the morning shakeout | issue 541

The reward for restraint, Cooper Lutkenhaus's confidence, why halftime scores aren't important, and a lot more.

Lead men heading into the first of a few steep climbs at the Big Alta 28K on Sunday in Marin County, California. (Shot on my iPhone.)

Good morning! We’re getting into the meat of the spring marathon season, world indoors just wrapped up, and there’s plenty of good stuff to go around. Let’s get right to it.

Quick Splits

— Marius Bakken’s articles about threshold training and the Norwegian method are some of the most popular I’ve ever shared in the history of this newsletter (see Issues 325 and 494) and I expect his latest—a deep dive on the what, why, and how of double-threshold training—will quickly join those ranks. Bakken, a Norwegian physician who ran 13:06.39 for 5000m back in his day, conducted more than 5,500 lactate tests over the course of his career to develop and refine the method. This piece covers the three pillars of why double threshold works, digs into a 2024 NTNU study comparing one long threshold session against two split sessions of equal volume, and gets into the muscle tone dynamics that many coaches and athletes tend to overlook. (The study’s main finding is particularly noteworthy: that splitting up the workout volume produced less fatigue and lower lactate in the second session than a single long effort did.) “The breakthrough came when I stopped thinking of two threshold sessions on a single day as two separate workouts,” he writes, “and started thinking of them as one long session with a functional rest break in the middle.” Now, if you’re like most amateurs I know who can’t swing two workouts 6 to 8 hours apart, I think the main principles Bakken lays out here still apply when you’re doing threshold work: stay below lactate threshold rather than at or above it, use intervals instead of continuous tempo runs to keep quality high and get in more total volume, and treat easy days as an active part of the adaptation process rather than just filler between hard efforts. The magic of this method, in my opinion, isn’t really about hitting two threshold sessions in relatively short succession. It’s more about what Bakken identifies as the governing principle of the whole approach: restraint. The reward for that restraint, he writes, is repeatability. And that repeatability (a.k.a. consistency) is going to be the biggest contributor to your success as an athlete.

— He’s only 17, but Cooper Lutkenhaus ran like an old wise man to win the world indoor 800m championship over the weekend in Poland. Watch here as the American makes a hard move to the front with 300 to go and then makes an even more impressive one at the bell to avoid getting boxed in on the rail heading into the final circuit. The kid was not intimidated. Lutkenhaus showed incredible maturity and poise under pressure in what is arguably one of the most intense events in track. “That confidence comes from a young age,” he said after the race. “I’m still young, but I wanted to make a decisive move and I think I did that on the third lap. From there, I just tried to take it home.” Best of all? How he and his high school coach Chris Capeau are going about it. “Ten years ago me, I would have been doing more and harder and more and harder and thought that was the right thing,” Capeau says in this video of a Lutkenhaus’ workout that was released last week. “Not because I’m like, ‘whatever,’ it just would have been what I thought was the next thing, right? He can handle this, [so] do it more. Do it harder. Now it’s more of like, ‘He can handle it, this is right, just do that.’ Right? Like, don’t over-do it when I don’t need to over-do it. The ultimate goal is the racing, right? So why do anything that takes away from that?”

— On Sunday, Christine and I attended a celebration of life for Don Swartz, whose influence on both of us is profound. At the venue there was a posterboard of “Don-isms” that he was known for saying and one of them read: “Nothing is less important than the score at halftime.” I shared this exact quote in Issue 468 and on Sunday the lightbulb went off that it was likely Don who clued me into it. Anyway, it came to mind again on Sunday night when I was watching a replay of the women’s 1500m final from the world indoor championships in Poland. Ethiopia’s Birke Haylom had a commanding lead on the field 800 meters into the race. With 400 to go it still looked like it was going to be a blowout. Behind Haylom, Great Britain’s Georgia Hunter Bell and Australia’s Jessica Hull drove the train while France’s Agathe Guillemot stayed put on the rail. American Nikki Hiltz spent most of the race between fifth and seventh, seemingly having a hard time establishing position near the front of the chase pack. Business really started to pick up heading into the final circuit, as Hunter Bell and Hull went by Haylom with about 150 meters left to run, and it was pretty clear at that point they were going to go 1-2 (which they did). Behind them, Guillemot was moving well and Hiltz, running in fifth, was finally starting to build some momentum. They went by Haylom with 100 to go but getting around Guillemot was not looking promising at that point. Hiltz swung wide, charged hard, and leaned at the tape to take bronze, 3:59.68 to Guillemot’s 3:59.71. It was the track equivalent of a buzzer-beater and an example of what can happen when you keep your cool, don’t get discouraged, keep running hard, and stay open to the possibility that things might turn around if you just stay in it.

— Back in October I shared this version of Caamp’s “All The Debts I Owe,” which they submitted to NPR’s Tiny Desk in 2016. In that issue of the newsletter I wrote that, “as far as I know, they’re still waiting for an invite.” Well, that invite finally came, and it was well worth the wait. Here’s Caamp behind the Tiny Desk last week performing a fun four-song set, which they closed out with a nicely polished version of the aforementioned tune. The music is fantastic but my favorite part is right after the first song when it hits Taylor Meier and Evan Westfall that, “holy shit, this is really happening!” Such a cool (and very real) moment that really brought it all full circle.

— From the archives (Issue 437, 2 years ago this week): Alex Kurt of Outside Run recently asked me to expound upon my training principles for this article, which pairs well with this piece I shared last month. I thought he captured my outlook on how to get better at running rather well. “When it comes to running, there isn’t any secret. There aren’t any shortcuts. And whatever you do, don’t try and get fancy in your training,” he writes. “That’s how I’d summarize coach Mario Fraioli’s outlook, anyway.”

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Tracksmith just dropped its Twilight Collection and its got some awesome options in it. My favorite are the 8” half tights, which are great year-round but perfect for spring. They’re lightweight and understated with plenty of pockets for whatever I might need to carry, from keys to gels or even a phone. I wear them for pretty much every workout I do and also when I just want a little more coverage on a cool morning. (The women’s short tights are similarly built, feature a 5” inseam, and also have plenty of pockets.) If you want to pick up something from this collection for yourself (or buy anything else on Tracksmith.com for that matter), use the code “SHAKEOUT15” for $15 off an order of $75 or more.

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Workout of the Week: The “2 By” Marathon Long Run

Marathon season is firmly upon us and improving your ability to run for longer at goal race effort/pace is probably top of mind. The “2 By” marathon long run is one of my favorite ways to introduce some running at goal race effort/pace into the mix and then extend the amount of time you spend there over the course of a 12-16 week cycle as fitness and confidence both improve. Here are the details.

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The bottom line. 

“Never work for other people at what you do. Always remember that the reason that you initially started working was that there was something inside yourself that you felt that if you could manifest it in some way, you would understand more about yourself or how you coexist with the rest of society. I think it’s terribly dangerous for an artist to fulfill other people’s expectations.”

— David Bowie with a good reminder for us all (and one I revisit on occasion when it comes to writing this newsletter)

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That’s it for Issue 541. If you’d like to support the shakeout, please forward this email to someone who might enjoy it or post the web link in your little corner of the internet where others can check it out. (And if you’re seeing this newsletter for the first time and want to receive it for yourself first thing every Tuesday morning, you can subscribe right here.)

Thanks for reading,

Mario