How do people train for extremely long races? Take for example old counties tops at 37m. Do people ever in a training run get anywhere near this distance say do a few runs over 30 miles or do you just do weekly long runs of say ~20 miles and then the first time you get over 30 miles is on race day?
I think for those distances everyone has a different approach. Have a look at http://www.ultrunr.com/ site theres quite a lot of useful info on different ways to train.
Also http://www.sleepmonsters.co.uk/training.php
Some info here:
http://forum.fellrunner.org.uk/showthread.php?t=2705
Poacher turned game-keeper
Thanks very helpful
Another question if you are training for a multiday event with back to back running (swiss jura is 7 days) do people train by doing back to back running and even do a similar 7 day back to back in training or is it again one or two long runs per week plus shorter ones included?
My simple guide to running long distances
If you can run 7 you can run 10
If you can run 10 you can run 15
If you can run 15 you can run 25
If you can run 25 you can run 40
If you can run 40 you can run 60
Simple
Originally Posted by novice
From my experience and another member of our club we could race up to 61 miles (Fellsman) on nothing more than 25 miles a week. The only exception we made was preparing for the South Downs 80 miler, did 1 extra mile for that for the previous 6 weeks, but bear in mind that included an extra 1000' of climb, and therein lies your answer, quality, quality and quality.
At the moment I'm racing off 12 miles a week, just done the Rhinogs, hopeing (knee permitting) to do Holme Moss.
Last edited by tarren; 16-07-2009 at 02:03 PM. Reason: Typo.
i slighlty disagree with that statenment. It may work for you but it wouldnt work for a lot of people. And you would have probably done better if you would have done a higher mileage. Giving out that sort of advice encourages ill preparations and can pose serious risks. If someone entered a 61 miler with only 25 miles per week training i wouldnt accept them on any groundsof experience. Id be disgusted at the lack of foresight and respect for the distance
Trying to plod up hills every day slightly faster than the day before
Training is a very personal thing. Some runners thrive on high mileage; others simply get injured. I've run ultras up to 50miles on 25miles per week and break down if I try to increase much beyond that. I've done well over 100races in the last 5years and have never DNFed.
I think the main point with distance running (bearing in mind I count anything under 20miles as 'short') is staying well and recovery. There's no point running yourself into the ground and getting ill, injured or disillusioned trying to follow a training regime that is not suitable for you
Poacher turned game-keeper
You could try doing some LDWA events early in the year - depending on your pace they will usually get you 5 or more hours on your feet in a no pressure relaxed event with frequent tea and cake. I'm not a fast runner by any means but I have found these to be great preparation for longer races later in the year, and judging by the number of runners turning up a lot of people feel the same - 'Thats Lyth' is good but my personal favourite is 'Spring into Lakeland'
Tom, 2 members of our club, there's only 5 of us have proved high mileage is not necessary to run high mileage races, between us we've run dozens over the years, all off the same quality mileage. High training mileage does not guarantee you are equipped to run ultra distances, and anyone suggesting to novice ultras that all they have to do is put in high mileage is going to cause far more grief than what I advocate.
I reiterate, quality, nothing more, nothing less, only less injuries probably.
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