Discussion: What training for ultra-length adventure racing?

So, I've been laid up this week with a sinus infection and find myself imagining runs more than being able to get out and do them. While letting my mind run wild, I started noticing 6 and 12 hour adventure runs and Rogaines, and 50 and 100 mile ultra-runs, lasting many many hours, and I asked myself,

HERE COMES THE QUESTION
How does one train for such a long run?

More waxing: My only frame of reference for "training for a run" is training for a road run, where you're supposed to run at least the distance, or darned close to it, before running the actual event.

SOME SIDE QUESTIONS ... do people actually increase their training to run continuously for 6 or more hours before they race run these things? Is there some other rule of thumb for what a long run ought to be before running them? And do people actually run the whole time, or is it assumed to be a mix of walk and run?

Do you mean "extended"-length AR?

Sorry, that wasn't helpful and probably not as amusing as I think. But I couldn't resist.

You've asked for a book:-)!

You mention much different sports there. The longer the sport, the slower you basically go.

For expedition AR - you are in multisport which allows you to recover somewhat with different disciplines. Hypothetically, if you put a marathon at the end of an expedition AR, I would suggest you would see finishing times of 5+ hours for the fast teams. They would hate you for that though:-).

Yup, the question covers many things, so my answer will be as basic as possible.

The longer the race, the more low-intensity/long-training you will do, but it is not recommended, even discouraged, to run as long during your training as you will during an ultra event. The basic reason is that ultra-long runs put a lot of strain and fatigue on your body, and the goal of training is training, not hurting yourself :) you dont want to be at the start of a race with a strained body or an injury. So your max training time will perhaps be half the time of the actual race (arbitrary number).

It's all in the basic principle that you should privilege multiple little quality sessions over one big session. ('little' is relative to your goal of course).

From time to time you can also test yourself on other races, which you dont feel as important, but provide feedback to know how your body reacts to long effort (as well as eating and drinking problems you can have).

For adventure racing, the accent is on team spirit and multisports: so you will do, at least from time to time, some team training to get to know each other (lots to say here...). You will also make lots of cross-training (chaining running and biking in the same training for example), as it is a very peculiar thing to switch sport in an event (your muscles dont work the same way, you have to change your gear too, so you better be organised).


Yeah that was my basic answer...

With ultramarathons, you can train like you would for a marathon, but just make the long run longer. I know a lot of ultramarathoners who never do long runs of more than 4 hrs before 50 milers or 100 milers. On the other hand, I know some whose long runs are up to 8 hrs long. I know an elite ultramarathoner in Boulder who told me that to train for a 100 mile race, you can just train like for a marathon, but run a 30 miler every other week once you get closer to the race. I've run 92 miles, 62 miles and 52 miles without ever having gone longer than 32 miles on a training run.
For EXPEDITION adventure races, it's better to train hiking. I think only the top teams at PQ actually ran - most teams trekked and hiked. Tendinitis is a very common affliction at expedition adventure races - and a lot of that comes from not having trained enough time for the actual movement required. I know a lot of fast hikers who don't run, or fast runners who are slow hikers. Better to be a fast hiker for such long things.
For shorter adventure races (24 hrs and less), you might do a bit of running and hiking - it depends on the course. In ultramarathons, you don't carry a big pack, and you don't have all the other activities in there.
The book "Lore of Running" is one of the only books I've found with guidelines to ultramarathons - it's written by a physiologist who is an ultrarunner - I would highly recommend this book.

Thanks! The vagueness (or bigness) of the question reflects how little I know about this area of outdoor competition. Thanks to everyone for very helpful and kind responses.

Another strategy that is used to prepare for ultra-long races is to do long training sessions on consecutive days, for example, someone training for a 100km race might run 20 miles on Saturday and 30 on Sunday. I read somewhere a recommendation to break a long run into pieces even for sub-ultra training. For example, an hour run in the morning followed by a two-hour run in the afternoon, rather than a single three hour run. I'm not sure how the replacement regime compares physiologically with doing a single longer session, but I think the idea is to mitigate inflammation and other breaking down of the tissues while still placing a similar demand on the relevant energy producing and consuming mechanisms.

A LOT of collected wisdom on ultra-running can be found here. Broken down conveniently by category. Keep in mind what works for one person doesn't always work for another so not everything will be pertinent to your situation/aspirations. Adapt as required for AR and other type events.

tomwcarr wrote: Do you mean "extended"-length AR?

Apparently USOF changed the name (again) to 'Ultra-Long' -- see the Flying Pig website.

Glad we got away from "extended." :-)

Can't help much with the original question.

My experience has been that the best training for Adventure Races and Rogaines is to do them. Five or six "overnight" races a year is sufficient to keep you sharp for that length of time. When Carol's Team was actively racing, we did about 1 a month. While that was necessary to score well in USARA's ranking system, I don't think we needed that much for prep. Our best finish at Nationals (4th in 2003) came off considerably less racing.

It's important to note that once you are beyond a 8-10 hour effort, you aren't really in the realm of physical training anymore. Keeping your head in the game and properly pushing (as opposed to grinding yourself to bits) is the key to success in long events. I would put the fitness level required to compete well at a 24-hour race as something harder than riding a century in 6 hours, but easier than running a marathon in 4. The mental challenge is greater than either of those by an order of magnitude.

Agreed. Plus there are all kinds of other things to work on that can be just as important as physical fitness, depending on the race - navigation, technical skills (e.g. many adventure racers are bad paddlers), proper nutrition and hydration, efficient teamwork, avoidance of blisters and chafing, navigation, gear testing (e.g. comfortable backpack and shoes), etc. It's amazing how often it makes a big difference just to read the race instructions carefully. In a 10K running race, I would probably place at least 3/4 of the way back in a field of my fellow adventure racers. But by paying close attention to the other aspects of AR, our team still hits the podium more often than not.

Logistics, preparation, thinking about every little bits which you will have to do during an AR - that's a good part of the AR fun for me. And of course you also have to think that you cant think every little bits which will actually happen during the race (am I clear?): being mentally prepared for the unforeseen is important too.

Your attitude - and your team's attitude - toward unforeseen things matters. It's supposed to be an adventure after all, so if you need to swim across a river or trek through a hailstorm, you just need to embrace the experience (assuming an appropriate safety level) and look forward to the stories you'll be able to tell after the race. And if the unforeseen events are crises, you want to be with teammates who know how to stay calm and rational, and work together to solve problems. One great thing about long events is that you often have time to recover from major problems - and your competitors may end up having even bigger issues to deal with. Never give up!

Two of my AR mantra's (in a very liberal use of the word):

Sh$t happens. It's how you deal with it that matters.

No matter how bad you feel now, somebody on some other team is feeling worse.

>No matter how bad you feel now, somebody on some other team is feeling worse.

From my last 24 hour AR race all I can say is it sure would have sucked to have been them.

One of ours is: "Beware the chair." You can cut your transition times down considerably by refusing to sit down. It sounds like a small thing, but it's not. It's very common for mid-pack teams to spend several hours total in transition areas. Getting it to where you can switch between any two activities in less than 10 minutes will move you past a lot of teams that are faster on the course. Practice it both individually and as a team.

Definitely "Beware the chair."

For most teams, I suspect more time is lost in transition areas than from navigational errors (there are exceptions of course...). It seems like keeping transitions short would be easy, but it's not.

Getting a transition down to 10 minutes takes planning, teamwork, practice, and experience.

Avoid taking lots of gear to a race. The sooner you figure this out, the better off you'll be. New racers take (and carry) lots of extra stuff; it's impossible to organize and most will probably never be used. My first race I had two large tubs jammed full. Not only did it take a week to pack, it took forever to find anything at the race.

Avoid swapping gear out of your pack during the transition. It chews up time and is a good way to leave something behind.

Talk about what you need to do as you near the transition. Don't wait until you get there.

Keep food on the outside of your pack or in a separate waist pack. Pre-pack food in 4-8 hour bunches. Don't pick through it at transition: dump what's left from the previous leg and grab a new pre-packed collection.

Lay your transition out ahead of time. If you'll be changing clothes, at least put them together in a single package. Better, set them out ahead of time.

If you're done transitioning, don't just stand there, help your teammate(s)!

Please add to the list!

Great list! I volunteered at a checkpoint that teams hit a couple of days into the 2004 World AR Champs. I got to watch a lot of different transitions, ranging from the winners, Team Nike (Adamson, Kloser, Tobin, Ballengee), to relative newbies. One thing that struck me about the very best teams was that they communicated constantly during their transition. The transition was just another part of their race, and they were still a team. We didn't get too far down in the pack before we started seeing teams who would arrive and appear to immediately split up into 4 individuals who were taking a break from each other and from the race. Watching Team Nike and other top teams was impressive. They knew what they should be doing in the transition, they knew what each other was doing, and they stepped in to help one another as needed.

As an aside, a few of the locals were a little concerned by the public nudity and bathroom breaks at the transition! Lower level teams have the luxury of being more modest. :-)

At a race a few years ago there were spectators at the paddle take out. I suspect they got more than they bargained for as teams changed out of wet paddling gear into biking gear. There was a single bathroom you could wait for, but most teams just did what they needed to do right out in the open.

Seems "grit" is a particularly important feature. Here's an interesting questionnaire to gauge your level of grit. It's free; you just need to register for the site. There are a lot of questionnaires here. The one to look for is called "Grit Survey."

http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/questi...