Let’s Talk Fundamentals

Let’s Talk Fundamentals

The fundamental phase of training is about developing the body’s systems that will underpin your race day performance. I think of this in two ways. Firstly, that we want to build your engine, revving it up until it sounds like a vehicle from Fast and the Furious 25! It needs to deliver oxygen to working muscles, work efficiently with the fuel sources at hand - fats and carbohydrates, and efficiently convert that energy into ‘work’.

Secondly, it also means raising the ceiling i.e. the level you can operate at sustainably. This means lactate processing. Lactate gets a bad rep in the running community. It was unfortunate to be identified as a marker for fatigue i.e. it rises and your legs fail. In reality, lactate is actually a fuel source being recycled by the liver back into glucose (long live the Cori Cycle!) so the better we are at utilising it, the longer we can sustain this higher intensity.

But that’s enough science, let’s talk running

What does the week look like in this phase?

I like to structure the week with a workout and a long run with easy miles filling in the gaps. We’re not reinventing the wheel here, running training isn’t that. It’s about executing the simple stuff well and consistently.

Easy running, tell me more

Easy running should form the vast majority of your running week. While the 80/20 model (80% easy, 20% hard) is simplistic it does provide a neat basis on which to structure your week. Easy mileage is still a range of efforts. I like to think of it as recovery running, or 1-2/10, and intentional easy, 2-4/10. The former should be so easy that you get home feeling better than you went out. It’s focus, as the name implies, is to help freshen the body up. These runs stacked over time still have a big impact on building your aerobic capacity. Intentional easy is more of a zone 2 focus. It is still comfortable and you can hold a conversation however, there is a bit more intent about the way you move. Use the context of the easy run and how your body feels to determine which effort you opt for.

Mileage gets a lot of focus from the running community. Platforms like Strava thrust it in front of us and its difficult to look anywhere else. It is important, there’s no doubt that there is correlation between the amount of running we do and the performances we are capable of. However, that doesn’t mean everyone should be running 110miles per week. We should be more interested in what is sustainable week on week for ourselves than what the elites are doing. It is the consistency of mileage, stacking week on week that leads to the improvements AND that leads to your body being able to handle more work in the future. So build your mileage up slowly and sensibly listening to your body.

What should my workout look like?

I like to play with a couple of different efforts here: lactate threshold (7/10) and marathon effort (6/10). You’ll be glad to hear that they are both much more controlled than the speed sessions. The bad news is the recovery periods are significantly shorter!

Lactate threshold work should feel comfortably uncomfortable, whatever the hell that means!  In reality, it is something you need to go out and experiment with. You are looking for about your one hour race effort. Marathon effort is about your 3-4 hour race effort. You feel like you are moving with purpose but can still talk with short sentences. With both of these, it’s always better to err on the side of caution and build up to the effort than jump in two footed and miss the mark.

Break the ‘work’ up into intervals. This allows you to complete more with less fatigue. If this is your first time doing workouts, then start out small and build up. We are aiming for about 30min of lactate threshold work and 45-60min of marathon effort. Here are some examples:

• 12-10-8min @ 7/10 effort with 3min jog recovery between reps
• 3x15min @ 6/10 effort with 2min jog recovery between reps

What will my long run look like in this phase?

Here we will play with some slightly longer runs particularly if you are racing the 100k/100miles. However, we can’t use the same approach as you might in marathon training where you get out for 80-90% of the race distance. Instead, we need to trust the process and stand on that start line being comfortable to explore the unknown!

Depending on your experience of running loooooong, I like to plan out 2-3 race-specific long runs. I will generally cap the longest run at about a marathon completed on terrain similar to the race. You may race longer than this in the lead up to a big event, for example a 50k in the lead up to 100m. However, I feel that four hours on feet is ample experience at testing race nutrition and to get a taster of what race day has in store. Going longer leads to significantly more fatigue, that takes time to shake off, with little physiological benefit. Look at Camille Herron - max. long run 3hrs in the lead up to a six-day ultra-marathon (gasp!). Let’s all be more like Camille.

We don’t need to be running super long every weekend either. In fact this could be to your detriment as it’s a missed opportunity. Instead, play around with your long run by introducing some different efforts in there - use it to play around the top end of your zone 2 (5-6/10) and work your aerobic threshold. Particularly for people near the front of the pack, this is often the limiting factor on how fast you can run an ultramarathon so get used to hanging out there on the regular! Have a look at my previous blog, ‘The Time to get FAST’, for some ideas on what this might look like.

I’m getting excited. Is there anything else?

It has been said that ultra running is an eating contest. This is being recognised more than ever with the ‘carb-revolution’ – athletes eating 100g+ of carbs per hour. The principle behind this is that carbohydrates are the principle fuel on which our body’s run so if we continue to supply the sugary goodness then we can hold a higher effort for longer. Simple right? Well, there are a number of potential limiting factors one of which being our stomachs remaining happy. We all have that running buddy with the cast iron stomach (curse them!) that we wish to be more like. The good news is your stomach is trainable much like your legs and lungs. So take every opportunity to pummel your face with carbs and reap the rewards come race day. It’ll also help aid recovery between runs too. AND they taste good. Disclaimer – you should see your dentist twice a year for check ups!

Speed work. I haven’t forgotten my own words of ‘I don’t like to neglect an area of training for too long’. The faster stuff still has a place through this phase of training but in more of a ‘dribble’ sort of way. Strides are one of the easiest ways to do this - finish one or two easy runs per week with 4-6x20sec strides with one minute jog recovery between repetitions. Another way of sprinkling some speed work in is to create a mixed-type workout. Imagine a speed session and lactate threshold session having a baby together. It might look something like this:

• 2x10min @ 7/10 effort with 3min jog recovery between reps into 6x30sec @ 9/10 with 30sec jog recovery between reps OR
• 8min @ 6/10, 6min @ 7/10, 4min @ 8/10, 2min @ 9/10 all with 2min jog recovery between reps

Sink into this phase and enjoy it. Building your engine and seeing those gains settle in is immensely enjoyable. Remember that progress isn’t linear but that the hard work and long hours will pay off in the long run (there’s no excuse for that pun).