How to train for an ultra trail race: time on feet, vertical, and fueling

To train for an ultra trail race, build weekly time on feet rather than mileage, include the climbing and especially the descending your race demands, practice power hiking on steep terrain, and use back-to-back long runs to prepare for tired legs. Train your fueling on every long run: eat from early on, steadily, with a mix of sports products and real food.

An ultra trail race changes the questions. On a road marathon, pace and mileage tell you most of what you need to know. On a mountain course, a kilometer can take four minutes or twenty depending on the gradient, the ground, and how many hours you have already been out. The runners who do well are rarely the fastest on flat ground. They are the ones whose legs survive the descents, who hike well, and who keep eating when everyone around them has stopped.

Train in hours and vertical, not kilometers

Plan your training by time and elevation rather than distance. Work out roughly how long your race will take you and how much climbing and descending it includes. Those two numbers are your real targets.

• Weekly time on feet. Build your total weekly hours gradually, with an easier week every third or fourth week. Most of that time should be easy, conversational running and hiking, as we explain in the case for easy days.
• The long run. Grow your longest run steadily. For a 50-kilometer race, long runs of three to five hours are typical. For longer races, the longest efforts are often five to seven hours rather than the full race duration, because the recovery cost of going longer outweighs the benefit.
• Back-to-back days. A long run on Saturday followed by a moderate one on Sunday teaches you to run on tired legs without the injury risk of one enormous day. It is one of the most useful tools in ultra training.
• Vertical. Increase your weekly climbing and descending gradually, the same way you increase time. Aim to regularly train on terrain similar to your race, and include runs with climbs as long as the longest ones on your course.

One caution: running is hard on bones, tendons, and joints, and those tissues adapt more slowly than your heart and lungs. Increase one thing at a time, whether hours, vertical, or intensity, and back off at the first sign of a niggle. Most running injuries are training-load errors explains how to read the early warning signs.

The descents decide the race

Climbing hurts, but descending does the damage. Running downhill forces your quads to work while lengthening under load, which causes much more muscle damage and soreness than running uphill. Late in an ultra, wrecked quads are the most common reason runners slow to a painful shuffle, even when their fitness is fine.

The good news is that muscles adapt quickly to this kind of work. A few exposures to downhill running make the next ones cause far less damage. So:

• Start small and build. Add short descents to your easy runs, then gradually longer and steeper ones. Expect soreness the first few times.
• Practice technique. Quick, short steps, eyes a few meters ahead, arms out for balance. Good technique is faster and easier on your legs.
• Strength training helps. Heavy leg exercises such as squats, lunges, and step-downs, done once or twice a week, make your legs more resistant to downhill damage. See strength training for endurance athletes.
• Include descents in your long runs. Especially late in the run, when your legs are already tired, because that is how the race will feel.

In an ultra trail, the climbs test your fitness. The descents test whether you trained for them.

Hike like you mean it

On steep climbs, even the best ultra runners walk. On gradients steep enough, fast hiking is roughly as quick as running and far cheaper in energy. Most runners reach that point somewhere around a 15 to 20 percent grade, depending on the runner and the terrain. Saving energy on the climbs is what lets you keep running on the flats and descents later.

Power hiking is a skill, so practice it. Hike the steep sections of your long runs with purpose: short steps, hands on thighs or poles, strong push. If your race allows poles, train with them, and include some upper-body strength work for the effort they add. Many runners are surprised how much faster they get on climbs once they stop trying to run everything.

Fueling for many hours on your feet

Over five, ten, or more hours, fueling stops being a detail and becomes a main event. Energy, fluid, and stomach trouble end more ultras than fitness does.

• Start early and eat steadily. Begin in the first 20 to 30 minutes and eat every 20 to 30 minutes after that. Guidelines for ultra-distance running suggest around 30 to 50 grams of carbohydrate an hour as a baseline, with trained athletes often going higher, toward 60 to 90.
• Expect a lower ceiling than cyclists. The bouncing of running makes the stomach less tolerant, so many runners cannot handle what they could on a bike. Find your own comfortable rate in training. Train your gut explains how to raise it.
• Mix sweet and savory. Hours of gels lead to palate fatigue. Include real food, such as potatoes, sandwiches, rice balls, and soup at aid stations, especially at slower paces where your stomach handles it better.
• Fluid and sodium. Drink to a plan, not to the bottom of the flask, and add sodium in the heat. Over-drinking is a real danger in long events. See hydration and sodium.
• Practice everything. Carry the same pack, bottles, and food on long training runs as you will in the race. Know what the aid stations offer, and never try something new on race day.

For races that go through the night, practice some running in the dark with your headlamp, and plan your caffeine for the low hours. A small dose late in the race does more than a large one at the start. See caffeine before a race for timing.

Finally, a word on health: long mountain races carry real risks, from falls to heat illness and severe dehydration. Know the course, carry the mandatory kit, and stop if you feel dizzy, confused, or unwell. No finish line is worth ignoring those signs.

Train Fondo, a training and nutrition planning app for endurance athletes, plans running and trail training alongside the rest of your week. It counts running, hiking, and descending by the load they put on your body, and tracks the impact load on your legs separately from your fitness, so your vertical and running volume grow at the rate your tissues can handle rather than the rate your heart and lungs could. It sets your food for each day, fueling targets for long runs, and your fluid and sodium from a sweat-rate test, so race-day eating has been rehearsed for weeks.