I’m not gonna lie. The remainder of this post is inspired by YouTube and wine.
@D.P. How does your training vary between doing a 50mile race vs a 100mile race?
I’ve 2 races booked in. 45 miles in October and 42 miles in February.
I’d love to do the Lakeland race at some point which is at the end of June. I expect it to be tricky to enter next year given this years delays and rollover entries.
If I was to enter the 100 mile version. Would I likely have enough training carried over from the shorter runs I’ve done to February with March- May as specific training. Or is it a different beast altogether and I’d be better considering it the year after.
I’ll caveat this by saying I have no expectations of pace/time. Simply finishing would be my goal.
My training doesn't vary that much. It is a bit like comparing a half to a full marathon. If you want to get your best HM time you end up training the same amount of time and same volume at a Full. Mostly, you train as much as you have time for in your life. And even if you had no job and no family, there is a limit to how much you can train. You can't keep scaling up. This is especially true for the LR, while you might do 20miles of 26.2 for a LR ina marathon cycle, you can;t do that 77& of a 100 miler. You can get to about 30miles and that is it.
The detail will depend a bit n the difficulty of the course and how fast you are. For a 50miles, since I typically finish in the top 10-25% on an ultra, I tend to aim to run most of it except the climbs (which for some courses still means hiking most of it. For most people, even very fit, you need to plan a lot of serious hiking time for a 100 mile race so that needs to be part of your training.
Te biggest differences between 50 and 100 is not really the physical or at least running side, as you probably can't run more than 40-50 even with solid training and an easier course. Instead, the difference is largely mental. You will suffer much more, and for longer, and the lows will be much deeper. Sleep is a major issue. With a 50miler you might get an hour or 2 in the dark before sunrise, which is fine due to high energy levels and adrenaline, it feel like day time. After you have been running all day and covered 50miles and then the sun starts sitting and you realize you have 12 hours of darkness ahead of you, and however much you have suffered you are half way in distance not even halfway in time, - well, it is humbling and scary! You then have to figure how to handle sleep deprivation, the hallucinations, and loneliness. For 24hours you are typically OK but after that it really gets hard. The urge just to crawl in to a corner and sleep is enormous. After a few more hours it can be physically impossible to keep your eyes open. And yet if you are out in the high mountains falling asleep can be very dangerous. Most people prefer 10-20 minute power naps, they take the edge of the extreme fatigue for few more hours.
Others do continuous 20-30seconds micro sleeps. Handy in an emergency I found (top tip is to hang from the pols so if you fall asleep properly you will fall down and wake up)
The next big issue is food/calories/hydration. Well, for have enough glycogen stores for 20 miles at marathon pace. Slowing down you can get to 30-35 or so, and so for a 50 miles you have to consume about 15-20 miles worth of food. So gels, power bars, nuts, dried fruit, soda, and the odd banana gets you there. For 100 miles you have thousands of more calories to eat, and you just have to become an eating machine. It becomes so tiresome just constantly trying to consume calories. There is only so many hours you can eat dried fruit and gels before anything sweet is vomit inducing. When it is warm, keeping hydrated and electplytes in balance is also extremely difficult. If your stomach goes south then you have troubles drinking enough. And the more you have to drink the more likely you screw up the electrolytes.
None of this stuff is really trainable. You just have to enter a race and cope. With experience then it becomes easier to manager, or at better still prevent. Prevention is critical for 100 milers. A blister will mean certain failure if not caught early. Hydration issues are a show stopper. Maintain suitable body temperatures is critical not just for safety but to maintain energy or hydration. Shivering on top of a mountain at 2am because you didn;t pack enough warm layers at best will completely drain you mentally and waste load of calories while you shiver your arse off.
Training wise, try to run on the same kind of terrain as much as possible, and don't forge the hiking. Runs at night time are important. This can make training easy. Set out at 8pm Friday and run/hike until midnight. Running when sleep deprived. Even just getting in a solid hike helps. You can try and run before work, then hike in the evening once the kids are in bed etc. Get used to wearing a head lamp
The long runs are critical but after a point they don;t help. Sure, if you have 8-10 hours to do a hike-run then do it. But 4-5 hours with a bit more pace is sufficient. Sufficient to give fatigue and ensure you are eating. Try and pack your backpack with a similar quantity of gear. For mountainous 100milers you have quite a lot of extra clothing, 1st aid kits, water,food, head lamps. You can quickly get to several kgs even with the lightest gear you can buy.
Some people swear by the back to back LR. But that seems like a recipe for injury. IMO, The 2nd run should be a hike with short jog stretches, and a lot shorted than the 1st day's run. Count on accumulated fatigue and consistent volume, rather than some of the insane weekends I see some people do (40miles Saturday, 30 Sunday.
Really, it is the shorter 50 mile races that act as the best training for the longer races, as only in these conditiosn will you be pushed to extreme exhaustion.
Was feeling totally out of it at the end of the run. It was a bit surreal anyhow, as as I was heading down the towpath, I nearly ran into a stationary cow! Had to persuade it to walk in front of me for a while until of got bored and let me past.