Moving up in distance

[Ferdy]

Apologies if this has been answered many times before.

I started mountain racing last year and fell in love with it. I've done 9 races so far but the maximum distance was just over 7 miles. I'd like to do a 19 mile mountain race at the beginning of August. It's seven peaks and 8775ft of climb (the Seven Sevens Challenge in N Ireland). So far my longest training run on the roads has been almost 17 miles and I can do that quite comfortably at about 8min/mile pace. I generally run 40ish miles a week with a long run of 10-15 miles but the majority is on the road. It's not convenient for me to run in the mountains very often but I reckon I can fit in 4 or 5 long mountain runs before the race.

Will that be enough? How long should I aim to make these training runs - 2-3 hours? I just want to finish without dying or totally disgracing myself!

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Derby Tup]

Apologies if this has been answered many times before.

I started mountain racing last year and fell in love with it. I've done 9 races so far but the maximum distance was just over 7 miles. I'd like to do a 19 mile mountain race at the beginning of August. It's seven peaks and 8775ft of climb (the Seven Sevens Challenge in N Ireland). So far my longest training run on the roads has been almost 17 miles and I can do that quite comfortably at about 8min/mile pace. I generally run 40ish miles a week with a long run of 10-15 miles but the majority is on the road. It's not convenient for me to run in the mountains very often but I reckon I can fit in 4 or 5 long mountain runs before the race.

Will that be enough? How long should I aim to make these training runs - 2-3 hours? I just want to finish without dying or totally disgracing myself!

Thanks in advance for your help.

I'd say it's not the extra distance you need to worry about but rather the 9000ft of climbing. Do you live in a bungalow? Stairs might be a problem for a few days if you get round Joking apart if I was you I'd just try and spend as much time in the hills as possible before the race. Welcome to the forum btw

[Ferdy]

Thanks Derby.

Fortunately I do live in a bungalow . I did a 3.9 mile race on sat with 1200ft of climb and my quads still haven't quite recovered!

[Stolly]

Yeah its the climb that will be the bugger. Any ideas on what the winning and mid pack finishing times are for that race too so that you can give yourself some kind of idea of hours spent hauling your arse round?

[Trog]

Looking at the race distance and your current training pace for your long runs I think that you are going to be racing for at least 3 hours.

IMHO to cope with a 3 hour race you need to be averaging a third of that for your average daily training, ie 1 hour. To average that 60 min per day I would aim at 4 x 45min, 2 x 90 min and 1 x 120 min run per week.

Obviously that’s about 50% more than your current 40 mpw so you will need to build up steadily.

[Derby Tup]

http://www.nimra.org.uk/results.asp?prid=14

Men's race record is 3hr 54mins

[Ferdy]

Yeah, I'm expecting more around the 6 hour mark - based on previous results of people I normally finish near in races. Which using Trog's calculations adds up to a massively scary amount of training

[Stolly]

Yeah, I'm expecting more around the 6 hour mark - based on previous results of people I normally finish near in races. Which using Trog's calculations adds up to a massively scary amount of training

You don't need to be doing that much mileage but it helps if you're doing alot of your running in the hills, not just because of the ascents, descents and off roadness of it per se but because its just much more fun. I run in the hills between 80% and 100% of the time and, in some kind of reverse sweep of logic, I often use races as 'training' to get me fitter for my long solo runs .

I tend to run the longer races but suspect that my average weekly mileage, when in uncrocked prime condition, is somewhere between 30 (low) and 50 (high) each week. That race in NI sounds a humdinger mind.

[Ferdy]

That race in NI sounds a humdinger mind.

It does but I feel like I need a challenge and the thought of doing a road marathon really doesn't appeal.

I'd love to do more running in the hills but it's hard enough to fit in my running as it is. I do quite a bit of hill work and run cross country at least 2/3 times a week though, although not for my longer runs.

Thanks to everyone for their advice so far. There are only a couple of other runners in my club who have done any mountain racing so it's hard to get advice about training etc.