Hey friends, 

My name’s Kyle Long. I’ve interacted with a lot of you here and try to provide some helpful words when and where I can. 

I’ve been a run coach/sports performance specialist full time for the last 19 years (and am a mediocre ultra runner myself). At the end of each calendar year, I always spend a little time reflecting back on things I’ve seen from my previous year of coaching. What worked well, what didn’t, what was interesting to me etc etc and I figured it might be something worth sharing here. I throw out a fair amount of words here, so feel free to give me the finger and scroll right by lol

To some, a lot of this may sound like common sense and that’s ok, for others, I hope it maybe can answer questions you’ve had or validate thoughts you’ve had. I scroll through here daily and see what’s asked often and think some of my bullet points will touch on some frequently discussed things. 

A quick run down of my athlete base so you have context for my points: I work primarily with people who are just looking to enjoy ultras, not have them destroy their body and have the training fit life. Not to say my runners don’t train hard or chase big things, I had folks bring home finished at Moab, UTMB TDS and dozens of other big 50k-100 milers. But what I do not work much with are athletes who are chasing a 14hr 100, a 2:15 marathon, a podium at Leadville etc. I make that distinguishing statement because different training methodologies and concepts fit different archetypes and my reflections below won’t all fit the more elite/sub-elite types. 

Onto my thoughts (I’ll keep them condensed, but feel free to ask for elaborations or questions you have on any of the points). 

You can cover big distances on low(er) mileage. If I averaged out all my 100 mile athletes, their peak weeks would settle around 60-65 miles. Over almost 20 years of coaching, I’ve seen a better success rate of 100 mile/100k finishers in my athlete type utilizing well built, progress back to back efforts vs huge overall weekly mileage. The only times I’ve ever programmed a 100+ mile week in my entire career were for my folks chasing 200 mile+ objectives. 

Strength work is a massive advantage, first and foremost from an injury prevention standpoint. I push all of my people to spend time on strength work and build programs that integrate well into their run work, but not for the most obvious reasons. There is of course a performance perspective, especially those training for big terrain objectives who are stuck in the flatlands, but the rate of decline in ankle/knee/hip/posterior chain injuries I see is absolutely, directly correlated to how well people follow their strength programs. You can get the barebones of what you need in 2-3, half hour sessions a week, so don’t say you don’t have time.

A jump off point from the above is that INTENSITY MATTERS. If your strength work is solely focused on helping you as a runner (as opposed to a big focus on aesthetics etc) then it should rarely leave you feeling so crushed that it affects your run work negatively. Fight the urge to “goggins” your way through the gym. It’s a long arc, treat it that way. Work over long, progressive, slow building arcs. If you’re so sore you can’t get out for your runs the next day, you probably need to make some tweaks (but not cut it out completely).

Nutrition REALLY matters. I’m personally guilty of fueling 8 hour training days on some sour patch kids and a dream, but then I married a sports nutritionist and realized I probably was being an idiot. I don’t live and die by the calorie/macro now, but I made some low hanging fruit changes to my days and my fueling that on their own have increased my capacity to train massively. Something as simple as “I drink a big bottle of water first thing before I make my coffee”, “once a quarter I track a few days of eating to make sure I’m at least generally close on my macros” to being slightly more mindful in how I fuel my training days. I was getting by on garbage nutrition but a slightly less bit of garbage has really gone a long way. TLDR: it didn’t take a massive overhaul to make an impact on the fueling front. 

Make sure you have plans but let your heart adjust them. I’ve seen some of my athletes get married to a race schedule that they fall out of love with, and it really damages their relationship with running. At the end of the day, 99% of us are doing this because we love it and we want to do it as long as possible. The rate at which you can become

resentful towards running is scary fast if you end up forcing yourself into efforts you don’t truly want to be a part of. Social media can suck and there’s so much grandstanding out there that it’s important to remember you only are seeing your people’s best. Be whatever version of a runner your heart and mind wants, and that can change year to year, even month to month. Want to go long? Go long. Want to spend the fall getting fast for a marathon? Do that. Want to go do stuff in the mountains? Cool to do it. Just don’t get too hung up on being one type of “thing” simply because you’ve been that thing before. 

Sleep. I’ve seen countless athletes of mine try to tough-guy their way through on 4-5 hours of sleep. I won’t go into all the science and reasoning behind it, but I’ll just say that it is night and day in terms of performance and mental health for my people who consistently get the sleep they need vs those who don’t. It’s not woo-woo hippie stuff and it’s easy to say but even easier to neglect. Create healthy sleep habits and you’ll see your recovery and performance go through the roof. 

That’s generally what I felt could be helpful to hear here. I hope you all have a great spring of training and races and do some epic stuff. Feel free to comment questions, I’ll try to answer them all over the weekend to expand upon anything folks may want to learn about.

Onward, always 🤜🤛

End of year reflections from a full time run coach (of of 19 years)