Ultrarunning favors patience and durability, both of which come from prolonged periods of consistent running. You seem discouraged over your body’s apparent inability to meet the challenge. The truth is quite the opposite. Ultras are a huge mental game, and you can’t fully anticipate what the day (or your body) will bring you. By finishing the race, you now have reasonable insight into what it takes not only to train for such an event, but to complete it.
I’ve yet to meet an ultrarunner that upon finishing a race said, “Yeah, that went pretty much as I expected.” The obvious exception to this being those that fearfully expected carnage, and found it.
I agree. Just did my first 50K about a month ago and although I did really well (won my age group and placed 14th overall), my quads have never hurt so much in my life. They started hurting at mile 15 and by mile 28 I couldn’t run downhill anymore.
Took me 4 days of walking downstairs backwards for the pain to go away and 1 and a half weeks to even attempt an easy run.
I finished my first ultra race on Sunday at the Vermont 50k. I have run a marathon and completed an ironman, but have to say that the 50k was the most “pain” I have endured in a race. I am an experienced runner with solid prs (3:05 marathon, 16:57 5k, over 40 years old), but the 50k distance was brutal.
Ultra runners are tough as nails, at least all of the ones who blew by me in the last 2 hours:)
You seem to have trained wrong. I don’t think you did your 3:05 marathon on hills or trails. Doing 50 miles of hills is a lot different than 50 miles of flat. Different muscle usage.
Those who “blew by” you toward the end most likely had a better sense of the difficulity relative to their ability. That comes with experience.
For some reason I don’t remember training that much when I did a 50k. Probably around 50 mpw I think. But I was 19 year old, and really lean, so that changes things a lot. I only remember suffering pretty good the last lap and really digging deep the last 4 miles or so. It probably helped that I changed shoes once and socks twice and it was cold weather. 20-35F.
Being young and invicible, yet training with veterans that knew how ot pace properly made a huge difference. At that age I’m sure I could pound out 8-10 miles every day and recover with no issues. I do remember having the ability to run up multiple flights of stairs and not even being hardly winded. I think sometiems that’s a very simple test of your run fitness.
Like everything consistency is key. I promise you if you do another hilly 50k later this year your sticks will feel much better. You just needed to get that distance under your belt. Next time the muscle memory will kick in.
In hindsight I should have followed my coach’s suggestion to walk any steep downhill sections to lessen the pounding on the quads. I’m not a great downhill runner, especially on uneven terrain, but I could have walked the downhills which may have saved my legs for the last 10 miles.
This is a survival strategy, but (as you’re probably aware) it certainly won’t make you a better (ultra)runner. The answer to strong descending is speed. The unfortunate news is that there’s no way to get there other than practice. The good news is that you don’t need to bomb down a 20% grade ski slope to figure it out.
The mechanics can be learned by descending modest grades at progressively greater speeds. As you increase the speed of your repeats, you will be forced to correct your body position with proper hip/foot placement (i.e. a forward lean) and most likely a longer stride. Once you’re able to lean into the descent and achieve efficient running mechanics, you will gain comfort in descending quickly. Your quads will absorb less of the load, and the repeats (though faster) will get easier.
The fact that you were running a hilly ultra for 5 hours is part of your problem. Your matchbook probably was burnt out quick and you were running on empty pretty early I’d imagine.
That said, I’d bet you’ll blow that time out of the water on your second ultra.
I felt the same way after my 50k, also have done full IMs and endurance MTBs longer hourwise than the 50k, but the 50 was the most mentally challenging race. Mine had 7500ft of climbing, the last hill was 1000ft climb at 16% average grade, at 19:00 mile pace my heart rate was 170 going up. The downhills are almost worse, in theory you think “well at least I can regain time/relax,” but on race day for the second half of the race they just exacerbate the pain, and you can’t get a decent enough turnover rate to make up any time. Anything over 50k is unimaginable to me, I would do Tour Divide or a 15mile+ swim before I would consider a 50mi ultra.
Congrats on your first Ultra! Consistent trail running will help you big time when (if) you do another.
That being said, it really annoys me that the MT bikers were expecting you to yield. Here in the SE its common courtesy for bikers to yield to hikers/runners and horses. I think I probably would have taken my share of the trail and forced the issue, but kudos to you for taking the high road.
Also been said, but less can be more on the descents - try more of a “controlled fall” method where you’re taking long strides and not stopping yourself as much with your quads.
I’ll agree with others who have echoed how important it is to train in the type of terrain you’re racing in. The other is pacing. If you’re a 3:05 marathoner, and you set out on a 50K at that type of pace, you were going way too fast. Did you power-walk the uphills (perfectly normal in an ultra)?
Don’t be discouraged. Give it another shot and train correctly and you’ll have a better experience. Eat the salted potatoes at the aid stations. You don’t need to put in massive miles to have a good 50K, just need to train right.
I worked with an experienced coach and she had me as ready as I could have been. Very happy with her coaching. Yes I did walk the uphills and started out very conservatively. Obviously I did not start out at my marathon pace. I think I was running around 10:30/mile pace average through 4.5 hours and then my legs fell apart. If I attempt another 50k, it will be in a running race only with no bikers to contend with. The Vermont 50 was originally a bike race only, so I have no problem giving them the right of way. It was not as frustrating in the first 3 hours as it was during the last few hours. Obviously my patience was wearing thin at that point.
How experienced ( honestly) is your coach at coaching people for trail ultra’s? This trail running and specifically ultra trail running game is a different kettle of fish to pure road running or Ironman and I have seen a few experienced coaches totally miss the mark when it came to guiding people into ultra running/triathlons.It is not just a case of applying one type of training to another as it doesn’t always work that way.
You seems to have done lots of training but it sounds to me like you just weren’t strong enough to deal with the downhills…
Luckily, when I did my first 50k, I had been doing a lot of trail running. Any road running I did was hilly terrain. It was a spur of the moment decision to do the 50k so my weekly mileage was only in the 40mpw range. I was able to finish in 4:50 (marathon PR 3:15 at hilly marathon course). I definitely did not think it was as tough as an IM, especially a horribly hot/humid IM like IMKY but it was a challenge. If I had done all my running on the road, and also on flat terrain, then I believe my perspective would have been a lot different. Trail running works different muscles so it is a good idea to keep it up.
My coach is running her second 100 mile ultra this weekend, and has run multiple 50ks and 50 milers. She is also a nutritionist. She knows her ultra running.
I completely agree that I was not strong enough to deal with the downhills. I ran every weekend run since July on trails which were hilly, but we did not have enough time before the race to incorporate enough downhill run training. In fairness to my coach,** I only worked with her for 6 weeks before the taper**. That is not enough time, at least for me, to conditions my legs to deal with the repetitive pounding of this race.
That say it all and sheds some light on your prep, she probably got to you in time and helped you survive your first one and props to her for that.As another poster said I think your next one will surprise you and it won’t be long before you are checking the race calendars for your first 50 miler.
That being said, it really annoys me that the MT bikers were expecting you to yield. Here in the SE its common courtesy for bikers to yield to hikers/runners and horses.
It appears that this event was run on private property - a ski resort. They get to make the rules. There is no need to force the issue.
Here bicyclists yield to everyone. But I am willing to step aside for bicyclists.
I had the opposite experience. My first 50k was cake, ironman was tough, 24 hour mtb was just a complete ass whooping. I had never been beaten down so bad.