Ultramarathon Daily News | Monday, Jan 6

Treeline Journal: What’s it going to take for Jim Walmsley to make the Olympic marathon team? Chase digs into how he’s seamlessly switched from MUT training to marathon-specific training and whether or not he’s got a shot. Here’s his workout from yesterday…30 miles at 5:43 pace with a 4:50 final mile. Yeeeeesh!

IRF/TWIR: Justin runs down all the results from trail and ultramarathon events from the past week. Hot takes: Keep an eye on Scotty Trummer at next weekend’s Bandera 100k. He’s my pick to win the men’s race and will use it a launching pad to place well at Way Too Cool and Lake Sonoma in the spring.

Canadian Running: A common question we all get is “so wait, do you sleep during your race?” According to this article, you should be.

Anton’s ode to bike touring and why he’s doing more of it.

Fast Women: Roundup of women’s running news from the past week. One comment: We need more running podcasts? Really? (edit/clarification: Alison says there’s more room for podcasts specifically with a new format. I agree.)

Bloomberg: What percentage of Hakone Ekiden runners wore Nike Vapor Fly’s? 30%? 50%? 70%! Wrong,wrong, wrong. Eighty four percent wore them(!), and every other shoe manufacturer is freaking the hell out.

Trailrunner Mag: Winter training with Tim Tollefson. (And keep in mind, Tim lives in a part of California with “real” winter and he works full time.)

ABC: To what ends would you go to to protect your pooch? Would you have someone shoot and kill the mountain lion that you suspect killed the dog?

Wyatt Horsby: Three things in the ultramarathon world that are concerning. Fair criticisms. What else would you add? (And yes, Wyatt, we’re still reading blogs! Please keep independent blogs alive!)

Update: I passed along a question last week about the heaviest person to finish an ultra. Got a response from Ross who finished ATY 100 this year at 264 lbs. For sake of knowledge, has anyone “beat” that?

Canadian Running: What to do when your race sells out too fast? If you’re Laz, you create a new one with similar qualities and that one sells out too.

SCMP: How to taper for an ultramarathon.

Ultrarunning History: Ultra backwards walking.

12 Responses to "Ultramarathon Daily News | Monday, Jan 6"

Fast Women says:

January 6, 2020 at 7:16 am

One comment: That’s not what I wrote.

Reply
1. eric schranz says:
  
  January 6, 2020 at 7:34 am
  
  Fair correction. I’ll edit.
  
  Reply
James C. says:

January 6, 2020 at 7:54 am

Can we get another Walter Handloser interview with a review of his 50 100-milers in 2019? Thanks.

Reply
scott says:

January 6, 2020 at 2:43 pm

Definitely want a Walter show.

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Alli says:

January 6, 2020 at 6:14 pm

Yes, more Walter please!

Reply
pogo69 [Pat Janes] says:

January 6, 2020 at 7:52 pm

If the dog is dead, this sounds like revenge, not protection.

Regardless: no, I would not support revenge killing a mountain lion for being a mountain lion.

If it was about to kill one of my dogs, then the mountain lion is fair game.

Reply
pogo69 [Pat Janes] says:

January 6, 2020 at 7:54 pm

Wow. Had to convert the pace to min/km for it to make sense to me.

But then, I see it wasn’t exactly flat, either.

Reply
Daniel says:

January 7, 2020 at 6:58 am

I believe Steve Tursi once ran a 100 in under 24 hours at 300 lbs.

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james says:

January 7, 2020 at 8:51 am

actually the mountain lion was fair game, the hunter had valid hunting license and mountain lion tag. The cat never even had to look at the dog… I’m not a hunter, but what the guy did was not wrong

Reply
Chad Bowen says:

January 7, 2020 at 10:31 am

I feel like we’ve all been played by Nike’s marketing team on the Vaporflys. It’s a great shoe, but is it really better than what Hoka, NB, ASICS, Saucony are putting out there?

Consider that a majority of East African elites are sponsored by Nike. That accounts for the majority of Marathon Majors wins. Adidas is the other major sponsor of East Africans, perhaps they are slightly behind in the shoe wars, or perhaps Nike has simply been better at signing elite talent.

If you use the American Olympic hopefuls as an example it seems counter to the Vaporfly’s superiority. The top two men, Rupp and Korir, are Nike athletes but have Olympic pedigree and are arguably the most talented men regardless of shoe. The next two, Fauble and Ward, run for Hoka and Saucony. On the women’s side it doesn’t seem overly likely that a Nike athlete makes the team. Only Amy Cragg and Jordan Hasay seem to be contenders. The other top women run for ASICS(Hall and Bates), Saucony(Huddle), Brooks(Linden), New Balance(Sisson), and Hoka(NAZ elite crew).

I would argue that all the shoes are getting better but that Nike has simply won the marketing war. Anyone who is fringe elite and doesn’t have a shoe sponsorship has been convinced that they need Vaporfly’s to complete, this is why you see the haze of pink and green at races like CIM.

Reply
1. eric schranz says:
  
  January 7, 2020 at 12:03 pm
  
  I think we’ll know the whole story when/if other brands (besides Hoka) release a similar shoe. So tough to tell w so many factors.
  
  Reply
jimmy says:

January 8, 2020 at 8:51 am

It’s not marketing. The technology introduced in the vaporfly is the definition of a game changer. The other brands are now playing catch-up. What convinced me isn’t the elites, but the fringe and the runners farther back where the total finishers breaking 2:30 or 3:00 at major marathons increased dramatically in 2019 vs any year before 2018 when they were first introduced. Not by small percentages either and most of them are wearing those shoes.

Reply

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