Ultra Talk with Majo Srnik and Michelle Barton
January 19, 2015
Tawnee has a round-table interview with elite ultrarunners Michelle Barton and Majo Srnik the day after they raced the Avalon 50 miler.
On this show we’ll hear the story of Michelle and Majo’s unique friendship and their shared love for running. Michelle is a SoCal girl and Majo is originally from Slovakia but now a resident of Calgary; different backgrounds but through sport they became friends, running/race partners, and even coaches for one another!
We pick their brains on:
- racing with someone else
- how to train for ultra on the day to day
- speedwork vs. volume for ultra training – how to figure out what you need
- heart rate/data or not?
- cross training
- choice of nutrition
- shoes
- race planning as an ultra runner
- staying healthy
- racing year-round – is it doable?
Their tentative 2015 race schedule:
- Sinister 7
- Lost Soul
- 223-mile John Muir Trail (Co-ed FKT attempt)
- Fat Dog
- Chris Kostman’s Salton Sea 81 mile point to point race
- Badwater
- TransRockies w
- TransAlpine in Europe (wishlist race!)
- Shadow of the Giants 50k in Yosemite
- Whoo’s in El Moro 50k
BONUS: Winter-time Treadmill workout from Majo (modify as needed for your fitness level):
Notes from Majo: “It’s all about good-form running! Later on you can adjust and tweak speed, etc. I do 4-5 sets of tabatas nowadays; it shouldn’t be easy… Incorporating this least once or twice in training routine, especially in winter months when running outside slowly seems just like collecting junk miles. Have fun!”
THE WORKOUT
— Warm up —
easy running 1 or 1.5 miles starts from 6mph up to 8mph last 400m.
— Tabatas —
Start into the session with tabatas. Do 8 tabatas. Tabatas are always in one group of 8, running at threshold/all-out effort:
8 X (20 seconds on, 10 secs off/recovery)
Notes: for 20 seconds go all out with good form, quick turnover, use your arms, ideally 12mph. when you rest step off the belt for 10sec. Then jump back on 20sec, etc.
— Recovery —
After tabatas, jog for about 3-4 minutes. You can walk if u need to.
— Intervals
Go hard for 2 minutes (a little bit faster than race pace). Recover for 30 seconds. Do it 5 times.
— Accelerations —
After that do accelerations. Run hard (fast like tabatas) for 30 seconds and recover for 90 seconds. The focus is recovery so you can hammer the accelerations. Do 5-8 accelerations…30 seconds on/90 secs off.
— Recovery —
After that, run for 1.5 miles to cool down.
You can find them both online:
Majo – http://www.strava.com/athletes/2879812
Michelle http://thegearnuts.com/2014/09/26/in-the-spotlight-with-michelle-barton/
On Instagram:
Majo http://instagram.com/majocalgary
Michelle http://instagram.com/michellembarton/
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