ultramarathon

Why Ultrarunning is Basically Zombie Apocalypse Prep

/ Sara Davidson / Leave a comment

Yes, this is the Bigfoot trail.

Prepping for the Bigfoot 200 last year got me thinking about this age-old question: How would the twitchy trail kids fare during a zombie apocalypse?

Hashing out this hypothetical situation took up miles and miles of chatter among our group and deep thoughts while I was running alone.

It was silly, it was fun, and it eventually snowballed into “5 Bug-Out Lessons from the Light and Fast Ultrarunner Crowd,” for OffGrid Magazine. Jared and I got to share the lessons we learned while prepping for and running the Bigfoot 200 in August.

I loved working on this story, before, during and after the race. I got to talk to several amazing subject-matter experts and learned a thing or two about navigating the backcountry and (hopefully) not dying in the woods.

But I never did answer the original question: Would ultrarunners use their grit and stubbornness to be the last ones standing?

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Training Philosophy: Variety is Key

/ Sara Davidson / Leave a comment

Early miles of the Pinhoti 100 in November.

Jared posted the other day about training volume, and his three-up-one-down training philosophy.

He stressed that each runner needs to find what works for them, but then to not be afraid of letting that evolve. This got me thinking about how my training — and everything else — has changed over the last couple years.

I used to live in a building that had a fancy pants gym one floor down, so I used to do my weekday runs on a treadmill. All of them.

When the weather was too bad or the morning was too dark — or the sunshine too bright — I’d run inside.

Inside the building and inside my comfort zone.

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