Daily News, Tues, Aug 13

What did Sage Canaday learn about mountain racing in Europe? Here’s Ian Corless’ summary from Sierra Zinal.

Fourteen time Hardrock finisher John DeWalt passed away a few days ago at age 77. Here’s his heroic 2009 finish that’ll leave you shaking your head. The dude had grit.

I wear flip flops year round. Is it hurting my running?

Want to know what the heck I was doing for the past two weeks. Here’s where I ramble on about visiting and running to a leper colony in Molokai.

Because we as a group are good at dealing with discomfort in our running, does it translate over to coping with discomfort in the rest of our lives?

The benefits of running backwards.

For the North East crowd: Where to run far this fall.

Five questions with Nick Clark.

Mo Farah was denied access to his physio after another killer 10k, but the story doesn’t really indicate why he wasn’t allowed back in. Am I missing something?

Outside Magazine’s best places to live in America.

This guy lost his limbs in an electrical accident, yet still sets records for endurance swimming. Now some asshat stole his custom wheelchair. UPDATE: The chair has been found!

This weekend there’s a 160k ultra that follows the former Berlin Wall. Very cool.

Does weight loss affect performance? I know that I’m best between 161-164, a very small window. More than that and I’m sluggish, less than that, and I feel week.

Is endurance training bad for your heart? Huh?

footfeathers says:

August 13, 2013 at 7:19 am

The whole “best places…” stuff cracks me up. I would consider living in just 4 of the ones they list. e.g. Oklahoma City? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

John DeWalt was the embodiment of true ultrarunning.

eric schranz says:

August 13, 2013 at 7:31 am

Off the top of my head, these cities end up in the NO list:

Honolulu–Just because it’s in HI doesn’t mean it’s nice. It’s LA with a beach.
Ann Arbor–No running for 4 months out of the year! Brrrr.
Oklahoma City–Too flat.

Melissa says:

August 13, 2013 at 8:48 am

Weight affects performance for sure, under or over. I would think body composition plays into it too. (and then there’s the appearance thing, and for me, add in being a female on top of it…have seen some great posts from runners and ultrarunners on the topic of weight, strength, body image, would love to read more, have more discussion on that topic, including whether what’s best for ultrarunners is the same as for say marathoners)

Performance can also be influenced by things around your weight how you process food, whether you’re fat adapted (I imagine it works for some but not all, I’m moving in that direction) as well as how different foods make you feel in both training and races, important for those of us with food sensitivities, restricted diets!

So many moving parts, and it’s a head game as well as a physical one. I’ve read that “racing weight” (your best performance weight) is: something that can only be determined in retrospect AND something you perhaps can’t or shouldn’t maintain all the time. But I believe it’s fairly accepted that yo-yoing more than a little isn’t healthy either, and it can be less work to stay at one weight than to keep gaining and losing weight, even if it’s only a few pounds.

Would be an interesting podcast topic – not sure who your best guests would be – Sunny, one of the metabolic efficiency folks, a roundtable of female/male ultrarunners whether elite or regular folks?

When you said you felt weak – how did that manifest in daily life, in speed work, and in long runs? Were you tired, could you not hit your speed goals, etc? I’m interested in knowing if/how it felt different than regular fatigue or other such states. I’m trying to figure out my “racing weight” – think I’m close, but trying to figure out if a nudge one way or the other would be a good idea from a performance perspective.

Welcome back!!

ALEJANDRINA COLLADO says:

August 19, 2013 at 12:12 pm

Great Article: “Why Fear of Discomfort Might Be Ruining Your Life” thanks for all the good advice you post. Are you guys going to be at UROC 2013?

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