Forward
I first met Andy Magness through an article in Breathe magazine. My mother, who’s incredibly active for her age, had picked up a copy of the outdoor adventure periodical for me on one of her many trips. Not only was it full of riveting pictures, it also contained a lot of useful information and inspirational stories. Andy’s piece really struck a chord with me for some reason. I don’t know if it was the tone (informational more than boastful) or the topic (minimalist training for distance events) but it instantly resonated. I decided I had to find out more about this man and his approach to training.
The great thing about this day and age is that it’s quite easy to connect with just about anyone at just about any time. A series of emails, a few Skype sessions and we were on our way to a beautiful collaboration. Initially, I asked him to do a few guest blogs on my site (ecinc.ca) to share some of his crazy thoughts with my followers and get the debate started.
He raised the bar.
Not only is he a slightly deranged person, he’s also a very good salesperson. When I was asking him about some recommendations for my first ultramarathon, he casually suggested one of the races he was putting on, a winter 50K. I mean, why not do your first ultra in winter in North Dakota? I must have been drinking or slightly crazy, but I agreed. We kept in touch and he let me pick his brain about training, terrain and gear in the months leading up to the race.
I met Andy for the first time in person at the race kit pickup after driving three hours through a fierce snowstorm. The storm had cleared by the morning but left a brutal course ahead of the runners. I was worried, as were a lot of the runners. But Andy, who was not only directing the event, but participating in it, couldn’t have been more thrilled with the 18 inches of fresh powder covering the trail.
When you’re out on a course for 8+ hours, you get a lot of time to think. Good and not so good thoughts. That day, a lot of those thoughts revolved around how we need to get some of Andy’s innovative training methods out there so the average Joe doesn’t think he has to train 20+ hours per week to complete an endurance event.
In the end, I came to the finish line via snowmobile, not the way I had envisioned. I dropped out at the last checkpoint, after doing a walk/run for 40k in frigid weather and through drifts of snow. This is where minimalist shoes are not really advantageous but I digress… It was a bittersweet ending to the race. I was pretty devastated but I was also pretty pumped with the ideas of this e-book–they kept me motivated despite the DNF and the mild frostbite on my toes.
After a hasty change of clothes, I went straight to the fire pit to warm up and chat with Andy about it all. We continued the dialogue over the following months. This project was something Andy had been thinking for a while but I had provided a bit of an impetus to get things off the ground. The bad thing about working on a book remotely as a fringe project with an extremely busy person is that you really need to provide a few kicks in the pants to make sure it’s humming along. That’s where Andy’s competitive nature came in handy. I’d challenge him to write a section and he’d send it to me, even if it was a bit late. And then I’d provide another deadline to keep the project on track. It wasn’t done overnight but most things worthwhile take time!
I really hope you enjoy the fruits of our collaboration and can keep an open mind about the points of view expressed in the book. We know this is not conventional wisdom and we’re looking forward to feedback from the endurance racing community.
As I have seen in my own racing, and as Andy will point to in detail and in examples from other athletes, the principles laid out in these pages will provide you with surprising results if you apply them fully.
As a running and triathlon coach, I see a lot of folks trying to outwork everyone else. While such hard work can be an admirable quality, I also see so many of these same athletes get injured and not even make it to the start line. Andy’s principles of putting form and mental fortitude at the top of the list of what’s required to succeed in ambitious endurance events made the ChiRunning instructor in me a very happy guy.
It’s a sad fact that most people think you need to over-train to finish something like an Ironman, an adventure race or an ultramarathon. More and more research is demystifying the old-school mentality and making these races accessible to everyone including weekend warriors, with a time investment of only a few hours a week.
If you’re tired of the same old more-is-better endurance training philosophy, then this book is for you.
Happy trails,
Eric Collard
Coach & Athlete
Ottawa, Canada
January 19, 2014