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Good morning! Like many of you I’ve been locked in on the Olympics the past few days. I detest the IOC as an institution but I will always root for athletes: those that have worked hard to realize a lifelong dream, those that represent their country and their culture with pride, and those that set an honest example for the next generation to try and emulate. For better or worse, the Olympics are the pinnacle of achievement for many athletes, and, if we focus on the better aspect of that, I do believe they have the power to unite, elevate, and inspire athletes at all levels of sport.

In 2012 I was fortunate enough to have an athlete, César Lizano, qualify for and compete at the London Games. I was even more fortunate to be a part of the Costa Rican delegation for those Olympics and got to spend a couple weeks living in the Olympic Village (the men’s marathon was on the last day of competition). One of my most cherished memories of the entire experience was meeting and conversing with athletes and coaches from around the world despite every imaginable difference between us, from the sports we were involved in, to the places we called home, to the foods we ate in the dining hall, to the clothes we wore around the village, to the color of our skin, to the god(s) we did or didn’t worship, to the languages we spoke. Was it some closed-off utopia devoid of problems and prejudice? No, not at all. People had their biases, and their beliefs, and their assumptions, and their differences just like they do everywhere else in the world but the one thing almost everyone had in common was a love for sport and a mutual respect and appreciation for those who put an honest effort into expressing that love in their own way.

And that’s what I hope people take away from watching everything unfold in Paris these next couple of weeks: the idea that we can create a better world around us through healthy competition. Whether it’s in sport, work, or some other aspect of your life, set a big goal and go all-in on it. Make it bigger than just yourself and take pride in whatever it is you choose to represent. While you’re at it, try to bring out the best in everyone around you. Respect anyone who is willing to make a commitment, put in the work, and give something their best shot. Inspire and encourage others through the example you set. Celebrate your victories and pick one another up in defeat. Bring some of that Olympic spirit into your own community. That’s the real magic of the Games right there.

Quick Splits

— When I first saw the headline for this article about “what Olympic runners can learn from cheetahs” I rolled my eyes and almost didn’t read it. But, I gave it a shot and, to my surprise, it actually had some useful takeaways for runners at all levels—the most important, I think, being this one: “​​For those keen to start running, [Alan Wilson, a professor of locomotor biomechanics at the Royal Veterinary College, and a runner himself] recommends thinking about it as an acquired skill, and building up strength with high-intensity exercises such as sprinting short distances, then walking, then sprinting again, and adding more distance over time,” Sophie Hardach writes for the BBC. “‘Small duration, high-intensity exercise is what the body responds to’ in terms of developing bone strength, muscle strength and joint strength, says Wilson, and it is less likely to result in injuries than focusing primarily on endurance without building strength first.” This is a good insight. Too many runners, and coaches, I’m afraid, don’t think of running as a skill to learn and develop over time. In almost any other sport, whether you’re learning how to swing a baseball bat, dribble a basketball, or even swim across the pool, you often perform various drills that are a regular part of a practice session. This is actually quite rare in running—more often than not we just start running, and then run some more, and oftentimes it leads to injury. I’m a believer that you should learn how to move well before you allow yourself to move often. In recent years, I’ve rethought my own philosophy on “base” training, where, instead of just running a lot of miles, we do drills, fast strides, and short hills on the regular. Why? Quite simply, these things do everything Wilson says above: strengthen muscles, ligaments, tendons, and bones, making you a more resilient athlete, and, they help you hone your running skills, which influence how you move at a wide range of speeds.

— Kílian Jornet is one of the greatest athletes never to compete in the Olympic Games, but his competitive record in mountain sports, especially running, is virtually unmatched. Part of what makes his accomplishments so impressive is just how long he’s been racking them up: he started winning big as a teenager and he’s still winning big in his mid-30s. That’s nearly 20 years at the top and he hasn’t really shown signs of slowing down all that much. In that vein, he recently wrote this article on sustaining high performance over the long term and everyone should read it. The bad news is nothing Kílian is pushing is currently for sale. The good news is that his keys are available to everyone. “It’s easy to believe that longevity in sports is driven by high-tech innovations, but no single technological advance, training trend, or superfood supplement can stop age related decline,” he writes. “The solution is much simpler but far from easy.”

— Olympians, almost by definition, are the best athletes in the world. And while trying to copy how they train will almost assuredly put you on a path toward injury, it is a wise exercise to understand what’s helped them become so good at what they do. Case in point: U.S. Olympic marathoners Fiona O’Keeffe, Emily Sisson, and Dakotah Lindwurm talking about the importance of getting priorities straight, working through rough patches, learning when to chill and more in this article for Outside Run is full of useful nuggets. One of the pieces of advice they shared that is applicable for age-group marathoners, both newbies and veterans alike, is learning how to not let the low moments in a race ruin your day. In fact, you should expect them to happen so that you’re prepared to work through the discomfort. “I think people often get caught up in how bad they’re feeling at a specific moment in a marathon,” Lindwurm says. “But those bad patches fade. You just have to roll with them so that you can get back into the good patches.” Or, to share one of my own training principles: Learn how to handle hard better. Too many runners think we train so that things will eventually feel easy, especially on race day. Spoiler: That’s not how it works. Running is hard, racing even more so. We train so that we can learn how to handle hard better.

— A big thank you to my partners at Tracksmith for supporting my work this month (and throughout 2024). Last week the brand launched its first ever “Federation Collection,” i.e. “a capsule that blurs the lines between performance and style and presents a new take on the culture and heritage of the Games’ attire.” Basically, it’s a collection of products a typical Olympic athlete might receive from their federation, ranging from a blazer for the opening ceremony, casual wear for the village, a race kit for competition, and a podium jacket should you finish in the medals. It’s stylish and beautiful and uniquely Tracksmith. Check out the lookbook here and/or shop the collection here. If you buy anything from Tracksmith.com, and you’re doing so for the first time, use the code MarioNEW to save $15 on your order of $75 or more. If you’re already a Tracksmith customer, use the code MarioGIVE and you can get free shipping on your next order (and 5% of your purchase will go to support the Friendly House in Worcester, Massachusetts, an organization that is near and dear to me).

— Achieving greatness in anything is a balancing act: Being meticulous without being neurotic, caring deeply but being willing to let go, giving your all while also being relaxed, and the list goes on. Friend of the shakeout and performance coach Steve Magness recently wrote about “threading a needle between too much and too little that makes performing at the highest level so difficult,” and it’s a great read.

— I didn’t have the Ingebrigtsen brothers of Norway putting out a pre-Olympics music video on my 2024 bingo card but here we are. The lyrics are beyond me but the beat is catchy and the archival imagery is on point so yeah, that’s what we’re listening to this week.

— From the archives (Issue 38, 8 years ago this week): The Olympic Games (shit, there I go saying forbidden words again) are nothing without the athletes who participate in them, yet it’s the IOC, its executives and “volunteers” who reap the biggest chunk of the financial reward. Backward from how you’d expect it to be, right? While this is not a new revelation by any means, to get a really solid grasp on just how disparate the distribution of dollars is across “The Movement” really is and to fully understand the degree to which athletes are essentially commodified, read this article from The Washington Post’s Will Hobson. It will make your head spin faster than Adam Nelson in a shot put circle. “They had a $100-bill-counting machine, and people were standing in line to get their stacks of hundred-dollar bills,” Bob Balk, a former Paralympic canoe athlete who attended the 2012 London Games as an IOC volunteer, said of the daily scene there four years ago for IOC members and ‘volunteers.’ “It was crazy.” Meanwhile, there are more Olympians than not struggling to support themselves in order to be a part of ‘The Movement.’ “For members of Team USA—many of whom live meagerly off the largesse of friends and family, charity, and public assistance—the biggest tangible reward they’ll receive for making it to Rio will be two suitcases full of free Nike and Ralph Lauren clothing they are required to wear at all team events,” writes Hobson. Moral of the story for most Olympic-level athletes trying to “make it” in their chosen sport: You’re fiscally better off “volunteering” for Tokyo 2020 than you are actually training to get there.

— My partners at Final Surge recently released an HRV & Morning Readiness feature as part of their Athlete Premium subscription and after testing it for a few weeks, I am super impressed. Here’s how it works: First thing every morning you place your finger over your phone’s camera for about a minute and the Final Surge app determines your HRV (Heart Rate Variability), resting heart rate, and gives you a Readiness Score. It’s super easy to use and I’ve found it to be incredibly accurate. There were a couple nights last week that I slept poorly because life stress was high and, lo and behold, when I woke up in the morning my heart rate was elevated and both HRV and morning readiness score were in the toilet. After a couple nights of sound sleep, my RHR went back down and other numbers rebounded. This feature has helped me make better decisions about my training on a particular day and I’m going to be using it soon with the athletes I coach. There’s more info on it here, including how you can take advantage of a 7-day free trial on Athlete Premium. (And coaches: Head over to finalsurge.com and take advantage of a free 14-day coaching trial today. Use the code MORNINGSHAKEOUT when you check out to take 10% off your first purchase. Any questions? Just reply to this email and send ’em my way!)

Workout of the Week: The Halftime Cutdown

Looking for a stimulating but not-too-hard workout to knock out before your next race? Look no further than the Halftime Cutdown. It starts fast and finishes even faster but it will be over before it really starts to grind your gears down. Here are the details.

The bottom line.

“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.”

—Pierre de Coubertin, “the father” of the modern Olympic Games

That's it for Issue 455. If you enjoyed it, please forward this email to a few friends and encourage them to subscribe at this link so that it lands in their inbox next Tuesday.

Thanks for reading,

Mario

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