Posts Tagged: Ultrarunning Coaching

Overview / Geography / Trails

The Idaho Mountain Trail Ultra Festival—better known as “IMTUF 100”—takes place in mid-September just outside of McCall, Idaho. Runners get to enjoy about 22,000 feet of climbing and descending, which range from many miles of smooth cruiser trails, to abrupt 1,000+ feet per mile rocky and loose proper mountain running.

Trails and Tarmac is excited to announce our newest coach selection. Gabe Joyes hails from Lander Wyoming. He’s coached trail and ultra athletes for the past four years and brings loads of experience and massive amounts of enthusiasm to our amazing team of coaches. Gabe is a farther of two as well as a high school social studies teacher. If you take a gander at his ultra sign up page you’ll see that mountain 100 milers are his jam! He’s supported by La Sportiva.

We know that anyone who has the luck to be able to work with Gabe as an athlete is going to be more than thrilled. Check out our interview with Gabe below to get to know more about what makes it tick. Get in touch with us here if you are interested in learning more about engaging Gabe or any of our other Trails and Tarmac coaches to help you take your running to the next level.

This Saturday, February 29th, Trails and Tarmac coaches, Camelia Mayfield and Rachel Drake will be competing in the Olympic Trials Marathon.  Along with 509 other women, they will have the opportunity to qualify for an Olympic Team and represent team USA in Tokyo.

A 2016 Trials qualifier himself, Coach David Laney asked both Camelia and Rachel a few questions about the transition from trail to road and eventually back to trail again.

Likely trail running’s fastest middle school teacher, Tyler Green started 2019 off with a bang by winning Bandera 100k and earning himself a Golden Ticket into Western States 100. Last year he set the fastest known time on the 40 mile Timberline Trail around Mt. Hood and placed 3rd at the Sean Obrien 100K. He has lived in Nepal and Libya, and been running competitively since he got his start on the 2nd grade cross country team. Get to know a little more about Tyler in the following interview that digs into his 2019 racing schedule, love of teaching and must read books. 

Coach Alex Nichols

Photo Credit: Irunfar

We could not be more pumped to have Alex join the Trails and Tarmac coaching team!  He brings with him a depth of racing experience covering all types of terrain and distances. Alex’s  racing style is something that we have respected for a long time. He always runs his race, pacing impeccably well, and usually ends up dismantling fields in the second half. His intelligent thoughtful style spills over into his coaching. Alex has been the women’s distance track and assistant men’s and women’s cross country coach at Colorado College for the past six  years. There he has coached 7 out of the 9 conference champions in the schools history. He’s coached women to school records in the mile, 5k, and 10k! We know that with Alex’s incredible experience in training for and racing all distances as well his years of successful coaching at Colorado College that he’s the perfect fit as our newest Trails and Tarmac coach. We did a short interview where you can find out a bit more about Alex, what he’s bringing to the table, and why you want him to coach you! If you are interested in learning more about being coached by Alex or any of the Trails and Tarmac coaches you may fill out this questionnaire.

 

It’s a Beautiful Day in Chicago

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So many guys had great races in 2015, I’m really honored to be named the 2015 UltraRunner of the Year.

The fact is ultrarunnning isn’t about times, awards, buckles, trail selfies or the newest gear.  For most of us trail running is about overcoming obstacles and working towards the goals we have set for ourselves.

This summer there were some major successes and major failures, or nicely put, learning experiences.

From these experiences I learned a lot of lessons that made me, and will continue to make me a better runner. I think a couple of them can make you a better runner too. I’ll share a few and hope that they will be applicable for anyone running a mountain ultra distance trail race.