Hilly vs Flat Marathon Training & The Mistake Most Runners Make
Emotional Training + Believing Lies + Controlling the Weather
What’s in this Newsletter’s Sauce
❤️🩹 The Emotional Mile Nobody Trains For
⛰️ Hilly vs Flat Marathon Training – The Mistake Most Runners Make
🙅🏽♀️ When Running Theory Is Useful, But Not True
💬 Quote Of The Week
❤️🩹 The Emotional Mile Nobody Trains For
Being nice is harder than running a marathon. And most people quit at mile 2.
I’m usually talking about training, running form, or VO2 Max. Today, let’s flip the script and talk about people. Specifically, the kind of people who make you question your life choices.
You know the ones—random jerks, passive-aggressive coworkers, that person in your group chat who somehow always finds the worst take. It’s exhausting and when it piles up, you start thinking, “Am I the problem? Or is everyone just running on fumes?” (Spoiler: it’s probably both.)
Now, here’s where running comes in.
Being nice to people is weirdly similar to running long distances. Both are hard. Both require pacing yourself. And both are much easier to quit when it gets uncomfortable.
Think about it. You don’t magically become “a nice person.” Just like you don’t wake up one day and crank out a marathon. You build that muscle slowly and with reps.
It’s stuff like:
Catching yourself before you say something snarky
Taking a breath instead of firing back a reply
Realizing maybe that person’s having a garbage day and you’re just collateral damage
This isn’t some crystal sage-infused, “send love to the universe” nonsense. It’s practical and I’d say selfish even. Because when you don’t react like a jerk, you feel better later.
Most people tap out early. First sign of friction? Boom, they’re gone. Same was,y people quit a run when it gets hard. Legs get heavy? Walk/Call it in. Conversation gets tense? Shut down.
But think of it like this: every time you push through that “I’m done” moment—whether it’s mile 18 or a tough interaction—you build resilience. Call it emotional endurance, and like running, it accumulates.
We’ve all been the difficult person. You, me, everyone. No one’s above it. Being human is messy, especially when you’re tired, stressed, or hangry. (Pro tip: Never judge a person’s soul at 3 pm when they skipped lunch after a hard workout morning)
So what do we do?
Easy — Next time someone’s being that person, treat it like a hard interval. Don’t get sucked into their pace, control your effort, focus on form and smile (or at least neutral face).
How you handle those interactions is training.
Question to you — are you putting in the reps?
⛰️ Hilly vs Flat Marathon Training – The Mistake Most Runners Make
Training on hills won’t always prepare you for a flat race—here’s what you need to know.
The Problem With Flat
Hills are loud. They demand attention. Your body shifts, your breathing changes, your effort fluctuates. But a flat course? A flat course whispers. It asks for patience and it lulls you into a steady rhythm, then slowly, methodically, wears you down. No breaks, no moments of relief. Just the same muscles, same cadence, same impact, over and over until suddenly—bam—fatigue sneaks in like a thief. And that’s why runners who only train on hills can struggle when race day is pancake-flat. This is because their body is primed for variability, not monotony.
How to Train Differently
You need to embrace the grind. Find the flattest stretch of road (even if it’s a boring loop) and practice your marathon pace for miles at a time. If you don’t have flat roads? Simulate it. Treadmill at 0% incline. Longer intervals at steady effort. Tempo runs on the track? (Ugh… but if you want that best time, you gotta do what you gotta do)
And don’t neglect the small things: strength training for muscle endurance, mental strategies to fight the monotony, even shoe rotation to manage repetitive stress. The goal isn’t just fitness—it’s adaptation. Make flat feel normal again (get it?!)
Why It Matters
Because what seems easier can sometimes be harder. Flat marathons don’t give you an excuse to slow down, no downhill sections to reset. It’s a different kind of toughness—one that’s built in training, in the small choices, in the willingness to prepare for something that doesn’t seem threatening… until it is. So next time you plan your long run, ask yourself: am I training for my race, or just for the runs I enjoy?
Watch, read, and listen to the full episode on your next run or workout here.
🙅🏽♀️When Running Theory Is Useful, But Not True
This is a chapter from Derek Sivers’ (one of my favorite writers/thought leaders) book “Useful, Not True”. It’s a really fun mental yoga workout around things that we believe are technically not true, but still very useful. It really puts things into perspective. The original article is here.
Every day, you go on a long run through the forest.
You picture a pot of gold at the end. It helps you finish when you feel like quitting.
One day you pretend there’s a tiger right behind you. It makes you much faster, so you keep using this approach.
A running expert suggests you try acting like you’re running on hot coals, to keep you on the front of your feet. You try it, and it improves your stamina and energy.
Sometimes, to shake things up, you try running barefoot, or with your eyes closed, or with your arms out like an airplane. Every time you hear or think of a new way to run, you try it to see how it works and how you feel. The variety is fun.
Eventually, you realize you could make this path better for others, so you bring a shovel to smooth out bumps and fill in holes. You imagine future runners being thankful for whoever did this.
One day, when filled with money frustrations at home, you run while picturing that pot of gold again, and are surprised to find it now makes you run faster than ever.
A new book declares that the single best way to run, after hundreds of scientific experiments by the experts, is, in fact, to act as if a tiger is behind you. Millions of readers (they call themselves “tigerists”) are happy that tigerism has the answer.
So, can we say that one of these ways to run is true?
If this is weird/confusing/trippy/fun, please read part two right now!
💬 Quote Of The Week
“We don’t control the weather, we control whether we go outside in it”
Most people wait for perfect.
The committed get wet.