the morning shakeout | issue 513

Kicking off cross-country season, developing dynamic humans, ripping downhill at high speed, and a lot more.

‘Tis the season.

Good morning! It’s the first week of September, which, for all intents and purposes here in the U.S., marks the unofficial start to the fall cross-country season. It’s my favorite time of year, and this Saturday I’ll join my teammates from the West Valley Track Club for our “home” meet on the dirt at Garin Regional Park in Hayward, 27 years after I first toed the line against Grafton High School on a 2.8-mile course that, ironically enough, was mostly on the roads.

A lot has changed since 1998 but the feelings I experience on race day largely remain the same: a little bit of nervous excitement before the start and then pain—lots of pain. To borrow one of my favorite lines from John L. Parker Jr.’s Once A Runner: “Oh, I love cross country all right. I also like being flayed alive with a rusty straight razor.” (In all seriousness, I really do love this shit.)

The purity and simplicity of this sport has always appealed to me. It’s place over pace. No one cares about hitting splits or executing a fueling strategy. You definitely will not see anyone running with a selfie stick or shouting into a camera when they pass a mile marker. It’s just about racing hard. Effort is the only thing that matters, whether you’re the first or 400th person across the line.

Cross country demands grit and a willingness to take risks, bathe yourself in discomfort, and see how long you can stay there. The lessons it teaches carry over to the roads, trails, track, and the rest of your life. You learn how to be a part of a team and run for something bigger than yourself. You learn how to stay calm when the pressure’s on and/or things aren’t going your way. You learn how to adapt to a changing environment and respond to whatever unexpected situations you might face. You learn how to hang on when you want to quit. You learn how to dig deep when there’s nothing left.

All these years later, this is why I still race XC. It’s like taking an annual refresher course on how to navigate life.

Quick Splits

— In my own personal Mount Rushmore of running coaches, Percy Cerutty would be front and center. The old school Australian wasn’t known for his programming so much as his philosophy, which was anchored in discipline, simplicity, and resilience, and tailoring training to the individual based on their physiological and psychological skills, needs, and limitations. I’m fortunate to have a few of his books on my shelf and they’ve influenced my own approach to the craft of coaching (and life in general) in a profound way. You can purchase some of them for yourself right here. The fundamentals of Cerutty’s approach, which you can learn more about in this great post by John Davis at RunningWritings, still hold up half a century after the eccentric coach’s passing in 1975. Cerutty, who wasn’t married to high mileage, high intensity, polarized training, anaerobic thresholds, or any of that, aimed to develop dynamic humans, not robotic athletes. “Such concepts as the rigid schedule, the worked-out and laid-down day-by-day training routines, find no place in this book, or my ideas as to the fitness of things athletically,” he wrote in Athletics: How to Become a Champion. “Despite the efforts of the industrialist, we are still 'humans', not machines.”

— It’s hard not to be impressed by Cooper Lutkenhaus, who, just a few weeks ago, turned pro at the age of 16 after running 1:42.27 to finish second in the 800m at the U.S. Track & Field Championships last month. After watching him rip a few laps in practice during this recent Workout Wednesday video on Flotrack, it’s hard not to also be impressed with his coach, Chris Capeau of Northwest High School in Justin, Texas. Man, is he good. Sure, he wrote a nice workout that touched on a little strength, some rhythm, and a dash of speed, but throughout it he was encouraging Lutkenhaus and his teammates to be open to possibility, teaching them to stay in control, and reminding them to keep it fun. I think he used the word “joy” at least 10 times throughout the 18-minute video. “It’s not an ‘I have to do this,’” Capeau says at the end of the video. “It’s more of an ‘I get to do this. I’m excited about doing this.’” No matter who you are or what you’re training for, take that reminder with you into your next race. Might help take some of that self-induced pressure off.

+ The world championships kick off this weekend in Tokyo. Here’s the timetable of events, which does not include broadcast information. (Haven’t seen those details yet but the meet will air on Peacock here in the U.S., and I’m sure many of the replays will be posted to the World Athletics and/or NBC Sports YouTube channels shortly afterward.)

— I really enjoyed sitting down with my friend Robbe Reddinger from Believe In The Run on The Drop to talk about all sorts of stuff, from running to coaching to AI to music, journaling, books, culture and a lot more. We even got into the proper pronunciation of my first name and had a great exchange about the importance of keeping some friction in your running, writing, career, and relationships. Carve out 90 minutes and listen to it in all the usual podcast places or watch us right here on YouTube.

— Observing someone descend a steep, technical trail at high speed will never not be impressive to me, but watching Jackson Goldstone do it on a mountain bike—from the front-row-seat perspective of his GoPro—to win this past weekend’s world championships in Switzerland is something else. Buckle up for 3 minutes and then go lay flat for an hour until the nausea settles down.

— A new Hermanos Gutiérrez live performance on KEXP? Yes, please. (For what it’s worth, they’ve been my most-listened-to band on Apple Music the past three years in a row. Every morning they’re playing in the background while I make/drink coffee and read.)

— From the archives (Issue 461, 1 year ago this week): I’ve been a fan of coach Ed Eyestone for as long as I’ve been a runner, going on nearly 27 years now. A two-time Olympian, I first heard about him for his running exploits, but as a young student of the sport, I devoured his monthly columns in Runner’s World magazine, most of which you can still read online. Long story short, Eyestone is an American distance-running legend and his contributions to the sport, particularly as a coach, are significant. He was recently profiled by Deseret News as “builder of champions” and it’s a great read about his career that also shines a light on his personality. It pairs well with this 2015 interview he did with Gary Cohen, which, if you can get past the ancient web architecture and tiny font, is a rather insightful read. (I literally laughed out loud at Eyestone’s answer to a question about his favorite meal. He responded, “Meat and potatoes. I’m old school that way,” which is exactly what you could say about his training philosophy.) “[My athletes] know they can come to me with their concerns,” he told Deseret News. “They might say, ‘Can I do more of this (a particular workout),’ or, ‘I don’t understand why we’re doing this.’ Most of the time if it’s what they believe is really good for them, then it probably is, and so we’ll try it. It’s not my way or the highway. Distance and middle-distance running are hard enough without making them more difficult by being a dictator…I guess that’s why they call me Easy E.”

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My good friends at Tracksmith just launched their annual Fall Collection and it looks pretty sweet! The bright colors really pop and I’m stoked about the new Harrier Shorts, which feature a unique Merino blend that’s perfect for cooler temps and don’t smell when you sweat in them. Plus it’s a semi-split with a longer inseam that provides a little more coverage without restricting your range of motion. I’ll be rocking ‘em for long runs and speed workouts alike. If you want to check out anything from the Fall Collection (or buy anything on Tracksmith.com for that matter) between now and the end of 2025, use the code “MARIO15” for $15 off an order of $75 or more. (Note: The code is good for one use between now and the end of the year.)

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Workout of the Week: Hammer Intervals

Most interval sessions are pretty straightforward in their construction: X number of [fill in the blank] intervals @ Y pace with Z recovery between repetitions. There’s nothing wrong with these types of workouts. They’re easy to understand and effective at producing a desired adaptation. Hammer intervals, made popular by coach Scott Simmons, throw a slight twist into the mix: every third or fourth repetition (whatever cadence you choose, really), you “hammer” it (i.e. run it quite a bit harder than the others) before returning to the prescribed pace. The catch? You don’t get any more recovery time after the hammers than you do the other intervals in the session. Here are the details.

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The bottom line. 

“I have two rules in life–to hell with it, whatever it is, and get your work done.”

— The late, great Ray Bradbury in this 2004 profile. (I think of this quote, oh, just about every day.)

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That’s it for Issue 513. 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