This episode is special for us in many aspects. First of all, the guest we humbly interviewed was no one else but the elite ultra running coach Jason Koop. Secondly, our first podcast done in English and remotely. Well, we are seasoned corporate rats, used to English and online communication, but hey, this was a challenge of its own.

Jason Koop is the head ultrarunning coach for CTS – Carmichael Training Systems, where he specializes in ultramarathon coaching. He is a coach with rich roster of elite ultra runners on the list, be it Kaci Lickteig, Mike Foote, Timothy Olson, Dakota Jones, and many more, you name them. At the same time, he is an accomplished runner himself, with finishes including Badwater 135, Hardrock 100, Leadville Trail 100, Tor des Géants, Wasatch 100, Bear 100 and Western States 100.

In Slovakia and Czech Republic, you might be familiar with his training bible titled Základy ultramaratonského tréninku: Jak trénovat chytřeji, závodit rychleji a maximalizovat ultramaratonský výkon (from the original Training Essentials for Ultrarunning: How to Train Smarter, Race Faster, and Maximize Your Ultramarathon Performance). Or, perhaps, you have stumbled over his podcast KoopCast in you apps.

We tried to get the most out of the 1 and a half hour talk. How the scene works, how the cooperation with elite athletes look like, whether we will see ultra running disciplines in the Olympics, if more doping cases will pop up. We tried to dig in the topic as well, with some questions form our listeners, and some of our own as well. For sure, we could spend days discussing with Jason, however, should you be hungry for details, grab the book, find the KoopCast in you podcasting app and/or become the athlete training with one of CTS ultrarunning coaches, whether you are a newbie on trails or a seasoned runner with some aspirations.

Koop’s article about doping in ultrarunning: The State and Future of Anti-Doping in Ultrarunning