Podcast: Episode 171 | Ask Mario Anything

Mario Fraioli | August 9, 2021

“A lot of athletes—especially when things are going really well—the last thing they want to do is take a break, even if their goal race is in the rearview. Trust me on this: You want to take your breaks as seriously as your training. It’s much better to take a planned break and be a little grumpy about it at the beginning than be forced to take a break sometime down the road because you’re injured, burned out, sick, overtrained, whatever it may be. I see this all the time, not only with athletes that I work with but people who reach out to me with questions, and people I train with—when things are going good, you want to keep them going, but we’re human beings. It doesn’t matter how experienced you are, how good you are, we all need breaks. You need breaks to absorb training, you need breaks to shut things down mentally as much as physically, especially if you’re someone who’s doing hard workouts and long runs and always building toward the next goal. That takes a lot of mental and emotional energy—you can’t be on all the time, you’ve got to shut it off.”

This week on the podcast I’m answering listener questions in the second Ask Mario Anything episode of 2021. (You can check out the first one here.) On the other side of the mic for this one—once again—is sponsorship director, Chris Douglas. We got some good questions about me running Boston in the fall, the importance of taking breaks in training, the controversy around Timothy Olson’s recent FKT on the PCT, channeling my own passion for running into a creative pursuit, what information you should include in your running log, and a lot more.

Thank you to everyone who submitted questions and apologies for all the ones I wasn’t able to answer in this episode. Got a question for the next Ask Mario Episode? Send it to me here.

Chris Douglas: Low Tide Boyz | Presidio Management | Instagram

the morning shakeout: Instagram | Twitter

Mario Fraioli: Website | Strava

This episode is brought to you by:

— New Balance. The new FuelCell Rebel v2 is my new favorite running shoe. It’s super super light, it’s incredibly responsive, and offers good protection underfoot. I think it’s the perfect workout shoe and I’ll be using it all the time. Check it out today at newbalance.com and consider adding a pair to your rotation today.

— Goodr: If you want to support the podcast and treat yourself to a pair of goodr sunglasses, head over to goodr.com/MARIO or enter the code MARIO at checkout for 15% off your order. Look good, run goodr!

Music and editing for this episode of the morning shakeout podcast by John Summerford.