I feel that familiar vibration on my left wrist and hear that gentle chime and sneak a peek at my watch. It flashes two miles. Two miles? How can it be only two miles?! I’m exhausted already and have completely sweat through my clothes. I’ve got 11 miles to go and this is after the 26 miles I ran a day ago. Over the course of the last six months, I’ve run 1100 miles, sweat, bled, vomited and fell. Welcome to training for an ultra in North Carolina.
While the miles pile up, it is truly difficult to simulate the impact of a 100-mile race on your body and your mind. Most of us try to do this with the dreaded back to back long runs. The debate rages within the ultra-community about whether or not the benefit outweighs the risk. One camp feels that pushing your body to exhaustion on consecutive days exposes you, unnecessarily, to injury. The other camp argues that short of running 100 miles, this is the closest you can put yourself to feeling what you will endure during the race. As with most of these types of arguments, the answer, in my opinion, is that only you will know what works for you.
As you can guess from what I’ve written so far, I personally believe that there is a benefit to the back to back long runs. It’s hard for me to say that the increased risk from running 26 miles one day followed by 13 the next is any more than the increase in weekly mileage. Most training plans for a 100 mile ultra will have weekly mileages that reach 55 to 70 miles. This alone can increase the potential for an injury. So, I don’t see the risk outweighing the potential benefits. And what are the potential benefits?
Physically, I think that your body adapts, and gets used to running on tired legs. I’m always amazed how I can start that second run and really not feel strong, but then somehow manage to reach an acceptable pace and complete the run. I also take these runs as an opportunity to train my stomach. I eat and drink just like I would if it were a race. This way, my stomach adapts to digesting while moving, even at mile 35 or 40. And while these benefits are important, I feel that the mental benefits are even greater.
While the physical preparedness for a race of this distance is kind of binary, you either trained enough, or you didn’t, the mental preparedness is anything but. I’ve entered these back-to-back long runs with minor ailments to my groin, toes, calves, and other extremities, and have had to learn to deal with the pain for the duration. Keep in mind, I am not saying injury, I am saying ailment. When I’m injured, I shut it down and heal, but part of being an ultra-runner is running through soreness and pain. And if the first time that you ever have to do it is during a race, you won’t have any experiences to draw from. And, if your running 100 miles, there is a very good chance that you will be managing pain for long periods of time.
Pain isn’t the only thing that you have to deal with either. After long hours of running, your body and mind are absolutely gassed. There seems to be nothing left, and you may still have 12 plus hours to go. That’s a lot of time to be alone with your thoughts and a lot of time to continuously assess your level of exhaustion and pain. This is a time rife for convincing yourself to quit. Doing back to back long runs can help put you in the hurt locker quick enough on that second run, that you are forced to troubleshoot and cope with your thoughts for an extended period of time. Important skills for the ultra-runner.
Despite all of this, you will still never be able to truly replicate the same conditions as the actual race. Improving your skills will improve your chance of success, but until you have been out there, in the dark, in the heat, in the cold, in the rain, and exhausted to the point of hallucination, you just won’t know how you’ll react. There are simply some things that you will just have to deal with when the time comes.
For behind the scenes photos and comments on my training and personal life, follow me on Instagram: joe_the_runner Strava: Joe Randene YouTube: Joe Runner Facebook: Joe Randene
Questions, comments, feedback? Please leave them in the comments section BELOW and we can have a discussion!
Run, Joe, run!
ALWAYS!