How do you train for a 100km race?

I had this question last night at track, and it got me thinking.  The answer I gave was short because my training plan was actually pretty simple.  Once a month, in the lead-up to the race, sign up for an ultra and run it as a training run.  Don't race it, but use it as an opportunity to get in a long run.  By doing this you convince yourself that you will be able to go the distance on race day.  Of course, practice your nutrition and pacing for your given goal (100km) race. 

With those ultras under your belt as a physical and mental base, you don't need to do a lot of 20+ weekly training runs. I find that those, if done too frequently, tend to just grind you down.  Instead, focus on weekly time on feet and mileage.  I count gym time as time on feet and, honestly, in addition to running practice ultras, the other big piece is doing strength training. I do hard/easy alternating weeks in the gym, with up to 5 strength sessions in a hard week.  On the easier gym weeks, you can ramp up the running mileage to make up for the time on feet short-fall, aiming to get 8-10 hours of training in per week.

Aside from the above (ultras as training runs and gym), you just go about your business as normal: do the Monday night runs and track with the club, and lead Sunday runs in the forest, and then run three more times per week totalling six times per week for an average mileage between 40 and 60 miles per week.  My highest mileage week was 62, and I didn't run more than 20km in one go that week.  My longest run overall through the whole training block was a 33 mile run across Dartmoor, in harder than race day conditions.  

Completing my first 100km non-stop took a long time to work up to. I would say it took me 5 years to finally reach my goal: from my first ultra in 2019 when I did part 2 of Race to the Stones (5h 30mins coming in 10th place overall), through my unsuccessful attempt last year in 2024, until this year's concerted effort to get organised and mentally optimistic with the explicit goal of completion.  So, it does take some time, and it's by no means easy.  But if you train right and are smart, you can make it look relatively easy on race day!

Race to the Stones 2024: 100km non-stop

I put my wife Diane right at the top of this blog post because she was the key piece of my ultra puzzle that I set out to solve in my most recent attempt at the Race to the Stones 100km non-stop.

Selfie at Base Camp (50km)

Just to run through the main things that came together (in addition to providing Diane with a detailed set of 5 checkpoints, in addition to the race's 7, where she met me, using the What3Words app and Waze): there was excellent weather, cool and partly cloudy, with significant portions of the day in optimistic sunshine; there was excitement at the start line due to lack of rain, and just the great general vibe you specifically get at this event; pacing at an 11/5 run/walk with low HR throughout (walking uphills); running downhills; the use of poles to maintain rhythm and power up the hills; and finally: eating enough (see me with food in my hands below).

Eatin a banana at base camp

My food situation went well, and I ate enough to get through (as opposed to last year where I crashed in part due to lack of an energy plan).  Base camp supplied vegetarian chilli with rice and garlic bread, vegan lemon meringue pie, and tea.  This was a full reset before heading out into part 2, and I had already set up a base level of calorie consumption that was borderline gluttonous and that had my stomach just a little bit upset.  I ate 8 mini sausage rolls, 5 bananas, half a Kendal's mint bar; six gels; and a litre of tailwind.  There's probably more that I'm forgetting.

On top of the big hill just past Foxhill

The first part of the course is spectacular, with all kinds of varied features.  The second half is simlarly stellar, and all kinds of names ramble by: Hackpen White Horse; Wayland Smithy, etc. But just the fields and rolling terrain alone are enough to keep you going, as the whole course tends to feel very remote.  You feel like you're 'out there' in the wilderness, alternating through the swaying wheat fields and remnants of forest. 

Heading into the night past Foxhill

One of the 'firsts' for the day (aside from finishing my first 100km non-stop) was doing a few hours of ultra-running in the dark.  I had trepidation going in, but was well prepared, and learned from last year to have a good headlamp, and to get your base warm layers on while it's still light.  Last year I was too slow and it was pitch black when I hit Foxhill (45miles).  This year it was a whole other story: a beautiful sunset with full sunshine at Foxhill where I pulled up a chair that Diane got out for me, and donned trousers and rain jacket. This in anticipation of cooling, and rain, and dark, all of which happened in short order (and a lovely cooling ground fog at the finish).

A sample of the ridgeway track

The course is in many places (especially at the end) very uneven.  There's one section 5-10km from the finish that is like a weaving multi-track nightmare rutted ledges that are extremely hard to navigate, especially in the dark.  Another success for the day was having my poles with me which, in addition to giving me that nordic cross-country rhythm, also gave me a lot of stability on these final horrible sections.  

It gets a bit better just before the end of the race which, at night, shows up as an eerie floodlight way off in the distance, with glowing chalk hills and rolling fog just scrolling along at your feet.  As you roll down those hills the excitement builds and you see people you've seen along the course, their faces lighting up, and their feet dancing as the energy levels rise again in anticipation of the finish. 

Ready with headlamp, and base layers (top and bottom)

I ran hard the final two miles, down that last hill, and across the little Avebury boulevard (it's amazing to be back in civilization) with its streetlamps and houses set back from the street, you run out to the cone, which is where in past years they'd take your photo at the standing stone (now we call it Race to the Cone instead), and the marshall tells you you have 2km to go, even though you're almost right beside the finish line, so you run back the way you just came, away from the finish line, hang a left, back across a little remote feeling field (back to that again), and around, and finally you see off in the distance the floodlights looking like a ship anchored offshore in the fog, and it looks like it's 10 miles away.  But by this time I had so much energy I was running an 8 min/mile pace, definitely feeling fast after a 16 hour shift of alternating 11 min/miles, sprinting (it felt like) and chatting to my fellow runners, as we moved across those final three sensor strips, and collected our medals. 

The medal (it says 100km on the ribbon)

I didn't run for the medal, but I do love to get a medal.  I was figuring out 'my why' on the drive up in the morning, when I was having a serious whine to Diane and threatening to only run half because "I don't want to trash my feet". My why was simply to finish 100km all in one go.  I kept it simple and I did it.   My goal was to finish, not to get a time, but I did push, hoping for a PB, which I got.  

To compare what it is like to run 100km over two days versus all in one go (as I discussed with Diane on the way home from Avebury at 2am, keeping the conversation afloat so we could stay awake, staring out at the blinding fog): I think they're both equally hard.  That is my hard-earned conclusion.  The two day 100km is hard because on the mental effort of getting through the night without really sleeping and worrying about the next day's run.  On the non-stop you don't have that, and you aren't as stiff, but you also have significantly fewer hours to make a recovery, which you do to some extent get on the two day.

Strava map shows moving time

The map above shows that I was moving for just under 15 hours, meaning my combined stop time was about 1 hour and 40 minutes.  This was for 7 of the race checkpoints and 5 for Diane's crew points, a total of 12 checkpoints, at each of which I took a few minutes.  Base Camps was 1/2 hour.  The remaining 70 minutes, then, were spread between 11 stops, which I feel is pretty good.  I didn't linger too long, just got a little rest to get the heart rate down, and got the Tailwind and water refills, and ate what I could.  By the second half that was really only gels and Tailwind.  I estimate to have eaten 20 gels total, and to have consumed 2 litres of Tailwind.  For a calorie burn of about 7000 for the day, this in the end is really what got me around (and Diane mixing and handing it to me).  Oh, and two litres of Coke at the RTTS checkpoints as well.  

This year's blister count is 1.  I had only one blister this year due to the dry conditions, of course it was a pinkie toe.  One little part of my body looks like hamburger.  The rest of me just aches, even now, two days later.  

The Most Fun I've Ever Had on a Run: Dartmoor Crossing 2024

 

Photo: Adharanand Finn

Earlier this month I ran across Dartmoor with a group of eight runners including Adharanand Finn and his amazing run leader Colin. It was probably the most fun I've ever had on a run. 

Photo: Adharanand Finn

On a beautiful sunny day, we set out from Okehampton fairly early, with some running right off the bat, and then a hike up to the first 'peak' of the day, one of four or five high points we'd be hitting as part of the new course being plotted by Colin.  There was some bedrock under foot, and so far things were pretty dry. The photo below shows one of many river crossings, a couple of which were a little bit tricky or technical, but also which, you just could have walked through the river if you wanted. 

Photo: Adharanand Finn

Right after that first 'summit' we set off downhill at a very brisk pace. I had my running poles with me, which had helped on the ascents so far, and I used them on the descents too, for the most part.  On the really fast bits or on tarmac I didn't use them though, just holding them in one hand.  This was my first real run with my new Black Diamond Z poles, and I think I like them even more than the Lekis I usually use, as the Black Diamond poles have a small lip on the handle that lets you pull the pole out of the ground just a bit easier. Not once did I have the 'stuck pole' phenomenon, even though the ground of Dartmoor soon turned soggy, gluey, and boggy. 

Selfie from early in the day

The reason this run was so much fun, and so much more memorable than most of my other ultras, is that I did is as a social group run.  I am a club runner, so I know firsthand the benefits to be had from these group runs.  The cameraderie of the gropu can make all the difference in adverse conditions, and effort seems much less when running hard in a group.  This was a *very* hard run that oddly didn't really feel hard, even though my average heart rate over nearly 9 hours out, was over 140, and I repeatedly hit 180 over the day.  Strava's effort rating was in the mid-300s, making it one of my hardest ever efforts.  But I was smiling at the end, and walking wasn't hard even afterwards (though it was hard to walk the next day!).

Dartmoor, early in the run

The hardest thing on this run was 'micro-terrain', by which I mostly mean the tufts of grass that grow up all over the moor.  These ankle-testing grass humps are an obstacle course through which you must constantly navigate.  A couple of times I inevitably hit one with my foot, causing it to go over a bit, but only partway.  I think the poles helped a lot here too, in stabilization.  But it was not just the grass tufts. It was also the long strips of boggy ground that cut across the path at very frequent intervals.  So, looking down across the long descent that delivered us from the first northern half of the Dartmoor uplands, it looked smooth, but when running on that same surface, it become a very rough uneven surface that was anything but easy going.

A very happy moment

There were many moments of easy-goingness too, as when Colin would stop to provide commentary on the many landscape features we came across, from mining scars of the mostly surficial historical tin mines, to the pagan-marred granite crosses that dotted the landscape.  We would stop briefly as a group to listen and comment and sometimes joke (as in "that's a lot of people below us", remarked Finn when standing on the highest peak in Southern England).

One of many peaks from the day

I learned a hell of a lot on this run, and consider it a breakthrough in my own running career. I fuelled perfectly, and it helped that we had Colin's wife crewing for us, as that provided water and many bananas, and my pack full of crustless quiche, which goes down oh-so-smooth.  I learned to eat and drink a lot, and to smile my way through the pain, and I gathered advice during my many chats with the ever-generous Finn, with whom I chatted many times throughout the day.  I now have my confidence to ask for what I need in my upcoming two remaining ultras this summer: BigFeats BigSea 50k near Swanage on the 9th of June 2024; and Race to the Stones 100k non-stop on the 13th of July 2024. 

Veloforte gels and bars

I also have a box of Veloforte gels and bars that I ordered after findig out about them last Christmas, and then seeing Finn eating them during our Dartmoor crossing.  These are the best-tasting gels I've ever used, and I can't wait to start my eating festival on the move in my next big runs this summer.  I'm also considering signing up for one of the running retreats he puts on next year, but they do seem to be filling up fast.  Jasmin Paris will be there, and I probably don't need to say much more than that!  

2023 recap: BigSea50k, Wokingham Half, Marlow and XC

BigSea50k July 2023

2023 was a great running year for me. I did have some slight injury experience but it wasn't enough to actually stop me from running. Last year it was my left hip, this year it is my right.  While the left did stop me running at one point, on the right it never really did, and it has cleared up now. 

It was a race year of two halves. The first half was ultras (Chilterns 50k, BigSea 50k, and Race to the Stones 100km non-stop). The second half was half-marathons (Windsor, Oxford, Marlow, Windsor Trail). 

Worst run of the year (but still fun): Manchester Marathon (injured halfway through).

The most fun race of the year, and one I think went best, was the most recent: Grim Challenge in Aldershot.  

I'll go through these in order, month by month:

January: 190 miles. Highlight was training in Spain on a work trip.  

February: 166 miles. Highlight was a 1:34 at Wokingham Half.  I have no idea how I ran the race this faster other than to say, I must've been a bit fit?  All later races this year were more than 5mins slower!

March: 198 miles. Highlight was training Manchester, often with John Roberts (BFR). The *training* went quite well, but the race itself did not!

April: 125 miles. Highlight: Manchester Marathon. A great race, but what a strange run! Ran the first half, and literally walked from mile 14 onward.  My best speed walking pace because I really wanted to finish.  The downtown and Altrincham sections are the best.

May: 171 miles. Highlight: Chiltern Ridge Ultra Trail 50km. Beautiful day on the day of the King's inauguration party weekend. I had been poorly since Manchester, as in physically ill with a mysterious illness, and I definitely felt it.  I also paced the Bracknell Half Marathon, which was interesting.

June: 167 miles. Highlight: BigSea Ultra-trail 50km. Another beautiful day. My favourite ultra so far, due to great support and route.  Samaritans 10k: enjoyed it but couldn't run 'fast'.

July: 154 miles. Highlight: Race to the Stones 100km non-stop. DNF at 45 miles due to weather.  Said I wouldn't sign up again, but by October I'd signed up again.  I'm looking forward to using everything I learned during this time, going over the highest mileage I'd ever tried all in one go.  In July I also did some running in Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto, which was fun, but very humid!

August: 187 miles. Highlight: Just running! Nice to enjoy the off-season.  Completed the final BFR handicap run of the year, and managed a complete set for 2023.

September: 156 miles. Highlight: Windsor Half Marathon.  Didn't run this race very well as I had set my sights on beating my previous HM time for the year (1:34), but didn't even come close!  It was hot but fitness for this kind of race just wasn't there. I also did some running in Texas during a family visit there, which was beyond hot, even in the mornings.  

October: 192 miles. Highlights: start of XC, and Oxford Half.  Managed a decent time on the flat Oxford HM course (1:41) but am still wondering how to get my HM fitness back.

November: 158 miles. Highlights: Marlow Half! I love Marlow, it was my first time, and I did the downhills so fast! hitting sub 6mm paces at times, and still managed to finish running strong.  All that track work paying off!  Windsor Trail Half a couple of weeks later was excellent, and I perfected my 'passing the whole way' strategy: starting far enough back to being passing people the entire race.  I did this during this month's XC races too, especially Datchet. I have a blackened middle toe-nail from Marlow (but the nail is holding on).

December: 121 miles so far (expected 160), to reach close to 2000 miles for the year!  Highlights: Grim Challenge: so hard, and so fun, and so very painful.  My toes are still recovering and I bruised a big toe.  Finished in a pretty good place too, in the top 10% or so for both age and overall.

I'm happy with the early Wokingham Half effort which was in my top three of all time, and I'm happy with my learning experience on RTTS despite the DNF.  BigSea50k around Corfe Castle was the top race of the year.  And all the club running and XC of course! 

Race to the Stones 100km non-stop 2023

 

I LOVE THIS COURSE, and that is why I would run it again, in a heartbeat.  It was a beautiful, unforgettable day of ultra-running, which is what I love doing.  I love training for races, especially long ones with long training blocks of six months or more, and when the training goes well, as it did in this case, there's no better feeling than arriving on the start line.

This is what I looked like when I decided not to finish, at the 72km (45mi) mark, cold, unable to stop shivering, having just come through my second thunderstorm of the day, just before dusk settled in, with wet socks, soaked torso and legs, and blisters covering both feet. I was running alone, with no crew support, and had done so for the entirety of the race.  So I called in the cavalry to save me, and got a ride from Foxhill to home, with a quick stop at Avebury to get my bag.

In addition to clothing failures (i.e. running shoes aren't really designed for this kind of thing, and the hikers have the right idea, dressing in waterproof shoes and warm coats), my body was shivering and burning up calories, heading into calorie deficit due to lack of food. This despite eating 6 hard-boiled eggs and ten rice balls I'd brought with me; six gels I carried with me; a jacket potato with cheese and beans with a bowl of soup and a roll at base camp; two large bean and egg burritoes and a Chia Charge bar with peanut butter porridge/oatmeal and Lucozade for breakfast; six more gels I got at the check points; 5 bananas; lots of fruit and loads of proten bars; despite all this it wasn't enough to keep me going or warm.  

I chatted with a lot of people, because this was my strategy for how to get around, but when darkness came, they'd all bunched up into (mostly young) cliques. I got a lecture from one guy from London about how you're not supposed to eat during an ultra, and that's why he'd thrown away most of his food at base camp. I think he was having a mental breakdown, but he passed me at checkpoint 7 when I pulled out. 

This was my longest-ever continuous run, so it was a victory in a way.  

Two things I blame on the organisers: 1. they ran out of protein food at the base camp, announcing that there were no sausages.  There were only packaged sweets at the checkpoints.  Contrast this with what was supplied at BigSea50k, and the difference becomes clear: have real food available to support your runners. There were only two checkpoints with real food here: cp2 and base camp.

The other thing I blame on the organisers (and I'm not one to complain much), is the start time. Last time I did this race I started at 6am.  This time I wasted four hours of daylight waiting for my start wave AT 8:50AM.  I had to pass a lot of walkers.  

I think that running this non-stop is much more difficult than running it in two parts with a rest between.  The reason for this is that running at night is actually very hard (especially when near hypothermic), and because your body can really go downhill very quickly without that break in between.

This is what I saw at the end of the day after the rain cleared, and it was a consolation prize of a sunset.  It was carnage as several groups and individuals pulled out around me at checkpoint 6, most citing blisters.  For me it was blisters, my left knee, my back, and my brain that all gave up on me.  I could barely walk to checkpoint 7 where my ride was waiting for me, and this was the hardest thing I've done in my life so far.  

BigSea50k 2023

 

My second 'warmup' ultra of the summer, BigSea50k, was also my best ultra-marathon, just in terms of consistency, how I felt, how well I ate, paced myself, and enjoyed myself.  In just under 2 weeks I'll run Race to the Stones 100km non-stop, and I feel ready, especially after doing BigSea. RTTS has a bit less elevation than BigSea, over twice the distance, so RTTS will feel relatively easy in terms of gradient.

Nutrition continues to go extremely well, and I ate better on this one than I did in the Chilterns a few weeks ago, because the BigSea aid stations were set up for instant calories, of which I ate precisely one of each of: banana, sausage roll, soreen roll, and an orange slice, washed down with 350ml of flat Coke.  I also took on one hard-boiled egg and one gel per aid station, as well as a few salt tablets.  

I felt stronger running than walking all the way to the end. The most challenging parts were the stairs, which consisted of hundreds of concrete slabs placed on end, one above the other, and carved out behind each were eroded damp soil crevasses.  Here's where the poles came in really handy. Going down was treacherous on these steps, so the poles held me back from a big bad fall.  Going up they helped with speed.  Otherwise, the ground was so uneven my faithful Lekis ensured that I remained stumble-free.

There was a lot of overgrown entrenched narrow single-track running, and there was a lot of SW coast path overgrown shoving through bushes and getting scratched up.  Actually, the first couple of miles were on beaches and sand dunes too.  This variable terrain was really interesting and fun.  Some of the aid station volunteers were lighthousekeepers, and they were grumpy, which I loved. They had no clue about running and clearly thought we were crazy (which is accurate!).

The weather was very hot, but moderated by some mist and breezes, so overall not too bad.  You had to watch the hydration, for sure, so I took on about 1.5 litres or so between the aid stations.  I made some new friends and chatted with some for a ways, and then we'd break up and re-form into new groups.  One such chat took place in an urban area (Swanage), after which we were back up another steep hill and over into the Knoll Beach area, where one of the famous Pig restaurants is.  The run down the other side into the golden beach and forest was glorious and unforgettable.  

RTTS will feel like a victory lap and a glorious bit of fun after the summer so far.  I've done it before, but last time it was broken up into stages, so I did the 100km over 2 days in 2021.  This year, I'll go all the way through in one big go. The question is: which is harder: all in one go, or staged.  I'm really not sure, because it was incredibly difficult (if not impossible) to run during day 2 last time, but the advantage could be in nutrition.  I think if I keep myself well fed as I did at BigSea, this RTTS 100km non-stop run should be a breeze.  Full disclosure: I'll be walking up ALL the hills!

My ultra summer: Chiltern Ridge Ultra Trail and beyond

2023 summer is my summer of ultra, and as I head into my last big training run for Race to the Stones 100km non-stop (the BigSea 50k ultra trail this Sunday the 11th of June) I realise I haven't been documenting my journey so far this year. Other than in my own training diary, of which I'm a religious keeper of notes, observations and strategies for each and every upcoming race.

The first of my two 'warmup' ultras was the Chiltern Ridge Ultra Trail 50k in May 2023.  It is a really lovely little event, just a couple hundred people on the start line, and we had sunny weather for it too. It was the day after the coronation of King Charles, so the countryside through which we ran was sprinkled with picknicking, games, and hikers.  

The summit of the run is Ivinghoe, which Robert MacFarlane talks about in the Icknield Way section of his book The Old Ways.  We had a great view there.  By this time, about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way through, I had 'buddied up' and found someone who was running at my pace. We were kind of racing each other, but he also saved me from a couple of wrong turns because I had decided (foolishly it turns out) to run without Navigation turned on.  Some of the signs had also been tampered with by other people on the trail.

All the various ultra strategies were being tested, from footwear to pacing to nutrition. Footwear went well, with only one clear small blister at the end of 32 miles.  Choice of socks should help here as I was wearing road running socks.  Nutrition, as I have posted on Strava, was excellent.  I tried caffiene gels for the first time, towards the end of the race, and liked that.  These were both provided on the course, and carried by me, having bought some GU gels in a last minute splurge at Chertsey's Rock & Ice.

I downed 4 hard boiled eggs, but will go with 5 this time, as they are a great savoury and extremely easy to swallow protein option.  My crew (Diane) brought me a sausage bap which was great but that was a one off!  So this time I'll bring burritoes for more savoury on the BigSea.  Pacing was good too, with running strong at the end, and sustainable throughout.  I never really pushed it that hard, but I motored up the hills with my Leki poles, passing people the whole way in a fast walk.  Downhills are a strength too, as I don't really get quad burn even on a few thousand feet.

The hardest part was I guess mental, being separated from the pack for most of the latter half, with the sporadic exception of my new friend who helped me not get lost.  What got me through was the scenery, the sense of cameraderie, brief chats with walkers on the move, and really having mainly internal goals.  I was motivated to get the medal too, which does help, and did motor a bit for that finish line feeling.

I'll blog BigSea too, especially as I'll be using it as a chance to get in more like 55k as its finish and start have a gap between them.  This way, I can hopefully get in 55k, a mental leap over the halfway barrier that some find at RTTS base camp.  The strategy there (to which I'm increasingly turning) will be to get in a good feed, but not spend too long there.  The main thing will be to just get going again while the light is still strong, and to finish not too long (<2 hrs) after dark. 

Here's a new trailrunning hat I got at Chiltern Ridge Ultra Trail. It's made by Ugoku, and I love it!