Ruth Croft – Winning Western States, Training for UTMB & Improving Recovery with Supersapiens

The Supersapiens Podcast

Ruth is a professional trail runner hailing from the West Coast of New Zealand, most famous for winning the 2022 Western States 100, having come second the year prior.

Trail running fans were no stranger to Ruth though, given her absolute dominance of the 30-50k distance in the years preceding this having won some of the most prestigious trail races in the world including the OCC at UTMB and Marathon du Mont Blanc.

Ruth has won races in: Spain, Italy, France, Austria, Switzerland, NZ, Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and Malaysia. She has a very impressive 2:34 road marathon to her name, whilst also coaching athletes and studying naturopathy.

02:35 – David and Xylon’s training
06:15 – Community shoutouts
14:00 – Episode starts
15:15 – How did Ruth start in sport
17:05 – Leaving university after 1 day and not taking a college scholarship initially
19:04 – Ruth’s college career
20:15 – What’s hard, a marathon, 300m steeple or 100 miles
20:50 – How did Ruth get into trail running?
22:20 – How did Ruth end up in Taipei?
25:27 – Why did Ruth get back into running in Taiwan?
26:53 – Transitioning coaches
27:47 – What does Ruth attribute to her versatility in trailrunning to?
29:48 – Being ready for a race distance
31:26 – How does Ruth choose races?
32:40 – How does Ruth approach fueling for different races?
35:26 – How has training changed for Ruth?
37:18 – What does a training week look like for Ruth?
38:09 – Why does Ruth spin? And how long is a long run?
38:40 – Changing from RPE to Heart rate in training
39:20 – Is changing coaches refreshing?
40:12 – What are Ruth’s favorite and least favorite training sessions?
41:48 – Ruth’s attempt at racing the marathon at the Olympics
43:04 – How does Ruth split her living locations?
44:18 – What does Ruth do during her time in New Zealand in terms of training?
45:04 – What is it like being a professional trail runner?
48:20 – Ruth’s Naturopathy studies
50:05 – How does Naturopathy impact Ruth’s views on being a professional trail runner?
51:00 – How does Ruth know when she is ready to race again?
52:55 – What has Ruth learned since using Supersapiens?
54:30 – How is UTMB training going?
56:14 – Any thoughts on doing the other races at the UTMB festival?
57:20 – What is the PTL and UTMB?
58:19 – Rush Round
63:38 – Outo