It might have been a long time coming, but our ultra training plans have finally arrived. Got a race planned from up to 60k? We’ve got you covered. Even longer distances will follow later. Ready for some explanation?
Start 2 Ultra
We’re taking a start with plans for races up to 60k. An ideal starting point for those who are exploring the world of ultra running, because as you know I’m a big fan of gradually building up volume & distances. That doesn’t mean that an experienced ultra runner won’t like these plans, because the plans are also a nice challenge for them.
As an ultra runner you need different training stimuli. Endurance is key, anaerobic efforts not so. Because we’re also training the, what we call, ‘time on your feet’ (read: volume), we have to pay intention to the intensity levels of, for instance, tempo runs. Because we’re increasing your training load through volume, there’s no need to also increase intensity as much as volume.
So you’ll find more ‘Long Slow Distances’ in our ultra plans, more extensive intervals and workouts at alternating paces. This triumvirate is the base of our ultra plans. Furthermore we’re also giving our users other suggestions then when training for a shorter race. We encourage you to train twice a day from time to time (because in this way we’re upping the miles, but not the impact), or, if possible, to add some ‘verts’ (altimeters) to your runs. Verts are an excellent way of giving your body an extra stimulus without adding junk miles. When training for an ultra, we also emphasize the importance of running off-road, your muscles and joints will be thankful.
Training conditions
That brings us to the importance of our ‘training conditions’ feature. When adding verts or running off-road, our runs are heavily impacted. Our sessions need to be adjusted, because otherwise we’re giving our body the wrong stimulus.
Lucky enough the app was already ‘ultra ready’ regarding these training conditions. As a Peak Pro member, you can set your own conditions run by run: you can alter your altimeters, surface and even altitude. Was your session still too hard? Then you can give us feedback via RPE. The app is getting more and more complete. And it doesn’t stop there.
The future
Soon we’ll also releasing ultra plans up to 100k. But that’s not all. For the moment you can’t set the terrain conditions for your goal activities. We’ll adjust that as well. At least when you’re a Peak Pro member 😉
Also available thanks to our latest update: you’re now able to shift your training sessions between weeks! Download it now in the Play & App Store!
Leave a Reply