On this month-to-month article collection, ultrarunner, race director, and coach Gabe Joyes solutions reader questions on something and every thing working. Be taught extra about this ask-the-athlete column, and you’ll want to fill out the shape beneath to submit your questions for a future article!
On this article, Gabe solutions questions on shoe selection, overtraining, social media, and the all-important Friday night time pizza.
Gabe’s tip of the month: It’s Thanksgiving time within the U.S., that point of 12 months once we are inspired to give attention to gratitude. Slightly than making this merely an annual custom, I encourage you to embrace this mindset all year long on your entire races and runs. Begin by eliminating the phrase “sufferfest” out of your vocabulary, and acknowledge that “slogging” is barely a mind-set. Being grateful that you’ve the time, sources, panorama, assist community, neighborhood, well being, and extra out there to go on a self-chosen journey is a privilege, and there’s no struggling in that. On some degree, all of us are searching for a problem on our lengthy runs, so when these troublesome moments arrive, don’t make your self the heroic sufferer of your individual story. As a substitute, contemplate being grateful for the chance to even be in that second. Picture description: Your writer in a troublesome second on the Lavaredo Extremely Path, however nonetheless grateful to be there! All pictures courtesy of Gabe Joyes.
Sneakers for 100-Mile Races
What traits do you search for in a 100-mile race shoe? -Shelbie
Having a shoe that works for a whole 100-mile race is a giant ask! I wore my favourite exact becoming shoe with a quicklace on the 2018 Bighorn 100 Mile, however the tendons within the prime of my toes have been minimize to bits within the second half of the race — my toes began to swell, however I couldn’t loosen my sneakers because the quicklace was motionless with mud. I didn’t run for weeks after the race.
A shoe that’s comfy and confidence-inspiring is essential, however the issue is that most individuals’s toes and foot strike change through the 18 to 48 hours it would take to run 100 miles. An inexpensive quantity of additional width and peak within the toe space goes a protracted approach to defending toes within the again half of the race, whereas having a heel and midfoot which can be securely locked in is necessary for confidence.
Whereas some degree of cushion is undeniably useful in 100 milers, the “extra is all the time higher” view doesn’t all the time pan out right here. Overly cushioned, marshmallow-looking sneakers typically lack stability and construction for toes and ankles to work accurately, whereas sneakers that go too far on the minimalist finish of the spectrum are simply painful in the long term. I’ve executed rather well with a heel-to-toe stack peak of 28 to 24 millimeters (4-millimeter drop.)
All that being stated, there’s nothing flawed with switching sneakers half approach by way of a race, as generally some recent cushion-y foam and further wiggle room could be that priceless increase you want at mile 80!
Jenny Joyes wears a nicely cushioned shoe with a wider toebox on the 2024 Bighorn 100 Mile.
Social Media and Sponsorships
How a lot does social media and different media matter for an athlete who desires to work with manufacturers? -Jason
Take into account these two eventualities:
Situation 1: You share some miles with an elite/influential athlete at the start of a race and have a good time chatting. After the race you’ve gotten a burger and a beer with them and a high-five earlier than heading your separate methods.
Situation 2: An elite/influential athlete has an expertly edited a fast-paced a reel on Instagram that flashes hero pictures and movies earlier than your eyes. You then proceed on and scroll to a @yaboyscottjurek submit and giggle uncontrollably. Repeat.
Which interplay goes to have a extra significant affect on you? Whereas social media’s broad attain is plain, my feeling is that the people who find themselves on the market in the neighborhood often racing, volunteering, crewing, main run golf equipment, and even race directing, are those that truly have the deepest and most significant attain. This kind of individual is the inspiration of the path neighborhood, and even when a model’s Instagram analytics fails to acknowledge this, everybody else sees it and appreciates you.
Mike Foote exhibiting up for the path working neighborhood at The Rut Mountain Runs youngsters’ race.
Overtraining
How do I do know if I’m overtraining? And, how do I do know if I’m peaking too quickly earlier than my race? -Dusty Ray
As we put in tons of time, miles, and/or vert whereas coaching for a race, keep in mind that the gathered fatigue from that is really going to make you quickly slower. Our capability for health (what we’re able to bodily) is growing, however our type (what we’re able to bodily in the meanwhile) is lowering. The way in which we stability this out is with a restoration interval in our coaching — solely after the restoration interval will we count on to see an increase in health and type.
If you end up coaching relentlessly, however by no means making use of some restoration intervals, you run the chance of overtraining. In case you start to really feel unmotivated or uninspired by your coaching, or you might be too drained to operate usually in the remainder of your life, you is likely to be overtraining. Typically athletes will take a look at this fatigue induced tiredness and suppose, Oh no, I’m shedding health, I higher practice even tougher! The truth is that they want an opportunity to soak up all of the laborious work they’ve executed. For many runners, every week of considerably decreased coaching quantity and depth along side plentiful energy and sleep turns round most points with being overtrained.
Friday Night time Pizza
The place does your loved ones’s Friday night time pizza custom come from? How a lot pizza is an excessive amount of pizza? What’s your gluten-free pizza recipe? -Varied
Have you ever ever thought in regards to the entirety of an ultramarathon and have been overwhelmed by how giant it’s? I all the time distance myself from the one that groans “solely 99 extra miles to go!” when everybody’s watch beeps at mile one. My strategy is to interrupt races up into manageable chunks, and I usually solely take into consideration how a lot farther away the subsequent assist station is — and never the end line. My household takes this “from assist station to help station” strategy for a lot of life as nicely, and for us Friday night time pizza is our weekly “assist station.”
For us, it’s a celebration of creating it by way of one other week, particularly through the chilly and darkish weeks of winter. So far as how a lot pizza is an excessive amount of pizza, I usually prescribe to the athletes I coach — “eat a whole pizza” after a race and that feels very affordable to me. If you wish to learn about our gluten-free sourdough crust recipe that was developed over the course of the previous decade — keep tuned.
Friday night time pizza is all the time a spotlight of the week.
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