Training for your first 100K: training plans
- Andy Hood
- Aug 5, 2023
- 14 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
In this three-part series I’ll take you on my journey as a runner to my first 100K ultra. The distance was a new territory for me, I’d run up to marathon distances before. A cancer diagnosis in 2021 was to shape my future, a new determined outlook not to waste a moment and to get out there, explore our planet and take on new adventures.
Whether you are thinking of signing up to your first 100K, already have that event in your diary or have completed one before and are interested in the experience of others then this series will offer something to you. Let's me start by saying;
The journey you are about to embark upon is very personal, your body is unique, you run your way, you like certain foods, your body consumes calories at your rate and your mind is your own.
I say this because no matter what you read, what advice you take, however many YouTube videos you watch, or Instagram posts you scroll none are exactly right for you. You will experiment, fail, find success, learn, and adapt.
What follows is my journey to 100K, I’ll be open and honest with you, share the highs and the lows, the joy and frustration. Ultimately what you’ll read got me to the start line and it saw me cross the finish line of my first 100K ultra. Since that time, I’ve run others of equal distance and I continue my learning journey. My diary ahead already has commitment for more 100K’s, so something must be working.
I’ve written this vast, often overwhelming journey in 3 parts, I’ll cover the Training Plan, Strength and Conditioning, Nutrition, Injury and Illness, Mental Games, Gear Choices, and the Ultra Panics which always seem to manifest themselves on the morning of your event.
Part #1 - my training plan and Strength & Conditioning
Part #2 - Exploring Nutrition and Injury & Illness
Part #3 - Mental Games and Gear Choices
I'll wrap the series with an overview of my first and second 100's, sharing the learns I took forward.
Let me start this blog journey by telling you about my first 100K and how I talked myself into contemplating running such a daft distance. I entered the London 2 Brighton 100K, one of the many events in the Ultra Challenge series run by Action Challenge. On the face of it, an excellent looking event, the website, and couple of Facebook groups I’d found showed an event that looked positive, well structured, well supported and an inclusive feeling environment. I wasn’t looking for an event where I could chase time, earn a World Record or be among the elite in the ultra-running world. I was after something that would make me feel a part of community who were supporting each other and where, if the need arose, I could collapse in relative comfort before I’d even made it half-way. London 2 Brighton seemed to tick all the boxes, and it turns out I was right.
"...two years in remission from a cancer diagnosis"
The year I decided to do it, 2023, I had turned 50 and was clearly having some sort of mid-life crisis where I would be expected by my wife and three children to start wearing clothes that were inappropriate for my time of life but that I thought I looked cool in, grow a beard, buy a motorbike or open top sports car and start using words and phrases like ‘sick init’. To the relief of all those around me I did none of those. Instead, I decided to start running ultras. It was met with some raised eyebrows and looks that conveyed the message ‘what at your age Dad’. To boot I was also born in Brighton and am two years in remission from a cancer diagnosis; all the stars seemed to align, the booking was made. I may just add for the purposes of my family reading that the entry fee was significantly less than a motorbike or sports car, you can thank me later for saving your inheritance money.
The Distance
It’s likely not escaped you, nor those you have entrusted with your decision, that 100K is a darn long way. In miles it is 62.15, significantly further than most people drive to work and back in a week and a distance more than double that of a marathon. I’d been happily running marathon distance up to this point and had naively told myself that it wasn’t that big a leap; well let’s be clear, it is. And it’s not just your body that is going to be put through hell, your mind is too, and it will play nasty games with you. For me the Ultra Demons kick in around 70K but were fairly short lived as I kicked them into touch by 80K. You will need to learn how to manage the mind games, it is as important as the body being ready for the constant impact over the many hours you’ll be out there.
During my training I would run some 50K distances but actually no further in a single run. The concept of that seemed odd at first. I thought I would at least need to be ok running 75% of the distance I was about to embark upon on my folly to Brighton, but as it turned out that assumption was wrong. The programme I had chosen to follow did focus on back-to-back long runs, which I completed at the weekends, this got me used to running on tired legs. As did the hell my PT Steve would put my legs through every Monday night.
Tired legs were not alien to me, in September of 2022 I had run from home to Land’s End, 170 miles over the course of a week, along the South West Coast Path. The legs took a hammering on the constant elevation gains and drops, in all over 25,000 feet of elevation gain on the way to Land’s End, and all that on rutted, stony, often single track trail. The Land’s End run also highlighted weaknesses in my body, notably around my ankles. Shortly after completing the run, I took to finding a strength and conditioning coach, we’ll talk more about that later.
"...it's not all running on an ultra"
It's not all running. This was a revelation to me when I first took the leap into ultra-distances, sometimes you walk or power hike, I liked this idea very much. Hills most notably are walked. I received on the London 2 Brighton run as I was merrily jogging past a runner and had smiled greeting them will an ‘alright’ a slightly curt response of, ‘ultra runners walk the hills’. The is indeed irredeemably true, you will need to save the legs for the whole distance so walking or power hiking the hills is the strategy to take to save you blowing up too early. But this was hardly a hill, it was more a slight incline. Perhaps living in north Devon my interpretation of a hill is a little different. And on reflection saying ‘alright’ perhaps was interpreted by my fellow entrant to have a question mark on the end as they were walking. I’ve stopped saying alright and replaced this is a hello.
In conclusion the distance is long, you need to prepare both body and mind, you’ll walk some sections, in-fact walk when you feel like it, a run/walk is a very common ultra strategy and it’s the one I adopted for my first.
The Programme
I wanted to follow a structed programme, something in my many years of running I have never done. I run because I enjoy running. The internet is full of running plans and you need to find one that works for you, there are also a myriad of apps waiting to jump on your phone too that include training plans. One that has become very popular in the last year or so is Runna, I see their logo at events now so something must be working for them. I’ve downloaded it, chatted online to one of their coaches and it looks good, there is a monthly fee and I may well choose to try them out next year as I get into the training block for my first 100 of 2024.
But for London 2 Brighton I found one online, it was a free one, seemed good and had a lot of positive comments from those that had tried it. I downloaded the pdf, then typed it up in excel, I love a spreadsheet and printed out a copy that is on my noticeboard in my home office. The plan has me running 5 days a week, I learnt that rest days are just as important as run days and use these for perhaps going for a walk and also for my strength and conditioning sessions at the gym with PT Steve.
"...now here was a concept I could really get on board with."
The programme is split into the weeks and days, then has a mileage to run next to each day. I am left to decide to introduce hill, tempo and intervals when I feel like it. Living, as I said earlier, in north Devon I am always running a hill, so elevation is no problem to find, makes the legs stronger, the cardio improves, and I enjoy the satisfaction of getting to the top of a hill. Tempo and intervals I found a little more difficult to master.
Strava is my app of choice, my electronic running buddy, I’ve an Apple Watch, the app runs well on this tracking many metrics. I do pay for Strava, it’s one of my treats and the extra data it gives me I find useful, I love data as well as spreadsheets. The heart rate zones help me to understand how I am running, endurance, tempo, threshold, super threshold. Most of my running, and yours will be too, is in the endurance range, that’s where you could run for hours at a steady pace and hold a conversation, this according to all the experts is the best range to operate in 80% of the time. Now here was a concept I could really get on board with.
Introducing efforts like tempo runs and intervals had never been part of my running life, I ran because, well because I loved to run and that I gave up cycling on the road because of a new generation of car driver that found joy in getting as close as possible to me, a concept I found increasingly difficult to warm to.
Intervals are about shorter bursts of faster pace, perhaps over 400 or 800 meters, maybe a little longer, 1KM or 1 mile. Personally, I found this a little difficult to manage out on the roads. The Apple Watch native exercise app, its name escapes me, has some of these activities built in and it buzzes and reminds you when to pick up the pace and when to bring it back again; I didn’t experiment with it but mention it here in case you have one and were not aware. So, I took to the gym and the treadmill for my interval runs. The precise nature, the control, the clear display of pace and distance in front of me made life easy and I enjoyed using the treadmill in this way.
In addition to interval runs I used the treadmill for progression runs, and some hilly runs/power hikes too. Creating a series of programmes to follow that I printed out and had in front of me for each run.
The programme worked well for me, and I enjoyed the treadmill so much that during the lead up to my first 100K I ran a 50K on the treadmill, on a Saturday, in the middle of a busy shopping centre. It was an idea I came up with to raise money for a couple of cancer charities and turned out to be a wonderful day. I may bring the treadmill out again sometime in another equally daft location.
The introduction of these faster sessions definitely improved my performance, I could see the changes in the Strava data both in terms of my running pace which improved and the heart rate zones I was operating in, as the fitness increased I was training more and more in the endurance zone, perfect for an ultra.
Being Adaptable
This deserves a separate sub heading as it’s so important to your success and mental wellbeing when following a structure programme. Before you commit, before you start to the programme accept that it will not go exactly to plan, the unforeseen to come and bite you. Looking at my London 2 Brighton printout, I keep it on my notice board, it is covered in green and red does as well as numerous scribblings. Green indicates success for that day, red is when it didn’t go to plan.
My red dots cover a myriad of unforeseen events, I had a family commitment that meant one Saturday I has to drop the miles by 50%, I was overcome with tiredness one weekend and decided to drop back a little. Then the other extreme where I increased the mileage, most notably a 14 mile day in an Active Recovery week turned into a 31 mile day. That was the 50K treadmill ultra I spoke about earlier.
You may become ill or pick up an injury, I became ill on the next training block for Race to the Stones which was just 6 weeks after London 2 Brighton and lost half a week of running. At the time these bumps in the road seem major, you can become angry at yourself for them, but in reality, in the longer term of a plan they do not matter. Listen to your body and adapt.
Weather. WEATHER!
My London 2 Brighton programme started in the first week of January, the event being late May. That was over 20 weeks of a structured programme in all types of weather conditions. I had rain, high winds, snow, hail, cold biting winds, dark nights, hot sun; every conceivable permutation was dished up over those 20 plus weeks.
Having the right gear is essential, more on gear choices later on in this article, but the winter weather was, and still is for me, the most difficult time of year to motivate myself to get out the door and get the miles done. Imagine it dark, windy with a biting wind driving a cold rain that hurts when it hits you. There are so many reasons why you shouldn’t go out and one important one why you should; it moves you closer to your goal.
I’ve played around with gear for many years, finding what is comfortable, what is really waterproof, don’t believe the manufacturers claims, the right gear makes a gritty run a great run.
One of my key go to items for those wet runs is my Proviz jacket, it is warming and it is waterproof. I used a few weeks after London 2 Brighton on the Race to the Stones 100K where the rain lashed for a few hours. I saw many runners totally unprepared for the rain and the coldness it brings, medical tents full of runners with foil blankets around them, medics trying to warm them up and many races cut short. I wouldn’t go cheap on the jacket; it can quite literally save your life and it will certainly make those wet runs more enjoyable.
I’ve also an Under Armour jacket that claims to be 100% waterproof, but is far from, even the lightest shower penetrates it. So be careful on what you buy, do your research, ask for advice in running forums or with running groups if you are with one.
I will talk more about both gear and finding the motivation to get out on those terrible weather days later.
"...a heightened level of alertness."
Running in the dark deserves a mention here too, it is likely that you will run your 100K in some darkness, I did on both. Don’t let the event be the first time you have run in the hours of darkness. Take yourself out at night, get used to not being able to see that far ahead, or see your feet at all. Avoiding trip hazards takes on a heightened level of alertness. I kitted myself out with a headtorch, that I grew to hate and switched out for the waist light, and a brilliant product called a Tracer 2, it is like a 1990’s rave scene all over your body. A neat, rechargeable control until and what I can only describe as a string of lights you wear like a backpack strobe away to make you highly visible. There are dozens of colour settings to choose from and cars etc….will see you from quite some distance.
In conclusion find a programme the suits you, follow it, be adaptable to life’s unexpected challenges.
Find what motivates you, for me it is the green dot I put on my printed training plan after every successful day, red dots make my heart sink and green brings with it a sense of satisfaction, that motivation really helps on days when the body says yes but the mind says no.
I’ve included on the download page the 100K programme I followed, you are welcome to download this, remember it’s not a recommendation and you need to ensure it is right for you.
Strength and Conditioning
Runners don’t go to the gym. I hear this often; people say their coaches tell them they should keep away from the gym. Well for me it works so I say give it a shot.
During the run to Land’s End I found weakness especially in my ankles, this manifested itself into an injury on the penultimate day, the ankle and upper left foot were so painful I could not run, even after a nights rest. I managed to complete the run and achieve my final goal of standing by the iconic Land’s End sign by being adaptable, you can read more about that by wandering around my website.
"...training with a World Champion power lifter."
Some research when I got home led me to consider not only my ankle but perhaps some weaknesses further upstream too, in the hip flexors, glutes, quads etc…. so the hunt was on to find a gym and personal trainer who understood. I spoke to several people who clearly didn’t have the expertise or knowledge and had just a few days before decided they could be a personal trainer. The miracle that is Google led me the door of Steve at Platform Gym. Steve is a World Champion power lifter, he still competes today, his gym is a real gym full of serious people with serious goals.
We chatted about my injury, my goals and we agreed to put a plan together. The plan was to be adaptable, we would both learn what was an wasn’t working and over many weeks we changed what we did, and still do. I have two sessions a week with Steve, one focussing on the lower body and one the upper. Yes, upper is important too, it helps with arm swing and reduces fatigue in the upper body when running for many hours.
If you are on Instagram you will no doubt, see many, and I mean many, reels showing impossibly fit and good looking people doing all manner of strength and conditioning exercises. I would actually like to see what my running buddies are up to please Instagram, but I guess as a commercial operation you need to push this click bait at me, constantly.
I mention this as there are some useful ones in there, some that show you exercises you can do at home, for core, or hip flexibility. I do a core and stretching hour 4 to 5 times a week. Do I know if it’s making a difference, no idea really but I can tell you I am not suffering from injury like I once used to.
Back to Steve and the gym, the question is does this make a different to my running. Yes. A dramatic difference, my legs as legs fatigued on longer runs or in the hours after, the following day they feel, good and strong. Hill climbing has become even more enjoyable, it feels like there is a new engine in the legs pushing me forward, I’m a hybrid with an electric motor! It took about 3 months for me to notice the difference, and I believe the success of the 100K is down to having that power in the body which comes from these sessions.
And it’s not just the uphill where the difference is felt, the downhill is significantly more manageable too. There is a new power and strength in the legs which helps to control the descent, glutes and quads engaging to give stability. It was the constant jarring in the ankles on the many rough and rocky descents on the Land’s End run that gave rise to the injury. The ankles and feet were doing all the braking; now with many months of a strength programme behind me it’s the upper legs taking control.
A further bonus of stronger ankles is the ability to stand on one leg in the shower whilst washing the other without falling over and bringing the family running from all quarters thinking Dad has had a senior moment.
In conclusion strength and conditioning works for me, as a runner I realise I’m using the same muscle group all the time, but the power and efficiency comes from many other associate muscle groups, and building the strength and flexibility in associated connective tissue helps too. Finding a professional, Steve, has and continues to be valuable. As I write this, we have just pivoted the programme to focus on climbing, this includes sled pulling in the gym, as in mid-August I am running the Tour du Mont Blanc and need power to tackle the many ascents.
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