Pacing Smarter for Your Next Ultra with UltraPacer Founder Danny Murphy — Becoming Ultra

How fast should you actually be moving at mile 20, 50 or 80 of an ultra?

Danny Murphy is an ultrarunner, engineer and the founder of UltraPacer, a race-planning tool designed to account for the things that make trail racing complicated including elevation, terrain, altitude, heat, fatigue and even darkness.

Scott and Danny talk about how UltraPacer started as a spreadsheet Danny built while preparing for his first 100K, why evenly pacing an ultramarathon usually isn't realistic, and how runners can use pacing data without becoming completely tied to a spreadsheet on race day.

They also dig into race-day strategy, setting realistic goals, using training runs to test a race plan, and why a good pacing plan may be just as useful for your crew as it is for you.

Chapters

00:00 – Meet Danny Murphy and the story behind UltraPacer
02:00 – Modeling elevation, terrain, heat, altitude and fatigue
05:00 – How the pacing models were built
07:45 – Why ultrarunners slow down
09:30 – Elite pacing vs. everyday runners
10:20 – Using your training to set realistic race goals
13:00 – When a pacing plan is too aggressive
15:30 – How to actually use a pacing plan on race day
17:00 – How UltraPacer helps crews
18:15 – When to adjust your race-day goal
22:15 – Building and improving UltraPacer
25:00 – What's coming next
27:00 – How first-time ultrarunners can use UltraPacer
30:45 – UltraPacer tools for coaches
32:15 – Ultra chores?
33:00 – Where to find UltraPacer

Connect with UltraPacer

Website: https://ultrapacer.com
Instagram: @ultrapacer
Facebook: ultrapacer

About UltraPacer

UltraPacer helps runners create race plans based on the actual demands of a course rather than relying on one average pace. Runners can account for variables including grade, terrain, altitude, heat, fatigue and darkness, then use those estimates to better understand what race day may look like.

The majority of UltraPacer's features are available for free, and runners can use existing courses or upload their own GPX file to start building a plan.