and then dig myself out of it with two weeks to go.” That sums up the last couple of months of marathon training pretty well, I think.

— Resilience is a hot topic these days, and for good reason: it’s a necessary skill for us to sharpen as runners when it comes to fighting off fatigue at the end of a race, bouncing back from injury, or simply sticking with it when we might not feel like we’re getting anywhere. But, as these things go, resilience is just as vital off the roads, trails, or track, helping us navigate setbacks, adapt to change, and stay the course when life doesn’t go to plan (which is often for most of us!). Seth Godin, whose work I’ve linked to many a time here in this newsletter over the past 500-plus weeks, recently shared a curated list of posts he’s written about resilience as a practice, and it’s worth reading every single one of them. (n.b. Most are pretty short!) “One way to ensure that things work out the way you hope is to spend the time and money to ensure that every part, every form, every worker meets spec. Tighten your spec, increase precision and you’ll discover that systems become more reliable,” he writes in this 2019 post. “The other alternative is to embrace the fact that nothing is ever exactly on spec, and to build resilient systems. You’ll probably find that while precision feels like the way forward, resilience, the ability to thrive when things go wrong, is a much safer bet.”

— Host Greg Inglin recently had me as a guest on the Pay Your Dues podcast and it was an enjoyable and wide-ranging conversation about the path I’ve followed as both an athlete and a coach. We also got into the work I’ve done on this newsletter, the importance of consistency, the intersection of running and music, running’s “third boom,” and a lot more. You can listen to it wherever you get your podcasts or at this handy link.

— I remember when Five for Fighting’s “100 Years” was released a little over 20 years ago. I was in college and the band’s first hit, “Superman (It's Not Easy)” was one of my favorite songs at the time, and this new tune caught my attention mostly because of the numbers contained therein: John Ondrasik sang about being 15 for a moment, then 22 for a moment, then 33, 45, and so forth, and I wondered to myself why he chose those ages specifically. I never got my answer and don’t really care anymore, but I’ve developed a better appreciation for the song as I’ve gotten older because that’s exactly the message he was trying to get across in it: appreciate and recognize moments in life as they happen and don’t let them mindlessly pass by because eventually you’ll be “99 for a moment, dying for just another moment.” Ondrasik recently went on “The Song” and performed this one beautifully from behind the piano, leading me to add it to one of my regular playlists.

— From the archives (Issue 457, 1 year ago this week): I swear that Oliver Burkeman excavates questions from my brain and then writes newsletters that answer them better than I ever could. His latest is one that I’ve been wrestling with for a while: What does it mean to be done for the day? As someone who’s self-employed, there’s always something I could/should/need to do. The trouble is getting comfortable with the feeling that it’s OK to have stuff hanging over my head. The trick is not letting my eyes get bigger than my stomach, so to speak. “Asking this question daily is a training in patience, because when you start getting serious about what you can reasonably expect from yourself, it’ll be painful how short the list is,” he writes. “For the first few days, you’ll probably fail to finish even that list! And so the days go by, and your lists get even shorter, until eventually you find yourself getting through them, and permitting yourself the feeling of doneness.”

Along these lines, last week my buddy Brendan Leonard wrote about learning to rest, a problem familiar to endurance athletes, Americans, and other pushers who don’t have much of an off-switch. “So many things I like to do—running mountain ultramarathons, climbing mountains, long hikes and bike rides—require learning how to push through pain, fatigue, and common sense,” he writes. “So I’m pretty used to the line of thinking that discomfort is actually just a side effect of meaningful experiences. Except when it’s not.”

Leonard’s piece reminded me of a line from John Moreland’s song, “The Future is Coming Fast,” in which he writes and sings: “But we don't breathe, and we don't rest. We just choose the lie that feels the best.”

— There’s still a few spots left in the Fall Marathon Workshop Series! This virtual series of 6 in-depth sessions led by myself and Peter Bromka, with additional support from subject matter experts in nutrition, strength training, and sports psychology, will help you put the big building blocks of marathon training into place so that you’re as prepared as ever when you step to the start line this fall. You’ll also get racing shoes from New Balance and $50 toward Precision Fuel and Hydration product (and a 20% discount on additional orders). It kicks off THIS FRIDAY, August 15, and runs for 6 straight weeks. (Note: Each session will be recorded and shared with all participants afterward.) It’s priced at $449 and I guarantee you it will deliver at least double that in value. More details can be found here. Join us!

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Last week I spent some time putting a few miles on the Eliot Range, Tracksmith’s first trail shoe, and also tested a few pieces from the new Overland Collection, and to say I was pleasantly surprised is an understatement. Tracksmith, as the name sorta implies, isn’t really well known for their attention to off-road running but the Overland Collection changes that in a big way. I’d put the Range, with its responsive midsole and Vibram outsole, right up there with any other versatile trainer that’s going to touch a mix of dirt, rock, roots, and maybe even a little pavement. It’s sturdy but energetic, and has some nice bite to it. If you want to try the Eliot Range or one of the thoughtfully designed pieces from the Overland Collection (or whatever else you might need 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.)

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Workout of the Week: The Mona Fartlek

As an athlete, the Mona Fartlek is one of my favorite workouts to do; as a coach, it’s one that I’ll often assign a few times throughout a training cycle. What I love about this session is that it’s efficient and versatile: it can be done anywhere and you can make it as hard or as easy as you need/want it to be (to be fair, the same can be said of most workouts, but I digress). It’s named after Steve Moneghetti, a four-time Olympian in the marathon for Australia, who ran this workout weekly for years (and still does, apparently). The pickups are short and swift and the recoveries in between are more of a steady float than a slow jog (though you manipulate either of those variables to suit your needs depending on your experience level or where you’re at in training). Start-to-finish, the Mona Fartlek takes 20 minutes to complete. I like to use this workout with athletes who are just getting back into speedwork after some time away from it—the reps are short enough to wrap their heads around—or as a good “get after it” session for my marathoners to break up the monotony of higher mileage and longer workouts. The Mona Fartlek can also serve as a good 20-minute benchmark session every 4-6 weeks by simply comparing your total distance and overall average pace (and heart rate and power, if you’re into those sorts of things) from one attempt to the next. Here are the details.

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The bottom line. 

“A lie has speed, but the truth has endurance.”

— I came across this quote recently and it was attributed to Edgar J. Mohn, who I had a hard time identifying and learning more about. Regardless of who said it, however, I think the sentiment is on the money. We see some version of this play out all the time: “Here’s a quick fix or the latest and greatest way to do X, Y, and/or Z” (e.g., train, eat, sleep, be productive, etc.) and suddenly it’s everywhere. The hype train moves quickly, goes viral, has a moment. Then it sputters out, never to be seen or heard from again. But the things that are tried and true are called that for a reason: they’ve stood the test of time. Anyway, this week’s bottom line made me think of the Haruki Murakami quote I shared in Issue 164 (that I remind myself of whenever something new seems to be taking off at warp speed): “As time goes on, you’ll understand. What lasts, lasts; what doesn’t, doesn’t. Time solves most things. And what time can’t solve, you have to solve yourself.”

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That’s it for Issue 509. If it made you smile, think for a second, or reflect upon something you hadn’t considered, and you know someone else who might like to do the same, 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