Kinda curious. Never done an ultra myself, but am wondering what sort of weekly mileages do they finishers hit - and for how long - to prepare for something like this?
To do the Booneville Backroads 100 in Iowa (my first 100) I started seriously training in Jan. for the race in mid May. Did two long runs of 40 in the buildup and hit 100+ mile weeks twice. Had never done any ultra running before but had 3 Ironmans for experience. Overall I averaged about 10 miles/day for 4 to 5 months and that put me in position to complete a 100. The Badwater is a different beast but I would imagine being in shape for a 100 is a fair prerequisite, the rest is gritting the teeth.
To me Ironman seems like a race where a 100 mile run seems like a war of attrition. I prefer the long stuff.
Its a hard question to answer. Its like ironman, some people finish on 10 hours a week training while fop/pros train much more than that. Id say bare minimum 80-90 miles a week if all you care about is just finishing. And thats if you have some good genes and prior racing experience. Ultra marathons that are 100 miles or more are hard on your body. The only way to train your body is miles and time on your feet so you shouldnt be surprised that almost every finisher has some training weeks of 100+ miles. Last time i ran a 100 miler i think my biggest week was like 110ish miles. And that was with a 40 mile long run.
That’s fascinating. Are you a strong runner in general? If you dont mind me asking what’s your expected open marathon time? Just trying to gauge where do I stand in terms of my overall fitness (m46, best marathon time 3:08 last year, 5 IMs completed). Thank you!
Of course, I’ve never done it but I did have a goal to do it at one point. My research said that it would me 3 years to build up mileage and do the required 2 or 3 hundred milers so that I could register. Most of my research pointed to time on feet being a higher priority that absolute mileage. Most plans I looked at had every other weekend looking something like 10 miles on Friday and 20 each on Saturday and Sunday.
Obviously everyone is a little different. In 2017 I did a 2 day 110 mile run (84 day 1 and 26.2 on day 2) Having a pretty decent base before training, I did 3 months running in the 200 mile range. I’d do 2 weeks in the 70-80 mile range then a week recovery. I still rode a couple days a week as well. Run was zero elevation and all road. It was terrible
That’s fascinating. Are you a strong runner in general? If you dont mind me asking what’s your expected open marathon time? Just trying to gauge where do I stand in terms of my overall fitness (m46, best marathon time 3:08 last year, 5 IMs completed). Thank you!
My marathon PB is 3:35, but my half is 1:25 so I definitely left some meat on the table with that. My speed days are behind me though and usually slog slow easy miles now. I finished my 100 in around 26 hours and that time was really due to meeting a friend that let me walk with him through the night and helped navigate. I probably could have finished faster on my own but probably also could have DNF’d without his help.
I’d say once you are in shape to do a 100 the day boils down to execution. I know I threaded the needed to finish a 100 on my first try because I talked to a handful of people who were trying to finish their first after multiple attempts.
Completing Badwater is going to be a bitch. But if you put in the proper training the hardest part is probably in your head. (I’m sure this advice is awful since I’ve never done the race myself)
I would say that the weekly mileage has less to do with it then the extreme heat training. The reason you have to have experience with Ultras to do the race is because they want you to have a sound foundation. I am following a bad water heat adaption plan (for my own personal curiosity of how adapted I can get to the Florida heat) and the heat training is way harder than my actual training.
I can do close to a 1:20 half but running in 95F with a hoodie and tights at 8 minutes miles had me fried at 90 minutes. I had to drop my triathlon training volume by 33% just to make up for the heat training.
These badwater athletes are a cut above!
Kinda curious. Never done an ultra myself, but am wondering what sort of weekly mileages do they finishers hit - and for how long - to prepare for something like this?
Find a road that goes uphill, for 135 miles, with temps that are 100+?
I crewed for an athlete last year at Badwater. You would want to focus on getting a lot of experience running ultra-marathons. If you’ve never done an ultra-marathon, then plan on spending the next 5-7 years building up the experience. The biggest thing is getting the experience to prove to the race organizers that you are capable of finishing the race without putting yourself in a bad spot.
Tim