What Are You Afraid Of?
I have a vivid memory of sitting in trigonometry class on a Thursday afternoon in the fall of my junior year of high school, sick with fear. I mean
Tag : 80/20 Endurance
Separating Want from Need in Training and Racing
You want perfect weather conditions for your half-marathon PR attempt on Sunday. But do you actually need perfect weather conditions? You want to
4 min read
Is Impatience Holding You Back as An Athlete?
A while back I wrote a piece titled, “If It’s Not Hard, It’s Not Hard Enough.” In it, I addressed the irony that people become endurance
There’s No Such Thing as a Self-Coached Athlete
I learned recently that only 9 percent of triathletes have a coach. This struck me as a very small number—until I learned that just 5 percent of
Yes, But How Do You Feel? More Evidence That Subjective Training Metrics Have More Value Than Objective Metrics
Everything changed when the stethoscope was invented. Credit Rene Laennec, the 18th-Century French physician and flautist who invented this
Do As I Say, Not As I Do
In my late teens and early twenties I was a meathead, visiting the gym several times a week to toss around heavy things. At some point during this
Endurance Training Is Like a Veal Cutlet
“Believe in your system, and then sell it to your players.” —Billy Donovan I love the above quote from basketball coach Billy Donovan. Like
Why I Never Have and Never Will Listen to Andrew Huberman’s Podcast
Back in 1999 I attended a party in San Diego where a guy who had just seen and loved the film The Matrix made it his life’s mission for 20 or 30
4 min read
Curiosity Killed the Competition
At a recent Endeavorun retreat in San Diego, Jake Tuber and I made a list of key traits of effective coaches. This was not an arbitrary exercise.
Mind-Body Recovery Lounge
It’s no secret that a lot of the recovery modalities used by endurance athletes are basically bullshit. But are they all bullshit? Not according to
I Ran Today. Pray for Me.
The last time I tried to run it did not go well. It was May 2021, four months after I stopped running in the hope that doing so would heal me from
If It’s Not Hard, It’s Not Hard Enough
Every time a television advertisement talks about “making life easier”—and there are many, many such advs—I feel a pitch of annoyance. Of
8 min read
A Power Meter Is Like a Thesaurus
Regular readers of this blog will know that I recently read and greatly enjoyed David Epstein’s book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a
Why I’m Not Afraid of Losing My Coaching or Writing Jobs to a Robot
I’m not one for hot takes. It’s not that I don’t pay attention to ,or have opinions on, current events. It’s just I prefer to keep silent
A Different Way to Determine Your Training Intensity Zones
There are lots of different tests that endurance athletes can use to gauge their fitness and determine appropriate training intensity zones: VO2max