Advice To Pounce On 2021

Here are the most useful resources or concepts for sleeping, thinking, eating, and moving well that I’ve come to appreciate in 2020.

Sleep: I curated this guide to help you optimize your sleep strategy.

Think: Meditation has been watered down and trivialized as its popularity has grown. I recommend starting with one of these books to get a proper introduction or to reframe your view:
1. Meditation For Fidgety Skeptics by Dan Harris - very light, fun, and approachable…a great place to start for most people
2. Waking Up by Sam Harris - a bit more cerebral but rigorous and insightful
3. Why Buddhism Is True by Robert Wright - experiential mix of psychology and philosophy that happens to find Buddhist practices transformative

Or, for a very quick introduction, I highly recommend the app Ten Percent Happier (free version) and the two introductory courses called Basics and Basics II led by Joseph Goldstein. After that, you can also download the Waking Up app and try the first few sessions in the Introductory Course for free.

Eat: There is way too much thought put into food than is warranted for most healthy amateur athletes. The simple recommendations are all most runners really need: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. - Michael Pollan In defining ‘food’, we’re talking the stuff your ancestors would recognize as food. Athletes can layer on fuel for the work required (James Morton) by asking “what are the demands of my next training session”, and fueling for that.

Move: Include some overall, whole-body strength training in your program at least twice per week - think ‘toning’ rather than ‘building’. Exercise at least five days per week. Take rest days when you need them. Run as much as you can as long as it’s fun, keeping most of it at comfortable intensities, so that you can count to 20 or more out-loud, clearly, in one breath. Do some 20- to 30-second hill sprints 3-4 times per month, and run 20-40 minutes comfortably hard 2-3 times per month (10K to half-marathon race effort). For more advanced runners, add a fartlek session once in while. Yes, it can be made more complicated. And the above will not get you to 100% of your potential, which involves risking injury and burnout. But doing this consistently - really consistently, over months and years - will make you a very strong, healthy, and durable runner.