Whether you have not completed anything past 26.2 miles, a marathon, one ultra, or you are a distance veteran, now you have decided to tackle an Ultra mile event. Don’t be afraid; you are about to go on a self-learning journey, pushing the limits of what you thought you could do. To start and prepare for an ultramarathon, the planning and training can be fun and a very rewarding experience, even if you do not sign up for an event. For example, my first “Ultra” was a self-imposed challenge to run my age in miles at age 44. (Un-official Ultra)

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This is part of a new series of posts regarding how we prepare, plan, and train to complete the 100 miles Ultramarathon Umstead 100: Relentless to 100. For all the ultrarunning series and additional ideas, follow the link. Training for a 100.

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Since then, I have been fortunate to have completed multiple Ultra-marathon distance events, including four 100-mile races; with my last 100-mile event filled with great memories, especially having my daughter pace me for the last 12.5 miles of the event. This year, I am with a few pacers from previous years, and other friends will be tackling and training for the same to finish in under 24 hours. Our group comprises veteran marathoners and some ultramarathon runners who have completed 50k-plus events, and some also have their 1st 100-miler event in 2024.

Our planning process will be very similar regarding how to prepare and map out that initial plan to tackle the event. There are two main areas of the process; the first one is the assessment, in which you will have to be very honest with yourself about your current physical condition as a starting point, the training time available, and the reasons to tackle this distance. The second area is the end goal or target race. Once you have those goals in mind, you can start coming back from that target event and work your way to the starting point. For us, although we have similar distances in preparation, it is going to be a little bit more aggressive on the pace we will be training this time around.

Be aware that after you have this initial plan in place, it will be an initial guidance focusing on endurance to cover the distance. Other elements that you might want to add to the plan during the initial built-up block are elements like speed work, tempo runs, hill repeats, and many more. You should consider including those during the initial parts of the plan, especially on Tuesday and/or Thursday runs. Leave Wednesday runs for an easy pace and perhaps some target race pace. This barebone plan approach will probably serve you as an indicator of the reality of the current state and the reality of a plan as you build up your mileage to handle the later parts of the plan.

If you decide that the plan might be too aggressive and time-consuming, you can consider adjusting it to meet your needs. Also, consider instead of doing the target event mileage, you might drop it one notch. About 12 weeks in, you will need a sanity check as it is then that the time commitment and miles are going to take a serious turn. You might consider switching from 100 miles to 100K or 50 miles, or even a 50k. That is fine and okay, too. Like the last couple of years’ plans, every week, reaccess any adjustments to the plan, like doing a mini-retrospective and adjusting based on the performance. However, I will keep those changes within small increments or reductions. Unless you are faced with an injury (Like what happened to one of our main runners last year) or presented with big unexpected changes in your life that will require those big changes/reductions, minor changes will be the key. We will talk in a future post more about reviewing your initial goals (A, B, C, and so on) once you have a better understanding of your performance state and time.

Assessment:

The first thing I do when getting ready for an Ultra event, regardless of the distance, is to self-assess the starting point. There are a few questions I consider,

• What is my current weekly mile base running? This will help me understand the starting running weekly load.
• What is the current base long run? I look for the past few weeks’ performances, whether there were events, training, or fun runs—the longest on average. If I did a 50k (31 miles), but the rest has been 13 miles, my long run will sit closer to 13 rather than 31. On the other hand, if the other runs have been closing around 17-18 miles consistently, I will have my starting long run a tad closer to those 16 – 19 mile ranges.
• How is my back-to-back long-runs experience? Have I run a long run followed by at least a 10-mile or longer run the following day? How often? When was the last one?
• What is my work week’s daily mileage? Whether it’s 2 or 3 times during the work week, how many miles on average?
• With the current running load, how am I feeling? Can I complete workouts? Long runs? Weekly distance? Am I tired? Do I feel fresh? Minimal soreness?

Using the answers from that list at a bare minimum will help me indicate whether I am ready to start training or need some adjustment, rest weeks, or minimal mileage to recover. Most importantly, I will answer the question of what the starting point for this training season will be.

Planning:

Now, this is the process I follow to prepare an initial plan; I know it is not going to be perfect, but it will serve as the basis for an initial approach to training,

• Determine your run week – mine is Monday to Sunday. Others use Saturday to Sunday. Just make sure that for your reference, the below is going to be Mon-Sun, five work day week and two day weekend for each week at the end.
• Pick an event to tackle; for us, it will be the Umstead 100 in a calendar (electronic, pre-made, or blank paper). Mark the day and race week 0, and start counting the weeks you have left. For us, at the time of publishing this, it is about 27 training weeks.
• Two to Three weeks before the event will be your peak week.
  • Weeks 4 & 3: Here, you are going to note your preferred peak week plan for the long run. For me, for example, for our 100, I do back to back to back long runs (Fri 10, Sat 31+, Sun 31+)
  • For the work week, an easy 3-6 mile run, no speed or hill workouts.
• Weeks 2 and 1 are the taper weeks; we are cutting the mileage drastically to let the body recover and get in tip-top shape for the event.
• For week 2, the day after assessment and planning, use the information from the assessment to populate starting long runs and weekly mileage.
• From the starting week to week 15, gradually increase the mileage of the longer (Back to back) runs. I want to make steady progress, and it is possible, every two or so weeks of increasing, do a back-off mileage week to allow for better recovery.

After filling out your plan, take a step back and look at the whole picture. This should serve as a reality check. Honesty with yourself is a must. If after this, you know this will push all your mental, physical, and will limits. As I mentioned earlier in the planning section, if your starting point is the couch or a 5k distance and you want to tackle 100 miles, you might have to reaccess the current short-term goal and length of the training plan. It is not that you can’t do it; it is that you will have to add more time to the preparation. Safety and reducing the chance of injury are key, and even though it is not going to be easy, it should be doable. My base mile is decent, and coming from a month of solid back-to-back runs and multiple events, followed by a 10+ mile back-to-back long run last month, gives me a great starting point.

The Initial Plan:

Blue – Headlamp ready runs – be ready to experience nighttime running

Race – Push the pace – This could be events, races, or just running the mileage at a steady, solid pace

Rest – Basically, no running; walks are ok – the focus is on recovery

Grey – Build Block Weeks: increase endurance – sprinkle speed work, hill repeats, tempo runs once or twice a week

Pink – Ultra-Prep Block Weeks: practice event simulation – these runs are to get you ready to handle the event’s challenges, running and non-running elements.

Orange – Taper Block Weeks: Focus on recovery, sleep, and mental freshness

Here is an electronic version for you to download – Umstead100 2025 Training Plan