I am sure you have already noticed that I am very organized and basically a nerd!! I have spread sheets and lists for everything!! So when I attend to runners conferences, forums or presentations I take notes!! Lot of notes!!
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| Scott Jurek and I |
A time ago I went to a presentation from Scott Jurek where he shared with us tips to apply ultra marathons training for marathons an half marathons.
I am sure he won’t sue me for sharing this!!!
All the training data comes from my notes from his presentation and I will just add some comments and order to the info. (Appologies in advance if any of my data is wrong...I did my best to take good notes :))
He started speaking about Specificity. Something that seems to be basic but maybe sometimes we can easy forget about this.
“ Training should be relevant and appropriate to the sport in order to produce desired training effects.”
In another words, we should know the event requirements i.e. endurance, speed, distance, terrain etc. We should also know our strengths and weaknesses and do specific “smart” training and be aware of our body. Always ask yourself “ Why am I doing speed? Why am I training hills? etc ” Know the why of each work out”
Back to Back
One of the key training "secrets" from ultra-marathoners are the “ Back to back long runs”
This is a technique to develop endurance and it consists of 2 long runs performed on consecutive days to train muscle fatigue.
It is a way to simulate muscle fatigue at 2/3 or 3/4 of race distance. This can be applied in the following way to shorter distances training:
Saturday Sunday
Ultras: 30- 40 miles 25-30 miles
Marathon 15-16 miles 14-15 miles
Half 7 -9 miles 7-8 miles
1 every 3 to 4 weeks.
Uphill tempo runs
Uphill tempo runs should be done at lactate threshold (85% to 90 % of 10K – 15 K race pace) for 20 to 50 minutes. A good guidance to know this pace: it should be a pace you can hold for at least 60 minutes.
This type of run develops aerobic power and specific strength for up hills.
Ultra: 2 x 40-50 minutes up hill.
Marathon: 2 x 20- 30 minutes or 1 x 30- 50 minutes
Half: 1 x 20 – 30 minutes
If you don’t have a hill around, you can still do the workout using the treadmill at a 3% to 5% for beginners and 5% to 10% experienced runners.
Down hills repeats
Consecutive down hills runs of 1 to 30 minutes develops eccentric strength and muscle fatigue resistance.
Ultras: 2 x 20-30 minutes.
Marathon: 7-10 x 1-5 minutes
Half: 7-10 x 30 seconds to 1 minute
If you don’t have a long downhill around just repeat a small downhill more than 10 times.
Recovery runs
Easy runs (50% to 60% effort) of 30 -75 minutes.
Allows the body to actively recover from hard efforts with mild aerobic training effect. It can be done before and after hard sessions.
Marathon: 45- 60 minutes
Running twice in a day at 50/75% effort. Develops fatigue resistance, aerobic conditioning and in some cases acts as active recovery.
Ultra: 60-70 minutes
Thanks Scott!!!
Now get out and move your legs!!! Everyone can train as an ultra runner!!!
Great post. Caught you on RW as well. Firm believer in back to back long runs and Scott Jurek is my idol.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Yes back to back helped me for my first 50 miler to train muscle fatigue. I didn't do them that much for the last one but just for a timing issue. I think they absolutely helps! Scott is great and so nice with beginner runners!! I have run with him a couple of times and he is really amazing!!
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