By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning If you stay in the ultramarathon game long enough, it’s a near certainty that you will have at least one DNF at some point along that journey. Additionally, while some of these DNFs are unavoidable, I will make the argument that many are caused, in whole or …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning One of the challenges to writing about training is that every subject could legitimately expand into a book unto itself. My shelves are full them; entire books on physiology, biomechanics, nutrition, periodization, performance assessment and analysis, sports psychology, stress relief, and yes, recovery. Arguably, what you do …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning Races will be back in 2021. They might be different and maybe not all races will return, but mark my words now, ultramarathons will be back. Many runners with rollover entries from 2020 have copious amounts of time–now that they don’t have to wait for lottery …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning The folklore of ultrarunning is riddled with tales of hallucinations, out of body experiences, paranormal activities, and even an alien sighting or two. Given enough time and sleep deprivation, ghouls and goblins, devil and demons, witches and wildlife alike will inevitably come to life, haunting even …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning When Gordy Ainsleigh first finished the Western States Endurance Run in 1974, he did so by drinking from creeks and stashing quarts of Gatorade along the course. He had no softflasks, no handheld water bottle, nor a hydration pack to carry fluids to aid his quest. Heck, …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning This summer and fall I had one objective in mind: to finish the Nolan’s 14 route in Colorado’s Sawatch Range. Sadly, I struck out on all three of my attempts there, the last one ending in quick fashion as I dislodged a rock and took a decent …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning Let’s face it, very few of you reading this article are professional runners. While we would all love to spend all day and night training, the fact is that most of this readership will have time constraints on their running. Most of the time, those constrains …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning Over the weekend I had the chance to crew and observe the Bear 100 in Logan, Utah. It’s a classic, low key old school 100-race. Being one of the few 100-mile races on the calendar in 2020, a lot of eyes in the ultrarunning world were tuned …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning I’m bullish on the future of ultrarunning. During a time where many ultrarunners are loathing a fall and winter devoid of racing, suffering from flailing motivation and a peering into the prospect that 2021 will be more of the same, I’m optimistic. If trail and ultrarunning were …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning For many years I have retained a copy of Mosby’s Manual of Diagnostic and Laboratory Tests that I fully admit was ‘permanently borrowed’ from an old coaching colleague of me. It’s a medical reference manual that is far above my educational pedigree. It’ll as dull as …