Read before You Ultra

❝It’s oddly comforting to know that all I need to do for the next 50 hours is suffer well—because what greater ambitions could I dare have? open.substack.com/pub/readbefore… This is how my first 100-mile race began. #running #trailrunning #ultrarunning #writing

❝Effort without direction or strategy can lead to burnout or wasted potential, while focused effort—guided by skill, intention, and adaptability—can produce better outcomes and more meaningful progress in general. —Mario Fraioli theamshakeout.kit.com/posts/the-morn… #running #ultrarunning

❝It’s interesting that this decrease in performance [after limiting post-training #carbohydrate consumption] occurred even though the participants’ muscle glycogen levels were the same as before the first day. —@dwrowland open.substack.com/pub/dwrowland/… #running

❝So getting into the sport as a newer runner, I assumed that there were tons of women #running, you know, I’m like, we’re so good at this. […] So I’d assume it’s at least a 50/50 gender ratio, probably at all of the races. —Rachel Bambrick/@CommTrailRun open.substack.com/pub/communityt…

❝The confidence, the empowerment, and all of that stuff comes in the process and not the result […]. —Allie Bailey/Will Roberts @willrobertswrites/p-154190711" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">substack.com/@willrobertswr… #TheSpineRace is just around the corner. #running #trailrunning #ultrarunning

❝If you aren’t eating enough calories, it doesn’t matter how many antioxidants you eat or how carefully you choose ingredients you can pronounce […]. —Alyssa Leib news.ultrasignup.com/new-years-reso… #running #trailrunning #ultrarunning #nutrition

❝Motivation passes with the wind. Discipline is important but not as universally reliable as the ascetics would have us believe. What can we count on, then, if not motivation and discipline? Environment. —Robert Wilson open.substack.com/pub/checkengin…

2/2 ❝But to get to ‘I did that’ you usually start with ‘Can I do that?’. —Jaz Sandalli open.substack.com/pub/medalmagpi… #running #trailrunning #ultrarunning

1/2 ❝It’s deeply satisfying to look back on an elevation chart, or pace splits, or even backwards at the expanse of terrain already covered, and think ‘I did that. What else can I do?’ (𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵.)

❝You should work on yourself. You should learn about yourself. You should understand yourself. Because no matter what goals you set you’re always going to bring you along for the ride. —@cyktrussell runrunlive.com/new-year-new-g… #running #trailrunning #ultrarunning

❝You don’t have to become some kind of meathead gym bro for identity to fuel your exercise motivation. Identity is not ego […]. Instead, we’re looking for ways that exercise can naturally integrate with who you are. —Meredith Sell open.substack.com/pub/womensbarb…

2/2 ❝The researchers suggest that the most likely reason for this is we tend to lose fast-twitch muscle fibers quicker than slow-twitch fibers, which leaves us with weaker and less explosive muscles in general. —Melissa Crawley melissacrawley.substack.com/p/muscle-power…

1/2 ❝The results found, unsurprisingly, that we lose muscle power with age and the decline in power is more than the decline in strength. (𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵.)

❝The way of the #marathon. Run 100 miles a week for three months and, if you have a bad day on race day, you have nothing to show for it. Except, of course, I have so much to show for it. —Russell Bentley russellrunner.com/valencia-marat… #running

❝HIIT training sessions are like a magnifying glass […]. [T]he mind and body ‘conversation’ (famously summarized as ‘shut up legs’ by former professional cyclist Jens Vogt) becomes increasingly heated during #HIIT. —@StephenSeiler cdnsciencepub.com/doi/full/10.11… #running #training

❝No, it was no big shaker, owt like that, you know. It’s one of them things that, you know, you has to do, and you go along, and you do your best, and you don’t tell anybody about these things unless they want to know. —Joss Naylor theguardian.com/sport/ng-inter… #running #fellrunning

❝This ability to evaluate the intense physicality of #running is what I refer to in my research as learning to become a connoisseur of your physically active body. —Dr John Day runbundle.com/articles/runni…

❝All you can see is the distant horizon and all you know is to move toward it. You no longer have a past or future. You’re just… here… now… in the worst place you’ve ever experienced. […] So why did I feel so alive? Because I was present. —Jill Homer jilloutside.substack.com/p/the-futility…

❝Living adventurously became my guiding principle, but I recognized the need to balance it with purpose. […] By focusing on my local map, I realized that fixing our immediate surroundings could lead to broader positive change. —@Al_Humphreys alastairhumphreys.com/10500-days-of-…

❝So I did what I always do — I went for a run […]. Out there on trail in the dark (it’s rifle deer season here) the grandiosity of it faded into the rough-but-lovely reality of all the miles of grinding between here and there. —Jeff Calvert rushofitall.substack.com/p/nibbled-by-d… #hardrock100