the morning shakeout | issue 531
Running to find out, the case for thick desires, putting the pieces together for performance, and a lot more.
Good morning! On Sunday I attended the annual kickoff event for the Golden Gate Triathlon Club, where I’m beginning my 11th year as the running coach. While a few of us were standing around shooting the shit, our sponsorship director, Guochen, said, “I run to…” and looked at me to finish the sentence. I said, “find out.” That, of course, opened a whole can of worms. When I got home later that afternoon, I expanded on my answer using a who/what/where/when/why/how framework, which turned into an unexpectedly instructive and impactful writing exercise.
The day before the kickoff meeting, I sat down with one of my favorite writers, Devin Kelly, and recorded a conversation for the podcast about his new novel, Pilgrims, which I’m excited to share with you in the next week or two. I asked Devin about his use of repetition throughout the book and he likened it to running, itself a deeply repetitive exercise. You can get lost in the footfalls of the activity, he explained, but that can help lead you to clarity. He also talked about using repetition in his poetry, as well as some of the structured exercises a writing instructor once gave him.
Anyway, this all led me to sit down on Sunday afternoon and write a piece I’m calling “To find out,” sparked by Guochen’s prompt and inspired by Devin’s book (and our conversation about it). I limited myself to 25 lines total, with at least three from each interrogative. I hope you enjoy it.
To find out.
I run to find out who I am. I run to find out who I might become. I run to find out who else understands me. I run to find out what's possible. I run to find out what's true—and what’s not. I run to find out what I think. I run to find out what I’m made of. I run to find out what you’re made of. I run to find out where my mind will go. I run to find out where this trail leads. I run to find out where that road ends. I run to find out where I belong. I run to find out where my limits lie. I run to find out when to push ahead. I run to find out when I should let go. I run to find out when I’m ready. I run to find out why the world is the way it is. I run to find out why I can’t stop doing this to myself. I run to find out why I keep coming back for more. I run to find out how to be present. I run to find out how to stay calm under pressure. I run to find out how to believe in myself. I run to find out how I show up when things get hard. I run to find out how fast I can go. I run to find out everything I need to know.
Quick Splits
— This essay by JA Westenberg on the difference between thin desires and thick desires is on the money. Don’t mind me if I ruin it for you: The takeaway is to do real things with real people in the real world. It feels ridiculous to even type that but look around—here we are.
“The surveys all point the same direction: rising anxiety, rising depression, rising rates of loneliness even as we’ve never been more connected,” she writes. “How could this be, when we’ve gotten so good at giving people what they want? Maybe because we’ve gotten good at giving people what they want in a way that prevents them from wanting anything worth having. Thick desires are inconvenient. They take years to cultivate and can’t be satisfied on demand. The desire to master a craft, to read slowly, to be embedded in a genuine community, to understand your place in some tradition larger than yourself: these desires are effortful to acquire and impossible to fully gratify. They embed you in webs of obligation and reciprocity. They make you dependent on specific people and places. From the perspective of a frictionless global marketplace, all of this is pure inefficiency.”
As Westenberg writes, the infrastructure for thin desires is essentially inescapable. (And I feel as trapped by it as anyone else!) That said, I feel fortunate to be the age I am because I remember a time before life was so frictionless, so I make it a point to productively inconvenience myself for the good of being able to slow down and appreciate it: making plans to run with a friend and/or just hang out at least once a week, continuing to maintain a hand-written running log in addition to seamlessly uploading my run to Strava, standing in line to talk to the person behind the register rather than using the touchscreen or ordering ahead on an app, hand-writing notes to friends and sending them through the mail instead of always just texting back and forth, making my coffee one cup at a time with the Aeropress rather than brewing a big pot, and the list goes on.
Some of these may seem trivial but they really do make life feel a little slower and a lot fuller. What are some thick desires that help you feel more grounded and fulfilled? Let me know by replying to this email or leaving a comment below this post.
— This essay by ultrarunning legend and all-around badass Zach Miller for iRunFar about putting together the pieces that lead to a magical performance is required reading for everyone this week. “To explain sport as magic also seems unfair to other athletes,” he writes. “Sports have an eye-catching, mind-boggling element to them, but these jaw-dropping displays of athletic prowess aren’t the result of some mystical force, but rather the result of the hours, days, weeks, months, and years of preparation.” Or, as I like to say when an athlete pops off a big race: It was an overnight breakthrough X number of years in the making.
— I was recently a guest on the 1% Better-Hidden Stories in Sport podcast with hosts Xylon van Eyck and Dr. David Lipman to discuss running culture, the current running boom we find ourselves in, the state of distance running here in the U.S., my favorite running books, and various other bits of running nerdery. This one was super fun and it’s available wherever you listen to podcasts (just search “1% Better-Hidden Stories in Sport”) or at this handy link.
— If there’s such a thing as a master coach in track and field, Dan Pfaff is his name. He’s coached 50 or so Olympians across a wide range of events, including 10 Olympic medalists and five world-record holders. I’ve shared links to his work here a number of times over the years and his latest newsletter is required reading for any coach, at any level, in any discipline. These 20 programming principles have stood the test of time because, as Pfaff notes, they’re rooted in what’s essential: get to know the athlete, understand the context, manage stress wisely, and never lose sight of what it is you’re trying to do. “Programming isn’t a spreadsheet or a list of drills,” he writes. “It’s a living framework that has to make sense of technical demands, biological realities, wellness, lifestyle factors, and the athlete’s mental resilience on any given day.”
— Most mornings when I’m reading and drinking coffee I have instrumental music playing in the background. It’s usually a Hermanos Gutiérrez album or a “similar artists” station on Apple Music. In December, I discovered a couple holiday instrumental playlists that felt fitting for the season. Last week, I got the bright idea to search for instrumental covers of popular songs on YouTube and a playlist is coming together nicely. So far, my favorite additions are two different versions of Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters,” this one being played on a piano (in a church, of all places) by a woman named Gamazda, and this one by the swiss band Mozart Heroes on a guitar and violoncello. Both are beautiful and impressive. (Along with nearly everything else on each artist’s respective channels, for that matter!)
— From the archives (Issue 427, 2 years ago this week): When an Olympian and 2:09 marathoner like Stephen Scullion says most runners would benefit from forgetting about things like complicated workouts and fancy heart-rate zones and altitude camps and just getting back to doing the basics really well in their training, most runners should probably listen. “I think there’s a bit of a lost art in just covering the basics really well,” he says in his latest video for YouTube. “And you’re looking for all these fancy heart rates to run at, or going to altitude or warm-weather training camps, and sometimes you’ve got everything you need right where you are. Get your gym done, follow some of those basics, if there’s a skill that you used to be able to do in the past that you can’t do anymore—so like me, that tempo run—bring it back, start to work on it, look at how you got to that really good place once upon a time, and then follow those steps [to] get it back. So if I want to be able to run 4:45-4:50 per mile around the park, and I can only run sort of 5-minute pace now, when you go back to 2020, you look at week one, you were also 5 minutes, but by week five, week six, it was down to 4:45. You have to earn that back.” (Ed. note: The pace is relative here. The principle is universal.)
I’m thrilled to share that the morning shakeout will continue to be supported by New Balance, Tracksmith, and Precision Fuel & Hydration in 2026, all brands that have missions I believe in and products that I trust and use myself on a regular basis. Check out some of the discount codes and special offers available exclusively to readers of the morning shakeout below:
Tracksmith: Tracksmith is an independent running brand inspired by a deep love of the sport. This new film that highlights the beauty of sticking to a year-round routine really resonated with me and was the perfect shot of inspiration to kick off 2026.
New Balance: I’ve been fortunate to have a partnership with New Balance since 2020 (and have been running in their shoes a lot longer than that). In any given week I run in 3-4 different types of shoes, which is a privilege I don’t take for granted. Here’s my rotation of different models of New Balance shoes I use for various types of runs.
Precision Fuel & Hydration: I’ve been a devotee to Precision Fuel & Hydration products since 2017 and my last several marathons wouldn’t have gone as well without them. Use the free Fuel & Hydration Planner to get a personalized race nutrition plan for your next event. As a reader of the morning shakeout, you can get 15% off your first order of fuel and electrolytes at this link (the discount will be auto-applied at checkout).
Workout of the Week: The 5-n-Go Tempo
There’s a lot of confusion around the tempo run but stripped down to its core, this workout simply boils down to maintaining a steady (i.e. comfortably hard) effort for a prolonged period of time. And while the definitions of steady and prolonged can vary depending on a variety of factors, for the sake of simplicity and ease of creating a common understanding, let’s call the “classic” tempo run 5 miles at half-marathon pace. This is a pretty standard workout you’ll see utilized by a wide range of athletes and coaches to build aerobic strength, improve efficiency, and/or practice running race pace. The 5-n-Go Tempo adds a slight twist to the classic tempo run by squeezing down the pace for a mile or two at the end. Here are the details.
The bottom line.
“Being there is the most important thing.”
— Martin Parr, English documentary photographer and photojournalist, who passed away last month at the age of 73. While he was likely talking about his job in this quote, it made me think of something I shared during a particularly challenging time last year: The most important thing in life is to show up for, spend time with, and support the people you love.
That’s it for Issue 531. Please forward this email to a few friends, share the web link on social media and/or in your group chats, or reply to me directly at your own risk.
Thanks for reading,
Mario
Really enjoyed your thoughts this week, as always thanks for sharing! I run because the repetition is therapeutic and maybe the miles will equal out to peace eventually.
“To find out.” is beautifully written
I mostly ride bikes, and these points (save the last one. I’m not speed-motivated) resonate when ride is substituted for run, too.