A couple years ago, I set myself a goal to publish a new post here every Wednesday. I follow a couple writers online who are able to post something every week and I’ve always been impressed with their dedication and discipline to knock out several hundred words each and every week. Especially as they’re insightful…
A Framework for Building and Maintaining Motivation During a Training Block
My three loyal readers are probably laughing their asses off at that title. Like I’m qualified to be giving advise on this topic? While it’s true I’ve developed some callouses hitting my snooze button this winter, I do have some opinions. Now do as I say. . . Choose Your Goal Wisely What you decide…
Easier, Never Easy (or why I suck at managing expectations)
I keep thinking running hundreds are going to get easy. That at some point I’ll be able to cruise through a race with no sweat off my brow. Like rolling out of bed for a Tuesday 5 miler. After twenty seven hundred mile finishes, I can tell you it hasn’t happened yet. This isn’t to say…
Rabid Racoon 100 Mile Race Report
Relentless. Let’s just just leave that word there by itself to emphasize what I think about this race. There’s a thing in psychology called the Framing Effect where what you think of something is based on how it’s presented. The course description starts out with the flat two miles before the continuous rolling terrain kicks…
Rabid Racoon 100M Preview
Finally kicking off my 2024 race calendar this weekend out by Pittsburgh. While this will only be the third year for the race, the race organization looks pretty large based on the number of other races they put on so I’m expecting a well oiled machine. Not that I need this in a race. They’ve…
Musing On The Value Of A Long Run
This isn’t about whether long runs are an important part of training for ultras. In my opinion, they should be a key component to your preparation. One of my core beliefs is that in order to get good at running long distances you need to . . . run long distances. Period. No, this is…
The Good Enough Ultrarunner
I feel like my motto these days should be “meh, good enough”, which would be one of the more ironic mottos in sports. People think of ultrarunners as elite athletes cranking out 100+ mile weeks in training or running for days on end. “Bigger, faster, longer” would be a great ultra motto. “Go big or…
Throwing In The Towel On A Training Block
OK, the title is a little dramatic, over the top, and maybe not 100% accurate, but that’s how I feel right now. Over the past 10 days I’ve managed to blow off two runs and cut another short. While not completely unprecedented for me, this is not the best way to train four weeks out…
DUC 100K: The Bespoke Ultra Experience
The DUC 100K is a race like no other. It’s so not like any other race that it’s not even like it was last year when I ran it! The race consists of an overnight 50K on Friday followed by the Algonquin 50K the next day. Each year the overnight race changes. It could be…
Strength Training Makes Me. . . Faster?!?!
I started up a strength training program six weeks ago. The goal wasn’t necessarily to run faster though. My focus is to get stronger in general. Mostly for injury prevention. Even though I haven’t been injured in the past decade, I’m fully aware that doing the same thing over and over again won’t work forever.…