First, Do No Harm

The Art of Defensive Excellence

When runners win, we usually ask what they did right. But listen closely while they’re in the media zone, and their answers reveal a deeper truth.

“I was healthy.”

“I was consistent.”

“I stayed injury-free.”

Rarely is the credit given to one breakthrough workout or secret strategy. It’s the absence of disaster—the fact that nothing went wrong.

In a sport obsessed with optimization, the real edge is often simpler: you don’t need to be as extraordinary if you’re rarely broken.

Great performers don’t just chase the upside. They eliminate the downside first.

Avoiding Problems is Better Than Being Forced To Solve Them

A quick tangent before we return to running.

When Warren Buffett recently announced his resignation as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, it sparked a wave of reflection not just on his investing record but also on his worldview. Buffett and his late partner, Charlie Munger, became two of the most successful businessmen in history not by gambling big but by primarily avoiding catastrophic mistakes.

They weren’t just investors. They were philosophers who obsessed over downside protection. This concept has remarkable transferability to our sport.

Munger famously quipped, “All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I never go there.”

Another favorite:

“Nobody survived open heart surgery better than the man who didn’t need the procedure in the first place.”

And this:

“It’s better to be consistently not stupid than to be very intelligent. You don’t have to be brilliant—just a little wiser than the other guy, on average, over a long time.”

What struck me most about their work wasn’t the complexity. It was the clarity, accessibility, and practicality of their ideas. I expected their empire to be built on secret formulas and esoteric models. Instead, they treated simple ideas with unusual seriousness, and it worked.

The Power of Inversion

Trying to be consistent often feels like juggling a thousand variables: sleep, nutrition, training, stress, recovery, mindset, logistics. The checklist becomes exhausting.

But here’s a powerful mental model I learned from Buffet and Munger: Inversion.

Instead of asking, “What do I need to be successful?”

ask: “What’s most likely to derail me?”

The first list feels infinite. The second is usually much shorter and far more actionable. Barring an act of God, seasons tend to go off the rails for predictable reasons. And those are the ones worth fixing.

A 50% loss demands a 100% gain to break even. That math applies to training, too. If you get hurt for a month, you can’t simply train twice as hard next month to catch up. The training plan needs to be reworked with a slow and gradual return to run progression.

The best way to stay on track is to not fall off it in the first place.

A Personal Example

In June of 2021, I watched the NCAA Track and Field Championships on ESPN from a brewery in Chapel Hill. Just a few months earlier, I thought I’d be on that starting line at Hayward Field—my last collegiate race, the culmination of years of work. Instead, I was on crutches. I’d just had surgery to fix a stress fracture in my navicular bone. Two screws, twelve weeks in a boot, and the quiet realization that this might be the end of my competitive career.

That summer, I took a job at UNC Hospital while wrapping up my master’s in public health degree. Running was no longer the center of my world. I was easing back into it with no clear plan. I also started helping out as a volunteer coach with the UNC team.

That December, Coach Milt pulled me aside. The compliance and athletic training staff had reviewed my case and determined I was eligible for one more season. One more shot. The offer felt like a lifeline, but also a gamble. I had a full plate and wasn’t sure if I could give what the sport demanded. But the idea of walking away without trying was unbearable. So I said yes.

I knew my approach would have to change. Even if I refocused my priorities, I didn’t have the luxury of adding the hours of routine I relied on in undergrad—the massages, prehab, drills, meditation, and visualization. I needed to think differently. That’s when I came across the idea of inversion. I asked myself:

“What’s most likely to end my season?”

I jotted down the most significant “drivers of performance” that came to mind. Things like training volume, nutrition, sleep, and mental strength. I didn’t feel limited by these things.

The Bottleneck Principle

Then it dawned on me. I had never been limited on race day itself. Through meticulous planning and good fortune, I placed All-American at every NCAA championship where I toed the line. I wasn’t held back by race day performance. I was limited by the times I didn’t make it to the line at all.

Even from back in my high school days, stress fractures had derailed multiple seasons. They cost me more than any tactical mistake or lack of fitness ever had. My enemy wasn’t failure under the lights. It was absence.

Putting effort into the primary limiter of performance (or bottleneck) will always yield the highest return.

Everyone knows the saying: “You’re only as strong as your weakest link.” But most people don’t take it seriously. They double down on their strengths and ignore the quiet vulnerabilities that lurk out of sight. Performance is constrained by the first point of failure. Like a chain under tension, it doesn’t snap where it’s strongest. It breaks where it’s neglected.

When I took inventory of my system, I realized my bottleneck wasn’t grit, talent, or a willingness to suffer. It was structural durability. It was a recurring flaw that had silently dictated the outcome of my seasons more than any workout.

So instead of adding another supplement to my recovery smoothie, I shifted my attention entirely. I went deep on bone health research and worked with my coach on this strategy. I restructured my training, fueling, and recovery to protect against the one thing most likely to take me out.

It was the best “return on effort” I ever got because not all efforts are created equal.

The 2022 track season ended in a way I couldn’t have scripted better: 8th place at NCAAs, a PR of 13:31 in a tactical race, and the feeling that I had finally made it back to the line—and this time, stayed there.

Release the Obstruction

There are areas in life where asymmetric returns exist. One unit of effort in the right place can yield ten units of progress if you find the bottleneck.

Sometimes, the smartest move isn’t to try harder—it’s to try differently.

Imagine turning on your backyard hose and noticing a weak stream. The natural instinct is to crank the faucet. But the right move? Find the kink.

Most high-achieving runners don’t need more pressure. They need fewer obstructions.

Avoid the Bad, Protect the Good

Improvement doesn’t always come from doing more. Sometimes it comes from doing less harmful work.

• Instead of obsessing over getting 11 hours of sleep each night, first focus on avoiding nights when you get 4 hours.

• Instead of measuring out a recovery smoothie to achieve the perfect carb-to-protein ratio, you’re better off ensuring you don’t miss meals due to poor planning.

• Instead of getting a sports massage three times per week, avoid running through pain for three straight days.

Eliminate the Downside First

We’re drawn to the dramatic hacks, the breakthroughs, the one-percent edges. But high performance rarely lives there. It lives in the boring, preventable tactics most people ignore.

Elite performers are relentless about eliminating the downside before capitalizing on the upside. The future you want is built not just by the actions you take, but by the problems you dodge.

Figure out where you’re most likely to fail. Start there.

Before you optimize, you must standardize.

Before you win, you can’t make unforced errors.

Before you build, you must protect.

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