Why Walk With A Purpose
Why Walk With A Purpose
In most ultramarathons, especially mountainous races, non-elite runners will walk a substantial distance of the race.
In 2008, I was pacing a friend running his first 100-mile race, and towards the end of the race he was more or less slowly strolling along and losing a lot of time.I repeatably encouraged him to run, to walk faster, to keep pushing but the words that finally got him to move faster were to "walk with a purpose".
Since then, these simple four words have become my personal mantra when a workout, a long run or a race get tough.
Keep moving forward, keep pushing and have a purpose that will keep your legs moving even when your brain tells them to stop.
Training Philosophy
Training plans are personalized for each athlete and follow the fundamental principles listed below.
- A manageable workload applied consistently over weeks, months, or even years will provide the physical adaptions for improvement. Overloading the schedule with mileage and workouts may lead to short-term gains but, in most cases, lead to injuries and burnout.
- 80+% of running or cross-training volume needs to be done at a very easy pace/effort
- Ignore your watch and run by feel. Too many runners are checking their GPS watch every few minutes.
- Strides, strides, strides. Did I say strides enough?
- Make the workouts count, but don't overdo them, either (don't race the workouts!)
- Keep it fun; change up runs, workouts, and locations if possible.
- And most important, don't stress if you miss a workout or long run or your training doesn't go as planned.