Eliud, Athing and Vagus

The GOAT is back. Six months after his worst marathon — an eighth-place finish in London, just his second defeat in 15 outings over the 26.2-mile distance — Eliud Kipchoge returned to the top of the podium on Sunday morning, winning the NN Mission Marathon comfortably in 2:04:30 after breaking away from the lead pack just after 20 miles. Kipchoge’s time (the fastest in the world this year in what has been a limited 2021 season) and his margin of victory (2:10 over his friend and training partner Jonathan Korir) sent a message to anyone discounting his chances after his surprise defeat in London last fall: in 2021, the path to an Olympic gold medal still goes through Eliud Kipchoge. Athing Mu’s incredible 2021 season got even better as the Texas A&M freshman ran 1:57.73 at the Michael Johnson Invitational at Baylor University to destroy the NCAA record and set a 2021 world outdoor leader. The previous NCAA outdoor record was 1:59.10 by Raevyn Rogers of Oregon from 2017, while Mu had run 1:58.40 indoors this year. Why You Should Train Your Vagus Nerve, and How Simple breathing exercises can relax your nervous system and improve performance. Stress is stress. Our bodies don’t necessarily know the difference between where stressors originate. A hard training session, a fight with a partner, looming economic concern, uncertainty of the ongoing pandemic; each contributes to the stress response with multiple sources piling up leading to larger problems in mind and in body. For runners, this can become increasingly problematic on a number of levels, including impacting the ever important relationship between training, stress and recovery. https://twitter.com/AndyNoise This Podcast documents my Sixth Decade of Endurance Training. The past Decade was about HOW FAR I could go. This Decade will be about HOW FAST can I go post Congestive Heart Failure. https://linktr.ee/AND3RSON