Happy Tuesday!
This week we’re going to dive into the methodology of building the long run and ride. “Long” is something that has to be taken in context, but for the purpose of our conversation, we’re talking Ironman, Ultraman, ultramarathons and beyond.
Preparing for a milestone distance, whether it is a 50k or century ride, requires more than just covering more miles. It requires a shift in how your body and mind operate under prolonged stress.
The Metabolic Shift: the 90-minute threshold
One of the key stimuli gained from a long workout is improving fat oxidation.
When a workout exceeds 90-120 minutes, your body begins to rely more heavily on fuel management because carbohydrate storage is limited. In contrast to carbohydrate storage, we have ample amounts of stored fat.
Repeated exposure to longer sessions helps your body get better at fat to support the work you’re doing. (this DOES NOT mean that you are exclusively using fat (more on this below).
Another key metabolic adaptation is improved mitochondrial density. Mitochondria are responsible for generating the energy from both carbohydrate and fat. When you train long, you are telling your body: produce more energy for longer periods of time. Over time, the body will adapt with improved fat oxidation and increased mitochondrial density.
The Adaptation Lag: why patience is mandatory
The most common reason for injury is a mismatch in adaptation speed between body systems.
- Cardiovascular system and muscles can improve in a relatively short period of time (2-6 weeks).
- Connective tissue (tendons/ligaments) adapts much more slowly (6-12 months).
This is why you may feel that the effort of running/riding longer begins to feel easier in a few months. But the structural integrity of your body hasn’t had enough time to catch up, and you end up with an overuse injury.
Strategy: follow progression guidelines, not rules
There’s no-one size-fits all approach to increasing volume, but these guidelines help.
- Increase volume by time, not miles. Not all miles are created equal. Your body doesn’t know what a mile is. It knows effort x duration.
- For most athletes, a single long run or ride should not exceed 30% of your total weekly volume (time). This prevents one workout from becoming so taxing that it disrupts the rest of your training.
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Back-to-back long workouts. Rather than attempting one mega workout that risks injury, back-to-back workouts can simulate the fatigue while allowing a 24-hour recovery window in between.
- Day 1: longer and/or hiller
- Day 2: up to 75% of Day 1 volume
- More experienced runners could do the same duration back-to-back if they’ve handled it before.
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Increasing volume. Cyclists can use less caution when increasing their long ride week-to-week. Running progression depends heavily on your history with volume. As a general guideline:
- Less experienced runners or runners early in their training block: Don’t exceed more than 10% increase in duration in their long-run week to week (or cumulative back-to-back duration).
- More experienced runners: May tolerate bigger jumps (30-60 minutes), if the rest of the week supports it.
Mindset: managing the highs and lows
In addition to the physiological adaptations, the mindset adjustments are a major part of the reason we do long workouts.
You brain is meant to protect you from stress beyond what you’re used to. As you extend the volume past previous threshold, it will begin to tell you stop. This is side of training that has to be practiced, because we don’t simulate race distances in training. (Nobody’s going out for a 100-mile training run!)
When you’re at hour 2, 3, or 4 and your mind is starting to say “STOP” you have to develop tools to keep moving forward:
First step = fuel!
- If you are feeling low, flat, or want to quit, you need more energy. Make this an automatic cue to fuel anytime you begin to feel low.
Second = break it into chunks.
- Fight against the tendency to forecast to the finish line. “If I feel this bad at 2 hours, how am I ever going to make it to 4 hours?”
- Focus on whatever measurable checkpoint: the next intersection, the next light post, or the next mile. In the race, this becomes “the next aid station”.
Third = experiencing a comeback
- Every ultra event has one or more low points. Any experienced ultra-athlete knows that the first, second or third low point does not mean you’re finished.
- The body has an amazing ability to rebound, but you have to experience it in training, and you have to practice digging yourself out of the dark moments
Practical Execution: the majority of bonks come from improper training, not improper race day execution
Success on race day is usually determined by how well you’ve practiced scenarios in training. You can’t replicate race distance, but you can rehearse almost every other scenario.
Fueling: 60-90g carbohydrates/hour
Even though you’re trying to improve fat oxidation, that does not mean you are only “burning” fat. You still need carbohydrates to support the longer efforts.
You’re also training the gut. If you get nauseous or feel queasy when consuming 60-90g of carbohydrates, then you need to practice more in training. Start at the lowest end you can tolerate and increase by 10g/hour each week. Over the course of 3-6 months, you’ll be surprised at what becomes tolerable.
Intensity: RPE 3-5
The longer the event, the less likely your training pace looks like your race pace. A 24 hour 100-miler averages 14-15 min/mile. Keep the intensity low. Stay in the range that encourages fat oxidation and supports durability.
Durability
Ultimately, all of these strategies improve your durability (resistance to slowing down). If you can finish a weekend of back-to-back long runs and not feel completely broken, you earn confidence that you can execute distances longer than anything you’ve done in training.
And finally, I can’t leave out strength training. There’s a lot of research to support strength training as an integral piece of the ultra puzzle. It doesn’t have to be complicated or time consuming.
The key to building your endurance is starting with a plan. Use these scientific principles to build structure around how you progress you training calendar. If something starts to feel off or doesn’t go well, refer back to the principles and adjust before moving forward.
If you have any questions regarding your specific training, reply to this email and I’d love to help!
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