Ultra Marathon Training: What it Actually Teaches You
- Apr 30
- 9 min read
Ultra Marathon Training:
What It Actually Teaches You (From Someone Who's Been Through a Bit)
By a runner who went from cancer diagnosis to completing the Tour du Mont Blanc and raising over £25,000 for charity. These aren't textbook lessons, they're the ones the miles taught me directly.
In This Article
If you've ever searched 'how to train for an ultra marathon,' you'll have landed on the usual advice, structured plans, progressive mileage, and the reassuring idea that if you follow everything perfectly, you'll arrive at the start line ready for anything.
That's the theory.
In reality, ultra marathon training is considerably messier than that, and far more interesting.
For me, it didn't even begin as a performance goal. It started in 2021 after a cancer diagnosis that tried, quite literally, to take running away from me. Surgery and chemotherapy followed, and somewhere in that fog I made a decision: if I was getting back on my feet, I wasn't going to settle for jogging a few 10Ks.
I was going long.
Since then, I've completed everything from self-designed 50Ks (including one featuring an alarming number of Krispy Kreme stops) to the Tour du Mont Blanc, 24-hour challenges, and 170-mile efforts — like my 'Running WestwardHo!' run to Land's End. Along the way, I've raised over £25,000 for cancer charities and awareness, particularly around testicular cancer.
So when I say this isn't theory, I mean it. This is what ultra marathon training actually teaches you when you've properly lived it.
1. It's Not About Fitness — It's About Durability
Before I got into ultra running, I assumed this sport was primarily a fitness game. Get fitter, run further. Simple enough.
But ultras don't really work like that.
You don't fall apart in an ultra because your lungs give up. You fall apart because something else does first, your legs, your feet, your stomach, or occasionally your patience with your own decision-making. What you're really building through training isn't peak fitness; it's durability.
That ability to keep moving when everything feels worn down. The long, plodding runs where nothing particularly dramatic happens are doing the real work. They're building a body, and a mind, that can tolerate hours of continuous movement, not just perform well for a short burst.
The question shifts from 'how fast can I run?' to 'how long can I keep this together without things falling apart?'
Train for time on feet, not pace
Prioritise back-to-back runs to simulate race-day fatigue
Include hiking in your training — it's not a weakness, it's a strategy
Strength work (hips, glutes, calves, core) extends how long your body holds together
2. Most of It Should Feel Surprisingly Manageable
This sounds obvious until you actually try to stick to it.
The vast majority of ultra marathon training should feel controlled, not effortless, but sustainable. You're ticking things off, not emptying the tank. I've had countless runs where I've had to consciously rein myself in, especially when training is going well and the temptation is to push harder.
But after enough miles and enough mistakes, one thing becomes absolutely clear: consistency beats intensity every single time.
Those big impressive training weeks mean very little if they're followed by an injury, burnout, or a forced two-week break. What matters is showing up again tomorrow, and the day after, and stacking weeks together.
A good rule of thumb from sports science: increase your weekly volume by no more than 10–15% for two or three weeks, then take a recovery week before building again. Your aerobic system adapts slowly, don't outpace it.
Run 80–90% of your sessions at an easy, conversational effort
Keep easy runs genuinely easy — not 'easy for a fit person'
Schedule a deload week every 3–4 weeks (reduce volume by 20–40%)
Don't panic when a session doesn't go perfectly — it's one data point
3. Fuelling: The Skill Nobody Tells You to Practise
You'd think eating while running would be relatively straightforward. It absolutely is not.
Early on, I made every classic mistake, not eating enough, eating too late, or discovering mid-run that whatever I'd brought with me was firmly, unambiguously rejected by my body. There's nothing quite like trying to force down a gel when your stomach has already decided it's not interested.
The crucial realisation is this: fuelling isn't something you figure out on race day. It's something you practise every single week.
Long runs become fuelling rehearsals. You test what works, what doesn't, how often you need to eat, and what your gut will tolerate when you've been moving for hours. Because if you get this wrong, it doesn't matter how well-trained you are, the wheels will come off.
General guideline: aim for 60–90g of carbohydrate per hour on long efforts, with 300–600mg of sodium and 400–800ml of fluid. Start fuelling within the first 30–45 minutes — don't wait until you feel hungry.
Practise your race-day nutrition strategy on every long run
Test gels, real food, chews, and sports drinks to find what works for you
Your gut is trainable, the more you fuel on the move, the better it adapts
Never introduce anything new on race day
4. Running on Tired Legs Is Where You Learn the Most
There's a point in training where things start to feel properly real. For me, it's always been those sessions where you head out already slightly fatigued, back-to-back long runs, a hilly effort the day after a tough session, or heading into the Devon hills on legs that are already questioning your judgment.
And that's where it clicks.
Because ultras aren't run on fresh legs. They're run on legs that have been working for hours, often through the night, often over technical terrain, often in weather that has no business existing. Learning how to manage that, how to pace yourself, keep things moving, and not blow up, is a fundamental part of ultra training.
It's also where you discover you're capable of considerably more than you think, even when things feel genuinely rough.
Include back-to-back long runs in your training cycle
Practise power-hiking on uphills — treat it as a legitimate skill, not a failure
Train on similar terrain to your target race
Downhill running is harder than it looks — condition your quads specifically
5. Pacing Is Controlled Restraint
If I could go back and give my earlier self one piece of advice, it would be this: slow down. Then slow down a bit more.
Ultras have a particular way of luring you into a false sense of security at the start. You feel good, everything flows, and it's enormously tempting to just roll with it.
But I've had enough races to know exactly how that story ends.
The real skill in ultra running is holding back, running within yourself, walking when it makes sense, and banking energy for later. It's not glamorous, but in ultras, smart consistently beats fast.
A useful mental model: if you're at the midpoint of a race and still feel completely fresh, you probably started too fast. Your legs in the final third will thank you for every bit of restraint you showed in the first half.
Start slower than feels comfortable — you'll be glad later
Walk the uphills; this is strategy, not surrender
Judge your effort by feel, not GPS pace — terrain changes everything
Break the race into thirds mentally: conservative, steady, then whatever you have left
6. The Mental Side Sneaks Up on You
You train for the physical challenge. What you don't always prepare for is how much of ultra running is mental.
Over the course of a long run, your mood shifts around dramatically. You can feel completely strong, then question every decision you've ever made, then feel fine again, all within the space of an hour. I've had runs where I was absolutely convinced I was done, only to feel completely functional again twenty minutes later.
That's just part of the process.
What ultra training teaches you is not to overreact to how you feel in the moment. Things pass. Energy returns. Problems that seem catastrophic at mile 20 often look very different a few miles later. The trick is to keep moving while it sorts itself out.
Low patches are temporary. They don't mean you're failing. They mean you're deep enough into the effort for it to matter.
Practise running when you'd rather not — this is its own training
Develop go-to mantras or mental anchors for low patches
Break the remaining distance into small, manageable chunks
Talk to yourself — out loud if necessary. Nobody is judging you at mile 40.
7. Recovery Is the Bit You Can't Ignore
There was definitely a phase where I thought I could squeeze in extra training and deal with recovery as an afterthought. That approach doesn't last long in ultra running.
Training fatigue builds gradually, and if you don't actively manage it, it catches up with you at exactly the wrong moment. These days I pay proper attention to the basics: sleep, nutrition, and actually letting easy days be easy rather than treating them as slightly more relaxed hard days.
Recovery isn't the boring part of training. It's the part that makes everything else possible.
Aim for 7–9 hours of sleep — this is when adaptation happens
Eat enough protein and carbohydrate to support the training load
Easy days mean easy — don't let pace creep upward
Address niggles early; they're your body trying to communicate
Cross-training (cycling, hiking, swimming) lets you maintain volume while reducing impact
8. The Mistakes Are Where the Real Learning Happens
Looking back, almost everything I know about ultra running has come from getting things slightly, or significantly, wrong. Doing too much too soon. Not fuelling properly. Letting enthusiasm override common sense on a Monday when I should have rested.
And honestly? I wouldn't change any of it.
Those experiences are what shape how you approach things going forward. You don't really learn ultra running from a training plan, you learn it by doing it, adjusting, failing at something, adjusting again, and gradually building an understanding of what works specifically for you.
Every ultra runner you admire has a collection of these stories. The difference between people who keep going and people who don't is usually just willingness to learn from them.
What My Training Looks Like Now
After years of this, my approach has simplified considerably:
Consistency over impressive-looking weeks
Fuelling treated as a skill to be practised, not assumed
Easy runs kept genuinely easy — no exceptions
Trust in the process, even when individual sessions feel unremarkable
Strength work twice a week — hips, glutes, core, calves
Sleep treated as training, not an optional extra
There's also a lot more trust in the cumulative effect of showing up. Progress in ultra running isn't about any single run. It's what happens when you keep doing this, week after week, month after month.
Want a Structured Plan for Your First — or Next — Ultra?
One of the most common things I hear from runners thinking about their first ultra is some version of: 'I don't really know where to start with the training.' And I get it. The internet is full of plans, advice, and conflicting opinions, and trying to piece something coherent together on your own can be genuinely overwhelming.
It's one of the reasons I've been using, and now ambassador for, the Runna app. If you want structure, variety, and something that actually adapts to you rather than demanding you adapt to it, Runna is worth a serious look.
A Runna ultra marathon training plan isn't just a list of runs. Each week includes a proper mix of easy runs, long runs, tempo efforts, and interval sessions, the kind of variety that builds fitness across all the different demands an ultra will throw at you. Every run comes with audio coaching that talks you through what you're doing and why, and after each session you get feedback on what went well and where there's room to improve. It's the closest thing to having a coach in your ear without the coaching fees.
Runna works seamlessly with all major smartwatch brands, Garmin, Apple Watch, Suunto, and Coros, so whatever's on your wrist, you're covered.
As a Runna Ambassador, I can double the standard free trial from one week to a full two weeks, completely free, with access to all Premium features. That's enough time to set up a personalised plan, get a proper feel for how it structures your training, and put in a couple of weeks of real running to decide if it works for you.
Two weeks is genuinely enough time to see the difference a proper structured plan makes, especially if you've been winging it up to now. Use my ambassador link below to claim the extended trial.
👉Get Started - 2 Week Free Trail - Click Here — 2-week free trial, all Premium features included
Final Thoughts
Ultra marathon training has given me considerably more than finish lines.
It's been central to rebuilding after cancer, a way to raise money and awareness for causes that genuinely matter, and something that has connected me with a community of people I'm genuinely glad to know.
It's also taught me that you can go a surprisingly long way on fairly simple principles: move steadily, eat regularly, don't do anything daft in the first half, and keep moving when things get uncomfortable. The discomfort is usually temporary. The finish line is usually there.
And occasionally, it's taught me that running 50K powered largely by doughnuts is entirely possible. Not necessarily recommended. But possible.
Frequently Asked Questions: Ultra Marathon Training
About the Author
Ultra runner, cancer survivor, and occasional doughnut-powered 50K competitor. I've run everything from self-organised charity challenges to the Tour du Mont Blanc, and raised over £25,000 for cancer charities along the way. I write about ultra running, mental resilience, and why going long teaches you things a shorter race simply cannot.
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