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Good morning! I’m still trying to slow things down a bit over here—an active process, if there ever was one—and I’d say that, so far, I’ve been moderately successful in my quest. From the end of May through early July it felt like I was trying to keep a dozen or so balls up in the air while simultaneously playing a relentless game of whack-a-mole and, let me tell you, it was not as fun as it sounds! Lately I’ve been able to put some of those balls down and am back to playing whack-a-mole at a more reasonable speed, all of which is a huge relief. A few balls also got unexpectedly dropped during that seven-week stretch, my own training being one of them, and that’s fine. I’ll pick that one back up eventually and try to keep it in the air a little longer the next time around. The juggling act never ends (and turns out those pesky little moles never actually go away for good).

Let’s get right to it.

Quick Splits

— Nick Tiller will not tolerate your pseudoscience bullshit (even if, or especially if, you’re an Olympian that’s pushing it). In his latest feature for The Skeptical Inquirer, Tiller, an exercise scientist, dissects the evolution of Olympic superstition and pseudoscience, pulling out numerous examples of products, strategies, and interventions many of the world’s top athletes credit for their success that, eventually, trickles down to the masses who believe that it, too, is the missing piece of their performance puzzle. The problem? Few of these things are backed by science or have actual evidence to support their efficacy, meaning athletes are being misled at best, taken advantage of at worst, ultimately resulting in a wide range of outcomes from wasted time and resources to unsafe training practices, to physical injury (or worse). “In a world where athletes are groping for a semblance of security, pseudoscience offers something that science cannot,” he writes. “As Isaac Asimov wrote in his 1972 Guide to Science: ‘Inspect every piece of pseudoscience and you will find a security blanket.’” To that end, I’m glad that Tiller called out the need for better science communication in general, as much of what’s available today, no matter how valid the information is, is inaccessible and/or hard to understand/interpret. I also appreciate that he’s leading the charge to change that through his position as an associate editor at The International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, launching what they’re calling the the “Non-Technical Summary,” which is essentially a 1,000-word plain language summary of studies geared toward scientifically illiterate people like me. This is important, as Tiller notes, for “reducing the public’s dependence on flawed third-party scientific interpretations and rebuilding public trust in scientific institutions.” (Which is no small task!)

— This is a great BBC profile of reigning 1,500m world champion Josh Kerr, who, at the Paris Olympics, will be looking to improve upon his bronze medal from the 2021 Games in Tokyo. He’s a hard guy not to like: focused, hard-working, selfless by nature but selfish when he needs to be, and someone, who, when he crosses the finish line, regardless of the result, knows there’s nothing else he could have done to be as prepared as he was when he stepped on the start line. “He brought a scented diffuser, his own mattress topper, a waffle maker so he could make the breakfast he normally would have," said Jake Wightman, the 2022 world champion who shared a room with Kerr in Tokyo. "I thought at the time: 'Oh, a bit extra'. But I look at it now—he did everything possible to get the most out of himself and he got rewarded with a medal."

+ Want to kick like Josh Kerr at the end of a race? Here are some great tips from his coach, Danny Mackey. (Bonus: This previous workout of the week—what I call “Sit-n-Kick Ks”—is one Kerr and Mackey employ pretty regularly.)

— Speaking of Brits with pumped-up kicks, Keely Hodgkinson used hers to fend off Jemma Reekie down the home straight of the Diamond League 800 in London on Saturday, winning in 1:54.61. That was a new personal best and British record for Hodgkinson, who will go into Paris with a target on her back. Reekie, who unraveled a bit in the final 80 meters as Hodgkinson pulled away, ran 1:55.61 to set a huge PB of her own.

— A couple months ago my wife took me to the final day of a music festival for my birthday. Ed Sheeran was the main attraction—and, to his credit, he put on a great 2-hour show at the end of the night—but we were there to see Norah Jones, who played a 60-minute set earlier in the day. The crowds for each artist couldn’t have been any more different, even if they overlapped some: When you go to see Ed Sheeran, you’re there to watch him perform, screaming, singing, and dancing around energetically the entire time. When you go to see Norah Jones, however, you’re there to listen to music, sitting or standing quietly, taking in every word, singing softly to yourself, and clapping civilly at the end of each song. One’s not better than the other, they’re just different experiences and deserve to be treated as such. Anyway, that’s a long-winded way of setting up this Tiny Desk concert with Jones, which NPR dropped yesterday. It’s fantastic. Just listen to it.

— From the archives (Issue 141, 6 years ago this week): “Doing your job is not always the same as doing the work.” Sage advice from Seth Godin.

— A big thank you to my partners at Tracksmith for supporting my work this month (and throughout 2024). Today the brand launches 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).

— A few weeks ago, my friends from Precision Fuel & Hydration stopped by on their way home from crewing some of their athletes at Western States. We hit the track for a few laps and filmed a conversation aimed at demystifying training on the track for runners who aren’t used to the friendly confines of the original oval office. I’ll share that one here when it’s edited and ready to go. Naturally, a major topic of conversation was Western States and just how freaking fast of a day it was! Did you know that PF&H supported 5 of the top-10 men (Hayden Hawks, Dan Jones, Caleb Olson and Tyler Green) as well as the 13th place female, Lauren Puretz? PF&H’s team of sports scientists crunched the numbers on their race nutrition strategies and have published case studies (which I've linked to above) that are worth digesting if you're training for an ultra and/or curious how much fuel and fluid these athletes took in during the race. (And if you’re interested in trying PF&H products for yourself, check out this link and save 15% off your first order.)

Workout of the Week: Hudson Pickups

I first learned about this session in coach Brad Hudson’s Little Black Book (Redux). He calls it an “introduction to power endurance” workout and recommends using it early in a training cycle when an athlete is still building fitness but ready to handle more work. The pickups are relatively short—1-3 minutes in duration—and the intensity—10K effort—should manageable for that chunk of time. The “recovery” intervals, which are run at more of a moderate training pace than a slow jog, are equal in duration to the work interval that preceded it. I like to use a version of this workout every few weeks during a half-marathon or marathon buildup because it forces the athlete to stay engaged the entire time and serves as a nice substitute for a standard threshold session. Here are the details.

The bottom line.

“Run correctly, there is a palpable sense of mortal danger that grips one's spirit in the final meters of a mile.”

—Chris Lundstrum, coach of Minnesota Distance Elite and Olympian Dakotah Lindwurm, in last week’s MDE newsletter, which you should subscribe to yourself right here.

That's it for Issue 454. If you found any part of it to be informative, insightful, inspiring, or interesting, please forward this email to a friend (or five!) 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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