Trail Running Daily News | Tuesday, Feb 19
Jenn Shelton took on the iconic Sierra High Route last year and did it in Jenn fashion: She brought a fly rod and caught a fish in each of the five sections. She’s got the trail running part down but sounds like she’s struggling with the kill and clean a bit.
Do you do any visualization exercises before a big ultramarathon? The guys at Ultra 168 have some good ideas on how/why to incorporate them into your mental training plan. Personally, I visualize bonks and try to work through all the different emotions and situations that could happen.
Trail runner dies after falling off icy cliff near Mt Wilson in Southern California.
Meanwhile, two Colorado trail runners die while training for the Grand Traverse. Stay safe out there everyone.
Francois D’Haene posts on FB about some major issues with the IAU championships and boycotting (?) the event. I haven’t been able to digest it all…anyone help out? OLD NEWS
Cool story about a chance meeting in an REI and how it turned into an ultra trail friendship.
Derek at Marathon Investigations deals with a situation that got out of hand quickly. After seeing some strange results from a marathon, he privately messaged the runner with a question and she blew it up publicly with plenty of profanity and personal attacks, topping off her screed by playing the race card. (Read the threads on her page.) My takeaway: She apparently makes a living as an influencer and her sponsors (HOKA and UD included) need to have a talk with her about what type of comportment they expect from someone repping their brand.
- Insightful words about the state of track and field and the importance of small meets. I don’t know what it’s going to take to get T&F back on track (I had to, sorry), but these meets are a great start and need our support.
- A brutal tale of fighting an incurable cancer while running. Mario recommends grabbing some tissue, and so do I. It’s a tough one.
- And this story about what type of insurance coverage pro athletes have remind me a lot of Erik Skaggs’ situation after Where’s Waldo 100k in 2009. Remember that? The story goes that Erik was slamming ibuprofen pills at each stop, won the race, then his kidneys essentially shut down and he spent the next week in ICU, racking up $100k in hospital bills with only his USATF policy that covered only a very small percentage. (Again, that’s the story I’d always heard.)
I like this series from ultra running mag about “blue collar runners.” In this post, we meet Lulu Martinez. Lulu failed PE in Mexico, then moved to NY for grad school and is now obsessed with Vermont 100. Keep it up!
Good report from Ryan Ghelfi about his run at FOURmidable 50k last weekend. Ryan and I share that fascination with the mind/body connection: You can be in bad shape, completely fatigued with nothing left in your legs, then you see a competitor up ahead of you and magically, you’ve got energy to catch that person. Nice run Ryan!
And also read this fun report from female champ Rachel Drake. She peppers in plenty of science and humor into a report that made her win look easy.
This story about a hiker in Utah getting stuck in Quicksand (in a river, no less!) is pretty much every children’s show nightmare coming to life.
Jean is back! After another bazillion miles of travel (that’s French for one million), he is inspired and back at it. And do ya like how he causally mentioned running a 50k on the track for a workout? This post was made prior to him setting the new AR for masters 100 mile. 50+ road 100 miler.
I think everyone out there who doesn’t consider UA to be a serious contender in the trail market will be happily surprised. The Horizon BPF is a well-designed shoe at a solid price point.
–Check out Sarah’s latest review of the Under Armour Horizon BPF.
Neel’s video from the Garhwal 74k in India. Looks like fantastic terrain. Runnable trails and paths with great views, minimal snow, and smiling people.
I read this headline and thought “A ha! So that’s the Coconino Cowboys’ secret! They’ve been getting radiation in the Grand Canyon and it’s somehow given them inhuman strength!” But nah, turns out the Park has just been nuking little kids looking at stuffed animals in the museum.
Lance is wiggling himself back into races and competition by hiding behind charities.
Meanwhile in the same race, doper Mary Akor was basically being a bi*ch up front.
Stay tuned: I’m having Black Canyon winner Matt Daniels on the show today. I’m anxious to hear about how he’ll use sub 4 min mile speed at the Big Dance–his first 100–in June. (Here’s his appearance from GRL last night. I don’t like to interview someone right after someone else, but I’m too intrigued with this guy.)