As a bit of a tease I thought I would start this blog off with an intro to my new book, which has been over a year in the making and should be ready in about six weeks. I hope you enjoy this brief excerpt from the book's introduction.
Best,
Dr Dave
Introduction
When I sat down to write this book I had a real dilemma.
You see, there was so much drama in my life (physical, personal and even business at the time) when I decided to run my very first ultra trail marathon that this book would easily have made a tremendous semi-fictional novel.
In the end I decided to leave out the "fictionalized" real events (you know, the names have been changed to protect the guilty, etc.) and focus on the training aspects and experiential learning that I have to give you.
I did so because I did not want the drama to dilute the real information in the book as might be the case. In other words, I haven't yet figured out how to write a mix of real and semi fiction that would be taken seriously by the running community and other athletes as well.
Ok, so why did I really write this book?
As far as I am concerned Ultra Marathons are the next big thing.
As baby boomers age and some of the other generations begin to sense their own mortality the need to "do something special" and really challenging "before it's too late" comes into more and more people's minds.
About 15 years ago marathons were the thing. Then it became acceptable to walk/jog a marathon and take 6 or 7 hours to complete it.
Literally hundreds of thousands of people have now completed the distance of 26.2 miles
While this is not necessarily bad for the sport it does make the achievement a wee bit less special unless of course you go for one of the qualified marathons like Boston.
At this moment triathlons are experiencing a real surge in popularity, especially the shorter "sprint" distances.
Like the marathon craze, I think it's wonderful! People are getting into better shape, experiencing competition sometimes for the first time and in this case mastering or at least learning several different disciplines.
BRAVO!
That said, however, I am certain for all of the same reasons I have mentioned already and all the same reasons that apply to marathoning and triathloning, ultras are the next big thing and a lot more people are going to attempt them.
So who better to write the definitive "how to" guide than the crazy but well-educated dude who hasn't run in years and gave himself about 6 months to tackle one of the toughest races in the land and, walked away smiling!
Now onto a few definitions and generalizations.
Ultra marathon distances vary greatly but usually start at the 30 mile range and go all the way up to 100 miles and beyond.
The first ultra I ran in and the one that is the center of this book is called "The Canadian Death Race" and, being held in a country that is on the metric system, is referred to as 125K (just shy of 78 miles). I have known of some local races that are considered ultras that are 32 miles and of course there are many longer distances out there.
Not to be confused with adventure races, which require some kind of water craft and often long distances, biking and pure hiking, ultra marathons are strictly hike/run events, the amount of either usually being determined by 3 things: the terrain, the distance, and the ability of the athlete.
Another generalization that can be made about ultras is that they are usually off road e.g. trail running events.
One more thing that bears mentioning... Amongst the running communities that I have contact with, ultras are thought of as "races for older slower people". This comes about because many of the runners who do them are 35 and over.
While it is true that most of us slow down and become less crazy about proving our competitive worth, I honestly don't think the reasons are only speed related.
First off, running a 10 minute mile pace consistently over a 50 or 100 mile trail run that covers several mountains in the several thousand feet range would be a challenge for ANY runner.
What I have found to be the real reasons people do these are the following:
You see, there was so much drama in my life (physical, personal and even business at the time) when I decided to run my very first ultra trail marathon that this book would easily have made a tremendous semi-fictional novel.
In the end I decided to leave out the "fictionalized" real events (you know, the names have been changed to protect the guilty, etc.) and focus on the training aspects and experiential learning that I have to give you.
I did so because I did not want the drama to dilute the real information in the book as might be the case. In other words, I haven't yet figured out how to write a mix of real and semi fiction that would be taken seriously by the running community and other athletes as well.
Ok, so why did I really write this book?
As far as I am concerned Ultra Marathons are the next big thing.
As baby boomers age and some of the other generations begin to sense their own mortality the need to "do something special" and really challenging "before it's too late" comes into more and more people's minds.
About 15 years ago marathons were the thing. Then it became acceptable to walk/jog a marathon and take 6 or 7 hours to complete it.
Literally hundreds of thousands of people have now completed the distance of 26.2 miles
While this is not necessarily bad for the sport it does make the achievement a wee bit less special unless of course you go for one of the qualified marathons like Boston.
At this moment triathlons are experiencing a real surge in popularity, especially the shorter "sprint" distances.
Like the marathon craze, I think it's wonderful! People are getting into better shape, experiencing competition sometimes for the first time and in this case mastering or at least learning several different disciplines.
BRAVO!
That said, however, I am certain for all of the same reasons I have mentioned already and all the same reasons that apply to marathoning and triathloning, ultras are the next big thing and a lot more people are going to attempt them.
So who better to write the definitive "how to" guide than the crazy but well-educated dude who hasn't run in years and gave himself about 6 months to tackle one of the toughest races in the land and, walked away smiling!
Now onto a few definitions and generalizations.
Ultra marathon distances vary greatly but usually start at the 30 mile range and go all the way up to 100 miles and beyond.
The first ultra I ran in and the one that is the center of this book is called "The Canadian Death Race" and, being held in a country that is on the metric system, is referred to as 125K (just shy of 78 miles). I have known of some local races that are considered ultras that are 32 miles and of course there are many longer distances out there.
Not to be confused with adventure races, which require some kind of water craft and often long distances, biking and pure hiking, ultra marathons are strictly hike/run events, the amount of either usually being determined by 3 things: the terrain, the distance, and the ability of the athlete.
Another generalization that can be made about ultras is that they are usually off road e.g. trail running events.
One more thing that bears mentioning... Amongst the running communities that I have contact with, ultras are thought of as "races for older slower people". This comes about because many of the runners who do them are 35 and over.
While it is true that most of us slow down and become less crazy about proving our competitive worth, I honestly don't think the reasons are only speed related.
First off, running a 10 minute mile pace consistently over a 50 or 100 mile trail run that covers several mountains in the several thousand feet range would be a challenge for ANY runner.
What I have found to be the real reasons people do these are the following:
- They like to run on trails because trails present an entirely different style of running and an entirely different set of problems.
- They have the discipline to run at a slower pace for 12, 24 or more hours and the discipline to train correctly for that kind of running.
- Believe it or not most of us who have run roads at one point and trials at another agree: you are less likely to get a serious overuse running injury on trails simply because of the diversity of the terrain your feet "see".
