What goes up must come down. In the case of ultrarunning, coming down can be the more painful of the two. Running downhill leads to a lot of muscular damage (more on that later) and wrecked legs. As a result, some coaches spend a lot of time specifically focused on preparing an athlete’s legs for …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning Earlier this year I read thought provoking editorial in the British Journal of Sports Medicine penned by professors Jeremy Lewis and Peter O Sullivan, both specialists in physiotherapy and rehabilitation. In it, they question the current treatment patterns commonly used for musculoskeletal pain (note the editorial was …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning With this year’s Pikes Peak Marathon in the rear-view mirror, and Matt Carpenter’s 1993 course record once again untouched, it gave me a bit of pause as to what made Matt so great in his prime. I’ve long admired Matt’s has accomplishments as an athlete and …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning With longer events such as FKTs, multi-day adventures and personal projects all the rage, many athletes are wondering what they can do to become better while being sleep deprived. We all know athletes who can seemingly run for two (or even three) consecutive nights without issue. Navy …
By Jason Koop CTS Coaching Director, Author of “Training Essentials for Ultrarunning” Several years ago while pacing my wife during the latter stages of the Run Rabbit Run 100 I vividly remember stumbling upon a ream of a dozen 200-mg caffeine pills. I wondered whether the runner who dropped the package was simply lazy and …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning Garmin’s recent outage has been wreaking havoc on athletes. People have lost track of everything from their weekly mileage to vertical gain accumulated, and even the miles on their shoes. Some have even used the outage as an excuse to skip out on runs (if it …
by Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning Truth be told, I don’t like the way most ultrarunning seasons unfold. In any normal year, once January rolls around many of the ultramarathon lotteries have been held. Runners know which races they will be doing the upcoming summer and have anywhere from 6-8 months to prepare. …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning When I was 30 I bemoaned getting slower and weaker. I thought I was old and I would never be as good as I was in my 20’s. Not true. By any performance measure I can think of, I am a better ultrarunner in my 40s than …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning By the time this newsletter hits your inbox, runners in the 2020 edition should have been testing themselves along the course of the Badwater 135, which many consider to be ‘the world’s toughest footrace’. Alas, in a very last-minute decision, organizers of the Badwater 135 cancelled …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning This year has challenged athletes like never before. Races have been put on ice, motivation has been flailing, and political, physical, and social wellbeing around the world has been strained to say the least. As a coach, I’ve been helping my athletes adapt to this changing environment. …