Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness

by Scott Jurek

Coach was usually asking the questions and providing the answers, but if one of us asked something he didn’t know, he seemed even happier. Knowing pleased him not nearly as much as wondering. Finally, a place where—and a man who—I could ask why.

I know a novelist who says he was never happier than when he was working on his first book, which turned out to be so bad that he never showed the manuscript to anyone. He said his joy came from the way time stopped and from all he learned about himself and his craft during those sessions. Running with Dusty that spring—not racing, running—I understood what the writer had been talking about.

Coming from the flatlands, I had to learn to run uphill. Sharpening that skill, I improved all my running. You can, too, with or without hills. Next time you’re running, count the times your right foot strikes the ground in 20 seconds. Multiply by three and you’ll have your stride rate per minute. (One stride equals two steps, so your steps per minute will be twice your stride rate.) Now comes the good part: Speed up until you’re running at 85 to 90 strides per minute. The most common mistake runners make is overstriding: taking slow, big steps, reaching far forward with the lead foot and landing on the heel. This means more time on the ground, which means the vulnerable heel hits the ground with more force on landing, creating more impact on the joints. Training at a stride rate of 85 to 90 is the quickest way to correct this problem. Short, light, quick steps will minimize impact force and keep you running longer, safer. It also will make you a more efficient runner. Studies have shown that nearly all elite runners competing at distances between 3,000 meters and marathon distances are running at 85 to 90-plus stride rates.) I used to train runners with a metronome. Nowadays there are plenty of websites that list music by BPM (beats per minute)—try http://cycle.jog.fm/. Either 90 or 180 BPM songs will do the trick.

Wendell Berry’s The Unsettling of America, about how the loss of agriculture is the loss of culture, how we’ve gone from knowing where our food comes from to not even thinking that the packages of chicken we buy in the grocery store come from anywhere),

One of my more ill-advised experiments involved carrying a small flask of olive oil on a 35-mile run, reasoning that my body needed energy and that oil and fat are the most concentrated forms of calories. A few big swigs, a few episodes of diarrhea, a lot of gas and bloating, and general nausea forced me back to the drawing board.

decided on the Angeles Crest 100, held on a Saturday in late September. It was one of the hardest 100-mile races in the country, climbing 22,000 feet and descending 27,000 feet through the San Gabriel Mountains of California.

A runner named Ben Hian, who had won the race three of the past four years and was one of the best 100-milers in the country, had sidled up to Dusty and me. Ben was a recovering drug addict who loved tattoos: men crawling out of coffins, skulls, that sort of thing. His entire upper body was covered in ink. He wore a Mohawk, loved Ozzy Osbourne, and ran a business where he took tarantulas, snakes, and lizards to libraries and Girl Scout troops, among other places. Oh, and he taught preschool.

THE CORE Your legs propel you, but it’s your back and abdominal muscles that enable a lot of the power. For the back, do pulldowns and rows at a gym, with your shoulder blades pinched together. If you practice yoga, concentrate on backbend moves like the locust, the bridge, and the boat. For the abs, work exercises into your routine that involve keeping your pelvis still while moving your legs. Planks are some of the simpler and most effective of these exercises. For the front plank, lie flat on a mat, face down, then raise your hips and pelvis, keeping your forearms and toes on the floor with your body straight from head to toe. The side plank is the same, except the points of contact between the body and floor are the side of one forearm and the side of the same foot. These starter exercises can be made more challenging with arm and leg movements or by adding a stability ball or disc. Any yoga position will be of tremendous value to the runner if you make sure to focus on and engage your core. Any Pilates routine—which by its nature emphasizes engaging the core—will make you a stronger and more efficient runner.

Here’s how: After you’ve been running for 30 to 45 minutes at least three times a week for six to eight weeks, you’re ready to start running occasionally at 85 to 90 percent of your physical capacity, or the point where lactate is building up in your muscles but your body is still able to clear and process it. Build to where you can maintain that lactate threshold level for 5 minutes. Then take 1 minute of easy running to give the body time to recover, then repeat. As you progress, increase the number of the intervals and their length while maintaining a 5:1 ratio between work and rest. So you would do 10-minute intervals of hard running followed by 2-minute breaks, or 15 minutes of hard running followed by 3 minutes of rest, and so on. After four to six weeks, you’ll be able to maintain this effort level for 45 to 50 minutes. And you’ll be faster.

James Shapiro, Ultramarathon and Meditations from the Breakdown Lane,

So I focused on technique, and I refined the practice that Lance Armstrong and other cyclists had mastered. The trick to uphill racing wasn’t so much sheer force as it was turnover. In cycling, the smart (and fast) racer shifts into an easier gear when he hits inclines but maintains his pedal revolutions per minute. Mocked in mountain biking as a “granny gear,” that faster gear turned out to be the key to championships. So I looked for my own running “granny gear.” I found that by shortening my stride I could “spin,” maintaining the ideal turnover of 180 foot strikes a minute. Downhill, I lengthened my stride but stayed light on my feet, and I kept the same 180-footfalls-a-minute pace.

Adventure of the Human Spirit, by John Annerino; Running and Being: The Total Experience, by George Sheehan; and The Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei, by John Stevens.

The Hardrock includes eleven mountain passes, six of them over an elevation of 13,000 feet, and also climbing a 14er (a 14,000-foot peak)—a total vertical climb and descent of 66,000 feet, more than would be involved in climbing and descending Mount Everest from sea level, as the race organizers like to point out.

Strawburst Anti-Inflammatory Smoothie I have always shied away from using pharmaceutical agents like ibuprofen to treat pain and swelling, so it’s natural that I have experimented with natural anti-inflammatories. When I sprained my ankle days before the 2007 Hardrock, my experiments took on a new urgency. This smoothie combines the anti-inflammatory ingredients of pineapple (bromelaine), ginger, turmeric, and Flora Oil (omega-3 fatty acids). It’s a great daily postworkout drink, soothing aching muscles, and a terrific addition to your regular meals before your run on a long training day. It has a fruity, sweet taste like Starburst candy and is loaded with healthy fats as well as carbohydrates and protein. The miso replaces the salt and electrolytes lost in sweat. In Japan, miso is viewed as an endurance-booster. Edamame provides an extra whole-food protein boost. Fresh turmeric root can be found in the produce section of natural foods stores. You will need a high-powered blender to process the roots. If you don’t have one, opt for the dried turmeric and ginger. 2 cups water 1 banana 1 cup frozen or fresh strawberries ½ cup frozen mango ½ cup frozen pineapple ½ cup frozen shelled edamame ¼ cup dried coconut flakes 3 tablespoons Flora Oil 3-6-9 Blend 1 tablespoon plant protein powder (brown rice, pea, etc.) 1½ teaspoons miso 1 1-inch piece turmeric root, chopped, or teaspoon ground turmeric 1 1-inch piece ginger root,...

The course circumnavigates Mont Blanc, covering 105 miles in three countries, with more

John Annerino’s Running Wild and Colin Fletcher’s The Man Who Walked Through Time.