Blisters, Imaginative and prescient Loss, the Hardest Path, and Extra – iRunFar

On this month-to-month article sequence, ultrarunner, race director, and coach Gabe Joyes solutions reader questions on something and all the things working. Be taught extra about this ask-the-athlete column, and make sure to fill out the shape beneath to submit your questions for a future article!

On this article, Gabe solutions all the things from questions on imaginative and prescient loss and blisters in ultrarunning, to deeper musings on what it actually means to offer one thing your all.

Blisters and Scorching Spots

“Recently I’ve been having an issue with blisters and extreme sizzling spots throughout lengthy races of fifty to 100 miles. I don’t appear to have an issue throughout my regular coaching, and even throughout races/runs as much as 50-ish miles. So, when it occurs, it’s a little bit of a shock and sadly not one thing I’m often ‘ready’ for. It’s to the purpose the place it drastically impacts my efficiency, nearly ending my race. What tips and ideas are you able to share about foot care or preparation?” -JBADD

These kinds of “it by no means occurs in coaching” issues pop up as a result of 50 to 100 miles is usually a lot longer than our longest coaching runs. My greatest guess is that your ft are swelling in the course of the races to some extent you perhaps haven’t skilled in coaching, and maybe you will have on socks or sneakers (or each) which have gathered water and grit alongside the way in which.

Having spare socks and sneakers to vary into earlier than you will have issues will help with this, but in addition I’d suggest having a pair of sneakers which might be your “swell dimension.” Your swell-size sneakers will most likely really feel sloppy and a bit like clown sneakers in case you wore them from the beginning, however while you swap into them on the 50-mile mark of a race, they are going to really feel roomy, comfy, and like a breath of contemporary air.

The explanations our ft swell throughout our longest races will be various, however probably the most frequent causes are hydration and electrolyte standing points, which may trigger you to retain water that accumulates in your ft, and the final influence of so many further 1000’s of foot landings than is regular. Sustaining good hydration and electrolyte consumption, and making an attempt to run and hike with environment friendly kind are your greatest bets for lowering the consequences of mid-race foot swelling.

Together with back-to-back lengthy runs in coaching is one other option to simulate what your ft will really feel like within the again half of a giant extremely as a way to plan forward and put together.

Try iRunFar’s in-depth article on foot care and first assist for path working and ultrarunning, so you will have the instruments to work in your ft if and when blisters and sizzling spots do occur.

Imaginative and prescient Loss Throughout Ultramarathons

“There’s not sufficient dialogue about lack of imaginative and prescient by athletes throughout ultras. I suffered from the primary extremely I ran with lack of imaginative and prescient and double imaginative and prescient and thought I used to be the one one ever. Then I heard Courtney [Dauwalter] discuss it, and iRunFar really had an article in 2017 about it. I lastly figured it out for the 50k distance. I used to be questioning what you possibly can share about this subject. (The third-place Hardrock 100 lady had lack of imaginative and prescient this yr!)” –KH

It’s laborious to benefit from the views, a lot much less race properly, when you possibly can’t see! Towards the tail-end of the 2019 Run Rabbit Run 100 Mile, I assumed my headlamp battery was dying, however as soon as the solar got here up, my imaginative and prescient was one thing like making an attempt to see out of sun shades that had been fully fogged up. I sadly shuffled my method down the final 3,500-foot descent as a couple of runners handed me and I slipped out of the final “cash spot” — which maybe is a microcosm of my total monetary life, however I digress.

Corneal edema tends to be brought on by quite a lot of elements — together with lengthy publicity to high-altitude circumstances, lack of sleep, chilly temperatures, wind, and mud. Naturally, 100-mile races within the Colorado excessive nation are prime examples of this surroundings.

Since my fateful race in 2019, I at all times put on glasses that may be clear at evening (my private alternative are these made by Julbo with Reactiv lenses) to maintain chilly, dry air and mud away from my eyes.

I’ve not skilled any extra points with corneal edema since then, and I personally know a number of different runners who’ve additionally had success with the clear and protecting glasses method.

Right here is iRunFar’s have a look at the science behind imaginative and prescient loss in ultramarathons.

Is Much less Extra?

“Camille Herron not does back-to-back lengthy coaching runs and no static stretching — and but her accomplishments are unbelievable (560 miles in six days; 72-hour world report of 342 miles, and many others.) Is she simply genetically gifted? Or is that this the wave of future coaching? And do we’ve greater than anecdotal information to help one of these change in coaching for ultras? Thanks!” -E. Colwell

Despite the fact that the ultimate one to 3 months of coaching we do earlier than a race is essential, remember the fact that they’re just one tiny snapshot of our complete coaching historical past. For instance, in case you had been somebody who grew up often happening lengthy household hikes, participated in youth and highschool sports activities, and even ran collegiately, you should have very totally different physiology to somebody who was not very lively as a toddler or younger grownup and located ultrarunning later in life.

The identical coaching can have a really totally different stimulus on these two runners — we’re all distinctive people. Apparently, we regularly see that somebody with an enormous coaching historical past, like Camille, can carry out at a really excessive degree a bit afterward of their working profession with comparatively low ranges of coaching as a result of they simply have a lot health and comfortable tissue tolerance within the financial institution.

The Hardest Path

“Hello Gabe, you’ve had the chance to run and race in lots of locations world wide. In your opinion, what’s the toughest path in ultrarunning?” -EH

Most of us love (or like to hate?) the problem of a tough path, and for me there’s one clear and apparent winner right here. No, it isn’t sliding backward up Grant-Swamp Cross within the Hardrock 100, neither is it a 100-plus-degree Fahrenheit day within the canyons of the Western States 100. Definitely, probably the most difficult path in all of ultrarunning is the Center Fork of the Popo Agie Path in Wyoming’s Wind River Mountains. Don’t consider me?

“That path broke me. So unforgiving.” –Mike Foote, a three-time Hardrock 100 podium finisher and The Rut Mountain Runs race director

“The Center Fork is among the most heartbreaking trails within the Winds. On a map, it appears completely clean, however while you attempt to run it, it’s practically inconceivable to search out any movement. And when you possibly can’t discover any movement, the path feels everlasting.” –Kelly Halpin, who holds the Wind River Excessive Route ladies’s unsupported quickest recognized time

“Should you’ve ever questioned what path runner purgatory is, you could find it on the Center Fork Path. It’s so lengthy that you would be able to run for a half hour, recheck your progress on a map, and understand your ahead progress is just about undetectable. Overlook about discovering movement — a second of that and also you’ll be head-over via one among its rock gardens. And when for a second the path provides you the liberty to open your stride and really feel pleasure, it’ll rip it away in one among its sand pits, the place you’ll be within the dwelling model of that dream the place you attempt to run away from one thing however can solely transfer in sluggish movement.” –Meghan Hicks, iRunFar Editor-in-Chief and complete badass

Shall I’m going on? Or else you possibly can expertise a small chunk of this difficult but splendidly stunning path for your self on the Sinks Canyon Path Races 50k in June of every yr.

Giving Your Finest

“Have we modified the idea of efficiency in ultrarunning right into a solely athletic endeavor? Extra exactly, giving your greatest? With an acceptance of vomiting and being unwell in ultramarathons as an indication of being a badass and toughness, jeopardizing well being, what does this say about us? What does it say in regards to the world we create for ourselves and the way forward for the game?

“How about an aesthetic notion of efficiency? The athlete-artist, transferring via house/time, in a apply of being within the second — flowing, pushing their our bodies to the outer limits of rhythm — risk-taking, and generally falling out of tone. What are your ideas? Is it time for a unique idea?” -Maria Oostra

Whereas not true in all circumstances, I do assume there’s a mindset that it’s extra engaging to create the phantasm of giving our greatest, and to create a dramatic story, than to truly carry out at our greatest. Pushing so laborious that one is vomiting, unwell, and having a “sufferfest” is de facto dramatic from an optics perspective and makes for simple (and in my view, uninspiring) social media and podcast content material.

In actuality, “giving your greatest” really appears like months of meticulous and detail-oriented preparation in order that one is ready to movement, be within the second, and have an excellent efficiency.

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