​

Good morning! I’m still on island time (for a little while longer, anyway), so here are some old favorites from years past to hold you over until next week. Let’s get right to it.

Quick Splits

— From Issue 45, 8 years ago this week: I generally dislike top-10 lists but sometimes the information contained therein can actually be pretty informative, perhaps even useful. These tips on how to be a writer from author Rebecca Solnit caught my attention last week because they were so spot-on—all of them. “Write for other people, but don’t listen to them too much,” is one of my favorite pieces of advice. The bit on time also stood out to me as well. If writing is important to you, eliminate the excuses and find the time to do it (even if that means going to your wife’s office after work on a Monday night to poach WiFi for an hour).

— From Issue 97, 7 years ago this week: Why is Kipchoge so good? “It wasn’t a single moment of exceptionalism,” filmmaker Martin Desmond Roe, who is working on a documentary for Breaking2, told Runner’s World in a recent interview. “It was Eliud runs every day at 6 a.m., every afternoon at 4 p.m., every day without fail to a program that is pre-approved, and he never misses it. That was the most impressive thing I saw.” Whether you’re Kipchoge attempting to break the world record or an age-grouper trying to set a personal best, commit to consistency. You’ll improve, I promise.

— From Issue 253, 4 years ago this week: Devin Kelly, my guest on Episode 119 of the podcast, recently had this piece, “Out There: On Not Finishing,” published by Longreads and I can’t recommend it highly enough. We talked a bit about it at the end of the show and a lot of the themes we discussed in that conversation, namely masculinity, the search for meaning, discovery, contentedness, shame and self-worth, show up here. “What happens if what you once used to make sense of things no longer helps you make sense of things?” he writes. “What happens if the patterns and habits and metaphors we lean on do not serve us in the moments we need them? What happens if the stories we tell ourselves about our lives leave us lonely, wrestling with meaning? What then? I grappled with these questions for hours on that farm in Georgia.”

— Many thanks to my partners at New Balance for supporting my work this month (and throughout 2024). My go-to shoe for speed workouts the past few years has been the FuelCell Rebel and the latest iteration, v4, has continued to hold down that spot in the rotation in 2024. (I’m already on my second pair.) As fast and fun as carbon-plated shoes can be, it’s important not to be overly reliant on them for all your track sessions, fartleks, hills, and tempo runs. The Rebel v4s allow your feet to do what they want to do while providing plenty of protection underfoot when you’re putting a lot of extra force into the ground. They offer a responsive ride in a flexible, lightweight package that will fit a variety of foot types (n.b. my wider-than-average forefoot really appreciates them!). The FuelCell Rebel v4 is available at your favorite run specialty store or at newbalance.com (men’s sizes here, women’s sizes here).

— From Issue 306, 3 years ago this week: I’ve yet to meet coach Vern Gambetta but his writing has had a profound impact on me and how I think about coaching. Succinct but chock full of insight and wisdom, his posts are little nuggets of timeless gold. His latest, “No app for that,” at less than 200 words, is worth keeping in your back pocket. “Coaching is a people profession,” he writes, “it is not high tech; it is high touch. Technology and science should inform what we do, not drive what we do as coaches.”

— From Issue 358, 2 years ago this week: I only heard Michael Kiwanuka’s “Cold Little Heart” for the first time a little over a month ago, quickly became obsessed with it, and immediately fell deep down the rabbit hole. Here’s my favorite version, acoustic and unfettered. It’s categorized as classic soul and has a haunting little hook to it. Kiwanuka’s voice matches up well with the lyrics, which are laced with failure, doubt, and shame but also a glimmer of optimism that held me till the end.

— My partners at Final Surge recently released a couple new features that I am super stoked about! First, the app now has full integration with COROS watches, which allows athletes to push planned workouts to their COROS devices. This is exciting as more and more athletes are using COROS devices and this provides them a super smooth experience. (More on that here.) The one I’m most excited about from a coaching perspective is the ability for Athletes with Premium accounts to be able to upload photos to their workout comments—and for me to reply back with one, if/when necessary. This will be super helpful when an athlete is trying to describe an injury location, or if they want me to take a look at something form-related, or to simply get something visual across when words alone won’t suffice. (More on Athlete Premium here, including how to start a free trial.) Fellow 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 In-n-Out Tempo Run

Let’s face it: Training for a marathon or half-marathon can get monotonous. Both programs involve lots of sustained running at or around goal race pace. This is part of the deal, of course, and an important component for developing fitness, dialing in pacing, practicing fueling, and more. That said, it gets repetitive, if not boring, and a lot of people tend to lock in to a set pace and then zone out until it’s time to stop. Racing, however, requires you to pay attention, listen to your body, and make adjustments on the fly, which is why I love to assign the In-n-Out Tempo Run from time to time. Not to mention, it’s much more interesting than its classically constructed cousin! Here are the details.

The bottom line.

“I’m not interested in being fearless. I’ve met fearless people. I think they’re sociopaths. I’m interested in becoming brave, and there’s a big difference there. And to be fearless means you don’t even know what fear is, which means you’re missing a huge part of what it is to be a human being. To be brave means that you keep going anyway.”

— Elizabeth Gilbert, writer (this quote first appeared in Issue 143)

That's it for Issue 462. Please forward this email to a friend, 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

​Support the morning shakeout directly on Patreon and help keep my work sustainable for years to come.

​​