40 mile race - training plan?

I've been looking at the possibility of plodding round the Compton 40 miler next March as it's local to me, but I can't find a training plan anywhere for this distance.

Can anyone point me towards one please?

Comments

  • GobiGobi ✭✭✭
    Use something based around Marathon training
    and find marathon and a 50K race 2 months and I month before

    I do a lot of runs between 13 and 20 miles which keeps me in marathon shape then if I plan an Ultra I just lob in a few runs of between 20 and 30 miles

    Gobi :¬)
  • Just lob in a couple of 30 miler
    yeah right!
    RC
    you could do draycote 35 i february
    as its laps-you could stop at 30
  • Nice 20 miler over the South Downs in a couple of weeks if you want to lob that in too RC!! But I guess it isn't really local

    I'm tempted to something longer next year...looked at Comrades!!! They have a training plan on their site if that helps.
  • Thanks All. Nice to see some fellow plodders here too. I thought you'd all be clear-skinned, shiny-eyed young whippets with calf muscles like iron.

    Dips - way too early for me to think about a 20 miler. I'm just coming back after a lazy summer, not to mention nursing a very sore heel. I have checked out the Comrades - in fact that's why I'm looking at the Compton race. I vaguely wondered about aiming for the Comrades in 2007 as I have a significant birthday a week or two later. I then thought that I should try something in between a marathon and the 56 miles of the Comrades first, hence the 40 miler.
  • hmm yes then try draycote 35 in february for a taster :-)

  • Except that Draycote is flat (compared to Compton) and very difficult to get lost on unlike most trail races.
    I did fail to get lost doing the Compton 40 in 2003, its a good race.
    RC, you don't need to go further than the 20 mile long run but do them closer together and find a shorter ultra just to give you the confidence of the distance.
    Before I did Compton I did the Barry 40 (track race) and 2 hilly 20 mile races. I can't really remember how I led up to them but the Draycote race didn't exist then, it would probably have been better to do that than the Barry 40 (although probably been tempted to do both)
  • Dartmoor Discovery 32 in June next year is a good one too. Nice quiet roads, hilly but excellant organisation. I know its out of the ara again...but its nice to go on tour sometimes.

    The more I look at Comrades the more I fancy it, guess it would have to be 2007 for me too.

    Who said I'm not a shiny eyed young Whippet???!!!
  • the compton 40 is definatley a race of two halfs, the first 20 being fairly hilly and varied and choc full of people.
    The second 20 being very flat and more lonely.

    Great event.

    Are they rerunning it in the same format in 2006 ?I thought Dick was making noises about changing the format.
  • Sorry to butt in. If I ever post a thread with a similar request would someone please shoot me.

    Thanks
  • They've renamed it this year to the "Compton Full Fat Forty" which is a bit sad, but as far as I know, the route is the same.

    I love Dartmoor, but isn't it getting a bit warm in June?

    The other one I noticed was the Ridgeway 40 in May.

    Thanks for the info all.
  • aha
    Hiya hamertime

    you have been logged;)))))))




    hey compton sounds good
    when izzit?
    im fat and forty!
  • RC, it wasn't hot this year, hammering down with rain at the start although it stayed dry during the run. See here for photos, reports. http://www.richk.co.uk/

  • Hippo - it's on Saturday March 26 next year.
    Check out http://comptonharriers.cjb.net/, though you have to poke around the menus a bit to pull the information together. I've read all the previous threads on the race, plus the race reviews and other stuff on the web, and I've not found a single bad thing said about it, apart from soeone complaining that the START wasn't very well signposted.

    My enthusiasm for the idea will probably have started to drain before long, but at the moment it appeals to me. Main downside is that it will probably muck up my normal spring routine of Reading/Silverstone Halfs and April marathon. Maybe that's no bad thing.

    Also (sad question coming up), can any previous finishers tell me if you get a medal? I like medals, and don't much care for the certificate mentioned in the RW blurb.


  • oh god
    nooooooooooooooooo
    (will it sod up my FLM training)
  • I think there was a medal. Its still dangling from the bed post with all the others.
    Doing it wouldn't be incompatible with an April marathon-I did Stratford afterwards and did ok. You just need to remember to rest a bit in between.
  • Well, FLM is 4 weeks and 1 day after the Compton race, so I guess it could be OK. I suspect that the week after a 40 miler would be pretty static, but with a few recovery runs after that and a couple of goos final weekend runs could probably be in pretty good shape for the FLM.
  • i'm sure you weren't saying it was flat on those last few laps tim...
  • No I wasn't. Its all relative though.
  • GobiGobi ✭✭✭
    Comrades was an amazing experience :~)
  • Having done 2 Oceans I can well believe it.
    Must do it someday, likewise Spartathlon and Western States.
    Money and time though!!
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