 | Aid stations have more
food & drink but are farther apart. Most runners carry bottles and may
carry food. Depending on the weather and the race, you may need to carry
a rain jacket. Can have drop bags transported to the aid stations. |
|
Ultras often go where there are no rest rooms. Carry your own toilet
paper and be prepared to go in the woods. Carry your favorite
anti-chaffing treatment (e.g., a small tube of Vaseline). |
|
Roads are open to traffic with limited road marshals. Trails markings
can be easy to miss and sometimes hikers remove them. Runners are
expected to be aware of the race route and take some responsibility for not
getting lost.
|
|
Runners can have a handler who meets them along the race route and provides
aid, change of clothes, shoes, etc. |
| In long road & trail
events, can have a pacer run with you for the last part of the race (safety
measure). |
|
Start with your favorite marathon training plan |
| Go longer and slower
on your long run. Do your long run on terrain like target race (hills
if hills, trail if trail, etc.) Test your race food, drink, pack,
etc. on long runs. Test your walk routine on long runs. |
| Keep speed work in
your plan (one day a week: repeat miles or tempo runs) |
| Make easy days even
easier than in the marathon plan. |
| Take long, brisk walks
on recovery / cross training days. The active recovery can be better
than doing nothing and the walking is actually race-specific training for most
of us. |
| Have reasonable
expectations – start at a sustainable pace. Ultras are not won in the
first 20 miles. |
|
Include scheduled walks from the start on flat courses. Short, frequent
walks work better for most, e.g., walk 40-60 seconds at end of each mile in a
50-mile race. |
| Walk all hills from
the start on hilly courses. If hill seems too easy to walk all of it,
alternate running and walking (e.g., run 100 meters, walk 50 meters, repeat to
the top). If the gradient changes, time your run segment for the easier
bits and walk the harder bits. |
| Eat and drink while
walking (carry bottle and food). Carry two bottles on hot days or if the
distance between aid stations is more than an hour. |
|
Spend as little time as possible in the aid stations. Threat them like a
NASCAR pit stop. Pull in, give your bottle to a volunteer to be
refilled, grab something to eat and walk out of the aid station as soon as you
have your bottle back. |
| When things go wrong,
fix them quickly. Eat if you are starting to bonk. Take an
electrolyte capsule if you are starting to cramp. Fix your feet if you
are starting to blister and so on. |
| When things go wrong,
keep going. Things almost always get better. |
| The hardest part of an
ultra is often the middle miles or even getting to halfway. It is easy
to get freaked out by the distance or time remaining.
Don’t think about how many miles or hours remain. Take the distance one
chunk at a time. Just think about getting to the next aid station,
getting to the top of the next hill, getting to the next power pole. |
|
Maintain relentless forward progress till you finish. |
|
Short ultras can be done on gels, drink and electrolyte capsules, especially
if you are both fit and fast. |
| Some runners get good
results with bananas, defizzed Coke and GatorAde despite the high fructose
content. |
| Real food is often
eaten in longer ultras. |
| Some runners use
liquid foods like Ensure or specialty products like Hammer Sustained Energy or
Hammer Perpeteum. |
|
Experiment and find what works for you. Bring your own favorite foods
and drinks to the race. Put supplies in drop bags or set up your own
mini-aid station at the Start/Finish on loop courses. |
|
Sometimes your stomach will rebel at foods that worked before. When what
worked before stops working, try something else. At times like that, the
appropriate food is anything you can tolerate. |
| If your legs are sore
(i.e., it hurts to run), then don’t resume running until you are pretty much
free of pain. Typically this takes 3-4 days if you have, for instance,
trashed your quads. |
|
While your legs hurt, do something else for active recovery. Walk if you
can do that with tolerable pain or ride a bike. Avoid impact exercise
until the legs stop hurting. |
| When you can resume
running, go easy and give your body a chance to repair any lingering damage. |
| As you resume
training, you should find your short runs will feel good within a week or two
at most. You may even be able to run a decent 5K after two weeks
recovery. |
| If you try a long run
only a couple weeks after a hard ultra, you will probably feel very tired and
sluggish after 10-15 miles. I have found my endurance comes back slower
after an ultra than my short race speed (what little speed I have, anyway).
It usually takes about 4 weeks before a long run feels comfortable to do. |
| Allow 3-6 months between
ultras to 1) adequately recover and 2) adequately train for the next race.
The longer the race and the harder the effort, the longer the gap between
races should be for optimal performance. |
|
National calendar & magazine (complete coverage, for and by runners)
www.ultrarunning.com |
|
Trail Runner magazine (trail only, slick, color, glossy)
www.adventuresports.com/pub/trailrunnermag/ |
|
Western New York Ultra Series (six events in 2008, trail & road)
www.wny-ultra.org |
| Ontario Ultra Series - If
you can't find a Western New York ultra that fits your schedule and interests,
the Ontario Ultra Series is a 12-race series over a wide variety of running
course throughout Ontario.
http://www.ouser.org |
|
Local Rochester running group – Oven Door Runners includes many ultra runners,
mostly trail
http://www.odrunners.org |
| Expert "old school" advice
on all things ultra - Check out Kevin Sayers' Ultra runner Resource site.
Kevin hasn't added to the site since 2004 but what's there is the best,
period. http://www.ultrunr.com/
|
| Ultrarunning is a global
sport. Planet Ultramarathon has some excellent world-wide content.
You may have to hunt around on the site to fit the good stuff.
http://planetultramarathon.wordpress.com/ |