Brad Stulberg: 8 Rules to Do Everything Better

Raevyn Rogers, NCAA 800 Champ, turns pro. Note the discipline and assistance to the D1 scholarship athlete. It’s required from every such athlete, and especially so in the first two years. At UO, first year, you sit with your tutor (usually a grad student) 12-15 hours a week (I forget the actual number).

Video: Sprint mechanics for distance runners. Imagine how much better we could be with Steve Magness doing the same for us, with a program to force us to correct our weaknesses. …That would make us faster and reduce chances of injury.

More In-Real Life Community + The First Step to Expertise

Improving Ourselves to Death

Read du jour: Peter Snell, Three Time Olympic Gold Medalist in the 800 and 1500. An early idol.

Should male and female cross country races be the same distance? The answer, of course, is yes.

Do speed. You lose speed as you age. So why not work to retain as much as you can?

Steve Magness: How to Deal with Pain and Suffering: The Calm Conversation

We must undergo a hard winter training and not rush into things for which we haven’t prepared. ~ Epictetus

Oprah

Ooh la la. Dining as Nature Intended

Three Japanese soccer elites vs 100 school children. Video.

7 Tips for Reading More Books in a Year …Most tips I get on books come from old ladies.

Semi-Rad: I Must Have My Coffee First Thing in the Morning

Just Eat More Fiber

Women Writing About the Wild

U.S. Army elite does 10 X 800, 2 minute rest interval. Video. Shouldn’t we be doing something like that?

Did you get a flu shot? Consider.

Virtual reality gyms

Looking for a Winter Challenge? PR the Mile

the morning shakeout

Why Are Improvements from Training Different Among Athletes?

Dance Me to the End of Love. The lessons of age, pain, and injury.

Just finished: The Midnight Line. 512 pages in 24 hours. Now reading My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry. Hilarious. Next up: Robicheaux

The 3 Qualities That Will Make You “Better”

Horace Ashenfelter, 1952 Olympic Gold Medalist in the Steeplechase, RIP …On exclusive list.

Don’t miss: Q&A With Kara Goucher

50 terms to avoid.

Katherine Switzer on running and racing in your 70s.

Excellent: Q&A with Andrew Wheating

Best lean protein.

Alex Hutchinson: How to Survive the Most Frigid Winter Runs. …My 2 cents: Wear these under your gloves. Warm and dry for 2 cents.

Five Reasons Why We Overeat

Watching sprinters jog slow is interesting. They are highly inefficient going slow. Watch a distance runner sprint and they are often inefficient at max speeds. Running fast and slow are skills. ~Steve Magness

The science is in: exercise won’t help you lose much weight.

A love story for the books. I came across this ten minutes after putting down (nearly done) When Breath Becomes Air (recommended).

NYT: It’s Time for the Dreadmill, etc.

What Self-Awareness Really Is (and How to Cultivate It)

Spencer Butte. The larger of the two volcanoes (retired) in Tracktown. Eugene is under the cloud cover, the Cascades beyond all that. Photo by No. 1 son.

Get buff in the buff here.

Want a Better Workout? Just Breathe …When was the last time you were short of breath in the first mile of a workout or race?

How Would Jesus Drive? …As fast as you?

Lets Run reflects on the amazing career of Andrew Wheating. A really good, approachable fellow, a smile for everyone. …Predictably, Mary Slaney did a last minute bail on a speech at the OTC Masters annual party. Wheating filled in. Boffo performance. Confessed he had not been consistently diligent in his workouts. You don’t expect such honesty from a two time Olympian. …More.

When bailing is the right call.

Steve Magness: Wisdom and Pain

Que pasa?

The Art of Goal Setting with Lauren Fleshman

OK, so it’s a coming-of-age novel involving ice hockey, fergodsakes, but I think you’ll like Beartown.

Confession. My kids attended Cow Pie High.

Bear in mind that brains and learning, like muscle and physical skill, are articles of commerce. They are bought and sold. You can hire them by the year or by the hour. The only thing in the world not for sale is character. ~Antonin Scalia

Tom Brady Is Drowning In His Own Pseudoscience

Speed/pre-race workout for the 800m specialist. …Too other worldly for you? Reminds me of a speed workout from at least 30 years ago. For several years or more, Gene Blankenship would ramrod a free ten mile relay race at Canyon High School. You show up, pick a partner, and alternate 800s (or 880s?) for ten miles. Think about it. Many lessons involved in the experience. And it was fun too.

Ed Whitlock stats.

Semi-Rad: The Great Dirtbag Pissing Contest

Andrew Wheating Retires. A class, fun guy.

Finding Purpose for a Good Life. But Also a Healthy One.

A beginner’s guide to longevity research. Fun fact: Eunuchs tend to live longer than their contemporaries by 14-19 years.

What is Uncle Xi reading? More Western classics than thee and me?

Just read Chief Joseph & the Flight of the Nez Perce. By legend, Chief Joseph led about 800 men, women, and children in a 1,170-mile fighting retreat, cross country in the worst conditions, pursued by renown Civil War generals… Except he didn’t. I mean, he wasn’t the head chief until the end, the other chiefs being dead. It’s a sad story very well told.

Allie Kieffer, 5th at the 2017 New York City Marathon, writes: My Weight Has Nothing to Do With How Good a Runner I Am

My coach is Vin Lannana, assisted by Ian Dobson. More.

The King’s New Year’s Fitness Journal

Meb Keflezighi: How to Set Good Running Goals.

Alex Hutchinson: Fitness Research for 2018

BBC: Which sport are you made for? Take our 60-second test. …I’m less suited for long distance running. Who knew?

Consider cross country skiing. It’s easy to learn and lots of fun. …Downhill skiing? If a runner, don’t even think about it.

Science Says Fitness Trackers Don’t Work. Wear One Anyway

Running or drumming?

Do you dislike someone because they are male, female, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, right wing, left wing, rich, poor, Asian, Caucasian, black, gay, neighbors, young, old, fat, skinny, ugly, pretty, smelly, brainy, stupid, narrow minded, broad minded, sprinters …The Retreat to Tribalism

Video: Fartlek With Grand Valley State. Best done with your mates and the coach watching.

We trapped, spray painted, and deported 76 squirrels in 2017, 61 being fox squirrels and 15 being grey squirrels, a residence record, the previous best being 58. We’re motivated because the squirrels compete with our feathered friends at the feeding stations. But we’re not unkind. We knew a Quaker gentleman and birder. He would trap and asphyxiate the squirrels. Later, at the retirement home where gunny sack gas chambers were not allowed, he would trap and export them to the pond in the woods for dawn and private swimming lessons.