The Strength Running Podcast · Jason Fitzgerald

Stacking the Deck in Your Favor: Best-Selling Author Brad Stulberg on Sustainable Excellence

·58 min·3 clips

“Voluntarily chosen challenges that stress our mind and body … are absolutely essential to meaning fulfillment and satisfaction in life.”

1. The Strength Running Podcast episode 446 centers on Brad Stolberg’s book The Way of Excellence and his life lessons for runners. 2. Coach Jason Fitzgerald interviews Brad Stolberg, a New York Times bestselling author, executive coach, and 530-pound deadlifter, because he connects performance with sustainable habits. 3. The episode asks what runners should do when motivation, recovery data, and perfectionism are all competing with training. 4. Brad Stolberg says motivation is “just like any other feeling” and argues that action often comes before better feelings. 5. He names “behavioral activation” as the research term for getting started before you feel ready. 6. He uses his own training and writing routine to show that he often does not feel eager before work begins. 7. He describes activation energy as a muscle that gets stronger when someone repeatedly starts despite feeling flat. 8. Fitzgerald ties that idea to the first five to 10 minutes of a run, when many runners feel creaky before settling in. 9. Stolberg draws a boundary around obvious no-go situations like flu, fever, strep throat, and stress fractures. 10. He says wearables can make athletes fragile when HRV, sleep scores, and recovery status override judgment. 11. He tells the J.J. Spaun story, where a three-year-old’s violent illness left Spaun awake from 3 a.m. on before the U.S. Open final round. 12. Stolberg uses that example to show that a “recovery score is zero” is not always the right answer. 13. He argues for checking the body, the program, and the data together instead of letting one number dictate the day. 14. Stolberg says there are two kinds of friction: “involuntary and stupid friction” and voluntarily chosen challenges. 15. He rejects a life smoothed over by ordering food, scrolling on screens, and letting AI think for people. 16. He says deadlifting and marathon training matter because they teach discomfort, vulnerability, resilience, and failure. 17. The interview style is conversational and example-driven, with Fitzgerald pressing for practical guidance on runners’ decisions. 18. The energy stays direct and reflective, with long answers from Stolberg and frequent connections back to running. 19. Runners who want practical advice on motivation and recovery. 20. Runners looking for race recaps or training-plan specifics.

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