![]() If you’ve trained for a road marathon or other distance before, you know that a big part of planning your runs and measuring your performance has to do with pacing. This isn’t always the case when it comes to trails. Because terrain can vary wildly in terms of elevation and technicality, an eight-minute mile effort on the road might net you 15 minutes for one mile of trail, or seven minutes if you’ve got a big descent. This can have some serious implications for your training in terms of attitude, planning, and performance. The best way to set yourself up for success is to plan your training runs around time rather than distance. This can feel counterintuitive if you’re used to logging mile totals each week, but it will be more productive for your performance on the trail. ![]() The key when training this way is to make sure you’re working up to total training times that approach the total race duration of your target event This can mean planning some back-to-back long runs in the more advanced stages of your training. PrerequisitesĪs on the road, many of the more famous and/or popular ultramarathons require qualification through results at other events and some are invite-only. ![]() This is an important consideration because of the time required to recover from an ultra event. Experienced ultra runners may need only a month or so to get back to training after a big race, but newer runners may only be able to tolerate one ultramarathon a year (even if they do smaller races to prepare). If your goal event requires a qualifier, be honest with yourself about the recovery you’ll need after a qualifying event, and plan your timeline accordingly. For newer runners or those new to ultra distances, participation in a big ultramarathon event can be a multi-year process.
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