Just a quick bit about some spring time results. Not a lot of racing going on just yet - but some! Biggest result is Dianna coming back from injury to finish the Stories Ultra 6 hour race. After a broken foot knocked her out of last years events, this was the first race back for her in many months. The weather proved to be great for a run - no snow on the ground like in 2020 and with cold, but seasonal temperatures for February. Dianna's training heading into Stories had been limited due to the time, but she was still able to cover 12 miles. A huge accomplishment for someone who hadn't been running a month before the event! If you haven't tried a timed race, I strongly recommend looking at them. Very family and crew friendly and perfect for a first ultra. You can run as little or as long as time allows.  Dianna reaching the finish of her 6 hour event at Stories Ultra.  Coach Tracy finished up her Moab Triple Crown series with the Arches Ultra 50k and the Behind the Rock...

 Here's to hoping that 2021 will be slightly more normal then 2020. Races are slowly starting to come back on to the schedule, so it's time to start planning for a successful year. But how to do that? Well, it all depends on if you kept up with the training, building a solid foundation over the craziness of last year or if you were limited in your ability to get out and about. It also depends on if you are looking at different races for 2021 or if it's just rolling over the 2020 schedule.  If you have a new schedule, then things are a little easier. It's like any other year - where you balance the big goal races with smaller events to dial in the gear and preparation. Take into account that fields might be smaller and it might be harder to get into the races you want to do. Once you have your races set, it's a matter of designing the program around them. Start where your fitness is right now - not where it was last year at this time, and then work forwards. Remember...

Racing (in person) may have been canceled, but running hasn't! Yes, some locations are stricter on the lock downs and stay at home directives then others. Getting out to trails and the mountains has been challenging for some people. But others are getting creative and doing their runs around the block or even smaller. How to stay motivated when there's such a limited range for adventure? After so many March and April races were canceled, with May and June looking ominous, the race directors have stepped up. They need to stay in business - which means putting on races. No races means no money and possibly even worse as runners demand refunds for events that were canceled. (Side note - if you want your favorite grass roots race series to survive, don't ask for a refund if the race was canceled on short notice and don't do a charge back! That's a sure way to bankrupt the events. Let the RDs figure things out that will both help you and the events.) The solution isn...

Thelen Coach Athlete Dennis headed up to the Wind River Range in Wyoming for the inaugural Drift 100 Fat Bike race . It might have been one of the last race held before new guidance from the CDC came down! Here is his report from that race. Sounds like it was a great event and one that fatbikers should consider in the future! Remember - support your race directors and take a chance on the smaller events.  All photos from Dennis Pre-race and ready to go! Gear list coming soon... The Drift100 course was beautiful, challenging, and fun; everything a 100-mile fatbike race should be. Below is my perception of the course, at least as well as I can remember it. You can forget a lot of geography over the course of 25.5 hours of pedaling! Course markings and tracks The first 47 miles of the Drift100 are almost entirely spent climbing. From the start, the course climbs up the valley for 19 miles at a gentle gradient punctuated by a few short, steep grunts. There are a handful o...

The last few weeks (and the upcoming ones I'm sure...) have been crazy. It seemed each hour brought new cancellations to the racing world and new restrictions on everyday life. It's hard to see the effects that the widespread cancellations, closures and such will have on people and businesses. We do know that things are changing and changing rapidly. Some things will survive, others will not. It's our job to help the people, businesses and series so that when we emerge on the other side, they are marked on the survivor side. There's plenty of information out there on the importance of social distancing to slow the infection. That doesn't need to be repeated. Social distancing doesn't mean time to go out and plan an awesome vacation because you are "working from home." It means minimizing unneeded travel, decreased close up and in-person interactions. Yes, camping off the grid decreases social interaction, but that overlooks the unneeded travel part o...

I was going to write about setting up goals for the 2020 season. I was planning on reviewing SMART goals, updating an earlier article on writing and implementing goals. I was also going to discuss some of the pitfalls of setting resolutions as related to the SMART goals. But there's always some much written about goals this time of year. Why write the same thing again? So here's the link to the SMART goals . There's plenty of good information there to help you craft achievable goals. Instead, I want to talk about rebuilding. It's never a comeback , as I've discussed before. The athlete who suffered the injury, had the layoff - what ever, is no more. We can't return to that athlete no matter how hard we try. Rebuilding isn't crafting a comeback, it's creating a new version of that old athlete. The athlete we are now building into is coming from a different place then the old identity. It's important to remember that the rebuilding process takes time...

December is an exciting time for athletes. It's lottery season for many of the big races - both running and riding. For athletes who aren't doing a race what requires a lottery, it's also when many races open registration for the next year. So many races, so few weekends and so little time to train. So how you decide what races to pencil in the calendar for next year? And if you do get lucky in the lottery or find yourself high up on a wait list, how you plan around those target races? First off the lottery races. Yay! You got into your dream race.... Now what happens with all those other fun sounding events you were looking at? Time to break out the big picture calendar. I like putting the goal races down a bold color, then all of the other events in different colors based on timing and how much you really want to do them. Darker the color, the higher the priority. Look at the goal race, then consider your training. If you are doing a 100 mile race, will you really want ...

For most endurance athletes, the racing season is wrapping up about this time of year. The major races are finished, the race reports written and reviewed. So now what? If you are like most endurance athletes, the off season is a hard time - not the needed recovery from a long training and racing season. We've spent the last number of months building speed, endurance and power - getting fitter and faster. And now? With every passing recovery week, the fitness feels likes it's slipping away. All those hard earned gains lost. It’s tempting to keep pushing to maintain current fitness so you start next season well ahead of this season That’s an easy way to get injured and burn out. We cannot maintain the race fitness throughout the entire year. We need the time to recover from the stresses of training and racing. So the off season is actually just as important as the rest of the training season. Unfortunately, most athletes see the off season as either a time to for complete rest...

(After seeing Dianna many times throughout the day during the Sangre de Cristo Ultras, I asked her to write about how her day volunteering went. We always get the race reports from the athletes - never from the people out there helping. I know she'll get back to adventuring in the mountains soon, but meanwhile there's more ways to be a part of an event then just pinning on a bib number.) To quote a blast from my college past, The Indigo Girls, “The less I seek my source for some definitive, the closer I am to fine.” This is a different kind of race report. After battling with a health issue for 6 months, and many conversations with my MD and friends, I found myself making the difficult decision to sideline myself from any runs over 2 hours long for the near future.   Eventually, I had to admit that the MD was correct, and I reluctantly emailed a Race Director, John Lacroix regarding my entry in the September Sangre de Cristo Ultra. I'd been looking forward to that rac...

Some good racing in June for Thelen Coaching athletes - both on foot and on the bike. There were new races, epic adventures and new PRs. All the things I like seeing! Andrew had a really busy June - racing in both the Dirty Kanza 200 and the Michigan Coast to Coast 200. At Dirty Kanza on June 1, his goat was beat to Midnight. It would be a tall order and require focused riding and good conditions. Last year, he finished in 20:09, so beating midnight would require taking over two hours off his time. Unlike with events like the ITI or the CTR, there's no blue dot watching. The only updates come when he reached each check point - talk about stressful as a coach! Blue dot watching might get boring, "Oh look! Another 400' in the last 10 minutes...." but you can see the forward progress. This year, Andrew reached the final check point - 12 miles out with about 90 minutes left to pedal to beat midnight. Easily within reach if there were no mechanical issues. The official t...

We've all heard someone saying it "I'm only doing the 10k" when there's a longer race involved. Or "it's just a 5k,” as if that distance isn’t worth racing. Only and Just - we toss those words around, not realized the impact they have on the athletes around us. Only and Just are as much four letter words as something I won’t print here. But why? Why are those words inappropriate to use when discussing races or workouts? There’s a few reasons. They minimize the athlete and the distance - regardless if you are talking about yourself or something else. “I’m only doing the 10k” can easily be translated into “I’m not a bad-ass like you are,” when someone is talking a runner doing a longer race. Any distance is a meaningful distance, regardless of what else is going on. Someone else might be doing the 50k race that same day, but that’s their race - not yours. Are they looking down on you for doing the shorter distance? No. At least they shouldn’t be! The race...

Spring may just have started a few weeks ago, but Thelen Coaching athletes have been out and about, turning in some solid performances at races all over the country. Brenda traveled to Moab for the Mad Moose Events Behind the Rocks 10 mile race. This was a new experience for her, having never raced in Moab before. Trail running in Moab is a different kind of running - trail running, but more like concrete due to the hardness of the rock. She handled it well and had a great race, breaking 3:00 hours for the technical 11 mile race. Yes - there were some bonus miles at the race... Brenda at the finish line of Behind the Rocks Jen returned to the trails for the Mountain to Sea Challenge, a 12 mile point to point race in Raleigh, NC. While the results wasn't as fast as she wanted, there were still some great lessons learned. And that's what racing is all about, learning things we can apply to upcoming events. She still managed to break 3 hours under some challenging conditio...

Two Thelen Coaching athletes took on the Iditarod Trail Invitation this year. Dennis returned to the trail in the 150, a new distance this year that replaced the 130 he won last year. I'll have his report posted once I get it. After getting stymied by the weather at JP's Fat Pursuit, this was the goal for the winter. It wasn't about place or time, it was about reaching the finish line safely. It was also one step closer to the ITI 300 in either 2020 or 2021. Every race is an opportunity for learning and that becomes even more important with the extreme weather winter racing can throw at athletes. This edition of the ITI had some unexpected challenges including a sudden temperature drop and a malfunctioning tracker that required a longer then anticipated stop at the first check point. Overall, his plan of forward momentum and assessing the upcoming conditions at each checkpoint proved smart. Dennis reached the finish of the ITI 150 in second place this year. View from the...

"It's sad to see anyone inside on the trainer." That was the comment attached to an article about riding outside all winter long. And yes, there is a certain joy to being outside in the chilly air, getting fresh tracks on a snowy trail. The terrain changes under the snow and old trails become new. But with the changes in terrain come the hazards associated with winter - ice to mention one. Like with everything, there is a time and a place for both outside rides and inside workouts. Instead of demonizing the athletes who choose to take the workouts inside, we all might gain some perspective if we really think about why. Here are just a few of the benefits for taking workouts inside during adverse conditions. - Time savings. There's no bundling up in three layers of clothes to ride inside, nor the extra time required to wash all those extra clothes. In order to get a quality workout inside, you just need to throw on bibs and jersey. You can be pedaling in 5 minutes a...

It's a oft discussed topic in the world of ultras with firm opinions on both sides. To have a plan or to not have a plan? The no plan camp says that a detailed chart can lead to more mental anxiety then not if things don't go according to that plan. There is truth to that statement - how many times in a race have you targeted specific goals and then struggled when the goal times weren't met? Seeing goal times at checkpoints slip away can have a devastating effect on a race. Athletes either push too hard trying to make up time or just give up because the goal is gone. Pushing too hard often has the opposite effect. Instead of making up time, there's too much energy expended and the athlete loses more time in the end. On the other end of the spectrum is the athlete who simply gives up and stops. This athlete isn't hitting the goal splits and doesn't see the big picture that while one segment of the race might not go according to the plan, there's miles left ...

This is from Merideth - her story of perseverance despite crazy odds to reach the finish line.  Like the sun, we must always keep moving. Sunrise on the road to Imogene Pass Imogene Pass. A little slice of heaven that separates Ouray, CO from Telluride. I was privileged enough (thanks to a dear friend) to secure a highly coveted place in a 17.1 mile race that goes over this 13k foot high pass. (All 1.6k-ish slots sold out in less than 30 minutes). 5,363 feet of constant and unrelenting elevation gain while climbing for 10 miles, and then descending 7.1 miles back into Telluride. There were 3 cutoff points where the race officials reserve the right to turn runners around based on weather and elapsed time. The first cutoff for this race was 7.65 miles in.  Runners have 2.5 hours to get to this cutoff point, and “all” runners who arrive at this point after the 2.5 hour mark were supposed to be turned around to trudge back to Ouray with their tail...

This is Merideth's story about her first ultra - the Pikes Peak Ultra 50k. PPU is one of the harder 50ks in the state, with over 7k of climbing, including summiting Mount Rosa at over 11,500 feet before dropping back into the city. I have it split into four parts for easier reading. At the base of Rosa, I encountered the second to last aide station where one of my friends was volunteering. Not only did I grab my typical potato chips and Coke, she also handed me some candied bacon she had brought with her. My nutrition felt really good at this point, and honestly, I stopped checking my watch. I was within 10 minutes of my target overall time, and I felt really good. I also had a bit of a cell signal at this point, and got a text from my coach - who had already finished - reminding to be mindful on the decent I had in front of me because it had some rough spots. Just past the aide station, I received a notification on my phone for rain that was supposed to start very soon. ...