Category Archives: ultrarunning

It’s been quite a while since I’ve written a new blog post. Despite that, this blog still seems to get a fair amount of traffic to the site. That fact, coupled with fact that I’m just plain motivated and itching to write again, have prompted me to get back at it.

After a long hiatus, it’s often hard to know where to begin again. I thought about trying to do a recap of what’s been going on since my last post, in August 2011. However, I really haven’t posted much for over a year. Wow…what’s happened in the last year? Some top of mind thoughts that I’ll throw out there:

• Geoff Roes went from dominating every race he ran to a bit of a rough patch, but has recently rebounded and taken his running to new territory – check out his race report from the 350-mile Iditarod Trail Invitational. The picture of Geoff here will give you some indication of just how tough of a race it was (in case you needed an additional clue that an 8-day race across the Alaska Wilderness is as tough as it gets).
  

   

• Anton Krupicka is back to his usual tricks. Lots of time out on the trails/in the mountains…lots of great pictures from his adventures (his current one is in New Zealand)…and a fair amount of running. For those of you who have been under a rock, he’s been battling a shin problem for well over a year now. He’s definitely coming around, albeit much slower than he would like. Be patient Tony…be patient. We all want to see you on the start line of the Transvulcania Ultra Marathon in May. Both the men’s and the women’s field for this 83K mountain race is going to be loaded (check out the top participants here). Those fields are just plain sick…although I wish Krissy Moehl and Dave Mackey (2011 UROY) were in there.
  

   

• The prize money and the sponsorship in the sport continues to grow. While there is a fair amount of concern over this, I view it as great for the sport. I love how the team aspect of the sport is really starting to shape up, and how it is opening up more sponsorship opportunities for more runners. For example, look at the stacked lineup that Team Salomon has going for them right now – that lineup comprises some of the best men and women trail runners in the world. But, The North Face ultrarunning team isn’t too shabby either. Oh, yeah, and what about Team Montrail.
  

   

  I’d love to see a head-to-head team race between these two groups…especially in a coed race of about 50 miles. I really think that the sport will become much more of a team event in the near future. While I think ultrarunning will ALWAYS be an individual sport, I would not be surprised to see a team sport emerge around the 50K distance. Imagine Team Salomon facing off against Team North Face in a 50 miler (coed race, top 5 count in scoring…must have at least two females):
  

  • Team Salomon – Jornet, Heras, Sandes, Frost, Crosby
    
  • Team North Face – Wolfe, Wardian, Koerner, Semick, Hawker, Kimball
    
  • Team Montrail – Roes, Jones, King, Greenwood, Vaught
    

   

• The sport is just CRAZY fast anymore and so, so deep. When you see great, great runners like Roes and Moehl finishing in 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th and feeling good about it, you know it’s a crazy sick deep sport. There are more and more races – big races – yet there seems to be more and more depth. Remember when the only household names were Jurek & Trason? My how times have changed.
  

Simply capturing the thoughts above remind me how much I love this sport. I’m stoked to be running and writing once again. Look for more soon.

I love reading various running blogs.  I have links to many of my favorites on my blog.  But, far and away, my favorite blog is Anton Krupicka’s blog “Riding the  Wind.”    Don’t know why I love it so much, but perhaps it’s the simple fact that most of the posts are about a specific trail training run…and, everyday, while in the office I dream of being out on the Barr Camp Trail, Ostrich Peak, or some other single track in the mountains.  

Anton’s posts are very real…as a fellow trail runner, you know what his body and mind are experiencing when he writes things like this:

A run like today’s is most beneficial mentally, I believe. I did not want to run up a 4000′ hill today. My body really didn’t want to. But, this sort of effort is often what we ask of ourselves at the 70, 80, or 90 mile point of a 100 mile race (well, today’s run actually wasn’t nearly as painful as the 2nd half of a 100), and it helps me immeasurably to have rehearsed that sort of fatigue numerous times in training. The important thing is to monitor how I’m feeling the day after a particularly tough run because if that sort of fatigue lasts for more than a day or two, I know it’s time to back off and make sure that I don’t dig myself into a rut.

Great, great stuff…keep blogging (and racking up those miles) Mr. Krupicka.

There is a great article about Matt Carpenter on The New York Times Website:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/sports/othersports/24runner.html?emc=eta1

There’s a nice quote from Uli Steidl in there as well:

“Whenever we race, I know it’s going to be a good competition — unless it’s at high altitude, and then I don’t stand a chance,” said Uli Steidl, 36, who placed second behind Carpenter at a 50-mile race in San Francisco in December.”

 Carpenter supposedly has been measured with a resting heart rate of 33…wow!  No wonder the dude is incredible in thin air climbing.  And, check out the nice video of Carpenter training.