I’m reposting Brad Stulberg‘s 10 Rules for Sustaining Excellence because it’s perfect, worth revisiting often, and 100% applicable in running and in life in general.

1. Be the best at getting better:

Being the best is ephemeral; you either get it or you don’t, and then what? But being the best at getting better is a commitment to mastery that lasts a lifetime. The ​arrival fallacy​ is real. If you think if I just achieve _____ or accomplish _____ THEN I’ll be happy, you are in for a rude awakening. The human brain did not evolve to arrive, it evolved to strive. It’s critical to find meaning and satisfaction in the path. If you make the ultimate goal getting better, the rest takes care of itself.

2. Adopt a process over outcomes mindset:

First, set a goal. Then, figure out the discrete steps that are required to go after your goal. Next, largely forget about the goal and focus on nailing the discrete steps instead. If you catch yourself worrying about the goal, use it as a cue to come back into the present moment. Dig where your feet are.

3. Focus on consistency over intensity:

Anyone can go out and bury themselves, crush it for a day, and post to social media. But what leads to enduring progress is the ability to ​show up day in and day out​ for long periods of time. There’s a difference between what looks badass on social media and what is actually a badass performance trajectory.

Small steps taken regularly over time compound for big gains. The goal isn’t to peak on every single day, it’s to develop a rhythm over time. This often means showing a bit of restraint now so you can get more out of yourself in the future.

4. Use behavioral activation:

You don’t need to feel good to get going, you need to get going to give yourself a chance at feeling good. ​Motivation follows action​. There is no need to give yourself a hype speech every morning. When you are feeling highly motivated, ride those waves. But when you aren’t feeling your best, that’s okay too. Don’t freak out. Just get started and give yourself a chance.

5. Respond not react:

Feel your feelings, but don’t attach to them. You can’t always control what happens but you almost always have ​some control over what you do next​. You can either panic and pummel ahead (2P’s) or pause, process, plan, and proceed (4P’s). The latter is usually a better bet.

Take a deep breath. Tell yourself some version of this is what is happening right now, I’m doing the best I can. It’s a practice for in between pitches, in between games, and in between seasons. It’s true in baseball and it’s true in life.

6. If you are going to compare, then compare yourself to prior versions of yourself:

You can’t control what other people are doing. In this day and age, you don’t even know what is real or fake. But you can look back on your own efforts and see if there is a sense of growth and progression. Focus there.

7. Simple does not mean easy (be wary of online gurus):

Complex ideas, theories, and programs are everywhere because they are easy to hide behind and procrastinate with. But if you ​make what you are doing simple​, you either do it or you don’t. This sort of accountability is key to growth and success. Nail the fundamentals. Keep the main things the main things. Ignore hacks, quick fixes, and anyone trying to sell you a secret.

8. Diversify your sense of self:

It’s okay to be all-in, but not all the time. If you fuse your entire self-worth and identity to a single pursuit, it sets you up for a challenging emotional roller coaster ride, and it almost always makes you fragile.

At the same time, “balance” is an illusion. A huge part of what makes life meaningful is giving your all to the things you care about. Evaluating tradeoffs and making sacrifices is part of being a mature adult. But it doesn’t mean becoming unidimensional. You can have ​different seasons of life for different priorities​, and never completely leave behind aspects of your identity that are important.

9. Remember that fierce self-discipline requires fierce self-kindness:

​Doing hard things​ is hard. If you are going to step into the arena and risk failure, it’s important that you ​learn to have your own back​. Your physical health is only as good as your mental health. We are not minds and bodies. We are mind-body systems. Being a badass requires being kind to yourself too.

10. The people around you shape you:

Emotions are ​contagious​. Performance is contagious. Growth is contagious. On your deathbed, you won’t remember the external results; you’ll remember the relationships you forged along the way. There is no such thing as going at it alone. A huge part of sustaining all the mindsets, skills, and practices above is building a supportive community.

Shot by Runar Gunderson, a kind soul from Norway who graciously and selfishly shares his experience, advice, and recommendations on all things related to preparing for and running the New York City Marathon.

If you’re running the NYC Marathon for the first time, or even if you’re a veteran, definitely check out Mr. Gunderson’s website and be sure to join his very active and helpful New York City Marathon 2024 Help Group Facebook Group (note that this link is for the 2024 NYCM, so look for either “New York City Marathon Help Group” or “Runar’s Runner”).

Amazon Prime released “Ingebrigtsen: Born to Run” today. I watched the first half of the first episode during lunch today. My initial impression is that Jakob is an asshole. He has a deserved cockiness on the track and I’ll be the first to admit that I love and appreciate confidence and cockiness, especially in athletic endeavors when you can back up what you say and how you present yourself in public. But in the first 15 minutes of the show, he’s just an inconsiderate ass to his very-much-pregnant wife. And everyone in the show thus far drives Mercedes and Lamborghinis and I’m rolling my eyes as I write this, wondering if I want to watch the remaining episodes. I will though, because the Ingebrigtsen brothers, Jakob especially, are phenomenal athletes and I’m curious to learn about how they’ve been raised, where the live, how they train, and compete. I’m not as excited to get all of the behind the scenes lifestyle and drama. That’s one of the big reasons why I’m not active on Instagram. There’s an old saying, “don’t meet your heroes.” I’d rather know you as the world record holding runner and not the asshole off the track or road.

I swear I’ve seen this stretch pose eleventy million times in the past 10 years in running-related media. It’s gotten to the point where I’m going to document it in a photo gallery here.

I just happened to stumble upon this video when I opened YouTube the other day and immediately became engrossed. My wife makes fun of me because I gawk at runners. I just think the human body while in flight is beautiful thing. And, just like every human is different, the way every human runs is different, and it’s amazing to see how someone who might otherwise be considered to have “bad form” is an amazingly gifted and talented runner.

I digress. I admittedly didn’t pay much attention to the first sets of 3ks that the guys ran, but started watching in the early reps of the 12 x 250m hills. And then I heard coach calling out “43 seconds.” I then started trying to do math and gave up because 1) 250 meters isn’t a common distance and 2) these guys are just cruising effortlessly after fatiguing themselves on the track just minutes prior. And they all do such a great job maintaining maintaining their form, posture, and picking their feet up, 12 times over.

And I like Coach Metcalf’s simple yet reassuring calls. “Great work,” “looking great,” “fantastic,” “amazing job,” “great mechanics.” And the reminders to relax and drive the elbows back.

The reasons are many, and far behind me at this point. In recent times I’ve found myself scratching my head and wondering why we even started our run club, and why we continue to support it. Like many endeavors in life, there are times when the bad starts to outweigh the good. Or, in running training, when you reach a point of diminishing returns.

But then you see something like this and it all becomes crystal clear again.

I had the pleasure of running with and making some new friends from the Kanawha Running Club when we were in Charleston in mid-July for our daughter’s freshman orientation.

Dan Nehnevaj (far right in above photo) currently specializes in the 20k race walk, recently coming in 5th in the 2024 US Olympic Trials with a PR of 1:23:10. He’s a former assistant Track & Field and Cross Country coach for West Virginia University Tech and, from what I understand, coaches many runners local to the Charleston area. His collegiate athletic resume and WVU bio is impressive.

Hector Falcon (second from right in above photo) is a resident of Charleston, and a Texas native hailing from El Paso. He was the overall winner of this year’s El Paso Marathon in 2:38:03. Hector touts that he had no high school or college training. The guy is gifted, and he trains hard.

This morning Hector pulled off an amazing 2nd place finish in the 51st running of the Charleston Distance Run, which is affectionately known as America’s 15-mile road race. Dan came through in 8th in 1:30 and some change. I don’t claim to be an expert on the hills of Charleston, but I’ve put in some miles in the South Hills area and they’re no joke. They make the hills of Austin and the outskirts of the Texas Hill Country look like cute little speed bumps. The Charleston Distance Run (or CDR as the locals call it) has a grueling 450 foot climb into the South Hills over two miles at the 4 mile mark. It’ll really put your legs and lungs to the test and if you’re not ready for it, it’ll grind you to a walk.

Hector’s training in the weeks leading up to the CDR was, in a word, crazy. I wouldn’t condone it, but I will say that it’s impressive, just on the razor’s edge of injury or burnout. The vast majority of his runs each week are at what I can only assume are at threshold pace. And he’d crank out 50 and 60 mile weeks.

A course preview at race effort. A tempo run a couple days later. Or, as Hector would probably call it “just a run.” A 15:00 5k trial a week out before the race. Why not?

That kind of effort being sustainable over time is arguable but, for me, it’s fun to watch unassociated and from afar.

My plan is to run the CDR at some point in the next three years. I mean, winners of the race in its early years are names like Jeff Galloway and Frank Shorter. I’m confident that I could put up a good fight in my age group, but I’ll leave the top of the overall leaderboard to those whose full bore is on another level.

I’ve read this single, entire article, and if the premise is going to be consistent, I can’t think of a single positive outcome other than advertising and sponsorship revenue.

The gist of the “Enhanced Games” is that it will be much like the Olympics, but athletes can use performance-enhancing drugs that have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, such as anabolic steroids and growth hormones. The idea is to break the records achieved by otherwise clean athletes, and pay the participating doper $1 Million.

Here’s what’s wrong with this whole premise:

• It’s still cheating. An athlete would be achieving some goal in a way that he or she couldn’t otherwise attain without chemical intervention.
• Records would be broken, and that would discount all previous records and attempts. Someone will break Eliud Kipchoge’s 1:59:40 in the (unsanctioned) marathon. Someone will break 9 seconds in the 100 meters. But why? Just to say it’s been done?
• It won’t count. Will we need another column in the future record books that shows a real record and a doping-assisted record?
• It glorifies this trend in society where we need it now. What’s the point of months and years of hard, dedicated, consistent work to achieve a goal?
• I could go on and on with this list but, to me, the most important is that it teaches our children something very, very wrong. Kids idolize athletes. If a child’s hero smashes a world record and did it by doping, what does this teach the child?

It’s a disheartening state of affairs when and if an athlete would even remotely consider being rewarded for doping because they need or otherwise feel they deserve the money.

Sha’Carri Richardson makes $50,000/year from winning national and world championships in the 100- and 200-meters, and from brand endorsements. NBA player Stephen Curry makes $50 Million. There’s a discrepancy there. I’ll argue until I’m blue in the face that Richardson works just as hard as Curry. Richardson’s net worth is more than $50k, and Steph’s is more than $50M, and the exact dollar amounts aren’t the point. The point is, one athlete is glorified and earns more than the other for the work, points, time, achievements, and titles. Sha’Carri can’t just up and join the Golden State Warriors so she can earn more money.

But now I guess she could dope, run the risk of destroying her body, and possibly kill herself in the name of a buck.

And why? To break a record and create a spectacle. Investors invest and will want a handsome, fast return from sponsorship and advertising dollars. The rest of the world can sit on our asses while we watch our hometown dopers compete against each other, and be enticed to buy and consume products that make all of our lives “better.”

I’m calling for a boycott now.

I’m not going to get into the intricacies of last week’s race, but Jenny didn’t get the 3:40 in the Foot Traffic Flat Marathon. Part of me is surprised, but I’m also well-aware that the marathon owes you nothing. Jenny was surprised when she realized the wheels were already coming off at the 5k mark, and rightfully disappointed and mad when she crossed the finish 12 minutes past her goal time. She let herself be angry for the just right amount of time, but she didn’t wallow. She told me she’s going to be ready for round 2.

Round 2

This morning I listened to The Real Science of Sport Podcast’s episode “How to Make an Olympic Athlete” with Mark Coogan of New Balance Boston as the guest of honor. I’m not much of a Podcast listener; mainly because I don’t have the alone downtime to pay attention to lengthy talking. And I’m pretty confident that I have undiagnosed ADHD. I’ve tried to listen to Podcasts on base runs, but I’ll invariably get lost and distracted in my own head or by the landscape. I made myself listen to every word of Coogan’s interview today. I’m a huge fan of Mark’s coaching philosophy, but that’s not what I took away from the interview.

My job in coaching is to get an athlete to the start line happy and healthy. The strength, strategy, speed, and confidence are all secondary. We did our job in this 16 week training block leading up to Foot Traffic Flat, but fell short on one (or many) secondary jobs. So now we have to figure out what to adjust and work on.

I like the data that we can get from GPS watches and apps, but I don’t obsess over or rest on that data. However, there were a couple things that stood out to me when I was looking at Jenny’s race data that was captured by her watch:

1. Ground contact time increased steadily and significantly early on
2. Cadence decreased steadily and significantly early on

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m no expert in biomechanics and physiology but to me, the work needs to be on, simply put: fast feet. And my assessment is non-generic. It’s athlete-specific because I’ve watched Jenny train for six months. She nailed every interval, hill, and tempo workout. She got in her long runs. Her weekly mileage was where it needed to be. She stayed healthy, fed, and rested.

The only time I questioned any part of her training was in her interval workouts. I second guessed myself in her prescribed pacing for 800-meter repeats. I don’t think they were too easy for her, but I think she’s more than capable and easily willing to demand more from her legs. She going to need to learn to turn her legs over faster and push harder on toe-off in each stride.

Faster, more intense interval workouts and strides.

Of all things, my takeaway from Coogan’s interview was strides. To open up the stride, slightly over-extend, engage and build fast twitch fibers, and promote recovery; once (maybe twice) per weekly microcycle after finishing a long run.

I love running because we’re literally in flight when we do it; It’s what differentiates walking from running. One foot on the ground versus no feet on the ground. Farther, faster, in the air. You put in the work and you’ll get there.