By Jason Koop, CTS Coaching Director, Author “Training Essentials for Ultrarunning” This week, Ultrarunning Magazine will start to release their highly anticipated Ultrarunner of the Year (UROY) and Performance of the Year (POY) rankings. The rankings are a good source of banter, as the myriad of trail, road and track performances have few common threads …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning As we’re about to embark on a new decade, I took some time to reflect on what I’ve learned over the last 10 years. I milled through my e-mails (complete with ‘Sent from my Blackberry’ signature lines), took a look at the now obsolete ULTRA Listserv and …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning Earlier this week after I had deleted the umpteen-millionth ‘holiday gift guide for runners’ from my inbox, I got to thinking ‘there’s got to be something else runners really want’. Sure, a new pair of compression shorts, or the ‘only breathable and waterproof jacket you’ll ever need’ …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning For far too long, heel strikers have been ridiculed, mocked and laughed at in running communities around the globe. It’s time for that to stop. We’ve heard it all before. The rationales for a forefoot strike go something like this: “Our Paleolithic ancestors inevitably ran on their …
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 …
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 Adam St. Pierre, CTS Ultrarunning Coach For a few years now, I’ve been fairly critical of sweat sodium concentration testing. In my own personal experience, I’ve suffered more in races when I’ve taken in too much salt, rather than not enough. I’ve also seen, in both races and training, that the amount of salt …