By Jason Koop, CTS Coaching Director Author, “Training Essentials for Ultrarunning” Last weekend at the 105-mile Ultra Trail Mt Fuji, Dylan Bowman chased Pau Capell, (winner of the 2018 Transgrancanaria) for 19 HOURS, and passed him just 3 miles from the finish line to take the win. He closed 27 minutes in the final …
As an athlete is important to look beyond the event you’re preparing for right now, in order to see it as both a goal and step in preparing for what comes next. By their nature, cycling events represent an increase in training stress compared to individual training sessions leading up to them. The event …
By Mara Abbott, Olympian and CTS Contributing Editor My last column covered some of the mental benefits of a regular yoga practice. Here, I take the study of yoga for athletes to a level deeper and offer a few of the ways that the philosophical origins of yoga have influenced my athletic career. I do …
This week everyone at CTS joined the rest of the athletic community in watching and celebrating Desiree Linden’s victory at the Boston Marathon. The weather was one of the major players in the race, with strong headwinds and icy rain battering racers all the way. Desi showed, once again, that preparation, adaptability, toughness, and …
“If you want something done right, do it yourself.” That phrase has jumpstarted many companies whose founders recognized the right product either didn’t exist or needed to be improved. Uli Schoberer invented the cycling power meter nearly 30 years ago, and the early commercial versions of the SRM power meter were instantly recognizable by …
In a constant search for energy and performance, athletes tend to focus on the big macronutrients: carbohydrate, protein, and fat. They manipulate the percentage of calories from each, going from the classic endurance athlete’s high carbohydrate strategy to a Paleo-esque high-protein strategy, or even a high-fat ketogenic strategy. However, the foods we eat supply more …
I’ve always been fascinated by the role of genetics in sport. Obviously, there’s the heredity aspect that sometimes helps children of great athletes become great athletes themselves. More practically for those who don’t win the DNA lottery, genes affect the way individuals respond to stimuli, potentially opening the door to even greater customization of …
By Jason Koop Coaching Director, Author of “Training Essentials for Ultrarunning” Racing a 5-kilometer running race may seem antithetical to ultramarathon training, but there are plenty of good reasons why racing fast for 5 kilometers is beneficial for athletes training to run 50 or 100 miles. I should preface this by saying that, while …
By Mara Abbott, Olympian and CTS Contributing Editor My junior year of college, I spent a semester enrolled at a university in Mérida, Mexico. In part, I considered it an experiment in what would happen if I went out in the Real World where sports (forever and always swimming and at the time only recently, …
By David Henry, CTS Ultrarunning Coach Sooner or later every ultrarunner has to get comfortable running at night. While running at night is still just running, seeing well on a trail can be a challenge unless you address a few key difficulties that crop up in the dark. We’ll tackle each one individually below. Adequate …