Table of Contents

Foreword by Dean Karnazes, author of Ultramarathon Man 1 The Ultrarunning Revolution: The Big Ideas, Starting from Scratch, Cracking the Code, Top Four Training Mistakes in Ultrarunning, What You Need to Get It Right, Why the .5 Percent Matters, The Cast of Characters 2 The High-Performance Ultrarunner: Characteristics of Elite Ultrarunners, Your Priorities 3 The Physiology of Building a Better Engine: Energy Systems, Principles of Training 4 Failure Points and How to Fix Them: Science of Ultrarunning, Common Limiters, GI Issues, Blisters, Muscular Breakdown, Fatigue 5 The Four Disciplines of Ultrarunning: Biomechanics, Run or Hike?, Training Each of the Four Disciplines of Ultrarunning, Body Weight, Should I Use Poles?, Uphill Intervals 6 The Technology of Ultrarunning: Tools, Popular Training Logs and their Flaws 7 Train Smarter, Not More: The Five Workout Components, Measuring and Personalizing Training Intensity, Perceived Exertion, Key Ultramarathon Workouts 8 Organizing Your Training: The Long-Range Plan, Choosing Your Event, Principles to Plan Your Ultramarathon Training 9 Activating Your Training: The Short-Range Plan, Guiding Principles, Back-to-Back Hard Days, Tapering 10 Fueling and Hydrating for the Long Haul: Essential Elements of Ultramarathon Sports Nutrition, Fluids and Daily Hydration, Before/During/After Workouts, Avoiding GI Distress, The Bull's-Eye Nutrition Strategy, Balancing Hydration and Sodium 11 Creating Your Personal Race Strategies: Outcome vs. Process Goals, Effort-Based Race-Day Strategy, Race-Day Nutrition Strategy, Supplements and Ergogenic Aids, Koop's ADAPT system for problem solving 12 Racing Wisely: How Many Races Do You Need? 13 Coaching Guide to North American Ultras: American River 50 / Badwater 135 / Hardrock 100 / Javelina Jundred / JFK 50 / Lake Sonoma 50 / Leadville Trail 100 / Vermont 100 / Wasatch Front 100 / Western States 100 Epilogue Appendix: The Long-Range Plan References and Further Reading Acknowledgments Index About the Authors

Promotional Information

2-year print advertising campaign in leading running and ultrarunning media. Promotion to CTS customer list. Publicity campaign aimed at key running, trail running, and ultrarunning media. Excerpts and interviews with Koop in key running media.

About the Author

Jason Koop is the Director of Coaching for Carmichael Training Systems, coach to elite ultrarunners, and an elite ultramarathoner. Koop walks the walk—or runs the run, as the case may be—when it comes to ultras. His journey from a cross-country runner at Texas A&M to ultra coach started with a postgraduation internship at CTS in the summer of 2001. A runner in a company of predominantly cycling coaches, Koop was quickly drafted and trained to be the company’s lead running coach. In 2006 he traveled around the United States coaching and supporting Dean Karnazes as the “Ultramarathon Man” ran 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days. Karnazes again tapped Koop’s expertise in 2011 for “Regis and Kelly’s Run Across America with Dean Karnazes,” a nearly 3,000-mile cross-country run.

As the director of coaching for CTS, Koop coaches runners, cyclists, and triathletes in his role as a CTS premier coach. He also oversees the recruitment, education, and ongoing evaluation of more than 30 full-time endurance coaches and has developed CTS’s quality assurance system for coaching as well as the CTS Coaching College. His personal ultrarunning resume includes two top-10 finishes at the Leadville Trail 100 Run and finishes at some of ultrarunning’s most formidable events, including the Western States Endurance Run, the Badwater 135, the Wasatch 100, and the Hardrock 100.

Jim Rutberg is the media director and a coach for CTS. He is coauthor, with Chris Carmichael, of The Time-Crunched Cyclist, The Time-Crunched Triathlete, The Ultimate Ride, Chris Carmichael’s Food for Fitness, Chris Carmichael’s Fitness Cookbook, The Carmichael Training Systems Cyclist’s Training Diary, 5 Essentials for a Winning Life, The Time-Crunched Cyclist and innumerable web and magazine articles. His work has appeared in Bicycling, Outside, Men’s Health, Men’s Journal, VeloNews, Inside Triathlon, and more. A graduate of Wake Forest University and a former elite cyclist, Rutberg lives in Colorado Springs with his family.

Reviews

Training Essentials for Ultrarunning is a breakthrough work that brings together sound scientific principles and years of coaching experience to create the definitive training manual of our time. Dean Karnazes, ultrarunner and author of Ultramarathon Man"Jason Koop masterfully communicates complex science in a way that everyone can understand. So if you're looking for a technical guide to ultras, look no further than Training Essentials for Ultrarunning." - Bryon Powell, founder of iRunFar.com and author of Relentless Forward Progress"Everyone has an inexhaustible well of grit, guts, and determination, but great training helps, too. If you want to come to Leadville and succeed, Training Essentials for Ultrarunning is a book you need to read." Ken Chlouber, founder of the Leadville Trail 100 Run"Having Jason Koop as a coach has been exactly what I needed in order to train properly both physically and mentally. Kaci Lickteig, professional ultrarunner"Having Koop as my coach has simplified and amplified my training to new heights. Timothy Olson, professional ultrarunner and Western States 100 course record holder"Jason has helped me to be the best athlete I can be, which has often involved mental and emotional training as much as physical. I'm pretty much a wreck without him." Dakota Jones, professional ultrarunner Coach Koop is quietly one of the most influential people in the sport of ultrarunning. Dylan Bowman, The North Face athlete, 3x Top Ten Finisher at Western States"Coach Koop details how to strategically prioritize preparation for ultras, without being distracted by popular physiological manipulation that leads to marginal performance gains. Coach Koop focuses on metrics the athlete has control over as an ultra runner, with the ultimate goal of the athlete embracing the culture of what it means to be an ultra runner. Holden S-H. MacRae, PhD, Professor of Sports Medicine, Pepperdine University and High Performance Physiologist for Red Bull"