Warm-Up Rituals

Tongue stretches and performance prep, Western States recaps, and the psychogeography of walking.

Jun 30, 2025

Before we start, a note of gratitude. I’m recovering from the double jeopardy of a torn meniscus and stress fracture. But this weekend I began incorporating some light impact into my physical therapy. So far so good!

Surgery might still be in my future. But for the moment, things are trending in the right direction. So I’m wishing you a similarly hopeful start to your week.

Here’s a roundup of a few things I’ve been thinking about.

Western States: Hall and Olson beat the heat

There’s nothing quite like Western States. If you’re into endurance sport and live in Northern California, eventually the 100-mile race rubs off on you. I don’t live far away, but couldn’t get up to the race this weekend. So I followed along online to watch Abby Hall and Caleb Olson break the tape for the win in Auburn.

Some good recaps:

iRunFar, the OG ultra outlet, has its usual splendid breakdown from Justin Mock. If you’ve only got 5 minutes, it has all you need.
Runner’s World’s concise recap from
Brian Metzler
focuses on Hall and Olson’s respective performances.
- Both runners had uncertain paths to the start line. Olson’s son was born a mere seven weeks ago; he credits his wife Morgan for covering most nightshifts. For her part, Hall worked back from a tibial fracture in 2023 and two golden ticket attempts, only gaining a race entry from a deferment.
Freetrail’s pre-race coverage was incredible—superior to most major marathons. Their 360-degree coverage of trail running is stellar and impressive.
- WSER Livestream: Got 30 hours? Watch the full Western livestream with race commentary from Freetrail’s Dylan Bowman and Corrine Malcolm: Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3
  - Podium finish video:
    Women:
    Abby Hall
    Fuzhao Xiang
    Marianne Hogan
    Men:
    Caleb Olson
    Chris Myers
    Killian Jornet
Coming up: the newsletter recaps. Keep an eye on posts from
Ken Seals
of
The Ultra Minute
,
Mario Fraioli
of
the morning shakeout
, and
Raziq Rauf
of
Running Sucks
. All were on site for the race and will undoubtedly have smart thoughts from the weekend.

Warm-up rituals

The New York Times reached out to a range of creatives to learn how they get ready for performance. Here were my favorites:

Jeff Daniels does a vocal warm-up of “budda-gudda-budda-gudda” followed by tongue stretches
The rock band Kiss listens to Friars Club roasts
Tony Award nominee Marjan Neshat finds a scent for her characters and then wears that perfume when she performs them
Wayne Brady massages his face and blows bubbles before hosting “Let’s Make a Deal”

I have a few rituals before running races. Typically, I warm up with 3 miles of jogging before skips and calisthenic drills. Then some quick strides before the start. In the moments before the gun, I’ll say a short prayer, more of a mantra really—the Protestant equivalent of crossing oneself. I’ve done some version of this for decades now, and find solace in the routine.

Do you have any warm-up rituals? How do you get ready for performance?

Quick splits

Horizontal goals are just as worthwhile as notching mountain summits argues
Henriette Lazaridis
. She lays out what’s great about traveling under your own power and the meditative act of moving: “Conversation arises out of a mix of your interior ponderings and the ideas or questions or observations you say aloud.” (Entropy Hotel)
- Also, hat tip to Henriette for citing this fun review on psychogeography: “Walking is the best way to explore and exploit the city; the changes, shifts, breaks in the cloud helmet, movement of light on water. Drifting purposefully is the recommended mode, trampling asphalted earth in alert reverie, allowing the fiction of an underlying pattern to assert itself.” (MIT Press Reader)
The world’s hardest bluffing game is played in Iraq and lasts for hours. Teams of 45 players try to guess which player on the opposing team is holding a single silver ring in their fist. Fun read about how the art of lie detection can be honed with precision. (Atlantic)
Learning to run with soft pop music is how
Evelyn Skye
begins this quietly lyrical essay on curating beauty within the everyday. It gently works down to something deeper—how we might find joy in the mundane, how we might subvert a life of hustle by cultivating the beauty that weaves through our lives. (Creative. Inspired. Happy.)

But something magical happens when you change the soundtrack of an ordinary struggle. Suddenly, I’m not forcing my body through punishing intervals. I’m gliding deliciously through honey, in a moment I’ve consciously chosen to make beautiful. —Evelyn Skye

Notable notes

One last thing

If you’re interested, I shared thoughts about my writing process with upgraded readers of Footnotes. Some is in front of the paywall if you’d like to learn how I write: