Training

We know how hard it is to plan your trail running season. There are so many factors that come into play, and questions we ask ourselves, like:
How much can we really handle in our training and running until it’s not sustainable anymore? What is the best way to plan the season in order to perform well enough, and also have fun? Should every athlete have an offseason? What should winter training look like? How do I decide which race is an “A” goal, vs. which race is a “B” or “C” goal?
In this blog post, we’re going to answer all of this (and more.) And no matter what your level is (no matter if you’re training for your first-ever 5k, or if you’ve run tons of 100 milers in your life) there’s good info in here for you that applies to all trail runners.

We know how hard it is to plan your trail running season. There are so many factors that come into play, and questions we ask ourselves, like:
How much can we really handle in our training and running until it’s not sustainable anymore? What is the best way to plan the season in order to perform well enough, and also have fun? Should every athlete have an offseason? What should winter training look like? How do I decide which race is an “A” goal, vs. which race is a “B” or “C” goal?
In this blog post, we’re going to answer all of this (and more.) And no matter what your level is (no matter if you’re training for your first-ever 5k, or if you’ve run tons of 100 milers in your life) there’s good info in here for you that applies to all trail runners.

Ok, so let’s start off by stating the obvious: running a 100 miler is HARD. (And we mean very, very hard indeed.) Training for and running 100 miles is just about as hard as it gets in the sport of trail running, actually, so if you’re thinking about running a 100 miler, you should first ask yourself these two questions: 1.) Do I want to run a 100 miles because I really want to? Or am I doing it because I feel like I’m “supposed” to as an ultrarunner? 2.) Do I have a friend or someone else who is pushing me to take on training for a 100 miler before I’m ready to?

We’re really serious about asking yourself these two things, because it’s actually pretty common for ultrarunners to feel obligated to try to tackle this distance before they’re ready. And while on one hand it can be good to have some “motivators” while training for or racing a 100 miler, the reality is that if you undertake this huge goal for the wrong reasons, it’s going to be much harder to actually achieve.