Ep 44 Transgrancanaria on an injured calf with Dave Barry, and when to step up to ultras
· Trail Running Ireland Podcast
Dave Barry tells how he finished the 126 km Transgrancanaria in 23 hours 38 minutes, despite barely running for weeks beforehand because of a calf injury, through 7,000 m of climbing and an orange weather warning. First, René Borg looks at the right age to step up to marathons and ultras, and why years of training count for more than your actual age.
Eoin rounds up a strong IMRA weekend at the Wicklow Way half and the Transgrancanaria results, won by Pablo Villa in the men's race and Ragna Debats in the women's.
Prompted by a 23-year-old's dominant marathon win at Transgrancanaria, René says the main thing is how long you have trained and how well prepared you are, not the age on your passport. Studies put the peak age for ultra running in the mid-to-late 30s, and younger ultra runners get more injuries. Eoin describes being told to tick off his first marathon and then start properly, and taking ten years to go back to Dublin. René suggests moving up gradually through IMRA leagues and 15 to 30 km trail races, with three to five good seasons before a first ultra. Races with several distances, like EcoTrail Wicklow, make this easy. They also look at ultra trends: a small sport, fewer women than at shorter distances, and slower average paces across age groups.