the morning shakeout | issue 517
Eliminating the dumb play, committing to competing, chilling out on protein intake, and a lot more.
Good morning! As mentioned a few weeks ago in Issue 514, the newsletter has been on archival autopilot for a bit. (But I’ll be back to my usual musings and meanderings on running, coaching, music, and whatever else is rattling around in my brain next Tuesday!) What you’ll find below is a short collection of some favorite posts from years past rather than recent reflections on what I’ve been thinking about and paying attention to.
If you’ve been reading me for a while, a few of these timeless treats might taste familiar, or maybe you’re sampling some for the first time. Either way, it’d be great if they land in a fresh way and give you something to chew on for a little while. To those of you who are new (or new-ish) subscribers, it’s my intention for this little archival excavation to serve as an extended introduction to the spirit of the shakeout, giving you a better sense of how it’s evolved (or hasn’t!) over the past ten years.
OK, let’s get right to it.
Quick Splits
— From the archives (Issue 49, 9 years ago this month): The most common piece of advice I give my athletes heading into a big race? “Don’t do anything stupid.” Of course, the line between stupidity and intelligence can be pretty thin (and highly subjective), but keeping that simple guideline in mind will take you pretty far in life. “It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent,” writes Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet’s billionaire business partner. “There must be some wisdom in the folk saying, `It’s the strong swimmers who drown.’”
+ Along those lines, this reminds of something legendary Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz would tell his team before every game. “It’s not the great play that wins,” he explained. “It’s eliminating the dumb play."
— From the archives (Issue 99, 8 years ago this week): Whether or not you want to believe Ethiopian Guye Adola’s claim that he found out he was running the Berlin Marathon just four days before posting the fastest debut in history, you can’t help but respect him for racing Eliud Kipchoge head-to-head and not worrying about the fact that he was running world-record pace alongside the best marathoner in the world in an event he’d never previously contested. “Anyway, they kept telling us we were five or six seconds outside the time (world record pace),” Adola told Michael Crawley for letsrun.com, “so I decided not to worry about it.” Plenty of runners would do well by taking a page out of Adola’s book: Stop worrying about whether or not you’re on pace and just commit to competing. All too often, runners are ruled by the clock and drive themselves crazy chasing splits from race to race. If this is you, forget about the watch next time out and try chasing (or running away from) your fellow competitors instead. Find your race. Roll the dice once or twice. Make a move. Respond to one. See what happens. You might fail. But then again you might not. Either way, you’ll learn something valuable. Heck, you might even surprise yourself like Adola did and run faster than you or anyone else ever possible. Racing involves risking: if you’re not going to take one, why bother stepping on the start line in the first place?
— From the archives (Issue 256, 5 years ago this week): “I think that’s probably what my mother said about being self-destructive: that I go until it breaks,” Kilian Jornet told me on Episode 129 of the morning shakeout podcast. “I probably could start to find this balance much before but I’m just pushing it, pushing it, pushing it until it’s too late and then, like, ‘OK, or I die, or I need to change.’ And it goes up to that point. I hope that all these chapters are closed and that now the balance is here.” In this conversation Kilian and I talked about how he changed his training focus during the pandemic and the biggest lessons he’s learned from taking a new approach, his relationship with competition and how it’s changed over the years, and how he thinks about risk now 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 who is working to protect the environment and mountains he loves so dearly through his new foundation, and a LOT more.
— From the archives (Issue 465, 1 year ago this week): The zeitgeist’s current obsession with the importance of protein intake over the other macronutrients has always struck me as a bit exaggerated, if not over-the-top, so it was a relief to read Brady Holmer’s most recent post telling everyone to essentially chill out. “There are several nutrient deficiencies that we actually need to be worrying about,” he writes, “but protein is certainly not one of them.” Holmer, who is an accomplished runner himself in addition to being an expert in human performance, goes on to argue that most people will adequately address their protein needs if they consume a robust whole food diet that includes plenty of eggs, fish, and plant-based protein sources. There’s probably not a need, or benefit to, supplementing excessively if you’re eating well. This article was interesting to me because protein intake is something I’ve been paying closer attention to the past couple of years since turning 40. (And, admittedly, after reading Peter Attia’s book Outlive.) The RDA for protein says we should be getting 0.8g per kilogram of body weight per day. Attia and other modern-day health and performance gurus say, no, it needs to be closer to 2.0-2.2g. You don’t need to be a mathematician to realize that is quite a difference! An audit of my own diet last year found that, on average, I was getting in between 0.8-1.0g per kilo of bodyweight, which was only a little more than a third of “where I needed to be.” Anyway, I tried like hell to bridge that gap—I gradually went from 55-60g/day all the way up to 150—and it was neither easy nor sustainable. Turns out, it’s not necessary, either. According to the latest evidence shared by Holmer, most adults can not only survive but thrive with a protein intake of 1.2–1.6 grams per kilogram per day. Anecdotally, this is exactly where I landed after a little trial and error (i.e. science!) and I feel great.
— From the archives (Issue 361, 3 years ago this week): Here’s James Hetfield of Metallica performing Nothing Else Matters and Until It Sleeps with nothing but an acoustic guitar and a microphone. Oh, and he also covers The Beatles’ In My Life. You’re welcome.
My good friends at Tracksmith recently 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.)
Workout of the Week: The Inverted Ladder
I love ladder sessions. It’s a great feeling mentally when you start coming back down the ladder and know the longest intervals are behind you. This workout is not that and that’s exactly the point. Here are the details.
The bottom line.
“Running is a simple sport. You don't need all the zoopy zoopy.”
—Bill Squires, legendary coach of Bill Rodgers, Greg Meyer, Dick Beardsley, and the Greater Boston Track Club, i.e., many of America’s top runners in the late 70s through the mid-80s (This quote first appeared in Issue 347. Squires said it to the writer Scott Douglas for an old Running Times article that is no longer online. Squires’ words held true long before he ever said them and I have no doubt they’ll continue to stand the test of time.)
That’s it for Issue 517. If you enjoyed it, please forward this email to a likeminded friend and encourage them to subscribe at this link so the next issue goes straight to their inbox.
Thanks for reading,
Mario