Why not?

With love and respect to all of my non-running friends, there are some stock things that many of you tend to say to runners, and pretty much all of us have heard them many times. A couple of examples:

When someone finds out that I run a lot...
"Isn't that hard on your knees?"

When I explain I'm an ultrarunner and tell them how long my last race was...
"I don't even like to drive that far!"

Dear Runnerfolk: Ultrarunning Myths

Ultrarunning was once a little sport engaged in by only a few nut jobs with serious problems. Now it seems everyone is doing them, and that's a wonderful thing - except that there weren't enough nut jobs to mentor all these freshly-minted ultrarunners and pass on the lore and history of the sport and the hard-earned collective wisdom about how to do it well.

Myths and misinformation abound and I'm going to point out a few here that bug me. This will surely raise some hackles and cause considerable offense among those who dearly hold as sacrosanct rules of ultrarunning some of these things I'll call 'myths'. Hey, at least I just put them in a rant here where generally no one reads anyway!

How to Train for Vol State

Archival image of a Vol State training session from the early days.
(Real runners wear the fez)

This is it – the post you’ve been looking for!

One of the questions I have occasionally gotten, and that I have also seen from time to time in comments on Vol State discussions is, “How would you train for a race like that?” Many ultrarunners, who either seriously think they might want to do it or who may just have a passing curiosity about it, seem to wonder about this, and I have finally been moved to reach out with such wisdom as I have on the topic.

The Long View - How I Train for Ultras

In 2006 (before my time in ultrarunning) there was a controversy at the finish of the Western States 100. Front runner Brian Morrison collapsed a few times in the final 300 meters of the race (inside the stadium at Auburn) and was disqualified because he was helped up on his way to the finish line by his pacers (one of whom was Scott Jurek).

A brief account of the controversy is still accessible on Scott Dunlap's blog.

What I Do

"I wish I could do what you do."
"I'd love to be able to do what you do."

There are other variations, but this is a sentiment that I hear from time to time in one form or another. Generally I don't take it as more than what I think is intended. For most, it's more a manner of delivering a compliment than it is a genuine wish (or at least very serious one). I understand then the extent to which I may be going off into left field a bit in the rest of this post by making something more of it than it really is. Bear with me though. I have a point, and it's a point for anyone who means it literally when they say these things.

Training Talk, Part 2 - A More Excellent Way

Dark Shade Creek (near Windber, PA) - Thanksgiving morning, 2011

In Part 1 of this topic I shared something of my training history and results prior to my first ultra.  The conclusion of that story was that a change in my training was badly needed.

Training Talk, Part 1 - A Hacker's Approach

This blog is named "The Running Hacker" for a reason.

The reason is that unlike a lot of people trying to run ultras, I have no background in running.  No experience.  I came to this knowing pretty much nothing about training for endurance.  A lot of people figure they should run a marathon before even thinking about moving up to ultras.  Many in the sport are long-time marathoners or triathletes.  Many are former high-school and college track competitors who have been running all their lives.

Me?  I'm a life-long non-athlete.  In high school I was in the band.  My only history with running is that I ran everywhere when I was a kid (think short sprints, not long slow distance) and later in life I always gravitated to running during my brief periods of 'getting in shape.'  I never ran much in terms of weekly mileage, and I never kept it up for long.