Live NOW: Nick Thompson Q&A on his new book, life, and why he finally ran over 3 hours in marathon in first time in 20 years

Oh! And super shoes definitely add a different perspective to all records: whether it's the 5k world record or master's records. They make you go faster and they absolutely help recovery. No question. My rule though is that I'll race in any shoe that's legal and race-approved. We go with the stuff we have at the time. Maybe the records that folks set in the next couple of years will be obliterated by people in ten years with some kind of technology that we don't have now.

Thank you! It was awesome to talk with you on the podcast, and thank you for helping support the book.

On #1) I think Kipchoge would likely be able to set the road 100km world record if he trained for it and cared about it. There are some biological and physiological differences between that race and a marathon. (For example: in the longer distance you need to be really good at metabolizing fats and proteins. Is Kipchoge as good at that as he is at metabolizing carbs?) But they're solvable. I don't think, however, that he would be able to beat Walmsley at Western States. That's such a different race: it's about balance and strength in entirely different ways. There's also a huge technical ability required for running down steep downhills. When I've done mountain ultras, I do great on the flats, I fall behind my peers on the ups, and I get obliterated on the downs. It's hard to overstate just how different a mountain guy is from a road guy when there's a mile descent with a 1000 ft elevation drop and lots of roots you can trip on and rocks you can smash into.

on 2) I forgave my father, but I forgave him in part because of the love that he offered me, even as he created chaos and pain. He was there for me always, and I never doubted how much he wanted the best for me. I don't think he offered the same love and caring to my sisters.

Thank you for buying the book!

I almost never listen to music when I run, and I certainly don't listen to it when training hard. I fear that it blocks some of the neurological signals that help you get better as you train, and it interrupts some of the understanding of the body that you're trying to enhance.

And, sadly, I drink very little beer now. I have a very high risk for heart disease, based on genetic factors, so I have shifted to non-alcoholic brews, and particularly Athletic Brewing.

Wait didn't Todd Williams crack in a few races and just step off the track? Having said that, I thought he was super cool as well.

I'm curious if there are any books or things programs you have used to help with the mental side of running. I read this book "Running Within" that no one knows about but was very helpful.

Lol, I come at least once a day. I tend to jump into the threads that are about recent races or about training. (And I of course read every single comment in the one the other day about the Stanford cross country team.) I never post anonymously.

I had forgotten that post! But I think the moment for such incentives has probably passed. I do get my shots though each fall.

Do you follow pro or collegiate running more?

If you were sending a kid to school to run today, which school would you favor?

My running schedule is pretty normal for a sub-elite runner. In an ideal week, I will run 8 miles a day on Mon, Wed, Fri. (My office is four miles each way.) On Tuesday and Thursday, I'll add a workout into one of the commuting sessions. Maybe I'll tempo a 5k or I'll run 3 x 2miles or something like that. Or I'll do a track workout at one of the fields where one of my kids has a soccer practice. On one weekend day I'll run 5-10 easy. And on the other I'll run 20+. As for the ultra training, the first year I did it, I kept to my regular schedule, but i shifted to one workout during the week and then I would make my weekend long run longer and more structured. So I might do something like: 10 miles at 7:30, 2 x 4 miles at 6:10 with 2 miles recovery at 6:40, and then 12 more miles at 6:40. (The goal of a workout like that is to get the body used to running race pace---6:40---while fatigued.) In my last ultra cycle, I started to do back-to-back long runs on weekends. I would run 20 at like 7:15 pace on Saturday, and then 22 with some faster miles on Sunday. I also sometimes do slow long runs of up to 40 miles maybe once a cycle. And I try to start those before the sun comes up so I miss as little time as possible with the kids.

Thanks for sharing these hacks! One of the things I’ve been working through as I get older and less competitive in races (or not racing at all), is the question of why I run every day. It comes down to the fact that I enjoy it, but that realization has also made me less likely to go on runs I don’t enjoy. Reading your description of the goal of your training and all the ways you fit in runs helped me reframe my thinking. Perhaps I can set aside one or two days a week for runs that I will really enjoy (luckily bad weather doesn’t bother me that much) and then approach the other runs as training for those days. And on those training days, it’s just about getting it done within the context of the rest of my day regardless of the conditions.

Hey Nick,

You mentioned Barbarian Days as an influence––wondering to what extent you were concerned about ensuring your book could also stand as a literary work (there are a lot of running books out there that are informative and interesting to running nerds but aren't particularly well written and usually don't appeal to a broad set of readers).

Good questions! The geography question is easy: we actually have more people in NY. The editorial team is slightly shifted to DC, and the EIC is there. But there are tons of reporters and writers here in NYC and most of the business side is here too.

As for profitability: sure, she could endow us forever, but she doesn't want to. She knows that the constraint of having to turn a profit is a useful forcing function for us to work hard and to be rational. And I like the independence that profitability has given us. The history of media companies strongly suggests that bad things happen when you become dependent on the support of individuals. Sometimes they lose interest; sometimes they sell you. She's a fabulous owner and I know that I can decrease the burdens on her if I do my best to keep this place profitable.

Would you be able to speak to the question of whether Stanford itself, its requirements and opportunities, plays a significant role in the perceived underperformance of its extremely talented xc teams?

How much is dry cleaning in NYC?

My wife wants to go to the guy around the corner where I live even though he's more expensive. It's all the same right?

So you run with nothing to work not even a bag?

If you're doing a workout is it more likely in the morning or evening? or doubles threshold?

It was pretty simple. I woke up at 6 or earlier every morning and worked on it until 6:45am. Then I would stop, start making breakfast for the kids, and shift to "Atlantic" mode. I never touched the book once I was in the office. I would do longer sessions on weekends or, say, while on planes traveling. But it was a slow deliberate process of just getting a chunk done at a time. That's probably why it took me five years!

There are real tradeoffs to Stanford athletics. In the book, I write about a fascinating interview I did with Vin Lananna, who won numerous NCAA titles at Stanford and has succeeded everywhere he's been. I'll paste that bit in here: "A quarter-­century after I quit the team, I called Lananna. My mother has always referred to him as “the man who broke my son,” but I’ve been more sympathetic. I broke myself by training too hard. Plus, the man knew how to win. He took a Bad News Bears team and turned it into the Yankees. Lananna had previously coached at Dartmouth, and he told me that coming to Palo Alto had made him realize just how much harder it is to train a team where the roads are iced over four months a year. But Stanford had its challenges as well. “There was so much pressure for you guys to do well in the classroom,” he said. Students who came “to get this great elite academic experience” weren’t going to succeed on the cross-­ country team. The runners who succeeded were smart kids who were content to get Bs. Athletics and academics were at odds. “As much as we liked to say they were compatible, they were not compatible,” he said. It’s the thing that everyone knows at Stanford but that no one is supposed to say. Lananna went on to coach at the University of Oregon. There, he added, “kids merely expected to run well and the other stuff was not going to get in the way.”

Did you connect with and stay connected with any Stanford teammates from your freshman year? Who was your favorite guy(s) on the team at the time and why?

I definitely wanted it to stand as a literary book, and I needed it to appeal outside of runners. It's not really a book about running as much as it is a book about hard things in life. David Pierce of the Verge said something nice to me this afternoon: "I couldn't give a *&* about anything having to do with running culture, but I loved every page of this." Also Barbarian Days is a truly beautiful book.

1) use it to help you think through whatever the hardest thing you have to think through today is. Consider it a thought partner who has infinite energy, reads everything, responds instantly, and often makes stuff up. Learn to prompt. Learn the differences between different models. And study a bit how they work.

2) I think that kids should follow their passions. We have no idea what skills will be most valuable in the future economy and world given how much is going to change. And they should learn to use AI, particularly "study mode" which Gemini and OpenAI have. Those modes push them into Socratic learning as opposed to "just do my homework for me."

3) Altman

(Nick would be great if you used the quote button so we know what question you are responding to.)

Is there anyone in the running/sports/journalism world who you admire and think looks at the world in a fundamentally healthy way?