Is Sharing Caring?
Another thinly-veiled food analogy
There was once a chef at a great Italian restaurant. He was an ambitious, competitive chef and he wanted his restaurant to be the very best. Over years of experimentation, he dedicated every waking moment to perfecting his recipe for lasagna. His livelihood depended on his ability to reliably produce a better lasagna than anyone else. He used only the finest, freshest, locally-sourced ingredients. Inevitably, about once a week, a patron of his restaurant would ask for the recipe to his lasagna. Does he owe it to them to share his secret recipe?
Even if he shared the recipe, would the result be the same if that person made it using canned tomatoes, dried basil, and store-bought garlic powder? Or if they didn’t hand-make their pasta each day? Do they have the knowledge, experience, and skill needed to execute the recipe and produce the perfect lasagna even if all of the ingredients and tools were set out in front of them?
Listening to a couple of podcasts lately got me thinking about this. First, Tom Evans on the Freetrail Trail Runner of the Year recap episode briefly lamented having shared some of his training staples like uphill weighted hiking, as it may have allowed competitors to close the gap on him as they imitated something that had given him an edge. Then, Finn asked Rachel Entrekin about her take on Tom’s perspective on a recent Singletrack episode. Rachel went far in the opposite direction, saying that she was an open book and didn’t see why she’d ever want to hide anything from anyone, and that she wanted to share advice freely to help other athletes, including competitors.
I think I can see a bit of each side of this. It’s great that there are some people out there sharing generally accepted training theory so that others can learn how to safely push their own limits in ultrarunning. Sometimes what is shared and what trends gain traction with the public could be helpful, like the focus on fatigue resistance that seems to be all the rage these days. Other times, it could be detrimental, like DBo interpreting weighted hiking as uphill and downhill reps in a weight vest despite Corrine’s pleas for him to not do weighted downhills. ;)
It’s also one thing to give your friend the recipe or teach an intimate cooking class, and another thing entirely to have an influencer come and film a viral behind-the-scenes TikTok showing exactly how the lasagna is made. Including specific training ideas in a niche book about uphill training theory vs having articles, podcasts, and social media reels published about it right after winning UTMB, in Tom’s case, may feel different.
But the exact recipe for ultrarunning domination is still unknown. There’s not a clear one-size-fits-all formula, and right now one of the best parts of competing at the top end of the sport is that you’re facing athletes who have taken a huge variety of training approaches to get to where they are. Pro ultrarunners are constantly engaged in a process of trial and error, fine-tuning their approaches with each race. Even those working with coaches are, in my experience, often doing so collaboratively and their training program is significantly shaped by the athlete’s feedback. They all have their own variation of a secret recipe for the best lasagna they know how to make.
That opens up another can of worms and this might be where my lasagna metaphor breaks down a bit. Who owns the recipe? Is it the chef who’s on the front lines every day, making micro-adjustments as he tastes the sauce and serves his plated dishes to the world? Is it the mentor of the chef who gave him the original lasagna recipe that he’s now adapted to his personal style? I don’t have all the answers here but I’d think that the chef should at the very least have a strong say over whether or not his personal recipe is shared.
Although having the recipe, ingredients, and tools at your fingertips won’t necessarily mean you can replicate the perfect lasagna, I wouldn’t expect the chef to divulge his secret recipe. I certainly wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t. Leave sharing recipes to the YouTube cooking tutorials, the recipe book authors, the Italian grandmothers, and the teachers at culinary school.
Did you guys see that crazy apron that the chef was wearing when he won the Western Lasagna Endurance Cookoff last year?
No one size fits all. There is no holy grail method or you can say there is no perfect human, no perfect business plan, no perfect education system, no perfect country or state, no perfect parenting principles, no perfect training principles. One needs to do research in any walk of life as we can't we keep doing copy paste in our own lives by seeing what works for other people. But I also feel like I have the approach of open book as well.
I listened to what Tom did for UTMB in the whole race & it seemed this might the most meticulous one has been. He even put his earphones on in the areas he knew the crowd would be quite loud. just to be attuned with his own self and negate the outside noise in order his own body doesn't get over whelmed and his HR doesn't go up which would increase his effort. Just to keep things in control he did this.
Even both Tom Evans & Ruth Croft were more proactive than other elites who were running in the Top-50 on both sides. Ruth learned her lesson from Transvulcania because the weather was horrendous there some what similar to UTMB just not snowing but the winds were howling. David Sinclair & Matt Daniels also DNFed because of the weather. Tom told that almost no one was putting the jacket in the lead pack when he had already put up a jacket. He told everyone thought that Francois hasn’t put up a jacket and he is 4 time winner of this race, so better mimic him but Tom did it in his own way. The role of being proactive in ultras is quite an under rated Trait.
I am no where near at the level you compete and the athletes you mentioned in this blog. But last year has been some sort of mediocre breakthrough for me. This year I am hoping to shoot for 800 ITRA score and right now sitting at 623.
I have a 100 KM Stadium Run(250 laps) on 24th January in Delhi. I am hoping to run it under 7:30 in order to get a qualifier for Team India for 100 KM World Championships 2026.
I also listened to Rachel Entrekin's podcast & loved the part where she told she is open book. She has been chipping away with consistent progress. It is not an overnight success, she had been competing for almost 12-13 years. On the other side, yesterday I listened to Will Murray on Freetrail and that dude is one heck of a SENSEI. The way he trains- incorporating cycling with running. Some days he cycles for 4-5 hours comes back home and then in 10 minutes transition goes for a run for about whatever his training says for that particular day. And I don't think so anyone has one JJ 100 miler in record time training like this. Everyone who has won has been all running people on men's side.
Right now Taggart Vanetten is preparing for 100 miler at Prairie Spirit Trail on March 28, 2026. Last 11 weeks has been 80 miles(128 KM) running & 200 miles(320 KM cycling) for every week. He has totally changed his way of training as earlier he used to run 150 mile weeks in order to prepare for 100 milers but he has understood no point in this much beating on legs & the whole body in every facet. Cycling helps him build the huge Aerobic Base. He is targeting to dip under 11:19 which is current 100 mile American Record. If this training works for him, then this can be the new modus operandi as earlier it has worked for Will Murray as well.
Adam Lipschitz ran 2:08:54 at Valencia Marathon in 2024 on just 100 KM weeks.