Dave Krupski is an
experienced ultramarathoner and marathoner. His latest accomplishments include
finishing Badwater, a 135-mile race through scalding 120-degree temperatures,
in 14th place, and finishing first among the men in the Key’s 100.
He has finished countless other marathons and races, some of them in outfits
picked out by members of ROW. He is also our friend, and graciously consented
to answer our questions in this special ROW post. His blog is available here.
(Dave and his awesome wife, Alex. She is also a runner.)
ROW: First, how are
you feeling? We heard from Facebook that you had a terrible fall just five
miles into your planned 100-mile trail run recently.
DK: Yeah, that spill
sucked; I basically fell down a rocky hill in a race in Georgia. Luckily, it was just a bad bruise, but it
didn’t exactly come at the best time in the race (it was Mile 5 on a 105-mile
course). Feeling better now, and finally
back to running without pain.
ROW: That really
sucks, but we’re glad you’re recovering. You are an accomplished runner, and
you seem to have found your niche at the long runs. How did you decide you
wanted to run a longer distance than a marathon?
DK: I ran about 30 or
so marathons from 2003-2011. I really
liked the distance (still do). I’ll
probably run the inaugural Southernmost Marathon (in Key West) in 10 or so days
(Oct 12th).
I signed up for my
first ultra – a 50 miler in the Marin Headlands (those hills on the other side
of the Golden Gate bridge) – in late 2010 on a whim. I always love an excuse to get out to San
Francisco for a weekend, and running on those gorgeous trails sounded like fun
to me.
ROW: How did the
first ultra go?
DK: It was brutally
awesome! I was still living in Phoenix
at the time, and did ZERO hill training for the race. And the race had 20,000 feet of elevation
change over 50 miles. Plus, I had no
clue what I was doing, so I suffered mightily after about 25 or so miles. But I made it through, and was bawling my
eyes out by the time I crossed the finish line at Mile 50. It was the first time I felt that emotional
during a race since my first marathon…
ROW: What do people
say when you tell them you are doing events like Badwater or the Keys 100?
DK: Mostly things
like “I don’t even like driving 100 miles,” or “I only run when someone is
chasing me.” I get comments like that
all the time. But now that ultras are
getting much more popular, I also get a lot of people who are genuinely
interested in what it feels like to run from Key Largo to Key West, or 135
miles across Death Valley. I think more
and more people are getting the memo that life is pretty cool and invigorating
when you are really challenging yourself and pushing the mental and physical
limits of what you previously thought was possible.
ROW: What is your
typical training week like when you have an ultra coming up?
DK: I’ve been running
around 100 miles a week – give or take – for the better part of the last
decade. For my two big races so far this
year (Keys 100 and Badwater 135), I bumped my weekly mileage up to about
120-130 miles/week. I know that sounds
like a ridiculous amount, but your body gets used to the mileage as you keep
improving. Seriously.
ROW: Do you use a
Garmin or other GPS device to keep track of distances? Plug your favorite here.
We’ll link to it in hopes of corporate sponsorship.
DK: I do use the
Garmin Fenix during races, mainly so I know exactly where I am in the race and
so I don’t go too fast in the early miles; there’s no point in running 6-minute
miles for the first 10 miles of a 100-mile race . . . you’ll pay dearly in the
later miles with a strategy like that.
ROW: Incorporating
weight training seems to be a mystery for many runners, especially if they are
already working out their legs by running. What is your philosophy?
DK: Back when you
guys knew me in Phoenix, I was single and still really vain (as opposed to only
moderately vain now), so I definitely lifted weights along with running. But even then, I never lifted a single weight
with my legs; it was all upper-body, “beach muscle”-type stuff (pull-ups, bench
presses, arm curls, etc.). These days, I
rarely lift any weights anymore, besides the occasional pull-ups. I know all the Cross-Fit Kool-Aid drinkers
out there will disagree with me, but if you look at the guys at the front of
the pack in ANY serious running race – regardless of the distance – they
clearly aren’t spending too much time in the gym. They run.
And then run some more.
“Cross-training” for the best runners I know means “mixing up my running
route,” not kettleballs and P90X.
ROW: Chariots of
Fire or Rocky?
DK: Depends on which
Rocky movie. There are very few movies
in ANY genre better than Rocky IV. I
mean, seriously, the guy single-handedly ended the Cold War by himself. Not only did Rocky beat those cheating Commie
bastards, but he did it in Moscow, and the Soviets were actually cheering for
him at the end of the movie. I cannot
imagine that the Soviets made a more preposterous propaganda Cold War movie
than Rocky IV!
But yeah, Chariots of Fire is a pretty quality flick.
ROW: What do you
think about the barefoot running/Vibram phenomenon for distance runners?
DK: I wholeheartedly
agree with the minimalist approach to running shoes, best articulated in Born to Run. Because I run on concrete/roads
for 99.9% of my training (which is why I suck so badly on hard trails),
barefoot running really isn’t an option for me.
And I think Vibrams just look funny.
But I have no real criticisms of them beyond aesthetics . . . I’m sure
my own shoes weigh about the same as Vibrams.
(I wear 5oz Mizuno flats for all my 100 mile road races; I even wore
them at Badwater, and had absolutely ZERO leg/foot issues). In fact, since switching to minimalist shoes
about 4-5 years ago, I’ve been injury-free (that is, when I’m not falling down
mountains :)
ROW: You’re a lawyer
when you aren’t running. Do you ever challenge other lawyers to a running
contest? That would be bad-ass.
DK: “Bad-ass”
is not how I would describe the shape that most lawyers are in.
ROW: We all know how
great of a workout running is. How many
calories do you get to eat per day? And
can you tell our readers how many glasses of wine that translates to?
DK: Lots and
lots. If you took my daily calorie
allowance and spent it all on wine, you wouldn’t be going to work the next
day. Or the day after that.
ROW: You’ve traveled
all over. Where is your favorite place
to run?
DK: Death
Valley. It’s just otherworldly out
there.
ROW: One athlete to
another, do you have any advice to the Detroit Redwings on how they can shake
things up to win the Stanley Cup this year?
DK: Bring back
Steve Yzerman to be the new GM.
Actually, I’m more excited for this year’s NHL season than I have been
in a long time. First off, the Winter
Classic will feature Detroit and Toronto in Ann Arbor, I think. That will be awesome. And now that Detroit is in the Eastern
Conference, they will be in the same division as Florida and Tampa Bay, which
means I’ll get to see them live a few times a year. I’m guessing a #3 seed for them, and making
it to the conference finals. Not bad for
a “rebuilding” year.
ROW: Music or no
music?
DK: I love
music when I’m doing a fast tempo training run (like 10 miles in under an
hour). During a marathon or an ultra, I
find that music is too disassociative, and I perform my best when I’m focused
in the moment and the race at hand. On
the other hand, I know plenty of really fast marathon and ultra runners who
listen to music the whole race, so, like shoe type, I think it’s really an
individual preference thing.
ROW: What advice do
you have for first-time marathoners Toe-Shoes Tina and Slo Jo?
DK: Enjoy the
process. Distance running is not really
about the race at the end of the training.
If you truly embrace what you are doing and trying to accomplish, you’ll
not only do well in your marathon, but you’ll look back on the whole period
very fondly, and probably will have learned a thing or two along the way about
yourself and what you are capable of accomplishing that can be applied well
outside the context of running. Good
luck!
You can catch more of Dave's trial and tribulations at his own blog.
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