the morning shakeout | issue 527
The importance of regular reflection, working on our "mental mobility," how to live to 100, and a lot more.
Good morning! Every Monday when I sit down to write this newsletter, I take a deep dive through the archives in search of something from that same week in years past to reshare with all of you. It’s become one of my favorite weekly exercises because, in a way, it feels like revisiting my diary. It serves as a reminder of where I was in life and what I was interested in and/or working through one, five, or even ten years ago.
Case in point: Yesterday I re-read Issue 475 from last December and remembered that I had just raced the U.S. Club Cross Country Championships and, both literally and figuratively, felt stuck in the mud. I was fried heading into the holidays and ended up taking some much-needed downtime from both running and work. It was helpful to reflect on that time and recognize that giving myself permission to step back for a bit was exactly what I needed to do. And while this past year has had its own share of challenges that I’ve had to navigate (spoiler: every year does!), I’m feeling much less stuck and drained than I was a year ago, which I’m grateful for as 2025 comes to a close.
This weekly exercise has helped reinforce the importance of regular reflection, not as a way to dwell on the past, but more to appreciate the present and gain some perspective. I’d encourage you to try it out for yourself. You don’t need a newsletter or even a diary (though they help) to do it. All you really need is some time and space to think and reflect. Maybe revisit your calendar, scroll back through your social media feeds, pull out your training log, check your Strava, and/or go through the photo album on your phone to jog your memory a bit. Write down a few notes, or just sit quietly with whatever comes up, even if it’s unpleasant. Sometimes that’s all it takes to feel more grounded in where you are now and/or to get a better idea of the direction you want to go.
Quick Splits
— My brother from another mother Michael Olzinski recently wrote about what he calls “mental mobility” and it resonated right away. As athletes and coaches we often talk about the importance of “mental strength,” but Mikey argues (correctly, I believe) that we need to hone the ability to adjust and adapt to all manner of challenging situations we may face, and I believe this approach applies whether we’re talking about running, work, relationships, or some other area of life. So how do we do this? By expanding our range of motion, if you will. Learning to be a little less rigid in our thinking. Understanding how and where to pivot when we’re feeling blocked. Practicing how to relax under pressure or tension. “I don’t even really like the commonly used term of ‘mental strength’ simply because it feels too tough, stiff, rigid, or like the best mental attributes are ‘unbreakable,’” he writes. “I want to normalize the term ‘mental mobility’ because in my mind that gives a little more range and feels like mental success is in fact the ability to flow, to meld, to adjust and adapt to any situation that one could encounter.”
— It doesn’t get talked about enough, but the Raleigh–Durham–Chapel Hill area of North Carolina (aka “The Triangle”) has quietly become one of the best places to train for distance running in the United States. I was reminded of this after reading a recent Durham Magazine feature on the Puma Elite Running Team that’s based there, which also got me thinking about the NC State women’s cross-country team, fresh off an NCAA title, as well as UNC, whose women finished 11th at the same meet. As for the Puma team itself, much like the place they call home, they’ve been flying under the radar and quietly crushing it over the past year or so: Fiona O’Keefe won the 2024 Olympic Trials Marathon and, more recently, finished fourth at the New York City Marathon; Patrick Dever was also fourth in New York last month; Amon Kemboi won this year’s Dash to the Finish Line 5K; Taylor Roe captured a U.S. half-marathon title and ran 49:53 to break the American record for 10 miles; and Molly Born just won CIM in her marathon debut, breaking the course record in 2:24:09. I know I’m missing some performances, too, but why the Puma squad doesn’t seem to get the same recognition as other U.S.-based teams/training groups is a bit beyond me. “We’ve seen it in the past with other groups that we’ve been a part of,” says Amy Cragg, who coaches the team alongside her husband, Alistair. “You reach this balance, and all of a sudden success kind of breeds success.”
— When I read this article on “How to Live to 100, According to Dick Van Dyke,” I was honestly surprised to learn that he was still alive, since, if nothing else, he hasn’t been seen or heard from in a while, as far I’m aware. Nevertheless, not only is he still alive, he seems to be doing OK, according to Jancee Dunn of The New York Times, and recently published a book: “100 Rules for Living to 100: An Optimist’s Guide to a Happy Life.” Nothing I learned from the article surprised me, but it did reinforce that living well in an age of biohacking, excessive supplementation, and endless optimization protocols still comes down to nailing the fundamentals: keep active, stay engaged with the world around you, nurture your relationships, be open-minded, and maintain a sense of purpose AND playfulness. “‘Playfulness,’” he told Dunn, “‘gives you a sense of fun and freedom,’ no matter how you feel physically. And research suggests that it lowers stress and improves well-being. Van Dyke looks for moments during the day to be playful, whether it’s chances to crack jokes or to make a toddler laugh in the supermarket line. He also has three cats and a dog. ‘Pets just lift your spirits,’ he said, which is a claim backed by evidence.”
— Whether you’ve run 3:26 in the marathon, 4:36, or 2:06 like Alex Yee did two Sundays ago in Valencia, going beyond what you thought was possible for yourself is a special feeling at any speed. Even if you can’t comprehend Yee’s pace per mile, his post-race sentiments will feel familiar to anyone who’s ever realized what once felt like an impossible dream. “[It was] just this breathtaking moment across the finish line where I feel like this whole year kind of came down to this one moment on the finish line in which I just realized I’d achieved something which I’d never imagined I’d achieve. It was so special, yet something I will cherish forever,” Yee says in Part 5 of this incredible docuseries chronicling his marathon journey this fall. “This was, if I’m being honest, a massive surprise…You put so much investment into one race and that one race is not promised to you. It’s not promised you made the start line. It’s not promised you feel good. It’s not promised [that] you execute everything. To have that moment where you get to cross that finish line and everything kind of comes to that moment, I think really transcends anything which I’ve ever felt before. It just feels really, really special.”
— I imagine somewhere my Mom’s smiling at Passenger’s acoustic cover of Roxette’s “It Must Have Been Love” from the movie Pretty Woman. This is one of those songs from my childhood in the ’90s that always seemed to be playing on the car radio or in our kitchen, with my Mom singing along to it. It’s not necessarily a happy tune but his take on it is beautiful and quietly nostalgic for me.
— From the archives (Issue 475, 1 year ago this week): A few months ago I had a coronary calcium scan, which I paid out of pocket for because insurance wouldn’t cover it, and luckily my score was zero (meaning no calcium is present in my heart, suggesting a low risk of developing a heart attack in the future). Any score above zero indicates the presence of calcium deposits in the heart’s arteries, which doesn’t mean you’re going to have a heart attack, but it does suggest that your risk for one is higher and you might need to monitor things a little more closely. I got the scan done as a precautionary measure after a couple people close to me experienced some issues and it was well worth the $125 bucks for the peace of mind alone. In that vein—pun not intended—I appreciated this recent post from my friend Brendan Leonard, who took the same route as me in getting the scan, and I encourage you to give it a read. (He also provides some good background information, a few helpful illustrations, and a couple candid anecdotes.) “It seems like everybody, including myself, have had friends or older colleagues that have had heart attacks that didn’t make any sense,” Dr. Tim McCue, the radiologist in chief at Montana Imaging Center, told Brendan. “That’s where I think the calcium scoring is helpful because it can give people an idea of if they’re doing everything right and their lipid panel or other labs are marginal, then you can still look at things.”
— There’s a lot that I like about my partners from Precision Fuel & Hydration, but near the top of the list is their Knowledge Hub, which is home to some of the best performance advice for runners and other endurance athletes on the internet. Obviously there’s a lot of good stuff in there about fueling and hydration, but they cover all sorts of other relevant topics, too. Case in point: This article about starting strength training as an endurance athlete is as thorough as it is approachable and effective. It answers all the big questions you might be asking yourself (i.e., “Do I really need to?” “Which is right for me?” “Is there a best option?” and “How do I fit it into my schedule?”), and also provides tips and examples so you don’t stall out while trying to get started. (And, of course, PF&H is best known for their fueling and hydration products. I’ve personally been using their stuff since 2017 and their drink mixes, tabs, gels, and chews have been instrumental for me in training and on race day. If you’re interested in trying any PF&H products for yourself, check out this link and save 15% off your first order.)
I’ve been having a ton of fun ripping around in the FuelCell SuperComp Elite v5 from New Balance, their carbon-plated super shoe that’s engineered specifically for racing fast on the roads. They sent me a pair earlier this year and it was love at first stride. I’ve worn them for races, track workouts, and tempo runs and it is by far the best-fitting, best-feeling super shoe I’ve ever put on my feet. There’s enough protection underfoot to hold up to longer efforts without making it feel you’re running with a marshmallow on your feet, and a punch of pop that I appreciate when I’m running fast. In short: It’s versatile! The FuelCell SuperComp v5 is available at your favorite running speciality retail store and on newbalance.com (men’s sizes here, women’s sizes here).
Workout of the Week: Long Run with Surges
Running long this week/weekend? Those miles are going to be a sizable chunk of your total weekly volume. Don’t waste ’em! Avoid a sloppy slog and help the time pass a little quicker by throwing in a 30-60 second surge at the end of every mile. Here are the details.
The bottom line.
“Don’t aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run—in the long-run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it.”
— Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (One of my favorite books, quoted here for the third time. See also: Issue 147, Issue 227.)
That’s it for Issue 527. Please forward this email to a likeminded friend or two, share the web link amongst your social circles, and/or reply to me directly at your own risk.
Thanks for reading,
Mario
I had a good conversation recently with Krissy Moehl about the need to be able to pivot during training for, and then running an ultra. Merry Christmas!
An excellent read as always. Thank you!