Your first ultra marathon - top 10 tips (PLUS more Q&A!)

[@MarkSouthee]

The freezer trick for bladders definitely works

[@jillmahal4695]

I try to run about 5 - 6 days a week. I'm in training mode for some shorter trail races, so I have to get the miles in!!! Hoping to do a marathon this fall/winter with a longer goal of a 50K next spring. Taking your advice to work my way slowly to the ultra distance! Love your tips and gear suggestions.

[@alanshrimpton6787]

5x/week and normally my rest days are after both quality workout days. I tend to do my strength on these 2 days off running.

[@wildgingerruns]

Nice work Alan, strength is alway good!

[@clintisatallrunner]

Running my first 50k in Oct. These are good tips, almost impossible to believe I will be using them!

[@hugokramer5729]

Great stuff as always Claire! I run 4 times a week including a speed session and LRS.

[@1978jman1978]

Typically run 3-5 times a week. Training for a 50K And really enjoyed the Cape wrath talk. Thanks for sharing

[@wildgingerruns]

Cool! Glad you liked it

[@jp05598]

“These super long distances have become really trendy lately” so true!

[@The29ervince]

Typically 5 days a week unless taking part in a RED challenge! 😁 Monday group run or track session, Tuesday short easy solo run, Wednesday longer tempo run, Thursday cross train, Friday longer easy run, Sunday trail run or race day. 👍

[@gretchenross4033]

5 days a week, typically on Tuesdays (4-5), Wednesdays (shorter), Thursdays (speedework), Saturdays (long), and Sundays (crawl), and I cross train the other days. I'm an addict.

[@stephenmackay4320]

I normaly run 3 to 5 times a week Have my 1st Ultra in March Love the tips

[@waynereed219]

All of last year I could only run once every 2 weeks. Since the new year and my switch to keto I have noticed a massive reduction in pain and recovery time, this has allowed me to up my running to 4 runs a week. Monday slow gentle recovery, Wednesday fast paced couple of miles, Friday hill intervals, Saturday long run. My mileage is still low in comparison to most people I know but it is a massive improvement on last year. I only managed 2 races last year, my first ever race- freedom Racing summer Sessions godrevy 10k in May, and then Eden half marathon in October, with a little Santa fun run at the end of the year. So far this year I have done Clowance Woods 4 miler, and last weekend the new twilight race cardinham Woods 10k by purple gecko events(awesome!) and already have planned 4 half marathons, man vs coast 23+ miles, potentially coastal point marathon, and the Halloween edition of the 10k I just finished, maybe push out to RAT over summer leave. The aim.....get fitter, thinner, and faster. Hopefully build up to doing the classic quarter next year 😜

[@waynereed219]

Hi Claire, thank you. The thing with keto which people don’t understand is it isn’t about cutting out food groups, it’s switching the balance from carb focussed energy use to fat focused, I do still eat carbohydrates they are just at a much reduced rate with an increase in fat intake mainly good fats( except avocado 🥑🤢🤢). I still aim to get plenty of micro nutrients in my daily diet also. I think your body does this switching process anyway on much longer runs when it has used up the carbs taken in, but if already “fat adapted” there is pretty much no chance of bonking......hopefully lol. My Achilles is a bit sore today so going to skip hills Friday in favour of increased recovery day for my planned 10 miler over the weekend. It all seems to be working so far but I will heed the advice and keep an eye on it for the long term, and keep you updated if things change. Thank you 👍

[@larslaird]

I'm pretty consistent on being active 4 times a week. However, one is playing football, and these days I swap some runs for cross country skiing. The burden of being Norwegian ;) .

[@76yacumo]

Great info😃

[@76yacumo]

will do. pls if you have any advice for my channel i really love that 🏃🏻‍♂️

[@76yacumo]

Just shared your vid on my channel👍🏼

[@jamesmurray6670]

How often do I run? Over the past 5 years I only ran a few weeks before a ocr. As from 2 weeks ago I have and will be training 3/4 times a week due to signing up for a Edinburgh marathon in May, an entry level triathlon in June and hope to do a 50+k trail ultra towards towards the autumn.

[@littleoldmanrunning105]

I'm currently aiming to run twice a day (20kms each time) every weekday and taking the weekends off. I'm not suggesting this is a smart thing to do. So far I haven't managed a full week. Work commitments and wife commitments sometimes get in the way. But I'm doing as much as I can as often as I can. I'm constantly knackered at the moment. but I'm hoping if I can stick with it that my body will adapt and it will become easier - just like it did when i was running 10kms every day. (and that really hurt to start with) Again, this is not a sensible thing to do, but no-one ever accused me of being sensible ;-)

[@littleoldmanrunning105]

It seems like a lot when you look at it in terms of marathons, and when I started doing this i was knackered afterwards, and generally tired all week. But now into my third week a 20km morning run feels like a 10km morning run used to feel like - relatively easy. (I'm not running hard, just at a comfortable pace). I've got one more week of this, then a week off and then i start hill work. The reason I'm doing this is to build up my stamina so I can go harder longer. My reasoning is - if my body is used to running much longer distances every day, on race day the distance is not much further than a normal day, so the stress on my body during a race is less and I'll perform better. That's the theory at least. ;-) I'll find out in June and July if it stacks up in real life. And then.... (fingers crossed) in August I'll fly to the UK and do my first 100km race. So i'm definitely going to need lots of endurance for that! (it's a long way to fly when you have very short arms ;-))

[@martinjnagy]

@@littleoldmanrunning105 how did you get on?

[@trevorgeorge6174]

@@martinjnagy Really well :-) I had my best result ever. Two days after completing a brutal 62km ultra I was good to go again. I ran across the finish line feeling really good. I'm not too keen on trying that level of training again, because it's really hard. But if you can do it, it really works.

[@TT-rl4su]

Guys help me out please. I used Salomon 12L vest for last 3 years in size M. This year I thought of getting size S as I am inbetween the sizes S and M. My chest is around 97cm, size S stops at 97 and Size M starts at 97 grrrr. I have attached a link to me wearing old model in size M and the new model in size S. Should I exchange the new 2019 model for size M? Can't decide lol oi68.tinypic.com/ojiidt.jpg

[@TT-rl4su]

I think I read somewhere that if you are inbetween sizes you should go for smaller option but I decided to exchange it to Size-M as bottles seem to sit too much to the side on Size S and might get in the way of arm movement. Also everything felt harder to stuff in. First world problems!

[@TT-rl4su]

I actually went with M in the end. S was making everything too tight and bottles were getting hard to insert and too much to the side near my arm swing. Most importantly the online sizing guide for 2018 model seems slightly different to what was on the actual Salomon 2019 cardboard hanger. On the 2019 Salomon cardboard hanger that comes with the bag it says- S is for 89-95cm chest. I am 97cm without Tshirt/Jacket etc so I went with M. Thanks :-)

[@kl8922]

Couch to a 50k is do-able. Couch to 100k? No. I tried that craziness on my recent 100 miler attempt. You will get stuck limping a third of the way if you are not used to elevation, and it will hurt every step you take.

[@wildgingerruns]

Defo agree!