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Good morning! Let's get right to it.

Quick Splits

— The zeitgeist’s current obsession with the importance of protein intake over the other macronutrients has always struck me as a bit exaggerated, if not over-the-top, so it was a relief to read Brady Holmer’s most recent post telling everyone to essentially chill out. “There are several nutrient deficiencies that we actually need to be worrying about,” he writes, “but protein is certainly not one of them.” Holmer, who is an accomplished runner himself in addition to being an expert in human performance, goes on to argue that most people will adequately address their protein needs if they consume a robust whole food diet that includes plenty of eggs, fish, and plant-based protein sources. There’s probably not a need, or benefit to, supplementing excessively if you’re eating well. This article was interesting to me because protein intake is something I’ve been paying closer attention to the past couple of years since turning 40. (And, admittedly, after reading Peter Attia’s book Outlive.) The RDA for protein says we should be getting 0.8g per kilogram of body weight per day. Attia and other modern-day health and performance gurus say, no, it needs to be closer to 2.0-2.2g. You don’t need to be a mathematician to realize that is quite a difference! An audit of my own diet last year found that, on average, I was getting in between 0.8-1.0g per kilo of bodyweight, which was only a little more than a third of “where I needed to be.” Anyway, I tried like hell to bridge that gap—I gradually went from 55-60g/day all the way up to 150—and it was neither easy nor sustainable. Turns out, it’s not necessary, either. According to the latest evidence shared by Holmer, most adults can not only survive but thrive with a protein intake of 1.2–1.6 grams per kilogram per day. Anecdotally, this is exactly where I landed after a little trial and error (i.e. science!) and I feel great.

+ Along these lines, I see the same sort of thing playing out in regard to carbohydrate intake amongst endurance athletes when it comes to performance. The old recommendation was 30-60 grams per hour to fuel long-duration exercise. The new way, if you’re to believe your favorite online influencer, is to shoot for 90-100g (or more!) an hour whether you’re racing a marathon, competing in a triathlon, or running an ultra. The reality for most people probably falls somewhere in the middle of that fairly wide range. Bottom line: Experiment for yourself and find what works for you, your sport(s), your goals/needs, and your physiology.

— You’d be hard-pressed to find a better story in 2024 than Georgia Bell’s ascent to an Olympic bronze medal and British record in the 1500m. The 30-year-old, who quit running in 2017 after being caught in a frustrating injury cycle only to take it back up again in 2022, ran 3:52.61 in Paris to shock…well, just about everyone. Bell, who kicked off the year with a personal best of 4:03.54 indoors, just kept getting faster and faster as the year went on: chipping away at another 4:03, then 4-flat, and then 3:56, before an even bigger breakthrough when it mattered most—the Olympic final. Along the way she also won a silver medal at the European championships. None of that might have been possible, however, if not for one race: the Sparkassen Indoor Meeting Dortmund on January 20. It was that meet, Bell told Athletics Weekly, that opened the door for everything that followed. “I had no agent, no brand working with me at this point and it set the tone for the whole season,” she explains. “The goal going in was to get 4:06 to try and make it to the World Indoors. I went in so determined, on a mission to run that time, and ended up running 4:03. I smashed past what we were expecting and set the tone of ‘we really don’t know where I am, so there’s no point putting limits on what I can aim for.’ I kept carrying that into every single race during the whole year and that kicked off a series of events that got me a contract, that got me an agent and, ultimately, has changed my life totally.”

— “Authenticity is for amateurs,” writes Seth Godin. “Professionals simply show up. Especially when they don’t feel like it.” (This reminds me of one of my favorite lines from Stephen King’s book, On Writing: “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”)

— I was recently a guest on the Between Two Coaches podcast with hosts Amanda Katz and Nick Klastava and had a great time talking about the human side of coaching: what that means, my “let the project define the plan” philosophy, how to build effective relationships with athletes, the importance of effective communication (with an emphasis on virtual coaching arrangements), setting boundaries, and a lot more. The episode is available wherever you get your podcasts or you can listen to/watch it right here on YouTube.

— You’re not multitasking, you’re half-assing. Oldie but a goodie from my friend Ed Batista.

— I’m not sure why it took seven years for me to discover this stripped-down cover of Oasis’ “Don’t Look Back in Anger” from Portugal. The Man, but I can confirm that it was worth the wait. Amazing rendition of a great song.

— From the archives (Issue 404, 1 year ago this week): This GQ interview with New York Times columnist and podcast host Ezra Klein about his daily routine is great. Klein and I are about the same age and what he said about focusing on his fundamentals as he approaches 40, rather than trying to optimize a routine like he did in his late-20s, really resonated with me. “I really just try to think as much as I can in terms of these four fundamentals: Am I sleeping enough? Am I getting enough time to myself? Am I deeply connected with the people I love? Am I making fairly healthy choices in my body?” he says. “If you get that right, I think a lot of things work out.”

— A big thank you to my partners at New Balance for supporting my work this month (and throughout 2024). There’s some exciting new stuff coming very soon but until then, I’m going to continue to hype up one my all-time favorite shoes for speed work: the FuelCell Rebel v4. This is the trainer I rock for nearly every workout I do. 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).

This all started as a means to an end. “Run cross-country in the fall,” I was told by coach Jim White at the Clark University basketball camp the summer before my junior year of high school. “There’s no better off-season conditioning you can do. Plus, it will make you tough.” I didn’t know if he was suggesting something about me with that last comment or what, but it didn’t matter, I did what I was told. Running wasn’t something that I had to like, it was just what I had to do if I wanted to stand out on the basketball court over the winter months. That’s what I kept telling myself, anyway. I couldn’t compete on size, strength, speed, or skill, but no one would out-work me if I could help it. That first race, a two-point-something miler against Grafton High School that started in a parking lot, ran past a cemetery, weaved through some quiet back roads, and finished on the track, awakened something in me that hasn’t slept for 26 years now. For the first time in my life, there was no coach to impress. Or a playbook to memorize. I didn’t have to fight for playing time. Or even rely on my teammates, really. Ass-kissing wasn’t gonna get me anywhere. When that gun went off, I realized it was all on me, which was as much a relief as it was scary as hell. If I gave it everything I had and lost, well, then I had to live with that. And if I wimped out for whatever reason, well, I had to live with that too. Eventually I learned that there was a near direct correlation between what you put into this thing and what you got out of it. This lesson has stuck with me ever since, but I digress. I loved having control of the wheel, and, in that first race, I put the pedal to the floor because I didn’t know what else you were supposed to do. The point of the race was to give it everything you had, right? Led from the start, won by two minutes, couldn’t see straight or tell you which way was up afterward, but it didn’t take long for me to realize that this was no longer a means to an end. This was what I was meant to do.

Journal reflections, 10.3.24.

Workout of the Week: The Tempo Sandwich

I’ve always believed that to run your best half-marathon you should be in really good 10K shape—and if you’re in ripping 10K shape, you should be able to run a really good half-marathon. There’s a lot of overlap in the type of work required for success in both, specifically when it comes to longer intervals and tempo runs. This workout, which is designed to be repeated a few times over the course of a training block, combines these two essential training elements and can be manipulated any number of ways depending on what you want to get out of it. Here are the details.

The bottom line.

“People pay to see others believe in themselves.”

—Kim Gordon, founding member of the band Sonic Youth, on the power of going for it (hat tip to coach Don Swartz for sharing this one)

That's it for Issue 465. Enjoying the shakeout? Please do me a solid and forward this email to someone else who might also appreciate it. (And if you’re seeing this newsletter for the first time and want to receive it for yourself first thing every Tuesday morning, you can subscribe right here.)

Thanks for reading,

Mario

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