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mario fraioli | the morning shakeout

Discover what’s possible through the lens of running with training tips, workouts, and other bits of goodness from coach Mario Fraioli. Every Tuesday morning, Mario shares his unapologetically subjective take on things that interest, inform, inspire, or entertain him in some way.

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the morning shakeout | issue 474

Lead men blowing past me 10K into CIM on Sunday. (Here's a fun photo of me taking this picture, captured by my friends at Precision Fuel & Hydration.) Good morning! My brain is functioning in a diminished capacity as I write this so please bear with me the rest of the way here. I was in Sacramento this past weekend supporting my wife and eight athletes I coach at the California International Marathon. It was a nonstop adrenaline rush hitting a few different spots along the course on Sunday,...

Sittin' on the dock of the bay, watchin' the tide roll away. (Shot on my iPhone) Good morning! It almost goes without saying but the reasons why people run are incredibly diverse. For some of us, running is a competitive outlet. And/or it’s a social one. We might run so we can spend some time alone. Or connect with nature. Many people run for health reasons, both physical and mental. We run to tackle challenges, chase after goals, clear our heads, explore new places, or to be a part of...

Wake me up when November ends. Good morning! I decided to go into holiday mode a couple of days early this week so I’m going to try and make this quick. Let’s get right to it. Quick Splits — My wife and I just finished watching Season 2 of Sprint on Netflix and one of my favorite athletes to follow was Julien Alfred of St Lucia. Something of a silent assassin, Alfred won gold in the 100 meters and followed it up with silver in the 200. Those were the first two Olympic medals of any color for...

"Oh, I love cross country all right. I also like being flayed alive with a rusty straight razor." Quote from Once a Runner, photo by the wonderful and talented Annie Ragusa. Good morning! I raced the Pacific Association Cross Country Championships in San Francisco on Sunday and it was anything but a walk in Golden Gate Park. But that’s the point. No one’s there to take in the scenery. It’s a competition that’s meant to test your mettle. And that’s one of the main reasons I’m still doing it 26...

This is what it looks like to chase reigning UTMB champion Vincent Bouillard around your backyard. (Shot on my iPhone) Good morning! Back home in New England, where I’m from, the time between late October and early December is often called stick season. (Noah Kahan, a Vermont native, even named his last album after it.) During this post-fall/pre-winter purgatory it gets dark really early, the trees start to go bare, and the weather can get pretty nasty. It kind of sucks, to be honest. Now,...

Charging hard with half a mile to go in the Dash to the Finish Line 5K on Saturday. I finished strong and raced about as well as I could have hoped for on the day. (More details are on Strava if you're so inclined.) Photo: Anh Bui Good morning! I’m on my way home from New York as I type this and most everything I want to say about my experience over the weekend mirrors what I wrote at this time last year, so I’m not going to rehash all of that here. (But please, do read or re-read it.) I'll...

Chasing sunrise. (Shot on my iPhone) Good morning! I’m heading to New York in a few days for one of my favorite weekends of the year and I hope to see many of you out and about in the city. I’m not hosting any shakeout runs or participating in any live podcasts or panels this year but I will be racing in the Dash to the Finish 5K on Saturday (look for the black singlet with the morning shakeout logo on the chest and tell me to get my ass in gear if you see me run by) and supporting my wife...

Caught a comet with my iPhone camera last Thursday night. This was a "shoot and see what ya got" type of situation, aided by Night Mode, as there really wasn't much that your eyes alone could make out in the dark sky. (iPhone photography is a hobby of mine and you can check out my regularly updated photo feed here on Glass if you're so inclined.) Good morning! I’d like to open up this week’s issue with a PSA for fall marathoners and ultrarunners everywhere: it’s OK, even advisable, to unplug...

I think they call this "street photography." (Shot on my iPhone) Good morning! We are in the thick of the fall racing season right now and the day-to-day business of coaching is humming along at a relentlessly quick pace. It’s one of my favorite times of the year: the energy is high, races are happening nearly every weekend, and athletes’ emotions are all over the place (and sometimes the coach’s too!). That said, my typical writing windows won’t be open quite as wide the next two months so...

Early birds get the trail. (Shot on my iPhone) Good morning! Let's get right to it. Quick Splits — 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...