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Geoff Burns

@geoffreyburns

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🔷Sport Science PhD
Physiologist for USOPC and @teamusa 🇺🇸
Researcher and engineer, especially running
Footracer, especially over ultra distances

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October 2026. Has any man ever loved a mountain as this man loves Iron Mountain?

Early in the morning, the sun coming up over the desert blinds you around each bend, but there’s always a nice patch of darkness in the next corner to keep you oriented and get you to the top.

Late in the evening, the fast-leaving-light of a sun set-too-early always lingers long enough on the straights for you to give it a little gas to get home in time.

Maybe something about it sharpening iron, or something about it being magnetic, or just something about it being a small geographical hug that seems to love its people back. by @geoffreyburns

4th at the Kodiak 100k - the UTMB World Series American Major.

Qualified for the CCC series final in Chamonix next year (top 10) and hit my A goal for the day (top 5). It was my best finish in a major trail ultra, and my best executed trail race to date.

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0-16k: Sat in lead pack, which was moving pretty casually. Exactly the pace I wanted to be running, but could have easily been tempted into going faster.

16-40k: Biggest climb. Let the pack go knowing I’d take it conservatively. Lost ground, but not too much. Slid into 8th by the top. Lost more time on the descent, which went down more technical terrain for 4k. Thought I’d start cruising after that, but legs felt weirdly stiff and empty.

40-60k: Felt really low. Legs had been feeling really heavy and sore, like I was already 80k in, and there was no desire to push through or compete. From 40-50k was actually thinking I might DNF and was trying to rationalize it. Knew the toughest was yet to come though. Moved into 7th on a big climb up to 60k and started feeling a little more positive.

60-89k: Came alive. Was tired, but legs felt no different than earlier, and people were starting to suffer. Moved into 6th through the aid. Wanted to start rolling, but held back in case I had to fight later. Moved into 5th around 70k. At the 84k aid, saw 6th coming in as I left and realized he had closed on me. Put the gas on for the descent and realized I might have to fight.

89k-Finish: Had to fight. And did. Left the aid station with 30s on 6th, knowing there was a brutal 3k climb out. Had the climb of my life, running super aggressive amidst great misery. Ended up catching 4th before the top and kept rolling. Suffering so much, but not fading. Hit the 4k descent home and realized I might have put it all together. Crossed the finish line as the happiest 4th place finisher ever.

(a couple reflections on the next slide…)
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It felt pretty special to finally put together a good trail 100k. I feel like I’ve gotten in pretty good shape for a few so far, but just executed wrong and ended up totally gone for the last 20-30k. Every ultra hurts terribly during that time, but there’s a difference between being able to fight by @geoffreyburns

September 2026. Matters of the heart are best explored cardiovascularly. by @geoffreyburns

August 2026. Spent a lot of time in places where the running clothes take a lot of time to dry.

Not mad about it. Not even during the hurricane.
Especially not even during the hurricane. by @geoffreyburns

July 2026. Being a stream beats being a machine!

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“Overall, the reality of metabolism forces us to recognize that organisms, despite their apparent fixity and solidity, are not material things but fluid processes; they are metabolic streams of matter and energy that exhibit dynamic stabilities relative to particular timescales.

As processes, and unlike things or substances, organisms have to undergo constant change to continue to be the entities that they are.”

-Dupré and Nicholson (2018)
–––

Work in process, baby by @geoffreyburns

Postkarte aus dem Engadin /
Cartolina dall’Engadina

Friedrich Nietzsche often occupies some of my mental real estate when I’m here

He called these lands home for the most productive years of his career

He knew and enjoyed its unique power... and recognized that it was the ideal place to get in his 6 hour contemplative hikes

Staring at this rock inspired what he considered his greatest contribution to philosophy: the concept of eternal recurrence

“Imagine… This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence.”

“The question in each and every thing:
‘Do you want this again and innumerable times again?’”

In other words: would you choose to live your life as you’re living it now, infinite times over?

His contention is that life should be a journey where you’re continually striving to be able to answer with a resounding YES

It’s pretty easy to rationalize ordering the bottomless option of your existence when you’re in a place where lakes and mountains and rivers and cows and goats and villages and pastures and divine cheeses coexist in perfect harmony

But there are some struggles to be had here…

Sometimes it rains. Sometimes the skies aren’t impossibly blue.

Heck, the glaciers that are the veritable mothers of this heaven are in their own externally-inflicted existential crisis

But Nietzsche also espoused the necessity of struggle in self-realization. Those green pastures need those gray skies.

“My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati [love of fate]: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity…”

“Do not merely bear what is necessary… but love it.“

In a way, a lot of Nietzsche’s ideas that were born here feel like a mashup of Buddhism, Stoic philosophy, and Mari Kondo:

Love the hand you’re dealt. Curate the s*** out of what you can control. Strive for a life you’d like to live infinitely.

“Oh Man, take heed!
…Sorrow says: Jus by @geoffreyburns

June 2026
Fatto in casa

Done in house
Made at home
Homemade

But also…
La casa si fa

The house gets built
One makes a home
Home is made

So maybe…
Fare è fare casa

Doing things makes a home
Making makes oneself at home
To create is to create home by @geoffreyburns

Rosalía in Chi was lit 🕯️ by @geoffreyburns

Trail Super Shoe Lab Testing Vol. 2
Western States 100 Edition
2016 Retrospective + 2026 Prospective
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Adidas Adios Boost 3
Hoka Rocket X Trail
Norda 005
Nike Vaporfly 3
—
Why these?

Throw it back to 2016. A dude named Jim Walmsley rocks up to the start line in Adidas Boston Boost racing flats and attacks the course with absolute confidence and energy and seemingly utter disrespect for everything that came before. Everything about it seemed like punk rock. Even his cut up shirt. Especially his cut up shirt.

But it wasn’t punk rock. @walmsleyruns had all the energy and arrogance, but he also had the skills–a great track runner, he smashed hard long runs with marathoners, and he studied the craft inside and out. It was more like the Red Hot Chili Peppers: punk rock energy with technical virtuosity.

The shoes were no exception. His road flats were another audacious affront to convention. But it seemed calculated. Every track runner knew the value of a gram, and trail shoes were wastefully heavy. The course isn’t overly technical, and he had the chops to stay on his feet (and Bostons had Conti rubber). Precise precociousness.

Fast forward to 2026. Trail shoes have changed. But so have road shoes. Which has advanced more? And is the difference worth considering racing in road shoes for any part of the course today?
—
3 Qs:

How does 2016’s rock ‘n roll compare to today’s trail shoes?

How does the new Hoka Rocket X Trail (might be on the feet of many favorites, even JW?) compare to a current best trail shoe?

How do the best 2026 trail super shoes compare to road super shoes?
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Protocol:
4.5’ 16 kph/0% + 4’ 12 kph/7%
Duplicates, mirrored
—
Results:
See pics

Flat: VF > RXT = 005 > Adi
Uphill: VF > RXT > 005 > Adi
—
Well, the best trail shoes are both 2.7% better and worse than old and new road shoes, respectively.

I suspect Jim is wise enough now not to race his 2016 self, but if he were so tempted, he could rest easy knowing he has the better shoes.

But if that 2016 ghost were to find himself on the 2026 starting line, would he rock today’s high-octane tarmac footwear? Or will somebody else be so cavalier?

More thoughts in comments

‘16 📸 @trailjunkiephotos by @geoffreyburns

May 2026. Thinking a lot about luck lately, and the levers that push and pull it.

My college coach Ron Warhurst once told me (with the sound assuredness that only he possesses): “I believe you make your own luck.”

That sentiment has been a bit of a guidepost for me. I like that it doesn’t deny the existence of chance and good (or bad) fortune, but rather, it empowers us to recognize that we all have the capacity and agency to tip the scales ourselves.

But in recent years, I’ve also come to deeply appreciate another key governor of the luck we experience: our people.

The interacting gravitational fields of the people who surround us–the ones we love, the ones we endure, and all the ones in between–can do so much to accelerate us in any number of directions and move us in ways we can’t ourselves alone. Our social circles and relationships are luck multipliers and mediators. They make the luck that we can’t.

As I looked back on the month of May thinking about odds and chance, it occurred to me that I’ve had more Mays than any other month (one more, to be exact), and that they’ve all been consistently full of higher highs than any of the yearly lows are low. And uncoincidentally, they’ve been packed full of people who are awesome humans and make me a better one. As such, the month always ends by leaving me with the unmistakable feeling that the yearly deck is already stacked.

So, to all the family, friends, and complete strangers who have been pumping my probabilities all these years: thanks for the aces. I’ll do my darnedest to try and draw up a few to slide into your decks.

Cheers to making each other’s luck by @geoffreyburns

The idea of co-writing an essay is a bit of a tricky proposition. Writing has always been an independent exercise for me, one to explore and organize the chaos in my brain to find something coherent (and hopefully interesting). The ideas and the language have to fit together holistically, so stitching together someone else’s process can easily feel foreign and translated.

But there’s no one better to stitch with than Michael Crawley. He’s an anthropologist and an academic. I’m a physiologist and an engineer. But we both love and study the same things: distance running and sport. We have different lenses and different languages to observe and describe what we see. And that’s when collaboration works–when you can marry distinct perspectives to more holistically engage with the subject matter.

We worked together on this essay to explore two training methods that are winning global medals. The “Ethiopian” approach and the “Norwegian” approach.

My interest was piqued when I read Mike’s descriptions of the Ethiopian prioritization of “energy” as an abstract, pseudo-spiritual entity driving performance and improvement. My brain immediately tried to start mapping this onto the thermodynamics of it all. How does this abstract energy relate to the physical energy–joules, watts, calories, etc.–that we routinely measure and manage in training?

Thus the polemics: one group understands and nurtures abstract energy, primarily though social connection and group dynamics. The other measures and monitors physical energy, primarily through individualized prescription and tailored execution. Both are seeing incredible success. What’s each approach uniquely capturing, and what might each be missing?

—

“So do Ethiopian runners and those with similar methods succeed in spite of, or because of, their training philosophies? Viewed through the dual lens of anthropology and sports science, we believe this question runs deeper than athletics results, speaking to what it takes to stretch the limits of human ability, and how expertise is used, assessed, embraced or rejected.”

—

The piece is available on aeon.co and is titled “The Ethiopian running secret”

@aeonmag @mikecrawl by @geoffreyburns

March 2026. Abbiamo cacciato, e poi abbiamo banchettato. by @geoffreyburns