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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 St. Lucia and it clearly meant a lot to her, her country, and everyone in her orbit. The best scene of the series, for my money, was when Alfred was cooling down alone underneath the Stade De France and she was completely overcome with emotion when the enormity of her accomplishment hit her like a ton of bricks. That’s what sport is all about right there. Anyway, if you loved Sprint, or maybe haven’t watched it yet, check out this recent feature on Alfred in The Telegraph that tells more of her background story and shines some additional light on her personality. “It’s almost like an alter ego,” she says of her on-track persona. “Sometimes I can be just regular, having a little chit-chat like we are now, or a little laugh with somebody and just talking so calmly. But when I’m on the track I don’t talk. I don’t have any friends. I don’t care who you are or how good our friendship is outside of track and field, it’s just a whole different mindset and I’m just hungry.”

— Alice Braham is a 48-year-old mother of four and just a couple months ago ran an incredible 2:39:42 at the Berlin Marathon. My main takeaways from this Athletics Weekly profile on her were that: 1. Talent never goes away; 2. Focusing on strength training and minimizing the bullshit miles has worked out really well for Braham as she approaches 50; 3. Super shoes are nothing short of a godsend for Masters athletes; 4. How you talk to/think about yourself probably makes more of a difference than you think. “I don’t feel my age,” she says. “As soon as you start thinking: ‘Ooh I’m coming up to 50’, it can hold you back. I’m definitely young at heart.”

— “Psychological overload has physical consequences because there’s no separation between the two,” Rob Wilson writes in the most recent post for his excellent newsletter, Check Engine Light. “The line between psychology and physiology is fictional; they exist on a continuum within one connected system. To embody true performance longevity, we must understand and embrace this interconnectedness.” This post made me think about my most recent cross-country race, which I wrote about in last week’s issue. Prior to the start my mind was spinning out of control. My stomach wasn’t happy. I was tense from head to toe. Not exactly where you want to be minutes before you need to perform. But being able to recognize this and get in a few deep breaths prior to the start helped me to air out the “dirty laundry” in my body/mind, which allowed me to do what I needed to do when the gun went off. Rob does a great job in this post explaining how developing better emotional awareness can save you energy while also offering up some strategies for getting in touch with your stress response.

— Along those lines, some food for thought: If you’re struggling with maintaining consistency in your training, take a look at the rest of your life. How are your stress levels? How about the quality of your sleep? Is your day-to-day nutrition pretty dialed? How stable are your relationships? If these things are all over the place, chances are your training probably is too. It's hard to train consistently if the rest of your life is constantly in chaos. Work on getting everything else under your control and it’s likely that your training will follow suit.

— I loved this 2015 clip of Don Henley explaining why he wasn’t happy with his vocal performance on the original recording of The Eagles’ “Desperado” in 1973. (The live in-studio rendition he played after said explanation is worth sticking around for too.) Henley is a true master of his craft, “Desperado” is one of the greatest songs ever written, and the aforelinked clip is worth 6 minutes of your day.

— From the archives (Issue 159, 6 years ago this week): I loved this essay from Andy Waterman on what he calls “postmarathonism” and the yearning for a return to the structure and routine running brings to his life. “As in running as in life, structure isn’t something that binds us and oppresses us, but rather it’s the framework within which we’re able to thrive, test our limits and make sense of the world,” Waterman writes. “Whether you’re a writer or a runner, the imposition of structure is often what ultimately sets you free. If you can nail the existentialist quest for structure within postmarathonism, half the battle is won.”

— Another oldie but a goodie: “You should never be religious about methods of any kind. The only sane way to work is to let the project define the plan. Only a fool chooses tools before studying the job to be done.” I pulled this quote from my notes on Scott Berkun’s The Year Without Pants—a quick and insightful read that recounts his time working remotely for WordPress.com—which I bought and read ten years ago when I moved to the Bay Area and began working from the comfort of my couch, I mean home office. I share Berkun’s words not to impart any wisdom on the secrets of working remotely but rather to help you think more critically about the process of preparing yourself or your athletes for a goal race or event. Let me explain.

— My partners at Precision Fuel and Hydration recently shared aggregate data from their marathon case studies (including one of mine!), gleaning the latest insights on how athletes are fueling and hydrating their way through 26.2 miles and it’s worth a look. Some of the ranges are pretty wild (and wide!)—e.g. 21-128g of carbs/hour—but the averages (70g/hr in the case of carbs) ended up about where I thought they would. Check it out! (Also, if you’re planning on doing some shopping later this week, beginning this Thursday and ending on Monday, December 2nd, you can get 20% off site-wide on PF&H’s entire range of products AND get your choice of a free gift on orders over $150. It's super simple too, no code required—the discount and gift will be built into the site as standard. Stock up while the gettin’s good!)

— Quick shoutout to my partners at Tracksmith for supporting my work this month (and throughout 2024). The brand recently released its 2024 holiday gift guide and it's full of ideas for the runner in your life, so check it out. I’ll add a couple of my season favorites to the mix, the Brighton Base Layer and the Varsity Runner’s Cap. I’m wearing one or both of these pieces on the daily right now as morning temperatures have been on the chilly side. I’ll rock the Brighton on its own if it's not too windy but it usually serves as the perfect insulating layer under a lightweight jacket. The Varsity Runner’s Cap is stylish and soft and packs a lot of warmth into a lightweight package. Both pieces are made of Merino, so they’re warm, they wick well, and they don’t stink when you sweat. 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).

Workout of the Week: Tempo Plus

If you look at the training schedules of top runners throughout recent history it’s more likely than not that you’ll find regular bouts of tempo running in there. Why? Quite simply: It works. Tempo runs, which involve maintaining a steady effort for a prolonged period of time (e.g. 4-8 miles at 1/2 marathon effort or 8-14 miles at marathon effort), give you a lot of bang for your aerobic buck. It’s hard, but not too hard, running that helps build aerobic strength, improve efficiency, and/or practice running race pace. The Tempo Plus workout is the leveling up of a standard tempo run by pairing it with a short set of faster intervals afterward. Here are the details.

The bottom line.

“There was one rule: no bad days. For me, there was never a question, ‘Is this it?’ That was never a thought once, it was every step forward, and I'm very lucky to be on the other side of that.”

—Megan Young, performance coach for the Seattle Sounders and my guest on Episode 231 of the podcast, on how she approached facing cancer in this recent article highlighting her story.

That’s it for Issue 472. If you enjoyed it, please do me a solid and forward this email to a few friends and encourage them to subscribe at this link so that it lands in their inbox next Tuesday.

Thank you for your continued interest in—and support of—my work. It keeps me (and this newsletter) going more than you’ll ever know.

With gratitude,

Mario

P.S. I’m enjoying my experience over on Bluesky if you want to follow me there for quick quips on all sorts of stuff and more photos of my dog (OK, mostly photos of my dog).

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