|
Welcome to the archive of the
ULTRAU TUESDAY EMAIL |
Photo courtesy of Full Send Media. Race by Go Beyond Racing.
|
|
Hi all,
No idea why I am seeing tennis content in my life feeds right now but I am so glad to have seen pictures of Naomi Osaka and her walk on outfits for her major tournaments including the latest at the French Open. Her quote, "I tell people I don’t talk a lot, so that way I can talk through my clothes,” and she is telling me that her confidence is on point. If you show up to a tennis match in THIS, that is some serious confidence. As if her tennis wasn't enough. As if being the highest paid female athlete for years wasn't enough. I think we are going to see this in trail running. We are getting close already. People are already dipping into run meets fun with glitter on their faces. And we are in the era of the moth tech, which honestly is a start down a rabbit insect hole where fashion meets sport. Imagine awesome podium outfits instead of ripped jean shorts or your muddy trail clothes. Watch out wallets, it is coming. SPORKFUL I always approach non-running media's treatment of ultrarunning with one eye open nervous for how the story will sound. Often it is like, "these crazy people..." and while the Sporkful podcast did come at the subject of the Taco Bell 50k with a skeptic eye, I think they did a good job on the subject. Listen here. If you are interested in a Taco Bell ultra in Portland, here is a link to a route of a mere 40 miles, two states and so many Chalupas. SHORT SHORTS
STRENGTH You are invited EVERY Wednesday night for Strength Training for Runners, live to your screen. Always free, open to all. JOIN US and let's get stronger together! BRISTOW LOOPS Are you going to be at the Go Beyond Bristow Loop Race this weekend outside of Eugene? I will be there, so if you are joining or going as crew, LET ME KNOW and please come say hello!
0 Comments
I just heard the term "travel cake" and thought, is this why I write a weekly email to a bunch of runners, so I can shout the news, there are people talking about cake that is hearty enough to survive a trip, what a time to be alive! I was also reflecting on why in the world I am writing a weekly email when there are dozens of people writing incredible thought pieces on the state of the sport already and running news hits mainstream media often enough that you don't need to seek it out. I realize it boils down to me just wanting to say to whomever is willing to hear,
If you are uncertain about how things are going prepping for your next race or feeling frustrated on your daily mile of waddling around, I hope you feel this weekly high five from Bend. STRENGTH You are invited EVERY Wednesday night for Strength Training for Runners, live to your screen. Always free, open to all. Lift your kettlebells or use your cat, just JOIN US! CARBS I am saying it loud for those in the back who may not be listening, you need more than two gels on a 3-hour run. For a 3-hour run your MINIMUM should be 60g of carbs PER HOUR. I know that means you may be eating NINE gels on a run or a whole packet of gummy things and a pop-tart. Your performance will thank you. No, eating one Clif Blok or a few pieces of your gummy candy are not enough each time you are eating. Here is a nice infographic so you can hear it from someone else. CRAMPING Cramping is not all about dehydration and low electrolytes. Here is a good article telling you why overreaching your fitness is a contributing factor to cramping and ways to prevent and stop cramps when they happen. OWN A PIECE OF THE BRA The Sports Bra, the first sports bar fully dedicated to women's sports, is taking investment for expansion. You can be a part of it, check it out here. So many races are coming up and without sounding super coachy, I want you to go in with a plan. PLEASE make a plan! So many of the new athletes I work with have better race times at their first race after starting coaching, not because they are so much faster but because they have a plan. And for the record, a plan isn't,
“I want to run X time.” “I think I can podium.” “I just don’t want to blow up like last year.” These goals are not always in your control and there is no good way to measure them as you go. With my athletes, I make 2 types of goals. Outcome goals are the obvious ones. Finish time. Placement. A result you can point to afterward. They matter and they are also the least reliable because they depend on weather, competition, how your body decides to show up that day. Then there are the process goals. These are the ones that you can check in on during the race. These are eat 30g of carbs every 30 minutes, keep HR capped at X on climbs, stay relaxed through the first hour. These are the things you can check in on AND if you hit these, you will hopefully also hit those outcome goals. YAY, but we aren't done. And after goals, I go one step further. FEARS. Even for someone who has 60+ races in their UltraSignUp results, I ask about fears. Fears include, what if my knee starts talking at mile 20, what if I can’t cool off, what if I get blisters? Why let these fears plague you in your dreams the night before your race. Write them down and figure out what you will do if it happens. You can figure out how to help yourself while you’re thinking clearly, not when you are at a mile 27 sugar bonk and can't figure out what you need. You’re using your smartest self, not your most hungry, chaffed one. My goal for you all is a great race, make a plan, make big goals, GO GET IT. STRENGTH You are invited EVERY Wednesday night for Strength Training for Runners, live to your screen. Free always. Hope to see you there tomorrow. We chat after and if you want to chat about race fears, this is a time you can do it! PAIN FOR YOUR EARS This podcast from Excellence, Actually, The New Science of Pain (and What It Means for You) was excellent. If you are injured, I highly recommend. Also, the podcast casually mentions the use of Tetris to help interrupt trauma patterns. Here is an article going deeper there with great citations. WILD WOMAN TRAIL RUNS If you don't know about the Wild Woman Trail Runs it is a low key event in the shadow of Mt Jefferson in WA with marathon, 50k and relay distances. The race directors allow camping on their property the night before and it has a fun festive feel. This year they are making a fun weekend of it with a Q + A with Cocodona 250 winner, Rachel Entrekin and a science of bras workshop. EARLY MORNING EATING If you are struggling with a small snack to eat before early morning runs here are some ideas for you.
And finally, thank you Instagram for this one. How runners are chosen. Last week I watched the video of Rachel Entrekin winning the Cocodona 250 more times than I want to admit. She won the race overall and while I don't like that I did this, I put all the weight of all women being underestimated, underpaid and under represented on her shoulders and her win was like a shot of redemption. For a moment, it felt like she said something so many of us have wanted to say with our own running, WE BELONG HERE TOO. I wish my own race performances felt bold enough to make that statement, but Rachel did it on a stage big enough for all of us.
ONE MORE THING AND THEN I WILL STOP A short video about what went into fueling Rachel Entrekin's win at Cocodona from her fueling sponsor Precision Fuel and Hydration. Hint, there were giant Capri Sun size gels for longer stretches and lots of soda. Watching the post race interview with Rachel has some good food for thought for anyone about to take on something tough. Watch it while you do mobility or some core work. STRENGTH You are invited EVERY Wednesday night for Strength Training for Runners, live to your screen. Free always. Hope to see you there tomorrow. SWEEEET! Is sugar bad for athletes? I wish I wasn't answering this question for runners but I still am, short answer, no. Some health issues make this more complicated and for sedentary individuals for sure this is a different calculation. HEAT TRAINING Yes, it is worth it. If you are racing this summer and have access to a hot tub or sauna, this podcast will help you with the specifics of heat training in just 30 minutes. I was really trying not to care about a few hundred people shuffling around the desert for a few days, but I care a lot now that Rachel Entrekin is leading the Cocodona 250 happening right now in Arizona. She is beating everyone and currently has a 30-minute lead on second place and is running at what I can only describe as, "is that responsible?" pace. I receive a weekly email summarizing happenings in women's sports that reaches from tennis to cricket to rally car and this week made me so bummed. There were multiple entries of female firsts in sport which is great, but ugh, still so many firsts are left. I felt defeated. So, a woman winning an extremely niche race with an outsized spotlight in the ultrarunning world feels like the antidote I need. Go girl!
SAYING IT PROUD
ARE SUPER SHOES SUPER I have had some questions from athletes regarding super shoes and if it would benefit them. This is from athletes ranging from 4ish hour marathoners to trail runners going for 100k and 100m runs. My short answer, try them if you are curious and it is in the budget BUT. BUT. BUT.
North Face has started making gear specifically with accessibility in mind. Gear like sleeping bags and backpacks without zippers and bigger grips for opening and closing, look really great. Using a zipper with one hand can be almost impossible, but bonus, using a zipper with frozen hands in the cold is similar. Gear like this is great for everyone and I am excited to see what else they come up with. Right now, it looks like shoes, a tent, sleeping bag, backpack and a hat you can tighten with only one hand. STRENGTH You are invited EVERY Wednesday night for Strength Training for Runners, live to your screen. Free always. Tell work you have jury duty. Hope to see you there tomorrow. Last weekend the sub two-hour barrier was officially broken for the men's marathon. Kenyan Sabastian Sawe ran a 1:59:30 in London which he had been preparing for including his sponsor Adidas paying an extra $50,000 to anti-doping testing for the months leading up to the run to quiet skeptics. Yomif Kejelcha, just 11 seconds back also broke the two-hour barrier in his first marathon ever. And third place run will go down in history as being the most disappointing thing ever, beating the current world record, not quite hitting under two hours and being beaten by two others. At any other race his time would be worthy of a parade and splashed all over the news.
This New York Times article gives some great reasons on why we are seeing this now including runners not waiting until their "faster" days on the track are over. Marathons pay MONEY. London paid five and six figure sums for winning and beating previous times. Who knows what Adidas sponsor bonuses are. So not only are the fastest runners coming out for the races, so are the "almost just as fastest runners" to be pace makers which are key for getting through the first parts of the race on target. Super shoes for both better training miles and faster recovery help and on race day these matter. The Adidas super shoe both sub-two-hour marathoners were wearing weighed less than your iPhone and have some type of foam that makes you spring. Better fueling and a whole lot of belief are also powering the speed. I am looking forward to how many more people will be hitting this milestone in the near future. GET STRONG WITH ME Strength Training for Runners is a weekly class. Join me on Wednesday night for a thirty-minute strength training session live to your screen and always free. Stay home, get strong. MEANWHILE While runners were speeding away in London, runners in Champoeg Park, south of Portland were participating in the Slug Run backyard ultra. From their website, "a backyard ultra is a deviously simple race. Runners just have to complete a 4.167-mile course within a one-hour cutoff. And then line up to do that again at the top of the next hour. And again the next. And again." The runners completed the course 77 times before there was just one left completing 78 laps and 325 miles for the win. WHAT I AM THINKING ABOUT
FIVE pounds. When the PT handed me a FIVE-pound weight and was uncertain if it was too heavy, I knew I was in for a world of trouble. He knows I can deadlift a human person and my 45lb kettlebell is not dusty, but here I was, staring down the FIVE mini weight. Now I have ten days before my next appointment to practice standing with my back to the wall, seventeen cues of how to stand correctly in my ear, while I try to lift this thing PROPERLY with my hip (because I can do it super wrong super well!). And by the way, this is level negative one. I started at level one, spent 10 days trying it without success and now, whomp whomp, negative one. My goal is level one right now and I am not thinking about how many levels this game may have.
I am not trying to get out of pain (feeling lucky right now) and I can run which is great. I am trying to fix a broken system where some stronger muscles bully the others into doing absolutely nothing. I am trying to figure out how to run longer without muscle imbalances slowing my run into turtles all the way down. So right now, watch out five-pound nemesis, we got WORK TO DO. Speaking of weights, hoping you have your five (and ten and 25 and 35) pounders dusted off for Strength Training for Runners. Join me on Wednesday night for a thirty-minute strength training session live to your screen and always free. Stay home, get strong. We do single leg work to try and help you avoid the physical therapy cycle BUT, if you need a PT (or massage therapist) in Portland or Bend, I have a list here. WINS FOR TECH
RUNNING SHORTS
Hi all!
Last week I was captivated by images of Des Linden, a favorite runner of mine and winner of the 2018 Boston Marathon, running the Marathon Des Sables in Morrocco. If you aren't familiar, the Marathon Des Sables is a six-day stage race where competitors carry all their gear, not just their food, but everything. Water and shelter are the only things provided so runners are carrying decently heavy packs while running through soft sand dunes. I was captivated because it just seems SO, SO far off from a race a very fast road marathoner would want to do. Turns out this journalist thought the same thing and captured it in pictures and in this article here. Despite looking at her posts and some articles, I don't have a sense of WHY she picked that event. I know that one of the stages is 100k and twice the distance of her furthest race. I know she doesn't owe anyone the why of her decision. And neither do you. My most successful athletes sign up for races that pull them. Sometimes there is no "good" reason, it just is a whisper in their ear that turns into a song that won't get out of their head and they need to try it. Sometimes they have seen someone else and it motivated them to also give it a try. If you have a song in head for a race that is calling but you think it is too far, too "unlike" you, too anything, see what happens if you keep listening. It may take you somewhere! COACHING WITH ME If you are interested in coaching for your next fun race idea, GET ON MY WAIT LIST. I currently do not have any coaching openings, sorry summer racers, BUT there will be openings this summer. Let me know! There is always space for you in Strength Training for Runners. Join me on Wednesday night for a thirty-minute strength training session live to your screen and always free. Stay home, get strong. TALKING ABOUT FLOSSING- AGAIN I get a lot out of this Substack, Run Long, Run Healthy. It highlights research on running and gives some narrative on the implications for runners. The studies are almost always on men which is frustrating and honestly, infuriating, but that is a different post. This week's post included a study of fascial flossing, the use of a voodoo strap I mentioned here a few weeks ago. "After the intervention, gliding improved in the flossed leg but not in the control leg. That was one of the clearest findings in the study. The range-of-motion results were also favorable. Both legs improved in ankle dorsiflexion after the treadmill run and intervention period, but the flossed leg improved more. That suggests some of the gain may have come from the general warm tissue effect of running and moving around, but flossing added something extra on top." DISQUALIFIED An athlete at a recent Ironman 70.3 event posted a video where he was dumping a bunch of gels out of his tri suit, claiming races were expensive so he was getting maximum value. Then Ironman disqualified him from the event, scrubbing his name from the results. WOW. THE HIDDEN COST OF COMFORT So many things to consider in this article, but this one was eye-opening for me. "There’s even early research that points to our perfectly temperature-controlled environments contributing to the obesity epidemic. One study found that after just one month of sleeping in cooler conditions, subjects showed a 42% increase in brown fat volume and a 10% improvement in insulin sensitivity. We’ve muffled our body’s internal thermostats, shutting down our thermogenic system because it’s not needed anymore. We spend 90% of our time indoors where it’s constantly between 68 and 74 degrees year round." Fourteen years ago, I ran a 50K where everything clicked. My body showed up, my training showed up, my mind showed up. I ran beyond my expectations and set a big PR. It was a rare alignment of the planets.
And yet, out of 60+ races I have done in my racing life, that day stands out. There’s one 100-miler I’m deeply proud of. One marathon where I still think, “was that even me?” But then there is the race where I panicked because I didn’t have enough water and watched my “good time” dissolve in real time. The too many races where I moved so slowly it felt like I had stopped mid-race to knit a sweater. And then there are the many, many races that fall into that forgettable middle ground of fine, meh, unremarkable. If you are an endurance athlete, this may sound familiar. Most of the athletes I coach carry similar stories. A few shiny happy highs, a handful of real bummers, and a long stretch of unremarkable races that didn’t quite meet expectations. And the thing is, when you choose a sport/life/hobby like running and you pair it with a personality that is driven/focused/perfectionist, satisfaction becomes elusive. When you train so hard and for so long it makes expectations rise. Mistakes feel less acceptable. And then what for many people and even for you in the past would have been the raddest day ever becomes the "oh whatever". You don’t just want to just finish, you want to SHINE! And most days, it doesn’t all come together because the thing we are doing is so damn hard. So, if your next race feels meh or your time seems like you stopped midrace to bake a cake, you’re not doing it wrong. You’re doing a TOUGH sport. Keep chasing the alignment of the planets! And keep chasing strength. Join me on Wednesday night for Strength Training for Runners. Live to your screen and always free. Stay home, get strong. ROAD VS TRAIL Love this graphic from Semi-rad on road vs trail. ROAD: "I am going to eat a big meal after my race." TRAIL: "I am going to eat a big meal during my race." SQUAD GOALS Growing up women's sports had a every woman for themselves feel to me. It seemed like women had to fight each other for a small piece of a pie that was not made for them. While there are so many examples of how that has changed in recent years, this brought me to tears watching it, reflecting on it and I am still cutting onions the day after. Yeah, Jordan Chiles is incredible BUT the WHOLE TEAM behind her with her routine memorized, doing the moves and cheering her on, THAT is the energy I hope you are all bringing to your group runs and to your friend's A-races. FIX YOUR FEET Some resources that will really help when it is time to fix your feet or prep them for a long race.
NEW PRODUCT ALERTS
I went to an opera once. I thought it would add culture to my life and be a new obsession. It was so, so very boring, it seemed it would never end. There was a screen above the stage broadcasting the lyrics in English so you could follow along. The singing was so drawn out that the words seem to change about once every five minutes.
I just spent seven days skiing while pulling gear in a sled on the Kungsleden trail in Sweden above the arctic circle where the landscape is huge, whiteness reaches as far as the eye can see and the trails stretch out forever. If downhill skiing is rock and roll and skate skiing is pop music, classic skiing is yacht rock then pulling a sled in the arctic is opera. It is gorgeous, much respect given, but it is SLOW and difficult. I will start by saying, having a long trail with winter infrastructure like warm huts with kitchens and snack shops is an adventure miracle. Having a warm place to stay and chat with likeminded folks out on similar journeys is a joyful way to end the long days out and the wildness of the landscape in between the huts is like nothing I can compare. We had incredible weather, 10-20 degrees and really just one windy day. Even so, my face feels like a leather balloon. There are not enough lotion samples in the Duty Free shop to fix this fast. I can’t imagine if we had been there a week earlier with colder temps and skiers extending their stays in the huts from high winds. A typical day was wake up, breakfast, ski, ski, quick snack, ski, ski, wonder where the freaking hut is, ski, ski, YAY arrive, collapse, CHOP WOOD, carry water. The huts are maintained by the guests which meant after the ski there was wood to chop and water to collect from a hole in a lake or spring. Dinner was in the shared kitchen with skiers and snowshoers from all over Europe and beyond. Stories were told, routes were shared, then we did it again the next day. The best parts were unlocking a new endurance adventure mode and full immersion in a most gorgeous place. It was a week-long soul bath. The worst thing was my right ankle got absolutely smashed by my ski boot and I am hoping that a few days without anything touching it and some rest will calm it down. I will see you next week for live Strength Training for Runners, no class tomorrow. Instead, go outside and give yourself a soul bath. I loaded a few pictures here and will be posting to Instagram this week about the adventure. |
All images and posts © UltraU, 2022. Photos by Runnerteri Photography.