A year ago, at one of the farmers’ markets I regularly use in Oregon, one of the farmers had a weird, cone-shaped cabbage. DJ, the farmer, told me that it was an old Italian variety he was trying. Although few people were buying it, I bought two. I went home and grilled them, created a sauce and…it was fantastic. At the end of my summer, when I was heading back to California to coach MVXC, I wrote a note telling him how much I enjoyed his experiment with a new variety, and wished him luck for the rest of his peak season.
This summer, when I got back to Oregon after MVXC23, UPenn, Hopkins, and returned to the farmers’ market, DJ saw me. He came around from behind his stand and gave me a giant hug. I was thinking, ‘what is going on?’ His wife says to me, how many people do you think write fan mail to the farmers?
I had no idea that a year later, DJ and his wife Jaime would remember that note I wrote.
Research shows that we consistently underestimate the potential value of small interactions with strangers every day*. We can have a big impact on people we bump into every day, from the barista making us coffee to the person at Falafel Stop filling our pita. And you feel better, too.
So here is what I’d like you to do today–next time you are talking to a stranger, try something a little nicer and out of the ordinary. Ask them how their day is going. Ask them when they are getting off work and what they are going to do. Ask the barista what their favorite drink to make is. When you walk out of the restaurant, tell the person who served you, “That was a really nice meal.” Compliment their hair. Anything! See what happens, and see how you feel. And when you reflect on the activity afterward, think about how whatever impact you think you had on the other person…you probably are underestimating what it meant to them.
I know I liked getting that hug from DJ, but more than that, it made me so happy to know that I had made two of my favorite farmers feel like they were appreciated**.
Week 7 Suggested Plan
Here is a suggested running plan—but please modify it to make it enjoyable for you or to adapt to your situation! New runners…talk to the people who have been running and use your judgment or email me if you want a plan adapted to you. We want to get you started with MVXC feeling good and on a positive note!
Reminders:
- Three weeks to get your athletic clearance paperwork in! Physical, concussion baseline test, and all.
- Plan something fun; get a group together, drive to the beach, take a run, dive in the ocean, play on the beach, go get something fun to eat at Gayles! (Trust me.)
- If you are a returning runner, do something nice with a freshman. If you are a freshman, say ‘yes’ if a senior asks you to do something fun with them!
MVXC24 Athlete-Lead Summer Running
Week Seven Suggestions: July 22
| Approx Miles | |||||
| Day | New | 35 | 45 | Suggested Run (you can change!) | Other |
| Mon | 6 | 7 | 8 | Hill repeats! Same warm up to Linda Vista, run out Byrne to Stevens Creek Blvd, then turn left and left again to run the bike path through Blackberry Farm to Linda Vista (this longer warm up is more like Hop). Then let’s drill there and then 1 of the baby hill repeats to the stairs, the two full hill repeats to the top (picnic area), 1 more of the baby hill repeats to the stairs, then two more full hill repeats to the top (total two short, four full). Please help any new runners understand what we want to focus on while running hill reps. After that, new runners can head down Regnart to Bubb; varsity runners could run Rainbow to the RR tracks or Stelling. | When you do your core work today, let’s focus on legs…so some extra sets of body weight squats, lunges (at least one set of backwards lunges with gentle toe taps), Runners’ Touch, etc. |
| Tues | 5
| 5 | 7 | Tempo Tuesday! I’d like you to try an experiment for us, a different route. Warm up to Jollyman Park, one of the long routes by heading out Bubb to Rainbow and then to the park. Drill, then jog to McClellan and cross Stelling (so you are going to start at the SW corner of Stelling and McClellan. Start your watch/GPS interval. Now start your run at either a jog or slightly faster, steady-state, or threshold pace down Stelling, right on Rainbow, right on the RR tracks and then back to school, ending at the light pole where we end the Palm run. I think this will be 2.5 miles with no major road crossings except for crossing Bubb…what I would appreciate is (1) telling me what you think of the route after you run it, all your impressions, and (2) what your GPS says the distance is. Email me!*** As an option, you can add on 0.5 to 1.5 miles on the track after a 1 to 3 minute recovery. I’d like to figure out alternative tempo routes! Strides afterwards. | Core!!! For sure let’s include side plank with elbow to knee touch, done right! Be stable… |
| Weds | 4 | 5 | 6 | Start with 2 or 3 laps around the track, then warm up to McClellan Ranch and drill. After drills, run to Stevens Creek and then either come straight back (new runners) or run Phar Lap. Add on a few laps on the track if you need some more mileage. | Core, and some extra shin-splint prehab—15m of heel walks B4 and after core and more if you want! |
| Thurs | 0 | 6 | 7 | Run out to Matadors, drill, and then continue your run at conversational pace. If you want an extra mile, run the bypass path from the golf course to Linda Vista then back through the neighborhood to MV (I like that add-on quite a bit!). | Core…and let’s focus on legs (runner’s touch, reverse lunges, squats, mule kicks…) |
| Fri | 3 | 3 | 5 | Make this a light day…warm up on the track, get some easy running in (20-30 minutes only, runner’s choice!) and a set of six to eight strides and wrap it up! | Core. |
| Sat | 6 | 8 | 12 | Long run day…Up and Over, or Up and Over + Garrods. If you want a little more mileage than that you can come back from Garrods by running Horse backwards and coming out through Stevens Canyon. If anyone is up for their first run of Up and Over, show them the way! I like coming back by following Regnart to Bubb to McClellan, picking it up and stretching out my stride when I hit that first purple dot. | Strides after or on the way back, and let’s do some extra calf stretch.
|
| Sun | Would be great to do something active! Bike ride together, get together and water run, swim, go to the beach, or the shoe store, then go have pizza…plan some fun and active things! | ||||
| Total | 24 | 34 | 45 | ||
*Do you think I’m just making this up? After all, I have been talking about gratitude for years. It turns out, there is lots of science that supports what I have felt about this subject. In 2021, Kumar and Epley found that performing random acts of kindness increases happiness in both givers and receivers, but saw that givers systematically undervalue their positive impact on recipients. In both field and laboratory settings, experiments studied how those performing an act of kindness responded. Subjects reported how positive they expected recipients would feel and recipients reported how they actually felt. From giving away a cup of hot chocolate in a park to giving away a gift in the lab, those performing a random act of kindness consistently underestimated how positive their recipients would feel, thinking their act was of less value than recipients perceived it to be. Underestimating the positive impact of a random act of kindness also leads givers to underestimate the behavioral consequences their prosociality will produce. The experiments suggest that givers’ miscalibrated expectations matter because they can create a barrier to engaging in prosocial actions more often in everyday life, which may result in people missing out on opportunities to enhance both their own and others’ well-being. See A little good goes an unexpectedly long way: Underestimating the positive impact of kindness on recipients in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.
**Think about it…how many farmers get fan mail?
***And you never send me photos 🙁
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