So you decided to run an ultra.
You (more or less carefully) selected your first race, marked the date on your calendar, and convinced yourself that spending most of your weekends running would be fun.
But now that you have gotten your new pair of running shoes, a shiny GPS watch, and inordinate amounts of candy to get you through those training runs, reality sets in.
You have no idea how to trick your body into running that long.
And while Courtney Dauwalter – one of the greatest ultrarunners of our time – stacks up win after win without having a structured plan and just going by feel in her training, the truth is us far less talented runners can’t get away with “winging it” if we want to achieve our ultrarunning goals.
Beyond Winging It: The Case for Structured Ultra Training
A well-designed training plan does more than tell you how far to run daily. It prevents you from falling into the ‘same-pace-same-route’ trap many runners get stuck in.
I have fallen into that trap myself. In theory, I knew better, but in practice, I defaulted to an “easy” pace for almost all of my runs during a particularly stressful time in my life. Every now and then, I would throw in a few fartlek runs and hill sprints, but when I looked over my training log after a few weeks, I realized I had skipped many speed sessions. I used my running time mainly to relax and escape the stress of daily life. And for me, relaxing means running slow.
However, using a structured training plan does not only help you to keep your training varied. It also ensures you build your mileage sustainably, reducing the risk of injury and burnout.
Many runners starting their journey or returning from a break from running make the classic mistake of doing too much too soon.
A good training plan will help you stay patient when motivation is high. Building your mileage sustainably also includes weeks of reduced volume to allow your body to adapt and get stronger.
Most importantly, having a well-designed training plan takes the daily guesswork out of your running. No more wondering about how far you should go or how fast. Instead, every training session serves a clear purpose, and you know exactly what you need to do each day.
Because, let’s be honest, you’ll have enough decisions about which flavor of energy gel to try next.
Making Time for Miles: Planning Your Ultra Training Schedule
In part I of this series, we already touched on the time factor in ultramarathon training. When considering the time commitment you have to make, you need to think about the time frame to prepare for the event and how much time you can allocate weekly to work on your goal.
Regarding the first point, 16-24 weeks is seen in most training plans as the preparation time for an ultramarathon. However, as with many things in running, the exact timeline from deciding to run an ultra until one is ready to toe the start line differs for each of us.
If you are in your mid-40s and haven’t run in over two decades, you will need much longer until you are ready to finish your first 50K than someone who is in their 30s and has been running ultramarathons for 5 years already.
I ran my first 61 km trail race just 8 months after I started running again (after a 9-year break). While this was still a relatively quick ramp-up in mileage, a 16-week training block would have been way too short to get me to the start line injury-free and excited to race.
So make sure you plan your first race well in advance to give your body a fair chance of going through the training cycle injury-free and your mind a chance to adapt to the mental stress of endurance training.
The more time you give yourself to prepare, the better off you will be.
Training for an ultramarathon does not only mean logging miles before breakfast. It also means ensuring you get enough high-quality sleep and good nutrition to recover well from the training you put in. And it also means making time for supplementary training, such as stretching, yoga, or strength training, to help you stay injury-free.
And don’t forget about the curveballs life sometimes throws at us. You may come down with a cold, your dog may need surgery, or you may lose your job. All of these are stressors and will affect how much training stress you can put your body under.
How you structure your training block depends on your athletic background and your target race. Generally speaking, if you are new to running, start with a base-building block to develop aerobic capacity and gradually increase volume.
But don’t run only long and slow.
Instead, transition into other training blocks where each block focuses on a specific intensity (such as tempo blocks, VO2-max blocks, or Threshold blocks).
Another option is to keep a general weekly structure throughout the build-up to your ultra but ensure you include all intensities in your weekly training. Various approaches are used in ultrarunning, and each coach has a particular philosophy.
I prefer the block approach as it keeps training interesting for athletes and is usually more effective for more experienced athletes.
The “it depends on you as a runner” principle also applies somewhat to how you structure your weekly training. The various factors you need to consider are your age, how long you have been running (or have been involved in other endurance sports), and your family and work commitments.
What you want to avoid, though, is the “weekend-warrior” trap, where you do minimal (or no) training during the week and then accumulate super-high mileage over the weekend.
As tempting as it may seem to cram in all your miles on Saturday and Sunday when you have a busy schedule, your body won’t appreciate that approach. Your muscles, tendons, and nervous system need consistent training stimuli to adapt properly, and sudden significant increases in volume are more likely to lead to injury than improvement.
This consistency in training becomes even more crucial as we age. And by ‘aging,’ we’re not talking about reaching retirement age – we’re talking about runners over 40-45 years old. Our bodies become a bit more stubborn about adapting to training as we age, kind of like that friend who becomes set in their ways.
While a 25-year-old might maintain fitness with four runs per week, older runners often benefit from more frequent, shorter sessions. The key is consistency with easy effort. A daily 30-minute easy run is more beneficial than an hour-long run every other day. This approach helps maintain muscle mass (which naturally wants to decline with age) and keeps the body’s training adaptations active while allowing proper recovery between harder efforts.
How exactly you structure your week will then depend on the style of training you choose. If you choose to follow a block-training approach, your structure will depend on which intensity is the focus of this week. If you choose to follow a mixed-intensity periodization approach, you will work in all intensity zones almost every week.
An example week for a mixed-intensity periodization style of training may look like this:
- Monday: Rest
- Tuesday: Quality session (hills or speed)
- Wednesday: Easy run
- Thursday: Moderate effort run
- Friday: Easy run
- Saturday: Rest or Cross training
- Sunday: Long run
As you progress, you might add a second quality session, increase the length of your long runs, or add a second training session for a few days.
The key is finding a schedule that works with your life while balancing challenging yourself and staying consistent.
Ultimately, the best training plan is the one you can actually follow.
Training Math Made Simple: Your Guide to Key Metrics
After figuring out how much time you need to prepare for your ultra and how to structure your weekly training, the next big question is how to measure your training. In ultrarunning, we primarily look at two aspects: how much we train (distance or duration) and how hard we train (intensity).
Let’s break these down into digestible pieces.
Distance vs Duration: What Works Best for You?
The “miles vs minutes” debate has been around for a while, and athletes and coaches alike have various opinions on what to use. You will find that some coaches prefer distance while others only prescribe time-based mileage. Who is right?
Like many things in ultrarunning, the answer is that it depends. Both approaches have merits, and your choice might vary based on your environment and goals.
Training by distance provides concrete, measurable goals. When I started ultrarunning in the flat big city of Berlin / Germany, tracking miles made perfect sense. A 15-kilometer tempo run will take roughly the same time whether I run through the middle of the city (unless it is exceptionally crowded with pedestrians) or around the lakes of my favorite nature reserve on the northern outskirts.
However, when I started to train for mountainous ultras, which included a lot of uphill hiking and running on the treadmill, I trained more with a focus on my feet since the added vert meant I could cover less mileage in my allotted training time.
Which approach is best for you? Here are some general guidelines.
Distance-based training works particularly well when:
- You train on consistent terrain
- You like specific, measurable goals
- You’re preparing for a race where distance is the primary challenge (for example, a 24-hour run on a track or flat road)
- You want to track weekly mileage precisely
Training by time works better when:
- Your training terrain varies significantly
- You run technical trails
- You want to ensure consistent training stress regardless of conditions
- You’re less concerned about specific mileage goals
A 10-mile run might take 90 minutes on flat ground but three hours on technical mountain trails. In these cases, planning by time ensures more consistent training stress.
Likewise, if you are new to running and your primary goal is to finish your first ultramarathon, focusing on time can be beneficial. You don’t need to worry about hitting a certain distance within the time you have for your run.
By focusing solely on time on your feet, you can avoid going too fast, reducing your injury risk.
Effort Made Simple: RPE, Heart Rate, and Pace
Once you’ve decided how to measure the amount of training, you need to determine how to gauge intensity. We have three main tools: Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE), heart rate, and pace.
Let’s look at each in turn.
Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE)
RPE is essentially your internal speedometer – how hard you feel you’re working on a scale from 1 to 10. While it might seem overly subjective at first (“How do I know if this is a 6 or a 7?”). Most runners develop a surprisingly accurate sense of their effort levels over time. Picture 1 shows the RPE scale for runners.
The benefits of RPE include:
- It’s always available
- It naturally accounts for fatigue, weather, and stress
- It doesn’t require any technology
- It helps develop body awareness
Heart Rate (HR)
Heart rate provides an objective measure of physiological stress. It’s particularly useful for:
- Ensuring easy runs stay easy
- Monitoring recovery status
- Preventing overtraining
- Managing effort on long runs
However, heart rate can be affected by factors like temperature, hydration, and stress, so it shouldn’t be your only guide.
If you want to use heart rate as a training tool, get a chest strap and ensure you correctly set your individual training zones. I advise against using the data you get from your running watch, as wrist-based heart rate monitors are too unreliable to be useful.
Pace
Pace is most useful in consistent conditions but becomes less relevant on trails or in extreme weather. It works well for:
- Flat terrain training
- Track workouts
- Race planning on known courses
- Measuring progress over time
I like to use pace when I do kilometer – repeats on my standard loop around the park close to my house or when I have fun with fartleks on flat terrain.
The most effective approach often combines all three metrics.
For example, I train using RPE but will check my heart rate periodically on runs that feel extremely hard, even when running slowly. A low heart rate and high RPE may be a sign of excessive fatigue, and by using all metrics, I can monitor my training load and ensure I don’t overtrain myself.
When I train for flat-road timed events, I use pace to gauge my fitness level for this specific ultrarunning style.
And when I have an easy recovery session scheduled, I don’t check my watch but rely solely on RPE to ensure I run easy enough.
The Path Forward: Making Your Ultra Training Work for You
After all this talk about training plans, schedules, and metrics, remember this: ultrarunning is a journey to discover what works best for you, not just to the finish line. Whether you measure your training in miles or minutes, monitor your effort through RPE, heart rate, or pace (or all three), the most important thing is consistency.
Start with a plan that fits your life, be patient with the process, and don’t be afraid to adjust as you learn more about yourself as a runner. While a structured approach to training is important, the beauty of ultrarunning lies in its flexibility—there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.
In the next article in this series, we’ll dive deeper into the different types of training runs and how to incorporate them effectively into your ultra training. Until then, lace up those shoes, grab your favorite running candy, and get out there – those ultra dreams won’t chase themselves.
Note: This is part IV of the Ultrarunning for Beginners series. The first article in this series can be found here:
Part I: So You Want to Run an Ultra-a Guide to Getting Started