Training

3 Tips on how to build up to an Ultra-Run

Are you thinking about taking up ultra-running? Top running coach and Team Salomon runner Donnie Campbell offers his 3 key training tips to help push yourself further and obtain the best results with your runs.

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1. SPEED WORK

No matter what race distance you are doing speed work is important. If you keep increasing the distance and time you run and neglect doing any speed work your pace will become slower.

I recommend at least 1 speed session a week depending on what race and fitness level you are at. The most common speed sessions are Interval, Fartlek, Hill repetitions and Tempo Run. It’s important to make your speed sessions specific to what type of race you are doing. If it is a predominately flat race your preparing for then you’ll need to do more Interval training on a flat incline. Whereas if you are doing a mountain or hill trail race then you will want to do more hill reps. It sounds simple, but I’ve seen a lot of people get it wrong.

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2. CROSS TRAIN

Cross Training can be a really effective method of training as it can reduce the risk of injury, while still improving your cardiovascular and muscular endurance. Cross training is especially effective if you have just started running.

Cross training also means in some cases you may still be able to train even when injured and unable to run to maintain your fitness. Types of cross training I’d recommend for running are core workouts (stomach and back muscles), cycling, yoga, pilates, swimming and walking. Basically, anything that gets your heart above its resting rate and holds it there for at least 30min!

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3. CHANGE EATING HABITS

The age old saying stands, you just can’t out train a bad diet! So even if you train like an athlete if you have a poor diet and consume more calories than you burn you will end up putting on weight. which is bad news for most people, but especially for ultra-runners, where you will have to carry that extra weight over the course of the run!

As a Coach I don't like to put people on diets as they are only a short-term measure, instead I like to try to help them change their eating habits and behaviours. This way they won’t just lose the weight, they will be able to keep it off as well. I recommend only making a few changes to your diet at any one time this way, this will increase the chances of you sticking to it and being less likely to fail and give up. Start with things like changing semi skimmed milk to skimmed milk and white bread to brown bread, once this has become a habit then I would look at changing something else like limiting chocolate to one bar a week and so on.

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Looking for some training tips and advice? Then head over to our Training category where our athletes and experts explain everything you need to know.