TRAINING
The Importance of Routines Making strategic decisions ahead of a race can result in a stress-free event BY ADDIE J. BRACY A competitive distance runner and coach for two decades, Addie has competed in some of the world’s top ultra races including the UTMB in Mont Blanc and the Canyons Endurance Run, from Twin Lakes, CO. ADDIEBRACY
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hen I think back to when I first started running ultramarathons compared to now, I see that I’ve drastically reduced the amount of gear I carry with me. I’ve also revised race logistics to be even more efficient and effective. The strategy behind these changes was partly about increasing efficiency both on the course and through aid stations but also about reducing the number of decisions I needed to make throughout a race. Every time you make a decision, it requires your brain to do a mental rehearsal and project the possible scenarios and outcomes of each option. Even when it’s operating at a subconscious level, it’s taking up valuable mental resources. When you’re planning for an effort likely to be one of the hardest of your life, ask yourself which decisions are worth the energy. You’ll quickly find that having a smorgasbord of fueling options to choose from every time you stop at a crew station may not be crucial, and in fact, deciding what food to grab may even feel like it takes more mental energy than it should. It’s much better to practice with different options, choose a few that you know work well for you based on what you need to take in, and stick with those few things. This isn’t a new concept, and it’s not isolated to sports arenas. CEOs of billion-dollar companies—like Mark Zuckerberg—often wear a version of the same outfit. They have so many important decisions to make during the day that the last thing they want
48 I Running Issue 2026 I IMPACT MAGAZINE
to spend mental energy on is what to wear. Even Barack Obama told Vanity Fair magazine in 2012, “You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits. I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.” He went on to explain that making too many decisions impairs his ability to make decisions later in the day. This is a concept that psychologists refer to as decision fatigue. An experiment performed at the University of Kent (Baer 2013) showed that strenuous or continuous thinking leaves your body physically exhausted. The study separated the subjects into two groups, each assigned a 90-minute task. One group was told to play a taxing video game while the other sat back and watched a documentary about either sports cars or trains. Afterward, each subject got on an exercise bike, set their resistance level, and pedaled as long as they could. Almost every time, the documentary watchers outperformed the gamers. Deciding between multiple options uses the same resources as willpower. That means that the more decisions you have to make early in a race, the less fuel and motivation you will have to keep pushing through discomfort later. Think about that implication in the context of running an ultra, an endeavour that provides a lot of time to mistakenly give yourself too many decisions to make— both in the race and even in the days and night before. If you allow