By Darcie Murphy, CTS Ultrarunning Senior Coach Weather alert! Temperatures are dropping (or will soon) in many regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Maybe you’re excited or perhaps you’re dreading the cold, but regardless, knowing how to dress appropriately will make winter running more comfortable. These days I love winter, but it took many years for …
By Corrine Malcolm, CTS Expert Coach, Ultrarunning Host for the Trainright Podcast I’ve spent much of the past two years engaging in conversations with individuals and organizations about how to increase female participation in trail and ultrarunning races. This largely has meant examining what the real and perceived barriers might be that stop someone from …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning Every few years, a narrative emerges that some particular level of exercise is bad for long term health. Sometimes the stories focus on the amount total volume, or the peak of intensity, or some combination thereof. And when those narratives come around, the collective athletic community takes …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning It seems like for the last several years, female athletes have been told to tailor their training, nutrition and even the way they recover towards their menstrual cycle. Apps like Wild AI and books like ROAR have done quite well in the commercial space, leading to specialty …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning For what seems like an eternity now, we’ve been warned about the potential for age to detrimentally affect muscle mass retention. Recommendations aimed at older athletes have become so ubiquitous you could go across any of the major endurance media outlets, from Runner’s World to Ultrarunning Magazine …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning Abby: ‘I feel like I’m just on the rivet‘ Jason: ‘That’s OK, just keep pressing’ Abby: ‘OK, I’ll do that’ This was an exchange I had with Abby Hall, an elite athlete I have had the pleasure of working with worked the past four years, while crewing …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning Earlier this month I had the honor of crewing and pacing one of my athletes at the Bigfoot 200, which is first leg of the Triple Crown of 200s. Two-hundred milers present a different set of stressors and require different race strategies (as discussed in my …
The biggest misconception about recovery after running an ultramarathon is that it happens quickly. The biggest mistake athletes make is getting back into structured training too soon. To be a healthy ultrarunner in the long term, it’s essential to give your body and mind a significant break between events. For many athletes, running is an …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning Given the same ingredients, trained chefs can create a wide range of dishes. The same is true for trained coaches; we use the same basic training principles and workout ingredients to create training programs for different athletes across a range of sports. Periodization–the ways coaches organize training …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning The past seven weeks supporting Timothy Olson’s bid to set the fastest known time (FKT) on the Pacific Crest Trail-and the months of preparation beforehand-have been a huge test of endurance, and I wasn’t even the one doing the running! On paper, Tim’s accomplishment was tremendous: 2653 …