How do you train for a 100 miler?

50 miler once a week - learn to eat and drink. Two other 10 milers, or one 20. Good luck.

Would speed work or tempo runs be beneficial?

run. a lot. running a 100 miler is a lot of mental effort so anyway you can train your mind to keep putting one foot in front of the other until you cross the finish line or collapse

Frankand Beans wrote:

If you have time to run 70 miles per week and you want to run a 100 miler well, how would you organize your training?

Thanks,

Bilbo

You can't run a 100 miler if you only have enough time to run 70 mpw.

It would take you 1.428571429 weeks to complete it.

You're Welcome.

"(Yiannis) Kouros’ training is not what most would suspect and, in truth, he doesn’t recommend it for others seeking to run ultras. He tries to do most of his quality work on the track but never runs more than 12 kilometers per workout, typically doing 6 x 2k, 2 x 6k, or 3 x 4k and sometimes, when it is particularly hot, only running 6k total. He doesn’t do any weight training and basically uses his races as his long runs."

http://www.runnersworld.com/trail-runner-profiles/on-the-trail-with-yiannis-kouros

The big emphasis is the long runs. Normally Saturday and Sunday back to back. My 50 mi training got up to 5hr then 4hr. Then through the week you do some (2-3) shorter (marathon long run distance) at Marathon/ Half Marathon pace. Good luck, the hard part is by far mental. It's really draining being out there that long every weekend.

i would get a 16 week marathon schedule designed for 70 mile weeks.

Every fourth week I would do double days on Saturday and Sunday, something like 15, 15, 15, 15. Saturday morning, afternoon, sunday morning, afternoon.

Following the marathon schedule, I would do all my long runs at marathon pace (obviously your 100 mile pace will be slower). Hopefully the marathon schedule that I picked also has 10 mile tempo runs at half mary pace, long and short intervals as well.

Put a 50K and 50 miler in your schedule as tuneup races.

Done.

Spend one Friday after work just walking until dawn on Saturday. Have a headlamp, clothes and fluid. By morning you'll know if you want to train for a 100 miler.

I was thinking of something along these lines too. Basically train for a marathon but mix up the weekends with some longer, slower runs than typical for a marathon or back to backs. Would keep the work week training virtually the same with the odd longer midweek run.

I live on the prairies so was also thinking of mixing in some treadmill runs on an incline to mimic the mountains.

I've run a 50 miler and a 50 km so far. 100 miles is a different animal but definitely want to try.

Thanks for the link. The mental component seems to be the biggest thing!

Wow that is alot. Did you have the energy to do any higher quality runs during the week or was it straight up emphasis on miles?

sloinnorcal wrote:

i would get a 16 week marathon schedule designed for 70 mile weeks.

Every fourth week I would do double days on Saturday and Sunday, something like 15, 15, 15, 15. Saturday morning, afternoon, sunday morning, afternoon.

Following the marathon schedule, I would do all my long runs at marathon pace (obviously your 100 mile pace will be slower). Hopefully the marathon schedule that I picked also has 10 mile tempo runs at half mary pace, long and short intervals as well.

Put a 50K and 50 miler in your schedule as tuneup races.

Done.

Either you´re trolling or you´re really stupid. In ultra training you have to more emphasis on long run, which means there will be lower mileage for the rest of the week.

Also: all long runs at MP? Are you a complete idiot? You also don´t need short intervals.

obviously no one has bothered to study physiology

Frankand Beans wrote:

Would speed work or tempo runs be beneficial?

Not really. The most beneficial thing would just be more mileage, and of course doubles.

Frankand Beans wrote:

I've run a 50 miler and a 50 km so far. 100 miles is a different animal but definitely want to try.

Not that I have done a 50mi or 100mi, but from a purely theoretical perspective I would argue that 50k is just an extended marathon. And that doing well (or not well) at 50 mi is a good predictor of 100mi. The switchover is probably somewhere between 50k and 50mi, though someone might come on here and say the true switchover is actually 100k. They could be right, too.

Does that mean if one has done the work for a 50 miler they don't have to do the work for a 100? Of course not.

As someone who has completed a 100 miler or longer race in five separate decades (one of four runners to have done so), I can tell you that there is minimal correlation between success at 50 miles and success at 100 miles. My 50 mile PR is 5:35 but my 100 mile PR is 18:49.

I agree with those who say you need to do loooong training runs. I never had the inclination to do training runs over four hours and I paid for it in longer races.

oakland runner wrote:

My 50 mile PR is 5:35 but my 100 mile PR is 18:49.

That's a pretty incredible 50 mile PR.

I believe David Horton says that 100 milers are 3 to 4 times as difficult as 50 milers.

My understanding has always been that you need to do two long runs on weekends which is to say 30 miles on Saturday and another 30 on Sunday. I feel like 30 mile runs are needed to develop one's fat metabolism. And if you are concerned about hills, what you really need for a 100 miler is plenty of down hills. That's what will beat you up in a race.

Think of a 100 miler as a war of attrition. There are a lot of ways you can fall apart (blisters, exhaustion, breathing problems, blown quads, twisted ankles, dehydration, mental weakness, kicking rocks over and over until your toenails are coming off and on and on). The second 30 miler on Sunday is what prepares you for that.

First of all, it is important to understand not all 100's are created equal. Are you considering a road/track style race, or a trail/mountain style race. These are vastly different animals, and require significantly different tactics, both in training and in the race.

I don't consider myself an ultra guy per se, but I have completed three difficult mountain 100's = the Bear (UT), Hardrock (CO), and best of all UTMB (Alps). All were fantastic experiences. As such, I will speak to training/racing trail/mountain 100's only, and let others with road/track experience chime in.

In the big picture, 70mpw is fine, there are people who can and do complete 100's on even less. In fact I would argue that you NOT attempt to increase weekly mileage over and above the past marathon training levels you already have experience with, as you're risking injury and/or general overtraining fatigue. Save it for the race. I ran my first 100 (Bear) on one week's notice and straight marathon training, and from a fitness point of view, it was fine. All the other factors I had little experience with were far more challenging, such as hydration and nutrition. There's almost no way to really have all these other factors figured out on your first try, experience is everything. The experience I gained at the Bear in those areas was priceless for Hardrock and UTMB.

I did not change my training significantly for those two, with one exception. I did a 30+ mile/10-12 hour run at high altitude (Colorado) 3 weeks before the races. There was no particular pace plan for these runs, just go long, enjoy the scenery, and most importantly, they were gear/hydration/nutrition "shakedown" runs. The timing of these long efforts is certainly up for debate, perhaps 4, 5, or 6 weeks out might have been better, but probably not more than 6. The idea is to figure some things out, and have enough time to recover for the race.

Some people advocate running a 50M race in this manner as a warm-up for the real deal, but in my view that is too much/risky. A 50K would be more suitable, however, as somebody else already noted, those are just a marathon+. Ergo, while the distance might be about right, you really don't have to carry all the gear and deal with all the hydration/nutrition to complete a 50K race (because of the aid stations).

The fact you have already done a 50M race bodes well of course, but there are key differences in completing a 100 (if it's a trail/mountain style). First of all, you will almost certainly be required to run in the dark/overnight. This alone introduces new factors to the equation, such as lighting (headlamps), weather, clothes, and more. Example: on the first day at Bear, the mid day heat rose high enough that I ran out of hydration between two aid stations (only 8M apart), despite leaving the first with roughly 50oz of water. I had to sit at the 2nd and hydrate for over 20 min at the 2nd. Ouch. Fast forward to 2AM when I pull into a station (roughly 70M), and it's 30° or less, and I'm on the verge of hypothermia. Because of all the other factors that tend to pop up in the latter half of a 100M, I think one of the best training options of all is to simply hook up to pace somebody else for the second half of their 100M race, if you can get the timing for you right (6 weeks out would be good timing for this). In doing so, you'll get your big training effort in, but you'll also get overnight experience as well as many lessons learned observing how that person deals with it all. The two biggest mental tricks I learned from this: don't fear the night (embrace it, it can be very tranquil), and the first 50 are like climbing a tough mountain, the second are like coming back down (each step brings closer and closer. The training gets you through the first 50, desire to finish the 2nd.

OK I've rambled, on and on and on. Much like how a 100 goes. Good luck!