I hope your training is going great so far in 2022!
Below are a handful of articles you may find interesting:
Tommy Rivs Return to Boston – A short article about Rivs' return to Boston after beating a rare form of cancer. I was so happy to see him out there on the course!
Mario Fraioli just released a podcast with Tommy recorded the day after Boston - you can read more about it here.
Nienke Brinkman sets Dutch National Record – Nienke started running at the start of the pandemic... and in just two years set the Dutch National record in the marathon... in her second marathon. I've never heard of a progression like that before – I recommend reading more about her journey here.
New 24hr World Record – Sania Sorokin broke a 25-year-old World Record to go along with his records at 100mi and 12hrs. Note: he's still training with speedwork, not just shuffling out the miles!
Data – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – More data is good, right? Probably not, at least for most of us. Two main reasons: first, technology isn't accurate enough to truly guide us. Second, the data points we think are objective... really aren't. There are too many confounding variables. Learn more in this article!
Why Downtime May Lead to Breakthroughs – Principles of fitness maintenance, neuromuscular lag and more – all reasons why downtime so often leads to true breakthroughs!
Dietary Observations of Ultra-Endurance Runners – Ultra runners are fat-adapted, right? No need for gels or carb-loading here! Wrong! This great study in Frontiers of Physiology explores the pre-race and within-race fueling strategies of ultra runners in an actual race.
My guidelines as a coach are only part-joke: "Fuel until you have GI distress, then back off slightly." But the important part – keep experimenting, exploring, and pushing your body to adapt. This takes practice – don't assume you just can't fuel enough during a race and you need to live with it!
