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. …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning A few weeks ago would have been the 7th edition of our staple Memorial Day Ultrarunning Camp. What was once a low-key camp I held with only a few select athletes had grown into an event sold out months in advance. We hold the camp out of …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning We lost a great one late last week. Ultrarunner, author, and heavy metal Zen monk sober warrior David Clark passed away May 21st after complications from surgery to repair a herniated disc. If you are not familiar with David’s story, you should be. A former 320-pound …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning In-person racing will undoubtedly look different when it returns, whether it’s in 2020 or 2021. Physical distancing norms, crowd size limits and sanitization procedures are going to give race directors a few grey hairs, and they will impact runners as well. Simple things like pre-race briefings …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning One of the first things I do with any new athlete is to create a Long Range Plan, a big picture view of an entire season indicating where the major races will be and when to focus on intensity, higher amounts of vertical, and longer long …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning Let’s face it, for many ultrarunners have been feeling stuck in a rut over the last several weeks. You might be getting bored of the same loops, running by yourself, and slipping your mask on and off as you pass other runners. And all that has been …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, a runner named Eluid Kipchoge ran under 2 hours for the marathon distance. Remember that? Yeah, that was less than 6 months ago. Rife with asterisks and caveats, the sub two-hour marathon was only the tip …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning I recently have noticed two types of ultrarunners emerge. The first is the ultrarunner who’s training is lacking something. Maybe it is the length of your long runs or maybe it’s the second hard interval session of the week. These ultrarunners are training in a fog at …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning During a recent conference call with our ultrarunning coaches, we were discussing some of the major changes we’ve made to our athlete’s training during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some athletes have been forced to alter their routes due to trail closures and others have had logistical constraints with …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning One of my coaching principles is to ‘coach the person first’. The main message of that philosophy is to treat athletes as people first. Their athletic endeavors, whether finishing their first 100-mile race or nabbing their next belt buckle, are all part of the equation but do …