Just had a chat with someone - what do you think?

Hi all.

Just been chatting to a chap I know. he has been running for years and years and must be in his 50s-early 60s. He has run 100 mile ultras and I think even done 135miles in one go. Full of knowledge and a really nice guy. I was picking his brain a bit and he said when he was training for his 100 milers he never ran over 20miles in training?? Surely this cannot be right? He also said if you can run 20miles you can do a 50k. Now do you think their is some truth in this? He is crazy superhuman so perhaps it just depends who you are etc?

Comments

  • The other question I suppose is how long has he been training for - he probably has many many years of mileage in his legs. 

     

  • Having a chat with someone? Bang out of order in my book.

  • I'm not sure you can base your training on a sample of one person. 

    Lots of people do different strategies. 

    I'd not follow Eddie Izzards strategy either.

    You have to read up and try things for yourself. 

  • Peter - ANGB is bang out of order image

  • Army National Guard Base?

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    TheVicar wrote (see)

    Hi all.

    Just been chatting to a chap I know. he has been running for years and years and must be in his 50s-early 60s. He has run 100 mile ultras and I think even done 135miles in one go. Full of knowledge and a really nice guy. I was picking his brain a bit and he said when he was training for his 100 milers he never ran over 20miles in training?? Surely this cannot be right? He also said if you can run 20miles you can do a 50k. Now do you think their is some truth in this? He is crazy superhuman so perhaps it just depends who you are etc?

    It depends if finishing or getting a certain time are your aim.

    You could get round a half marathon by running no longer than 3miles for instance. but it'd be a world of pain.

    I'm sure it applies to long distances too...go slow enough and you can probably cover any distance.

     

  • yep, if there was a gun to my head now I could walk 100km, but i'd need to train to optimise the finish time.

  • Good thoughts from everybody. Just surprised me is all.  I think he is pretty decent at it. So I just presume he has all the miles built up in his legs over the years. Just playing on my mind as it was good to hear as I have my first 50k coming up. Was just thinking about my training and only on a handful of occasions have I ventured beyond 20 miles nand it was interesting hearing him say it. Due to time constraints I can only get about 4-5 hours in on my long runs so it was refreshing to hear.

  • In theory (which I suppose I will be testing out next year at IM)  - you train to get your aerobic system working in such a way that it is taking in energy and outputting muscle motion in the most efficient way possible. So long as you can input the energy you need, your aerobic system is efficient, your output is stable and balanced (ie. you have got the fat-burn high enough that your carb intake is feasible to manage) ........  then in theory you shouldn't need to train 50k to run 50k.  

    This guy will have sorted out his training so that it is optimised for him.  Finding that sweet spot for you may take some time and some experimentation.  i.e are you running at the right rate, with the right biological conditions to get the optimum adaptations?  I can't imagine this is the easiest thing to work out or the same for everyone.

     

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    Vicar, I only race up to half marathon, but from speaking to people who know Ultra runners, the one key is the long run.

    20miles would count as a long run for a marathon, but certainly wouldn't for an ultra.

    What has surprised me from what I've heard, is that their weeks basically follow a 1 very long run, and then a bunch of short runs.

    I can't believe a 20miler would prepare the majority of people well at all for a 100miler.

  • You may find he was doing back to backs - 20mi Sat and 20mi Sun.

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