I recommend that people check out Matt Carpenter's training philosophy: I am not the only one who think that his name should be in the hat for Goat, even if he likely should not win. Matt's pholsophy in short: If you want to be fast in ultras, you need to be fast at short distance. His trying was largely two hours of running everyday and two quality speed workouts a week. Really not all that different than many elite marathon runners, although perhaps he spent a bit more time on his feet. The year Matt won and set the course record at Leadville he also won the US 10k trail championships.
Back to my earlier refrain, people do know that 280 people have broken 28 minutes in the 10k. With proper motivation, financial or otherwise, I would wager a large number of those people could crush 100k and 100mike distances, especially if it is flat. As people know, Kipchoge has run under 27 and Gebraselassie was I think just a bit over 27 in the 10k. On the other hand, I don't believe Walmsley has ever broken 29. Read the below comments from one of the best ultra runners of all time as to why these 10k and marathon times really do probably matter.
http://skyrunner.com/story/2005lt100.htm
Training Philosophy
The main reason I had put off doing an Ultra for so long was because everyone said they make you slow. I now believe that is bunk! Instead, I think it is the way people train for them that makes them slow. I found that I could not do 30-50 mile long runs like most Ultrarunners and still be able to do quality speedwork. One of my other goals was to win the US 10K Trail Running Championships in Vail, CO two months before Leadville. The only way I could pull that off was to run fast. I decided if I was going to error, I would error on the side of speed!
In place of super long runs, I did back to back long runs. Both days I ran faster than I could had I just done one longer run. I also felt the second day better simulated the later stages of an Ultra because I was already tired. I took this concept even further in my day in/day out running. Heading into Leadville I went five months running 2 hours or more every single day and then another two months where the only days under 2 were the few days before my shorter races. All the while I was putting in two quality speed workouts a week—one in the flats and one in the hills.
In short, just like on the roads and in the mountains, there is a direct correlation in how fast we can go in an Ultra and how fast we are. Sure, food and other issues come into play, but there is no hiding from the clock when it comes to speed. That’s why I set Vail as a goal—it kept me from turning my back on my speed. For more on this concept check out Ultra legend Buzz Burrell’s piece at
http://www.trailrunner.com/trail_times/2005_trail_times_spring.htm
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