My first proper foray into this section of the forum... I have finally been brave enough to enter the ultra I've been nattering about doing for years - and rather scarily I am now in the Lakeland 50, and am panicking a little! I know there's plenty of time, I'm just not sure how to approach the training. I'm a fairly ok marathon runner, and happy running 60 odd miles a week in training (much more than that will be difficult with time constraints). I think what I'm intending to do is a P&D marathon training plan for London which is about 3 months before LL50, then add in a few 30+ runs and back to back longer ones afterwards - does that sound reasonable, or should I be running back to backs earlier? What do I do the rest of the week, is there any value in shorter ones or should I just aim to do as many long slow miles as possible?
I keep being told by people I know that you don't need to do any more than marathon training to do ultras... but the people in question have rarely finished the ultras they have done so I'm a little reluctant to take their advice
Comments
Look at it this way - for serious marathon training, for most of us the limit is what our body can take without getting injured. Just because you're now training for an ultra, it doesn't mean your body is suddenly capable of ramping up mileage in training much faster.
Disclaimer - not a coach, personal experience only, you may be younger and more resilient than me!
For speedwork, substitute hill work on occasion, including practicing hiking. Or on more than occasion. That's a lot of climbing in the front half of that race but it doesn't let up, so you'll need climbing and descending legs throughout.
There's a saying that the first half of an ultra is the legs and the second half is the head. Holds true in my opinion. You don't need to run a race distance before the race, but knowing that you can run a marathon distance easily, and then some, then go about your day like normal is a powerful mental boost.