He is part of a small group in the ultra community - he is
both a successful coach with his own coaching company and he’s an
elite ultra marathon runner. In 2013 he set the record holder for
the fastest Grand Slam of Ultra Running. Since Jan 2014 he has won
6 ultra marathons. AND, he has also earned a top-10 finish all 6
times he has run the Western States 100. So far, in 2015, he has
won both Rocky Racoon (which he also won in 2011) and the Leadville
100 (which he also won in 2013).
I dig into Ian’s approaches and philosophies in coaching to
learn:
About his current athlete load and how he trains.
His overall framework of training prescription - the macro-view
(philosophy) to training for ultra marathons.
He also answers questions like:
How and when, in a season, do you focus on long runs?
How and when, in a season, do you prescribe high intensity
workouts - what is the benefit relative to ultra performance?
When, if ever, is cross training appropriate? What’s the
benefit?
There are many terms for training features, like ‘speed work’,
tempo, striders, fartleks, 2 per day, back-to-back, etc. Do these
play a roll in your training prescriptions - how/why/why not?
What might a week of training look like 10 months from a key
event (e.g., Leadville 100) vs 1 month out?
Do you use a HR monitor with your athletes?
What is your approach to monitoring or ensuring that training
is balanced with the right amount of recovery; monitoring for
over-fatigue or over-training? Recovery runs vs days off?
Tapering; how do you approach tapering with your athletes?
We wrap up with two specific questions for the Ultra
Clan
What are the two most common mistakes that Ian sees in prior
training plans when an athlete first comes to hire him as a
coach?
What three specific action items of advice would he give to us
that we can make sure we have in place to optimize our training or
racing today?
AND MUCH MORE…
About the Podcast
For endurance athletes who want to do more than improve race performance. How you sleep, think, eat, and move all play a role in helping you Become Your Ultra Best!