Weekly Rundown #25

“When it’s pouring rain and you’re bowling along through the wet, there’s satisfaction in knowing you’re out there and the others aren’t.” 

Peter Snell

iRunFar.com's This Week in Running: Feb 20th with info on the Black Canyon 100K, Fourmidable 50K and more

What to do when you have a race coming up.  Here is a look at the Art of (Realistic) Tapering

LetsRun.com's The Week That Was in Running - Feb 13-19. 2017

Lori Masterson writes on Lessons in Patience

If you have watched many world class 800M races you have seen Bram Som.  He is the guy pacing the race and often right on target.  This is a good interview with a guy that moved from a pretty quick racer to a sought after pacer: From Racer to Pacer.

If you have never heard of Eamonn Coghlan then read this article as from the Mid 70's to later 80's he was known as "The Chairman of the Boards" for his success indoors.  He set the world record for the mile indoors in 1983 @ 3:49.78 and it is still second of all time to Hicham El Guerrouj's 3:48.45 (See Video Below) - How I Broke the Indoor Mile Record - I also posted a short section of a documentary on Eamonn below.

The Tokyo Marathon is this weekend (Feb 26, 2017) and should be a good one as the course records for men and women are expected to fall.   You may be able to watch it here at 9:05PM (this is the time listed but as the race starts at 9:10AM in Tokyo and that is 7PM EST the previous day I am not sure it is correct) on the 25th. (Update: Just found that NBC Sports Online will be streaming this at 7:00PM EST but not sure if you need an account with an internet/tv provider or not.  Still might want to try here as well at the same time)

Good podcast with Peter Defty &Naomi Land talking to Travis Macy on The OFM Transformation

Want to see some of Alan Webb's best races thanks to Runner's Tribe for posting 5 of them: Alan Webb's Top 5 Races.  Also, check out the Runner's Tribe's site and sing up for their daily newsletter with all things running.

Some good Spring Ultras to keep an eye on

I have not gone to a running camp since I was in college back in 78 but it was fun and a great time.  Here are 7 reasons, I am sure there more, Why a Running Camp is What you Need.  While on that subject here are 5 Trail Running Retreats for Runner.

Some cool places in this short video on the Ultra Trail World Tour



A self supported 230km Ultra Marathon in the Amazon Rainforest, Peru


This weeks Mountain Outhouse



Not the best video but here is the video of Eamonn Coghlan's World Indoor Mile



Short video documentary on Eamonn Coghlan


What a race as Billy Mills wins the 10K in the 64' Olympics in Tokyo.  Here is a color video of the race but it could not be embedded.



Want to run around Lake Tahoe, well here is one way to do it.  Thanks to Ultrarunnerpodcast.com for linking to this video.  You might want to sing up for their daily emails as they are full of great info.

Weekly RunDown #24

“Love testing yourself more than fearing loosing”

Ron Clarke

If you are looking for an American Made minimal shoe that actual does have some cushioning and feels great then look to Carson Footwear.  I just got chosen as an Ambassador for them and what is unusual with Carson is that I told them that it would take some getting used to minimal shoes for longer races and they were fine with that.  Also in asking questions about the shoes I not only got a quick response from them but the owner Everett Carson contacted me, do not find that very often.  So over the coming months I will give updates on the shoes as I get used to using a more minimal shoe.  If you are interesting in trying them you can use the following code when purchasing a pair of shoes or other items on their site: Run2017tonyk

Jim Walmsley smashes another record as he wins the 2017 Tarawera 102K Ultra.  Here is the iRunFar.com interview with Walmsley and also here is an interview with the women's winner Camille Herron.  Here is iRunFar.com's review of the results.  Also Mike Wardian finished 8th in 8:49:36 only a couple weeks after winning the World Marathon Challenge.

From iRunFar.com - This Week in Running: February 13, 2017

And from LetsRun.com the Week That Was.  Pretty amazing that Yuki Kawauchi from Japan has more sub 2:10 marathons (11)  since 2011 than all American men (10)!

Places to run in the 20 biggest metro areas in the US.  But if you are ever in the Fullerton CA area on a weekend and need a trail to run try the Fullerton Loop as while you can do more, or less, the main loop will get you 10+ miles - here is my Strava data for a recent 31 miler done by running the loop 3 times.

MAF training and 5K pace:  5km Race Prediction from Submax Performance Tests

5 Ultra Ultra Marathon Feats

8 Pros Share Their Best Trail Running Tips

If you are interested in Optimized Fat Metabolism (OFM) here is a Mental Roadmap to follow.  If you think OFM is only for elite athletes then think again as it is also good for the everyday athlete with more on their plate than just training:  Real World OFM Performance You Can Relate To

I would say that is putting it all on the line as Peres Jepchirchir collapses at the line after setting the Women's World Record for the 1/2 Marathon

Sedona Adventure Run


Here is a Biking-Running-Climbing combo for an FKT


The 205 mile Tor des Geants 2016
Tor des Géants 2016 | Official Report from Pillow Lab on Vimeo.

This weeks Mountain Outhouse



Video from the 2017 Orcas Island 25K

Weekly RunDown #23

"You cannot propel yourself forward by patting yourself on the back."

Steve Prefontaine

There was a lot of running going on this past Saturday (Feb 4th, 2017): Six Takeaways From Some Fantastic Action Across The Globe on Super Saturday

And in the Ultra world we turn to iRunFar.com and This Week in Running: February 6, 2017

The Tarawera 100K (actually 102K) is this weekend and it should be a good one, check out iRunFar's preview.

LetsRun.com's The Week That Was in Running

How many of these have you run: 2017 Marathon Calendar

Ryan Kaiser earned a Golden Ticket to Western States 100 and ran 80% of his training on a treadmill:  From Treadmill to the Western States 100.  Results for the Sean O'Brien 50M/50K/26.2

Lori Masterson, of Loloruns.com and recent winner of the Bear Bait 50k, writes a review of the 2017 Louisville Lovin' the Hills races - Lovin' the Hills Results

Mud and snow - now there is X-Country: U.S. Cross Country Championship 2017

Have you entered a lottery for a race and not gotten in well here are the 4 Stages of Lottery Grief

Some quick times at the 2017 Rocky Raccoon 100 Miler in  Huntsville, TX this past weekend.

I just found out that I was chosen to be a Carson Footwear Ambassador this year.  I was very
impressed that while I was investigating the shoes the owner, Everett Carson, contacted me to answer some questions, not many shoe company owners have ever contacted me in 44+ years of running.  Carson's are a minimal shoe that, based on its design, has, at least to me, more cushioning than you would expect.  I will not be doing any ultras in them for now but will be using them to strengthen my feet and work to build up to being able to run longer in them.  I will be having a review of them in the next month after I get a few more miles on them but so far they are a great shoe.  I am running in the Black Ops version.


At the Nitro Athletics meet in Melbourne they added a new event called the 1 Mile Elimination.  If you know much about bike racing on the Velodrome, I have also done the race on a road circuit, there is a race called the "Miss and Out" or also called "Devil Takes the Hindmost."  The idea is the last person across after a particular lap is eliminated until a set number of laps or people are left.  For the Mile they eliminated 1 each for the first three laps till three were left for the final sprint.  Makes for an entirely different race, see below, there seemed to be a glitch in the video but it will go back to working, or forward it a little:



Salomon's new running series "How to Run"  -  Part 1 - What is Trail Running



Part 2 - What to Wear  -  More to come



This weeks Mountain Outhouse



Limone Skyrunning Extreme World Series Final 2013 -  I may have posted this before but it is great one to watch again:

Weekly RunDown #22

“No one will burn out doing aerobic running. It is too much anaerobic running, which the American scholastic athletic system tends to put young athletes through, that burns them out.” 

Arthur Lydiard

The Running Soles Team got chosen in the lottery for the Bourbon Chase Relay in Ky on October 13-14, 2017.  Looking forward to this one having not run a relay this will be fun.  Not yet sure if it will be my first relay as there is still the possibility I will be running the Hood to Coast in Oregon the end of August.

Some great videos in third post on Steve Cram's Top 5 Races

LetsRun.com's Week That Was for this past week

Ron Hill decided he had to take off from running Sunday.  This would not be news except it stopped the longest running streak at 52 years and 39 days or a total of 19033 days of running at least a mile.

If you are looking for information on Optimized Fat Metabolism this is a great resource: What is OFM

Some thoughts on all the sugar in many sports fueling strategies:  High-Sugar Fueling: Longevity of the Ultra Endurance Athlete Under Threat? 

Michael Wardian Shattered the World Marathon Challenge Record

iRunFar.com's This Week in Running: January 30, 2017

If you would like to try the new Spike-Free bars UltraRunnerPodcast.com has arranged for a code so you can try them:  UltraRunnerPodcast SFuels Code .   I have tried them and they do taste good and I think will be a good option for many people

If you have wondered about the Arthur Lydiard's ideas on training here is a site that has a short synopsis of them:  Lydiard Training Principles

Want to run an Ultra in Alabama the Pinhoti 100 may be for you


Aravaipa Running's Coldwater Rumble 2017



Want to run a marathon in an out of the way location, how about the Rift Marathon in Uganda


This weeks Mountain Outhouse



If you like sprints at the end of a race here are 7 of them Part 1



7 More in Part 2



7 More in Part 3


And if that was not enough here is more in Part 4