Thoughts on lower mileage training for ultras, with real world examples, from a career coach

20 years of coaching will teach you some things.

I’ve worked with and talked to thousands of athletes at this point, so I’ve seen a lot of what goes right and wrong for people. I see a lot of patterns and also notice them in the questions people often ask me. One that stands out that I hope I can provide some helpful thoughts around is the question of weekly mileage: how much is needed, how much is too much, “can I race X while training at Y mileage” etc. I’m a proponent of lower mileage, and I wanted to try to provide some deeper context and real world examples of what that looks like, as a lot of people are starting to get into builds for spring, summer snd even fall races.

Disclaimer: things look different for someone who’s a sub-elite/elite looking to be highly competitive in these distances. If that’s you, this probably isn’t going to be an accurate representation of what your training should look like. What this IS representative of is what can work for “us normal people” who take training seriously and do big days out but also aren’t full time athletes.

My general philosophy and what I’ve seen work extremely well over the years is that lower weekly mileage, with a narrow focused push on either big single day outings or intentionally placed, progressive back to back efforts (B2B for future reference) are just as, if not more effective in ultra prep for many people, than consistently high mileage weekly builds. When I say effective, I not only mean in terms of race preparation, but also in terms of injury prevention, mental burnout prevention and general levels of enjoyment around the training involved. I’m a firm believer in the idea that “we get to” do this stuff, and so it’s equally important to me to see someone enjoy their training and not have it be a major stressor as it is to see someone do well on race day.

I’ll break down some real world examples of athletes I’ve seen do very well this past 1-2 years over each of the major distances below:

50k: an athlete came to me chasing a first 50k 6 months out. Some marathon (3:44PR) experience and shorter stuff in their background but no ultras. We built a 6 month plan, with weekly mileage never touching about 55mpw, most weeks hovering between 35-45 and their peak week consisting of a B2B effort of 20 miles/12 miles. They ran 5:25 at their first 50k.

50 mile: an athlete came to me with a decent amount of experience in 50k and under and a slow 100k finish (as well as a few 100 mile DNF’s). They had eyes on a 50 miler, decent vert profile, and wanted to push a little on it. We ran them on a program of 50-60 MPW most weeks, two peak B2B efforts of 20/15 and 25/18 and a few long single efforts of 27-30 over a 22 week training block. Spent more time building uphill/downhill legs than long mile legs, and they ran the 50 in just over 9 hours for surprising 3rd place overall

100k: an athlete came to me with two 50k’s in their background (PR 6:03) and two 100k DNFs. They had been staying on a 60-80mpw plan for quite some time, had a history of injuries and kind of were all over the place in training. Chopped their mileage down, sat them at 45-60 mpw most weeks, peak week was 70 miles, built in 3 progressive B2B efforts into a 18 week block (16/12, 18/14 and 24/15) with one singular long outing as well (30 miles). They ran 13:15 at their 100k

100 mile: experienced distance athlete, lots of “shorter” stuff and some multi day fast packing experience chasing a good day at Javelina. Built an 18 week plan that centered around 2 B2B efforts (25/15 and 28/16) and a few smaller races/outings up to ~50k in the build. She ran 20:08 at Javelina, 68th overall for her first 100.

200+ mile: very experienced athlete came to me chasing Moab 240. Had a history of some niggles and injury set backs, wanted to build smart for a big day, we peaked him out at ONLY 70 miles in addition to a few 10-12 hour days on foot volunteering at some trail races. He finished Moab in 113hrs 54 minutes.

Worth noting that all the above examples also used an integrated strength plan, typically 2-3 days a week, as part of their training. I firmly believe it played a major role in all their success, so don’t skimp on the gym work.

One final outlier that just proves what you can do: I had an athlete come to me with an extensive hiking back ground (multi day outings). Had run around 10 miles LIFETIME and signed up for a 100 miler about 6 weeks out. We developed a run/walk strategy, peaked at a whopping 10 mile and she finished the 100 in 30 some hours sticking strictly to her run/walk plan we made the entire time. NOT RECOMMENDED, but a cool example of what’s truly possible on the far ends of this stuff.

I say all of this with the caveat that there still exists a minimum threshold for how much you should run in training. Just as you can over prepare mileage, you can under prepare, so if you’re taking the low mileage approach, make sure you’re extremely strategic with it and that you still get in what’s needed.

I hope after reading this, a lot of you can either have your current lower mileage plan reaffirmed or take some ideas that could help adjust your longer mileage program to feel a little better.

Onward, Always.