I’m looking at doing a 50 mile ultra in early spring, and then a 100 mile ultra late fall. Tri season would include a couple 70.3 races and possibly early fall 140.6. Does anyone have any advice on alterations needed to a Tri plan format during Tri season to accommodate for the fall ultra? Anyone been successful at this?
I’m looking at doing a 50 mile ultra in early spring, and then a 100 mile ultra late fall. Tri season would include a couple 70.3 races and possibly early fall 140.6. Does anyone have any advice on alterations needed to a Tri plan format during Tri season to accommodate for the fall ultra? Anyone been successful at this?
I’ll start the ball rolling with the usual request for more info.
I do both throughout the year and it’s really a question of goals. I’m MOP in both sports (barely sub 12 IM although CDA was longer this year cause I’m a wimp) for context and don’t stress about time or rank. I primarily do trail ultras with lots of climbing (started doing ultras in Jan. 2020) so when I’m following my training plan, who’s is rare, I’ll “run†5-6 days a week (40-60 miles) almost exclusively on trails, bike 2-4 times per week, and swim occasionally (I hate pool swimming). My running includes lots of power hiking up hills and I try to do at least one long run a week between 20-30 miles. I’ve only DNF’d once (100km at altitude but it was stupidity, not training, that caused me to miss the cutoff by 20 minutes). I’m doing my first 100 at Javelina on 10/30 and then IM Cozumel on 11/21 so I’ll let you know around Thanksgiving if my advice truly works or whether I’m just a moron…
Been doing IM for a few years. Completed 6 140.6. Many 70.3 events. Before triathlon, I completed several marathons and a few 50milers. Basically I’d like to complete a 100 miler next year in the late fall, but would like to still do some triathlons in the summer and maybe a 140.6 late summer or fall before the 100.
I’ll be interested to hear about the experience. Good luck!
So it would be your first 100? How long between the IM and the 100? How much run mileage do you usually include in your IM prep?
Yes, this would be my first 100. Depending on which 100, there will be 8-10 weeks in between the IM and 100 miler. My usually build up to an IM would top out at 45-50 miles.
So you’ll be able to squeeze in maybe 4 to 6 weeks of specific ultra training after your IM, allowing 2 weeks recover, a training block, then taper.
You’ll definitely need to commence ramping up your long runs for the miler prior to IM.
One solution may be to dedicate alternating weekends of endurance training to ultra training and triathlon training. Every second weekend do back-to-back long runs, gradually building to 30 to 35 miles Saturday/15 to 20 miles Sunday. The alternating weekend would allow you to focus on your long bike ride.
Given you’re already topping out at some reasonable running mileage, you mightn’t have to change too much of your training to accomplish this.
That said, once you have a few seasons of IM behind you, it’s much easier to finish an IM on the training for a 100 miler, than trying to finish a miler on IM training. You can’t bluff your way through a miler. IM is more forgiving.
Thanks for the response. The 100 miler is definitely uncharted territory so I’m mostly concerned with prep for that event. I really like the idea of alternating weekends. I appreciate the information.
So you’ll be able to squeeze in maybe 4 to 6 weeks of specific ultra training after your IM, allowing 2 weeks recover, a training block, then taper.
You’ll definitely need to commence ramping up your long runs for the miler prior to IM.
One solution may be to dedicate alternating weekends of endurance training to ultra training and triathlon training. Every second weekend do back-to-back long runs, gradually building to 30 to 35 miles Saturday/15 to 20 miles Sunday. The alternating weekend would allow you to focus on your long bike ride.
Given you’re already topping out at some reasonable running mileage, you mightn’t have to change too much of your training to accomplish this.
That said, once you have a few seasons of IM behind you, it’s much easier to finish an IM on the training for a 100 miler, than trying to finish a miler on IM training. You can’t bluff your way through a miler. IM is more forgiving.
My take would Also be That IM training works good for ultras, with The caveat being leg resilience. Especially if your ultra is hilly. Downhills smaahes Quads, Even cyclist Quads 
How did it go for you?
I did something similar a few years back. Cycling definitely helped with climbing but not descending. You have to run downhill as another poster mentioned. I echo what someone else said about shifting focus in the weeks leading up to a specific event (tri vs ultra). IM training is not full on ultra training (in my opinion). At least, I was never able to handle the volume of both cycling and running at the same time. I will say that I never ran better off the bike than after recovering from a high mileage block for an ultra.
Out of curiosity I decided to look up how he did. I suspected his username would be close to his actual name. It was.
Looks like he completed both. Javalina 100 was done in 29:11 and IM Coz was completed in 12:12. Of course, there was probably much misery for at least one, if not both of those. 
Yes, there was much misery involved in both! I definitely needed to train better for the 100 miler. My legs were dying by mile 70. As for Cozumel, my Di2 malfunctioned at mile 35 so no shifting for nearly 80 miles, which killed my legs for the run. I also did a 50 km trail race (Ray Miller) with 5500 feet of gain on 12/3 in 7:15 (2 weeks post Ironman) and a half marathon trail race with 3000 feet of gain last weekend in 2:35. If you’re like me and not expecting to podium, a schedule like this is doable (albeit a bit stupid). But if you are trying to be fast, I highly recommend against it. Next year, I’m trying to be more conservative so I’m doing a 50 miler in February, Oceanside 70.3 in April, StG in May and the San Diego 100 miler in June. That should give me a better chance at recovery. Maybe…
Thanks for the reply. Impressive results especially considering the bike mechanical. Did you stick to your plan of 40-60 running miles and 2-4 rides a week? Approx overall training volume a week?
Unfortunately, work got in the way so my training was crap. I swam 3 times and rode my bike 7 times in the 2 months before Cozumel. After the 100 miler, I couldn’t run for 2 weeks. I did do an Olympic triathlon at the end of September, which gave me some mental confidence but, all in all, very poor triathlon training. As for running, the last 2 months were also negatively impacted by my schedule but I still managed to get some good long runs in. I know I can push for 12 hours without dying so Ironmans don’t scare me with shit training (but I want to smash StG so I’m really going to focus on tri training through April while adding two super hilly run/power hikes each week to my triathlon training plan). But 100 milers (and Javelina was my first) are a totally different beast. I’m not making the same mistakes for San Diego 100 that I did for Javelina. If I have to get up at 3 am to get my miles in, I’m doing it. Cause 💯 milers hurt like nothing I’ve ever experienced and you have to get that mileage in!
Nice work and congrats, nsarris!
100 mile finishes never come easy. Whether you have the race of your life or it’s a blow up, you really have to earn it, and the only currency accepted is pain.