A space to explore the mental, emotional, and philosophical terrain of long-distance endurance. From 5 a.m. starts to finish line doubts, from quiet trail epiphanies to stubborn post-race lessons. I write here not just as a coach or mentor, but as a runner, an overthinker (and over-overthinker at times), and someone who believes that the path we take matters as much as the pace we keep. Expect stories from the trail, insights from coaching, and reflections on training, identity, and what it means to move with meaning, both on and off the course.
#34 The Authority and Comfort of Fitness AI
This sits uncomfortably close to my day job: I spend a lot of time thinking about AI governance and how “helpful” interfaces quietly steer what people believe is true, normal, and worth doing. Then I open Strava and (boom!) my run gets a little AI bedtime story. Strava’s two AI-flavored toys, now nearing the end of the year, are back to the talk of the town: the Spotify-Wrapped-ish year recap vibe (Strava’s “Year in Sport” marketing moment each December, plus all the third-party “Strava Wrapped” clones people are sharing), and Athlete Intelligence, the feature that generates a neat, natural-language interpretation of your activity right after you upload it. Strava frames Athlete Intelligence as a way to translate your stats into “simple, personalized insights,” and it’s positioned as a subscriber perk you can opt out of. more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
December 12, 2025
#33 TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Run) December 5
The academic universe this week circles primarily around one researcher who delivered a buffet of beautifully nerdy insights: motivation as a psychological architecture rather than a vibe; emotional intelligence as a literal performance engine; ultras as laboratories of neuroplasticity; trail running as therapy; and competitive exchanges (being passed, passing others) as deeply human moments of ego, pacing, and self-trust. We’ve got anxiety-triggered reflux , carbon-plated shoes that might work more on belief than biomechanics, nutrition as cognitive protection, and coping effectiveness that only matters if resilience is already in place. A clear theme this week: ultrarunning is not a test of suffering, it’s one of self-knowledge. Everything that looks “mental” is also biological; everything that seems “physical” is also psychological; and everything we do out there is shaped by motive, identity, emotion, and the quiet architecture of how we pay attention. more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
December 5, 2025
#32 The Hidden Lineage Behind Your Training Plan
Training philosophies are everywhere: hiding inside long runs, shaping workouts we get excited about or dread, conversations about efficiency or economy, or why we’re doing strides after an easy run. Our sport is built on a tangled family tree of ideas some recognize by name but many can’t actually explain. I am not entirely sure if pointing this out actually matters, but when someone mentions Lydiard or Daniels or Canova or the Norwegian model, they’re not just flexing trivia, they’re pointing toward ways of understanding what training is. more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
November 26, 2025
#31 TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Run) November 24
From weighted time metrics to weighted meaning, this round-up spans two and a half months of studies that ask not just how we climb and how we arrive at them. We’re talking real-time performance prediction without a lab test in sight, metabolic maps of +7% gradients, stride chaos modeled like weather patterns, and coping strategies at 450 km deep into decision fatigue and sleep debt. O dove into injury paradoxes. trail academies, Pikes Peak and Puerto Vallarta by UTMB. and the logistics of building a mountain-running institution. more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
November 25, 2025
I often feel a certain electricity in the air this time of year. It feels like Javelina’s glitter just settled, and my snow-legs are just stating to take shape, calendars are yawning open. Ambition gets loud and louder. It’s a mirror, and for many runners, an invitation. We watch and wonder, could I do that next year? more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
November 12, 2025
#29 TL;DR(Too Long; Didn’t Run) August 25
Another week in the journals, stretching from injury risk and gear habits, to fueling strategies, biomechanics, and even how time of day tilts our sprint power. Reaching for braces, tape, or compression often signals underlying load issues more than it prevents them. Two complementary glycogen studies unpack the art of depletion and supercompensation. Cross-training research parses how EMOM, AMRAP, and RFT stress the body differently, offering lessons in pacing strength work around mileage. A chronotype study finds evening-leaning athletes pop harder later in the day. Super shoes don’t bless everyone equally. Finally, a sweeping meta-analysis confirms what hot-day runners know intuitively: heat and dehydration accelerate carb burn and glycogen drawdown. more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
August 24, 2025
#28 Carried Away – #1: The Weight You Wear: A Runner’s Guide to Vests and Science
UTMB is on our doorstep, and the chalet floor is a battlefield of kit: shells weighed to the gram, bladders versus bottles, two headlamps or one-too-few. What to bring, trimming and stripping like surgeons. I’m writing this now because beneath the gear-check anxiety there’s a simple question with real consequences: what does carrying do to your body, and how do you make a vest work for you, not against you? This series is your field guide to carrying with intent. We’ll trace how vests evolved, unpack what load does to metabolism, breathing, heat, skin, and focus, borrow smart weight-cutting rules from the ultralight world, and finish with a step-by-step method to test your setup so nothing on race day is a surprise. In the end, it’s not about carrying just enough, in the smartest way possible. more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
August 18, 2025
#27 TL;DR(Too Long; Didn’t Run) August 18
I dive into fresh endurance and coaching research ranging from consensus on elite training and nutrition, to real-time biometric monitoring in desert ultras, hypoxic training effects, uphill/downhill biomechanics, and even a Foucauldian take on coaching discourse. We also get practical insights on postpartum pelvic floor health, patchy pre-race medical screening practices, clotting risks after ultras, foam roller training benefits, strength training’s impact on the gut microbiome, and how a simple run-walk plan can ease chronic low back pain. The common thread? Resilience, individual context, and the limits of reductionist or mechanical models, reminding us that running is as much about adaptation, intuition, care as it is about metrics or protocols. more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
August 18, 2025
#26 TL;DR(Too Long; Didn’t Run) August 11
A full arc of endurance sport this week: from helping beginners stick with running via co-designed coaching, to fine-tuning pacing in multi-week ultras. Highlights include biomechanical insights on how uphill and downhill running uniquely stress posture and muscles, a reframing of older runners as savvy co-authors of their training beyond their watches, evidence that decades of ultrarunning may slow vascular aging. We see how four weeks of structured heat training can boost metabolic efficiency, why small-muscle fatigue work can build durability, and how gait tweaks, cadence shifts, and minimalist shoes interact with injury risk. Whether you’re starting out, managing aches, prepping for a hot race, or chasing long-term resilience, there’s plenty here to challenge assumptions and sharpen your approach. more...
by Jonathan van Geuns
August 11, 2025
Some time between 2023 and 2024, I started having relentless GI distress in ultras, and often in training as well. I’ll spare you the details (maybe another time in another format). It was unpredictable and brutal. The sudden kind of gut chaos that makes performing at a high level impossible. It felt like wading through cement. I hired the best sports dietician (and would work with him again any day). We dialed in my fueling. I tracked macros, hydration, sodium, etc. I went through all the basic tests. Everything came back fine. If nothing was wrong, why did it keep happening? more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
August 5, 2025
#24 TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Run) August 3
From sweat-based lactate sensors to 500-marathon hearts and gut bugs with VO₂max dreams, this week’s science is equal parts weird and wonderful. We’re unpacking why bionic shoes aren’t made for beginners, and how “barefoot” running affects your knees. We’ve got high-altitude runners in Ethiopia, vegetarians lifting strong, and metabolomics telling tales of fat, carbs, and compromise. Also: the quiet beauty of resilient gait in older runners, the placebo vibes of hyperbaric oxygen, and how one 60-year-old runner might be rewriting the story on heart disease and high volume. TL;DR: adaptation is complex, footwear matters, gut health is real, and some runners just keep going… and going… and going. more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
August 3, 2025
#23 Born Into Knowing: The Evolutionary Intelligence of the Endurance Body
Here’s something odd to think about: the next time you lace up your shoes and head out for a long run, you might be engaging in one of the oldest forms of scientific reasoning on Earth. I don’t mean this metaphorically, nor poetically. I mean it literally. That’s what I concluded from an article published last week (see the TL;DR). I couldn’t stop thinking about it (no pun), so I dug a bit deeper. Because running, the kind that shaped human evolution, wasn’t a mere physical activity. It was a cognitive bootcamp; a lesson in uncertainty, inference, updating hypotheses on the fly, and much more. We weren’t just chasing some animal, we were solving complex problems. more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
July 31, 2025
#22 Merlin Unplugged: Birding and the Sound of Attention
For a long time, running meant catching up for me; on my training, and also on the latest news and stories. For years I was deeply locked into podcasts. Episodes queued up like the first kilometers at UTMB. News roundups, longform interviews, coaching theory, politics. Some work related, others for curiosity, and a few I barely enjoyed but couldn’t seem to miss (and yes, at 2x the speed). The more interesting podcasts I found, the longer the list became. I thought running would be a good time to absorb, learn, stay informed, et cetera. There was pressure in it. That’s what these tools do: a nudge that makes it feel like skipping an episode is falling behind. more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
July 29, 2025
#21 TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Run) July 27
From the quiet power of postpartum return plans to the noise in your gut (and your hydration bottle), this week’s science runs deep. We’ve got lactate thresholds in Ethiopian elites, hypoxic gains in teenage biathletes, brain-stimulated TTs, and interval design dissected by muscle oxygenation. If that’s not enough, we’re also rewiring how time perception warps on techy descents, what urine says about your sports drink, and how altitude, birth or otherwise, still casts a long shadow over long-distance greatness. Also in the mix: Ashwagandha (maybe magic?), gut bugs (definitely important), balance pads (trail-ready proprioception!), and an overdue call to rethink volume-overload strategies. There’s even a PhD that says postpartum return isn’t a six-week countdown, it’s a co-designed journey! TL;DR: train smart, recover intentionally, mind the terrain, question the trends—and maybe give your gut some love. more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
July 28, 2025
#20 The Anatomy of an Inaugural Race: Behind the Scenes of the First SOO 200
There’s something magnetic about firsts. Not the kind that marks a first personal milestones, like a first kiss or a first finish line. I mean first editions of new ultras: the inaugural race. The one that no one has run before, and in the end, no matter how many times the race returns, no one else will run it quite experience the same again. There are no race reports to go off, no shaky YouTube footage or Strava uploads, no benchmarks or times that give you an indication of splits. No warnings or someone to tell you which parts are really runnable. Just an open invitation of many unknowns. more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
July 26, 2025
#19 TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Run) July 15
This week in endurance research: ever wondered if your poles are really pulling their/your weight, your recovery boots are just placebo socks, or your caffeine habit is performance-enhancing or just personality-defining? We’ve got answers, kind of. From Garmin-powered injury math that dunks on the 10% rule, to pole-wielding uphill zombies and hot-tub cycling dreams, this batch of studies tackles everything from pregnant powerlifting to gut-wrenching gel debates. Also featuring: mental fatigue, heat training without the heat, and a love letter to compassionate coaching that AI can’t fake. TL;DR: More lifting, less panicking, keep the coffee, and maybe stop doubling your long run on a whim. more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
July 20, 2025
#18 Racing the Algorithm: How Tech Shapes Our Running Dreams
This essay builds on a post I wrote about choosing a race that “speaks to you.” It’s part cultural or societal critique, part runner’s reckoning. This is a first piece where I share some thought, and I am very sure it will not be the last.
A call to listen more closely to the season of life you’re in, your emotional capacity, your relationship to effort. What if the race that’s speaking to you… isn’t yours at all? What if it’s just the loudest voice in the room? In this piece, I trace how runners (esp. newer ones) are being pulled not by curiosity, but by projection: by the emotional architecture of YouTube documentaries, the gravitational pull of ultra-famous figures, the subtle coercion of the algorithm. more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
July 13, 2025
#17 TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Run) June 29
Big ideas, tweaks, and opinions: this week invites us to think deeper about durability, fatigability, repeatability and resilience as ways of understanding performance in real-world messiness. Intervals got parsed by protocol, revealing that effectiveness often comes down to timing, recovery, and context. Studies reminded us that in also kinematics matter. Ultras showed their lingering impact on our biochemical systems. Smaller studies pointed to bone health, core function, and injury signals we often overlook. A subversively simple study suggested that the fit of a sports bra can shape breath, fatigue, and perception. From cellular stress to social motivation, this week’s research asks not just what makes us faster and what sustains us. more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
July 03, 2025
#16 “Que-munity” Matters: a 2025 QMT Reflection
For a race that’s now part of the World Trail Majors, Québec Mega Trail (QMT) still feels like it was organized by a local run group. It’s way too professional to call scrappy, but too heartfelt to call slick. The aid stations mostly run like clockwork (and they seem to double in size each year), but there’s a hand-knitted warmth in the way volunteers cheer. The course is brutal, yet never loses its Québécois weirdness, where a boulder garden doubles as a punchline, and a final climb can feel like a joke. That contradiction is the heartbeat of QMT. And it still knows how to scale without selling out and to grow while staying rooted. In a time when many races are leaning into polish or spectacle, QMT somehow gets more real the bigger it gets. More..
by Jonathan van Geuns
July 07, 2025
Why one-size-fits-all doesn’t fit at all—and how we can do better. Finding the right coach (with methods, pacing, communication, equity frameworks, emotional rhythm, and everything else) isn’t so different from finding the right running shoe. The perfect pair doesn’t just fit your foot. It fits your stride, terrain, body weight, running history, and what kind of day you’ve had. It cushions where you need softness and supports where you need structure. It disappears when it fits. More..
by Jonathan van Geuns
July 03, 2025
#14 TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Run) June 29
Zone 2 got roasted, but not canceled. Speed endurance proved its punch. Low-intensity training? Still king in long-term adaptations, even if it doesn’t trend. Women in ultras: closing the gap? Coaches say nice things, then panic on race day. AMRAP beats structure. Tech helps squat, not confidence. Yoga chills, aerobics thrills. Caffeine boosts brain, not kicks. Footwear feels worse in heat. And yes, food still matters. Especially breakfast. Especially carbs. Especially when you’re running on fumes. more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
July 03, 2025
#13 Coaching has a Pricing Problem
There’s something tender and charged about talking money in the world of coaching. Tender, because coaching so often begins in care, like a gesture, a belief in another’s becoming. Charged, because care now has a price. The moment money enters the room, the temperature shifts. Trail running coaching, like many adjacent fields has quietly absorbed the logics of an economic system: monthly retainers, packages, “Invest in yourself” language. Coaches are told to “charge what they’re worth.” What I hardly hear is that pricing changes the relationship: it shapes how care is offered, presence is rationed, and how silence is interpreted. It impacts who feels welcome, or a burden, who gets to linger, and who disappears when money runs out. more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
June 30, 2025
#12 Building Mutual Aid Stations
In an ultra, there often comes a point when the legs go heavy, the stomach turns, the trail seems to tilt uphill in every direction. You crawl into an aid station, not to gather, regroup, get what you need, and carry on. What if trail running itself had that kind of infrastructure, not just water and watermelons, but solidarity? What if our entire sport were a kind of “mutual aid station:” built to meet real needs, shared among everyone, and rooted in the belief that no one gets left behind? more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
June 26, 2025
#11 Ultraread: Return to Eryri
Snowdonia does not welcome you gently. It rises suddenly, dark and wet, and unbothered. Its ridgelines serrated like old teeth, and its paths more suggestion than route. The mountains don’t tower, they brood over you. They don’t gesture for attention, yet they hold it, in silence. The land feels older than memory, held together by slate, sleet, and a lot of something else. The same land carries the mark of industry and resistance. It roofed cities and housed the largest quarries on Earth. You still see the bones everywhere, jagged piles of waste, rusted winches, stone ruins. more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
June 22, 2025
#10 At the Core of Coaching: Meaningful Communication and Connection
Behind every great coaching relationship is an invisible architecture, built not from drills or game plans, but from words. Communication is not a secondary skill in coaching; it is foundational. It determines whether instruction is received, whether trust is earned, and whether athletes are able to access their full capacity under pressure. more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
June 3, 2025
#9 The Gift of Not Knowing: On Running Your First Big One
There’s something strange and almost sacred about your first big ultra. Your first 50 miler. Your first 100. Maybe even your first 200. Embarking on your first ultra is not just a physical challenge; it’s a psychological journey that taps into various mental faculties. Interestingly, the very inexperience that might seem like a disadvantage can, in fact, serve as a powerful asset. Understanding these psychological components underscores the importance of mindset in ultrarunning. For newcomers, embracing the unknown and maintaining a positive, open-minded approach can be as critical as physical preparation. more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
June 1, 2025
#8 When the Site Hits the Fan: Just a Glitch? (PART 2)
I deeply believe in welcoming new runners. I love nothing more than seeing a runner discover the beauty and absurdity of long-distance running. We should celebrate and make space first-timers. This sport should remain a portal, not a wall. Yet when the door gets trampled by a crowd chasing hype, when it breaks off its hinges and no one can explain who’s holding it open or why, we have a problem. This also isn’t about who “deserves” to run. People come to ultras for all sorts of reasons. Rather, it is a serious question about infrastructure, culture, safety, and what happens when a community-driven sport starts to buckle under the weight of its own popularity. more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
May 22, 2025 (updated May 24, 2025; updated May 30, 2025)
#7 When the Site Hits the Fan: Cocodona and the State of the Sport (PART I)
I was ready. I had cleared my calendar and sat at my laptop with one goal: register for the sixth edition of the Cocodona 250. This was the moment registration opened for the race I’d built my third year around after being sidelined with a knee injury. I had slowly shifted my mind from the grief of missing out to the joy of returning. However, I did not get that chance (at least for now). more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
May 22, 2025 (updated May 24, 2025; updated May 30, 2025)
#6 Waybound Series #3: Practices for Presence — Ten Techniques for Runners
In our earlier explorations, I delved into the concept of presence in running and the profound experience of being fully engaged in “the chase.” Now, let’s focus on actionable strategies to integrate mindfulness into your running routine, enhancing both mental and physical well-being. I’m not especially drawn to the world of “mindfulness culture,” with its curated calm and spiritual branding, but I’ve come to value, deeply, the grounded, practical ways presence shows up in running. These are techniques, not dogma. These aren’t hacks or fixes; they’re invitations to run with attention and care. more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
May 29, 2025
#5 Waybound Series #2: The Chase
There’s a moment in Annie Dillard’s short story The Chase that has stuck with me, because of how deeply it “lives in the middle.” A group of kids throws snowballs at a passing car. A man gets out. He chases them. This is no ordinary adult. He runs not out of rage, with total commitment. He chases them for blocks, across fences, through backyards, over snowy roads. When he finally catches up, he doesn’t scold or punish. more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
May 28, 2025
#4 Waybound Series #1: On Presence, Pace, Performance and Progress
There’s a moment in every run when the mind starts to drift, into future miles, unfinished conversations, race goals, and the weight of everything left undone. I check my pace. I wonder how far until the next aid station. While I replay that email I haven’t answered, that deadline I missed. Just like that, I’ve left my body behind. more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
May 27, 2025
#3 Letting Go of Cocodona (For Now)
There’s a type of heartbreak in pulling the plug on a race you’ve built your year around. Not because of the DNS, but because of what it evokes: the dream, the missing out, the anticipation of seeing it through. The untold version of the story you thought you’d live. The vision you carried through cold mornings and long training days. That race was Cocodona 250 and this year, I won’t be there. more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
May 12, 2025
#2 Edward Said and the Question of Running
These days, it is through running I find myself more deeply connected to Edward Said’s words. His words echo amid the quiet folds of the landscape, growing seemingly more dire with each step, on land that has been classified, owned, mapped and controlled. Under dominion so rarely questioned and so often forgotten. Not merely a backdrop for life, this earth beneath my cushioned shoes courses blindly through the vast repository of layered history. The land imbued with meaning, laden with memory, conflicted with contest, its scarred shadows barely visible in the lingering remnants of broken promises, of uprooted lives. more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
March 23, 2024
From life’s confines, dreams of intimate adventures arise,
Chasing fleeting milestones, validation, wedded to identity,
I feel drawn towards this trial of trails, in distance, in time, in joy,
Over mountains, through deserts, saguaros shielding from the sun,
Guided by orange flags, ribbons and the mercy of volunteers,
After a winter long training, four years of ardent anticipation,
I sign up for a pièce de résistance, manifesting my running life,
more…
by Jonathan van Geuns
March 14, 2024
About Waybound 