Training

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.…

I am truly blessed with my health. Outside of the occasional old man twinges, my body never hurts. I very rarely get sick and when I do it’s typically very mild. I can count on one hand (with some fingers left over) the number of times I’ve been too sick to get out of bed…

I’ve spent the first 10 years of my ultra career mostly avoiding cross training. I’ve periodically dabbled in some body weight exercises (pull/push-ups and planks), but I always seem to drop the habit after a couple weeks or a month or so. The closest I’ve come is my evening walks and while I’m consistently getting…

Somehow I managed to schedule myself 3+ months in-between races. Do you know what that means? It’s the off season! Of course, my definition of off season is likely different than most. It’s not like I stop running and switch over to another sport/activity. I really don’t cut back my volume much either. Pretty much…

If I’m being honest, running ultras has become more of a lifestyle choice for me than a hobby. Consistently running. I managed to run 12 miles the week after Buckeye. I’ve logged 2,000-2,500 miles per year since 2018 and at least 1,700 miles since I started back in 2013. All of this without any injuries…

One of the challenges of ultras, especially as you progress past the 50K distance, is that you never practice your race pace. Sure you’re running slow on your long run, but I guarantee that at whatever pace you’re doing that is going to be too fast for a 50 miler and waaaaaay too fast for…

I have seven weeks between ES100 and Buckeye 200. It’s long enough to get some work done, but not really long enough for a full blown training block. I think of these periods more as maintaining rather than training. Not like I normally do a bunch of structured training even if I have 3 months…

There are many different ways to track training load. As the years progress and technology improves, there are more and more methods to quantify this. Most people look at overall mileage or time. I’m a mileage guy. Whether that’s 8 miles, 20, or my typical mid-week 7.5 miler, that’s how I think of my runs.…