I've been looking at ultra running lately; besides being fun and a
great challenge, it would fit well with training for longer adventure
races as long as I built in enough time to recover. This
"So You Want To Run Ultras" web page
has some good advice and, especially near the bottom, hints at the zen
of ultra. Most of the advice carries over to adventure racing,
including:
- "the quality and quantity of fuel (food/fluids) you take in during a training run
or race has a direct bearing on the work you put out. Poor quality or quantity
will lead to a degradation in performance and enjoyment as you proceed down the
trail or road."
- "There is much misinformation that gets repeated by popular running magazines,
and oral tradition." and later, "'conventional wisdom' often has to be unlearned when runners become serious
about pursuit of achieving their potential."
I particularly agree with Shawn McDonald's remark that "we each are an
experiment of one." What works for one person may not work for
another. With adventure racing, where you're moving with a team
of other "experiments of one" things can get tricky and that's where
the team dynamics in adventure racing become very interesting. I
like the team dimension. For me, the toughest part of approaching
an ultra is the
lack of a team element which
should make
it easier for me (because I can just worry about myself) but for some
reason intimidates me. I guess if I tackled an ultra run with a
group of like-minded friends that would address this problem, at least
a bit. Anyway, if you're curious about Ultras you should check
out the more general
UltRunR website from Ken Sayers and the specific page on
So You Want To Run Ultras