Ultramarathon Training Tips for Beginners – LIVESTRONG.COM

The two main components of a training plan include runs of varying speed and distance — like you would have training for a shorter race — and preparing your nutritional plan for race day. In fact, Torrence considers race day fueling to be one of the biggest challenges of an ultramarathon.

“No one can run ultra-distances without ingesting calories or fluid,” he explains. “If you get this aspect wrong on race day you’ll bonk, get nauseous or bloated, or worse, puke. Nutrition is a delicate balance between calories, fluid, electrolytes and exertion. The experience is different for every runner and must be practiced in training.”

When it comes to what runs you can expect during training, as with training for shorter races, you should be doing speed workouts, recovery runs and, of course, long runs. Because the race distances are long, you should often train by time versus distance. For example, before a marathon, many runners have completed training runs in the 22- to 24-mile range. For an ultra, Sharman shares that you want to have run for over two hours to help with endurance, but no more than five hours, due to the amount of recovery needed afterward.

“There’s a lot of overlap with road and shorter distance training, but the specific elements become more important as you get closer to race day, whether that’s heat adaptation, hill training, altitude acclimatization, wearing a heavy backpack, using trekking poles or many other factors,” says Sharman.

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And don’t shy away from back-to-back long runs. “They’re extremely useful and are lower risk for injury or overtraining than extremely long single runs,” says Sharman.

There are some ultramarathon training plans available online (such as those for 50Ks by and ), but ultimately (and especially for your first ultra), you should get a personalized plan. This is not only because of the variance in distance and terrain of races, but also so you can take your experience level into account and increase mileage in a safe way to avoid injury and overtraining.

While a training plan will tell you how many miles to run on any given day, Smith emphasizes that it won’t take into account a lot of specifics that are crucial in training, including a runner’s experience, life stressors and even details about training runs such as climate, terrain, pacing and fueling. A coach will advise you on these things and tailor the advice to your specific race.

“The training plan depends entirely on the runner’s fitness and experience, and the distance and difficulty of the event,” says Smith. “For example, if you are an experienced marathoner, you could run your first 50K with relatively little extra training and simply finish it (though you may not realize your potential). If you’re training for your first 100-miler, I’d recommend at least six months with 50K and 50-mile or 100K races built into the training block as practice.”

Torrence echoes that the best training plan will modify every workout and long run for the certain specifics of your goal race, along with providing guidance on how to recover from tough workouts and what supplemental exercises you should be doing to cross train.

If you’re a bit overwhelmed reading this, it is completely understandable; this is where mental training comes in. With the challenges of longer distances and tougher terrain (remember: most ultras take place on trails), you will face the unexpected. Mental training is all about preparing your mind to handle whatever comes your way. You don’t need to do it all perfectly, but you can ready yourself to approach any challenge in a calm and practical way.

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“Although it’s a physical test, the longer and tougher a race is, the more it comes down to mental toughness and being able to overcome problems during the race, including things that may never have gone wrong before,” says Sharman. “Ultras involve being tough, so try to factor that into all training, while still having easy recovery days. That means not cutting corners (physically or figuratively) when training, not skipping runs due to bad weather and practicing pushing hard when you’re near the end of hard training runs.”

This is why you should enter into your first ultra with simple goals of being prepared and finishing. Smith shares that you can expect to be uncomfortable, so one of the great mental challenges involves not quitting unless there is a true medical emergency. Recognizing that there are external challenges you can’t control, such as weather or terrain, will help you focus on what you can control: your mindset and approach.

“I advise setting goals throughout the ultra to improve the process, such as: ‘I’m going to try to run all the flats and downhills without hiking breaks,’ or, ‘I’m going to try to take in 200 calories per hour, starting after the first hour, to make sure I don’t bonk,'” says Smith. “Then, set a stretch goal of finishing by an aspirational, but achievable, time.”

As with practicing nutrition or getting your body used to running for hours on end, a lot of your mental training can be done on a day-to-day basis. As Sharman says, even overcoming the desire to skip training runs and learning how to run strong through the end of a long run will help build up your willpower.

“Rarely can you complete an ultra without experiencing a low point or ‘pity party,'” says Torrence. “Your mind doesn’t like running this far, so it’ll try to talk you out of it. You need to develop a tough mind — one that will keep you on track and working towards the goals you’ve set for yourself.”