I’m attempting my first ultra for my 40th birthday … Got a good base going and I so doing managed to loose the 20 pounds or so that makes running feel good again.
MON Rest
TUE 6-10 Miles w/ pacing
WED 5 Miles easy
THU 6-10 Miles w/ pacing
FRI Rest
SAT Long Run
SUN Long Run
Is this an OR or an AND thing? IE - Can I mix in some swims and bikes to keep those muscles working on rest days or as alternates? Or is running my new favourite for 4 months?
I don’t know what the “right” answer is as I’m just getting into ultras. Doing a trail marathon in Feb and then a 50k in April. But, I honestly don’t care what the “right” answer is. I do this stuff for fun and it wouldn’t be any fun to give up the swim and bike. I still try to swim 4-5 times per week but just for about 20 minutes at a time. It’s relaxing and I like being outside. As far as riding goes I’m getting about 3 in per week depending on work/life, including a long ride and some mountain biking - roughly 6 hours a week.
Don’t mess with the weekend sandwich…those are critical.
I would bike easy on the rest days and something hard on Wednesday.
Swim whenever you want/have time.
Since I switched from triathlon (including IM) training to only ultras over the last three years I’ve rarely swam and biked (like less than 2-3x per month), unless I’m taking a month or two in the off season where I decrease running from >50mpw to 20mpw and just ride for fun.
Your bike/swims should be refreshing and recovery, so if you can fit them in and not sacrifice the integrity of your run workouts, and they don’t burn you out, then I’d say go for it.
If I didn’t have a full time job, I would definitely swim and bike more, in addition to the 10-15 hours a week I run to train for ultras. But I don’t. It’s a matter of priority, time, and other life stress.
However, if triathlon is really important to you, and this ultra is more of a bucket-list item where you only care about finishing, then I don’t see any problem with maybe tossing out one of those week day runs and getting in a hard group ride, or a 1-2x week masters swim workout.
The ultra training will put you back a little bit with respect to swim/run, when you’re done with the ultra. And, if you don’t keep up on some speed work, you may lose some speed too.
It just depends on your goals for this event and how much time you have to recover and train. (And how much you care about returning to triathlon)