At the end of the year, most of us back off training and allow for a little downtime and reflection, plus, family commitments are especially time consuming (and fun) during the holidays. It’s also lottery season for many...
Articles by Ian Sharman
Hardly a day goes by that I don’t hear about a friend or well-known ultrarunner suffering from over-training. Although the exact medical mechanism that causes medium-term and long-term tiredness hasn’t been discovered, i...
As runners, we focus on what will allow us to run and race better, identifying ways to be quicker and to avoid slowing due to numerous potential problems in the later stages of an ultra. Although there are myriad reasons...
As runners, we set ourselves many targets. However, when we constantly push our boundaries, there’s some inevitable disappointment along the way. This isn’t a sign of weakness, but an indication that we’re challenging ou...
Writing this, I’m on a plane on the way back from my favorite race. It’s an event that draws me year after year to travel across the world in cramped planes. Every time, it offers something unique and special to me. It c...
Some of the hardest lessons are learnt during the first attempt at a given distance. The more experience you build up before taking on a new challenge, the better it’s likely to go, but there are always unexpected diffic...
In a recent discussion with one of my clients, I was asked if I ever have issues with motivation, especially for long runs. The question surprised me, since I always assumed that everyone has tough days getting out the d...
We all know that to get faster, we need to push ourselves with some form of speed work, but the advice varies greatly on which sessions to include, how often to include them and why. In fairness, that’s because it depend...
For many across the world, there are certain times of year when it’s much harder to run outside, especially in winter. Yet endurance running requires commitment and consistency to improve fitness, and we all need to grin...
I wrote about mileage in my October 2015 UltraRunning article (“Piles of Miles”), and it got me thinking about how ultra training is particularly specific to the individual and the target event. This applies much more so...
When runners ask me about coaching, they often assume that it’s just for the speedsters trying to maximize their chance to win races. Many wonder whether they’re appropriate candidates to benefit from being coached and w...
At some point in life, almost all of us have to deal with not completing a race. The term “DNF” (Did Not Finish) is a dirty word in ultrarunning. Logging a DNF can lead to months of soul-searching. So it’s important to t...
One common question almost every new coaching client asks me is what mileage they should run. It’s a good question, and the simple answer is that targeting mileage is generally a bad idea unless that mileage is very low...
I’ll admit I have a bias on this topic, since when I first started running ultras in 2005, I also got hooked on road marathons. However, one thing I noticed was how effectively sub-ultra road races prepared me for many a...
As we get into the middle of summer, many races involve running in severely hot weather. The most experienced runners use several tricks to deal with this, which are most evident at two Californian races renowned for the...
Summertime means the mountains are open for runners and hikers, and the majority of the high alpine races are during this time of year. However, many runners, especially city slickers, don’t have equivalent climbs where...
As the snows start melting, many of us start looking forward to mountain races. Since one of the key skills for these events is the ability to run downhill efficiently and strongly, at this time of year it’s important to...
I’ve run Rocky Raccoon 100 five times now and keep going back, largely because it’s one of the classics in ultrarunning. In its 23rd year, it’s one of the older 100s, where many outstanding performances have taken place...
Do you find your running mojo runs low sometimes? That every run feels the same and you’re pounding familiar paths again and again? It can be easy to get stuck in a rut due to certain training routes or races being conve...
One of the simplest improvements a runner can make to his or her training is to approach every run with a simple question: “What am I trying to achieve today?” It sounds obvious, but it’s all too easy to get caught up ai...