Anton Krupicka talks about being perma-injured

Been done since 2009.

Thanks for reposting that. Anton is still very popular despite not having competed for the better part of a decade. To an outsider reading his blog, it’s so obvious that he’s now paying for chronic overtraining and/or he may simply not be cut out for th3 kind of training he wants to do (any longer). Seems like an unfortunate but simple reality that he’s unwilling to accept. His passion and work ethic doesn’t match his current and probably future durability.

His "outwork" everybody mentality and failure to adapt/realize is what caused this...It's not a fault of his at all...It's human nature. At that level (and you guys know this), it's red-lining it. In order to put in an amazing/magical performance, it's one of the pitfalls.

"..., suddenly, I found that, in my 20s, I could handle up to 200 miles per week of running, for at least a few weeks at a time, before something broke down."

Your body COULDN'T handle 200 miles per week which is why it broke down.

How many times did he go thru this cylce and never learn:

1. Run heavy mileage

2. Get hurt

3. Recover

4. Run heavy mileage

5. Get hurt

6. Recover

Rinse and repeat this over and over again.

You have to wonder why at some point he didn't just say, 'You know, I can do 120 miles per week and stay healthy"

I saw his strava recently, and the guy can barely run for 3 miles. He was mixing running and walking, really sad, I think he should quit and do something related to ultra like being a race director or something.

Sounds like he's doing his homework about the injury. I wish him luck.

I know for me that as I've gotten older it's become more important to not be afraid to wear shoes with higher heels when my achilles is bothering me. I didn't go around barefoot as a kid, so I'm not a good candidate for transitioning to minimalism. Shoes like the Brooks T7, Adidas Adios, and NB 1400 have been ideal for me. I used to race in Nike Kennedys, but I would be a fool to do that now.

i wonder how much of his injuries are related to running in minimal shoes

Not too many people survive super high mileage training and ultra racing at the highest levels for very long.

AK never was that fast at shorter distances when younger. Redlining it at 150 miles+ per week is hard on the body. This was on trails, so not as easy as you think.

He had a good run, but he is likely done and never getting back to the level he once was.

He should also be concerned about skin cancer.

So much for trails being easier on the body.

One of the issues is that when he is able to come back to running he ramps up way too quick, like doing a 30 mile long run after feeling good for two weeks. He could easily run 3-4 days per week on low mileage, while using the bike to help build fitness, and get into decent shape. It all comes down him to not approaching any activity with long-term sustainability in mind. It's definitely too bad. He's probably left a lot on the table in past races due to not tapering more than 5 days.

fafhadfahsfjkadhskfjh wrote:

i wonder how much of his injuries are related to running in minimal shoes

I think it's mostly related to him being a hardheaded athlete who needs to a coach to rein him in, but like most ultrarunners is too self-enclosed to go to anyone else. He should invest some of his accumulated sponsorship wealth in Jeff Browning's direction, that guy knows the game.

Anton was writing about the same shìt in 2013

http://blog.ultimatedirection.com/injuries/

I guess that is a problem with ultas. If you're doing them it means you were already too slow to run shorter stuff, so when you can't even shuffle along at ultra pace, you are legitimately done. You can't move up, and most folks can't move down.

Guess you can try a through hike of the AT or something like that if you must scratch that itch.

"I found that, in my 20s, I could handle up to 200 miles per week of running, for at least a few weeks at a time, before something broke down."

Hello? That means you aren't handling it. That's like saying I could handle drinking beer and vodka nonstop before I passed out and got alcohol poisoning.

John Utah wrote:

"I found that, in my 20s, I could handle up to 200 miles per week of running, for at least a few weeks at a time, before something broke down."

Hello? That means you aren't handling it. That's like saying I could handle drinking beer and vodka nonstop before I passed out and got alcohol poisoning.

Thanks for repeating what I said about 10 posts ago ;)

Not Really a Brojo wrote:

John Utah wrote:

"I found that, in my 20s, I could handle up to 200 miles per week of running, for at least a few weeks at a time, before something broke down."

Hello? That means you aren't handling it. That's like saying I could handle drinking beer and vodka nonstop before I passed out and got alcohol poisoning.

Thanks for repeating what I said about 10 posts ago ;)

I'm building on your foundation

John Utah wrote:

"I found that, in my 20s, I could handle up to 200 miles per week of running, for at least a few weeks at a time, before something broke down."

Hello? That means you aren't handling it. That's like saying I could handle drinking beer and vodka nonstop before I passed out and got alcohol poisoning.

Not Really a Brojo wrote:

Thanks for repeating what I said about 10 posts ago ;)

John Utah wrote:

I'm building on your foundation

Oh, in that case...carry on, good sir!

Shoebacca wrote:

I know for me that as I've gotten older it's become more important to not be afraid to wear shoes with higher heels when my achilles is bothering me. I didn't go around barefoot as a kid, so I'm not a good candidate for transitioning to minimalism. Shoes like the Brooks T7, Adidas Adios, and NB 1400 have been ideal for me. I used to race in Nike Kennedys, but I would be a fool to do that now.

I agree with this. Went from minimalist to Nike Pegasus and I'm injury free now for quite a while. Could be other things involved, but I don't care. I'm sticking with what works.

It's hard to say that we were created or evolved to run 200 miles a week, week after week with thousands of feet of elevation gain.

Easy to say what he should have done, but if he wouldn't have run super high mileage, he would have never been able to do the things he did. He would have never become Anton Krupicka, if all he had ever run was 80 mile weeks. He would have been somebody who no one ever heard about. It's a little tragic that he didn't take a step back when he had the chance, (after the first couple of serious injuries) but it would be tough to stop doing the thing that got you there, and then expect to be the best on race day.

If one is injured that much, one needs to examine what is going on. My guess is he was not as healed at 15 as he thought he was.