Howdy speedgolf family!

You're reading This Week in Speedgolf.

Here's what's happening in speedgolf this week.

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Lessons learned in 2025

How will we know we're close to a new calendar year without an awards show about the year and a lengthy post reflecting on what we've learned?

Lengthy reflection post incoming 👇

Offseasons are for suckers who want to get slower

Most years, my speedgolf season ends in October with the US Open. Traditionally, I've taken time off to rest, recover, and focus on other priorities.

In 2024, my season ended in mid-November at Worlds. By then, I was already looking ahead to races in early 2025, so I just kept training. Instead of being race-ready in May, I was race-ready in January. And by May, I was faster at age 40 than I'd been at 38 or 39. Whoa dude.

I've heard this called a "duh" moment -- when you're struck by an insight that's incredibly obvious, but you finally grok it on a deeper, more emotional level than before. Take a month-long break from running and you get slower? Duh!

Unless you have a stratospheric VO2 Max, taking extended time off is only going to make you slower.

Elite athletic performance doesn't have one "look"

This is a story about watching Nikola Jokic play basketball in-person.

Most of my adult life, LeBron James was the best basketball player alive, and he looked the part. Now, the best basketball player alive is... a pudgy Serbian?

Early this year, I got to see Jokic play against the hapless Detroit Pistons. Jokic didn't do ANY LeBron things. No full-court sprints to block a fast break layup. No improbable dunks in traffic. No lockdown perimeter defense. Jokic methodically used his size and skill to wear down the Pistons, one play at a time. By the end of the game, he'd accumulated 23 points, 17 rebounds, and 14 assists -- the quietest triple-double you can imagine. And his team won by 15.

My takeaway: emulating great players is a necessary, but not sufficient, step toward playing your best. Jokic became the best -- not by emulating LeBron James -- but by leaning into his unique strengths.

Translate this to speedgolf now. Rob Hogan's shot box time is a product of his years of experience and extreme focus. Robin Smith's clubhead speed is a product of his unique physiology from being a field hockey player. Luke Willett's running pace is a product of his finely-tuned aerobic engine.

What are YOUR unique strengths you can lean into? How might DIVERGING from what the best players do help you find a more authentic version of your game?

Speedgolf travel is better with friends

Traveling to speedgolf events often involves stressful driving in unfamiliar places.

Heading to the Irish Speedgolf Open, I was on my own in a too-small rental car, driving on the wrong side of the road, with no phone service, navigating with a downloaded map, running late for my tee time. The only things that sustained me were a Diet Coke and a podcast I'd already listened to. Not much fun.

Heading to the US Speedgolf Open was the same, but different. I was in a too-small rental car, making wrong turns in southern California traffic. I barely made my tee time. But I was with Professor Chris Hundhausen, jabbering about speedgolf and AI-assisted software development. The travel logistics were mildly stressful, but infinitely better because we were in it together.

Speedgolf travel is better with friends.

High carb fueling is a game-changer, even for sub-60 minute events like speedgolf

At its simplest, the argument for high-carb fueling goes like this: if your body believes calories are scarce, it will keep energy in reserve in case of emergencies; if your body believes calories are plentiful, it will put out more power because it knows you'll keep the fuel coming.

This year, I decided to experiment with high-carb fueling as I was building toward a 10k trail race. The results were unambiguous. I could sustain more miles without breaking down. I could hit faster paces in my workouts. I could do more back-to-back days.

When race day came, I didn't have a 'dream' day. I had a 'pretty good' day. And that 'pretty good' day was a 5-minute PR in this race and my first ever win(!) that wasn't against my kids.

If you've never tried high-carb fueling, here is a beginner's guide.

• Eat SOMETHING before every run
• Energy gel on every run longer than 1 hour (I like Beta Fuel by Science in Sport)
• Recovery meal or beverage immediately after every run
• 75-120g of carbs per hour for key workouts and races

If you try it, notice how you feel the morning after a bigger workout.

The memorable moments happen 'outside the ropes'

I had a 4.5 minute PB at the Kentucky Speedgolf Open this year, but that wasn't the best part of the trip.

The best part of the trip was sneaking out for twilight golf with Jason Hawkins, Scott Dawley, and my son. We zipped around on electric scooters, tried impossible shots, made triumphant putts, and blasted balls into the trees.

My son rode with me for both tournament rounds, happily holding a camera while I sweated my way up and down the hills of GlenOaks Country Club. He watched me roll in a triumphant birdie putt. He was there to hug me after I finished on Sunday. And when I asked what his favorite part of the weekend was, I expected him to hem and haw, finally deciding on "the pool". Instead, he was unusually decisive: "twilight golf with the boys!"

I love the competitive pressure of a tournament round, but this was an excellent reminder that the tournament is just an excuse to do the actually-important stuff: goof around on the golf course with good friends.

Heat management is worth 2+ minutes per round

I played in two tournaments this year where the heat/humidity were significantly different between day 1 and day 2. No surprise, times were faster across the board on the cooler days. I think my body is hyper-sensitive to heat, since I gained 3+ minutes on the cooler day, both times. But on the margins, heat is a limiter for every athlete.

Here's the thing about heat management: this is a solved problem in other sports.

If you watch an ultramarathon livestream, you'll mostly see grainy drone footage of runners far in the distance 😂. But every once in awhile, you'll see an aid station, where there are kiddie pools and tubs of cold water. Every serious athlete who goes through will at least get a wet sponge on the back of their neck. Some will lie down in a cold pool. Many will get ice bandanas for the road.

Now, ice bandanas are impractical for speedgolf, but let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Last week, we learned that PlaySpeedgolf (the newly-formed nonprofit led by Scott Dawley, Jason Hawkins, and Garlin Smith) is trying to position speedgolf within the multisport (read: triathlon) umbrella. If speedgolf becomes less like a golf tournament and more like a triathlon, you can expect to see cooling on course -- and I would welcome that.

In the meantime, expect to see me on the first tee carrying a heavy cooler with no beer.

Beware of overtraining AND fooling yourself

Strava launched a new feature: 'training zones'. I've learned from the best and am VERY conscious of making sure (per best practice guidelines) 80% of my training is scheduled to be 'easy'.

I'm currently nursing tender ankle, so I set the date range to my last 3 months of 'serious' training -- August through October -- and found that I'd spent only 59% of my time in Zone 2... (zones 1-2 are considered "easy" in a five-zone model)

"Obviously, this is a measurement error" I confidently proclaimed. The app just didn't know about the low-intensity sessions I hadn't logged. What about those times when my heart rate was 154, but the session still felt 'easy'? Heart rate zones shift from day-to-day. I wasn't overtraining, honest!

But upon closer reflection, is it any coincidence that I spent 3 months with this training intensity distribution and then developed an injury? Probably not.

Heading into 2026, I'm recommitting to making my easy days easy, even if it means prancing along at embarrassingly-slow paces.

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What did you learn this year?

Got anything to share? Anything the speedgolf audience would benefit from hearing? Send it my way.

If you haven't watched or listened to The Speedgolf Baby Awards, be sure to give it a click. Garrett and I worked hard to make an hour of dumb jokes only speedgolfers would get.

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That's all, folks

Until next week, keep it in the short grass!

Adam

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Adam Lorton

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