All tagged Ultramarathon

Life-Sparring Podcast - Round 16: Morten Klingenberg - Big Dog's Backyard and the Ultra Mindset

Middle of October, I was glued for 4 days to a Facebook Live stream from Bell Buckle, Tennessee, following Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra, one of the craziest ultra trail running races in the world.

Different from a traditional start to finish race, “Big’s” does not have a finish line. Instead, all race contenders must start a loop of the course at every full hour. If they manage to get around the 6.7056 km / 4 miles 880 feet long loop in less than 60 minutes, the remainder of the hour can be used for resting, refueling, running to the toilets, or even sleeping. The race winner is the participant, who manages to complete one more round than the second last contender.

For Morten Klingenberg, aka Løbetossen / Run Crazy, the trip from Denmark to the Big’s Backyard Ultra World Championships was a big step up to the world stage and only his second race outside of his native country.

As a trail running enthusiast, albeit a slow one, I couldn’t have been more excited getting Morten on the show, talking about running with the “big dogs,” and developing the ultimate ultra mindset.

Life-Sparring Podcast - Round 1: Vlad Ixel on Running Successfully and Successfully Running a Supplement Start-Up

For round 1 of the Life-Sparring Podcast, I managed to book an absolute rockstar and professional, trail running “heavyweight” Vlad Ixel from Perth, Australia.

Vlad has an inspiring story to tell and is not just a professional trail runner with an insane winning rate; he is also a running and triathlon coach and a fitness influencer with more than 70k followers on Instagram and he recently started his own supplement company BIX Hydration.

We dive into all three of Vlad’s careers and one thing becomes clear, Vlad’s success is as much coming from his strategic approach as it comes from his innate athletic talents.