Hillary Allen
2nd in the World Sky Running Ultra ranking (2017)
$25/month including coaching from vert.run
Run a 50k and finish strong
12 weeks I 84 workouts I Up to a 50k race
Even if your race has been cancelled, train for + complete your own 50k challenge, receive weekly tips and learn from the experience and personal advice from one of the best trail runners in the world.
Run a 50k and finish strong
12 weeks I 84 workouts I Up to a 50k race
Even if your race is cancelled, train for + complete your own 50k challenge! Receive weekly tips and learn from the experience and personal advice from one of the best trail runners in the world.
1. Sign up and choose your training plan
You will immediately get the first version of your training plan.
2. Your Vert coach will reach out to you
Your Vert.run coach will reach out to you via your training dashboard and email to get to know more about you, your training background, goals, and training schedule.
4. Every week, your Vert coach will check in on your progress
With your feedback, your coach will adjust your training plan to fit you even better. Every runner is unique, and so is every Vert training plan.
4. Every week, your Vert coach will check in on your progress
Adjusting your plan as needed, leaving you feedback on your workouts, reading your comments and answering any questions you might have.
You focus on running
We take care of the rest
With our paid plan subscription ($25 USD / month) we give you constant support and guidance throughout your training program. We make sure you stay motivated and engaged with your goals, and that you’re not overtraining.
"Run a 50k and finish strong" - 12 week training load
Core + jumps + strength + cross training sessions
Your runs will include:
Hill repeats, strides sessions, tempo runs, Vo2 max workouts.
Meet Hillary:
Hillary Allen is a professional trail runner who runs for The North Face (Check out her TNF profile here).
Even though she comes from an athletic background–she played tennis in high school and college–Hillary didn’t start trail running until graduate school. She was living in Denver at the time, and started to trail run as a way to clear her head during her neuroscience studies. One of the coolest things about Hillary’s rise to success in the trail running world is that she actually had her first breakout season while living and training in Denver–a big city, where she didn’t have daily access to trails at all. Hillary clicked immediately with the sport and its community, and started to podium in competitive, long-distance races. Hillary was the U.S. Skyrunning Ultra Champion in 2014; she also set course records at the Speedgoat 50k and The North Face Cortina Trail Path 48k.
In 2017, Hillary had a near-fatal fall from a ridge during a race in Norway. After a grueling recovery that required immense mental and physical strength, Hillary went on to place second in the Broken Arrow Vertical Kilometer race in Lake Tahoe–just 11 months after her injury. She then raced a 52k race the next day, and one week later, she won a mountain race in the Dolomites. Despite her recovery, she still feels pain from the injury in her right foot and has to deal with a limited range so far–but with Hillary’s mental and physical strength, anything is possible.
Join Hillary as she shares her training knowledge–for both your body and mind–throughout her 50k training plan. Train for your first 50k with Hillary Allen: one of the best trail runners in the world. “
A few of Hillary’s great results:
- 2nd in the World Sky Running Ultra rankings 2017
- Course record, Maderia Skyrace 2017
- Transvulcania 3rd place 2017
- USA Mountain Running Team 2016
- 3rd place, Ultra Skyrunning World Series 2016
- Course record, TNF Cortina Trail 2016
- US Sky Running Ultra Champion 2015
- Course record, Speedgoat 50k 2015
Frequently Asked Questions
Most frequent questions and answers
Once you’ve received your training plan, you’ll be able to review your first week in detail. This will help you understand the general structure that we’ll follow in your training plan. Every week has the same structure (for example, all your long runs will be scheduled on Saturdays.) If the training structure doesn’t fit your schedule, no worries. Send us an email to explore@vert.run with a detailed description of the changes that you would like to make. Our coaches will review and implement those changes for you. Remember that this is a “one per month option” (meaning that you can request any number of changes at once, but you can only do so once a month) so be thoughtful about the changes you decide to make.
Sure you can. Just be sure that you still have the energy and motivation to complete your trail running workouts, too. A good rule of thumb is: add extra workouts when you find yourself having both extra time and energy. And remember to always focus on quality over quantity, no matter what type of workout you’re doing.
If you’re a monthly subscriber, yes! You can switch between training plans however you’d like. Just go to your dashboard and choose the “change or restart plan” option. This will take you to your training plan menu. Of course, we do recommend that you finish a training plan once you’ve started it (unless you find it to be way to difficult or easy), since they’re designed to build your fitness over weeks. When you leave a training plan in the middle, you’ll miss key workouts; and when you start a new plan, you’ll start it from the beginning. This is to make sure that you train safely and responsibly, and that the skills you develop are built to last. We encourage you to stick out each plan, challenge yourself in a race or other personal challenge, and then to start a new plan with fresh legs.
When you first pay for your subscription, you’ll receive an invoice to the email address that you provided during the sign-up process. At the bottom of that email, there’s a message that says: “view payments, update payments or manage your account in your customer portal. Log into your account now.” So just click there, and cancel your subscription. If it’s confusing or if you’d prefer we take care of it manually, please write us directly to team@vert.run and we’ll do it for you.
We always recommend that you stick pretty closely to the time, intensity and details of your training plan’s workouts. We strongly believe that “more does not equal better,” and that quality is definitely more important than quantity when it comes to trying to progress as a trail runner.
It’s important to create consistency in your everyday training. It’s way better to go for consistent, short runs over consecutive days than to have one big, long day and be tired the rest of the week. In any case, feel free to add some additional easy jogs throughout your weeks if you’d like to. If you do extend the duration of your runs, don’t go over 20% extra…and always make sure that you’re doing so for the right reasons, and not just to “do more.”
If you’re on our desktop site, you can find all your routines to the bottom right of your training plan (or in the top menu of your dashboard.) If you’re viewing from your phone, your routines are in the top right menu. Plus, here are the three routines just to make things a little easier: Core for trail running , Strength for trail running, Jumps for trail running.
We really want to hear from you, and are here to answer any questions you have. So feel free to write us to explore@vert.run, and one of our coaches will get back to you within 48 hours or fewer.
Your training plan has been designed by a team of coaches and professional trail runners with nearly a decade of experience competing in trail and ultra races. It’s important to be clear that not all of our coaches are certified as coaches or nutritionists, and that a big part of our knowledge comes from our own extensive experience as professional runners and workouts that we ourselves have tested and found useful.
We really want to hear from you, and are here to answer any questions you have. So feel free to write us to explore@vert.run, and one of our coaches will get back to you within 48 hours or fewer.
First of all, if this is the case, we’re so sorry to hear that you’re injured! We’ve been there too, and it’s not the most fun. Unfortunately, injury is a possibility due to the albeit small risk associated with trail running. The first step is to shoot us a message and let us know what your injury is so that we can: 1. make sure you’re seeing a professional if you’re able to, and 2. adjust your training plan accordingly. We can pause your training plan for up to one month in order to give you time to recover correctly. Then, when you’re ready to start training again, we’ll first assign you a “back to running” training block of four weeks. This block is designed to avoid overexerting yourself after an injury and to help make sure that it doesn’t return. Then, you’ll be ready to get back at it with a strong base.
