By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning As winter gets into full swing, many runners are stuck in this no-person’s land of motivation. Without an event to focus on in the near term, the desire to train wanes. You might skip a run here, cut a run short there or just not be as …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning In September of this year, the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) came out with a new position paper titled “Nutritional considerations for single-stage ultra-marathon training and racing”. You can view the whole paper, in its entirety, for free here. It’s about a 40 minute read and moderately …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning Every year around this time, athletes take a look at their previous training and start to scheme on better ways to improve their performance. Some will point to doing more miles (to which I will say train smarter, not harder), others to equipment (Nike Vaporflys, anyone?), and …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning This article is the third in a series of how to use poles in trail and ultrarunning. If you missed article one (when poles are beneficial and when they are not) and two (how to choose the right type and length of poles), go check them out! …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning This article is the second in a series explaining the proper selection and use of trekking poles for ultrarunning, and the science behind it. It is also a (hopefully welcome) reprieve from last weekend’s marathon-centric content bonanza, which I will succinctly summarize as yowza! If you have …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning To pole or not to pole, that is the question! Over the next 4 weeks, this blog will explore how, when and why to use poles in ultrarunning. Aided by the poignant research of our summer intern Jackson Brill, we will review the science of how poles …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning This past week, I had the pleasure of being a roundtable presenter at TrainingPeaks Endurance Coaching Summit. The annual summit, which alternates locations yearly between Boulder, CO and the United Kingdom, brings together hundreds of like minded triathlon, cycling and running coaches. These coaches hail from all …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning This past week, I had the pleasure, pain and privilege of running the Tor Des Geants in the Aosta valley of Italy. The race is a beast, boasting 24,000 M (78,741 feet) of climbing over 356 kilometers (221 miles). Within those miles is a variety of …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning This summer we had the pleasure of having Jackson Brill as one of our summer interns. Along with being a sponsored runner for Salomon, Jackson is also an undergraduate at the University of Colorado Integrative Physiology department. The University’s biomechanics department is spectacular and was pushed into …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning As has been the case for the last few years, I spent the better part of a weekend following athletes around the (newly revamped) Sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie (TDS), Courmayeur – Champex – Chamonix (CCC), and Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) races. The races were …