Rait - I love your principle #5, "I live a simple and debt free life..."
Rait Ratasepp wrote:
Completely mind blowing achievement, congratulations!
Some questions:
- How does one train for such things? Anything special in terms of volume, paces etc...
- Your run is even more unbelievable (if that is possible), were you always a good runner, does it come easy to you? How much do you train running?
- On your website you mention that time goals are important to you. Have you considered finding a faster course (maybe going for x times sub10 ?)
- Swim, have you ever considered paying some attention to that? There might be some relatively easy minutes to be gained ~10 or so? Or is it just too much work or not interesting in your opinion? (there was a discussion earlier, would be nice to hear your own opinion)
Congrats again and good luck in future.
1. How does one train for such things? Anything special in terms of volume, paces etc... In order to give a complete and useful overview of my workouts to the others, I should write a book :) - unfortunately I don't have time to write the book right now and I still have to learn to pass it on to others - I know my body well and know what works for me, but that doesn't mean that it suits everyone. Still, I will try to pass on some of the principles I follow in my workouts.
1) I never repeat the workouts of previous years. It is not possible to reach a new level by repeating old things. I only follow the principles - for instance a 1:4 run workouts ratio (see the answer to the second question.
2) I also like to follow the principle "split the distance" - I discovered this method for myself, and that is one of the main key elements to what I've achieved so far. What does it mean? To run 84.4 km in 6.6 hours, you must run long runs as well. Under long runs I mean 60 – 70 km a day. When you run 70 km in a row, it will most likely leave a mark on your muscles for several days. It is also likely that you will not be able to maintain the same speed throughout the run. That's why I divide that distance into three or four and run it with a little pause. One example of my training – 64.1 km a day I ran as follows: I started with a 16.4 km run, then after an hour's break I ran 15.4 km. Then again, a small break and 20.3 km run. Once again, a little break and finally I ran 12 km. When recovery gets better, the less time I give to the body to rest and the longer I run at one session. For example, four days later I ran the same distance in three runs (21.7 km + 25.9 km + 16.3 km).
3) Another principle is that I do different workouts one after the other (without a break), using a change of discipline as recovery. With this, I save time and train the transition from one discipline to another. By changing disciplines, I also teach my body to recover with movement. One example of my training day: I started my day with an 11 km run. Right after the run I had a 4.4 km swim. Then right after swimming I had another run (13 km). And finally, I cycled 1,5 hours.
4) Another principle - during one training cycle (usually 2-3 weeks, but sometimes much longer) I focus on developing only two areas - usually either running and swimming (especially in winter) or cycling and swimming. Developing all three areas at once would already be comparable to the competition or the challenge itself.
I read a lot about other people's experiences and training, then I test them myself and then adjust them to suit me. For instance, as for running, I've found a lot of benefits from Jason Koop's book "Training essentials for ultrarunning". I use the sufferfest.com platform for cycling training.
5) Last but not least - I follow the principle that life must be simple and priorities in place. I have been asked a lot about where I find time to play sports besides family and other activities. It's all a matter of priorities - I don't watch TV and spend as little time on social media as possible. Minimizing these activities alone gives us a lot of free time. Secondly, I enjoy a simple and debt-free life - I have no loans and leases and my monthly living expenses are very low. All so that I can do what I like, not go to work to pay for expensive loans and leases. 2. Your run is even more unbelievable (if that is possible), were you always a good runner, does it come easy to you? How much do you train running?
Yes, running is the easiest for me and that is why it is my favorite discipline. Running was not easy at first and I was not a fast runner at all, but with years and consistent work I have developed a lot. I have been running for 21 years. In the last three years, the mileage has been particularly high: in 2019 I ran 7060 km, 8008 km in 2020 and this year until now 6856 km. From 2000 to the present day, I have covered a total of 68,196 km. Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments in my life is that I have never been injured.
Running on high volumes is not my goal. It's just a by-product - I am interested in how much hard and developing training I can do. For example, when I develop my running skills in the winter, I do 2-3 interval workouts a week, and to recover from them, I have to do 3-4 lower heart rate workouts for each hard workout. Thus, 3 developing runs mean that a total of 9-12 runs have to be done per week.
3. On your website you mention that time goals are important to you. Have you considered finding a faster course (maybe going for x times sub10 ?) Yes, if a 5-times day-by-day ultra-triathlon takes place in Switzerland next August (it has been canceled for the last two years due to the coronavirus), I will take part in this competition. My goal is to finish in less than ten hours every day for five consecutive days and get the total time under 50 hours.
4. Swim, have you ever considered paying some attention to that? There might be some relatively easy minutes to be gained ~10 or so? Or is it just too much work or not interesting in your opinion?
Of course. And I've put a lot of emphasis on swimming, given that it only makes up 10% of ultra-triathlon. Swimming is not easy for me. I didn't come into contact with water as a child. I learned to swim as an adult and started on my own at first - so I learned technically very wrong and now it is very difficult for me to retrain this wrong technique. However, before the coronavirus, I got much better with consistent work. For example in 2018, I swam 1.9 km in the Ironman Otepää team competition with a time of 31:24. During the double ultratriathlon in 2019, I swam 7.6 km with a time of 2:14:45. During my 20-times ultratriathlon in 2018, my average time for swimming was 3.8 km 1:12:00 and during 40-times ultra-triathlon in 2019, it was 1:15:39.
There has been a clear decline in swimming since the last two years. Largely because of the coronavirus and the closures of the pools affected my swimming shape a lot. But also because I consciously increased my running volumes and the number of core training sessions in preparation for this challenge. So there was less time for swimming.
Of course I want to be a faster swimmer :) and I'm ready to work for it, because I see a great opportunity to improve my time there.[/quote]
"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."