The Case For & Against Training Races
Nicole and I recently completed the Rocky Raccoon 50 (RR50) Mile in Huntsville, TX which served as a highly structured, ultra specific, long run. The reality is a 50 mile race or long run is what I would consider an overreaching workout. This just means the cost of doing a 50 mile event will likely be large enough that it will take future training off the table. When this future training is added up, it will likely total a larger overall training stimulus than the 50 mile run. So why did we decide to do it?
To unpack this, it is helpful to first assess what benefits are unique to doing 50 miles in one go versus spreading out the training load of the event over multiple days.
Participating in an ultramarathon provides additional experience by running beyond the point you would normally stop. This is important for ultramarathon practice, as you will have to go past your normal training duration on race day, often much further. Being able to optimally navigate the highs and lows of a very long ultramarathon, like most things, can be improved with practice. Here is a personal example. My typical long run will range between 2-3 hours in training. RR50 took me just under 7 hours to complete. This means in practice I routinely normalize being able to manage the ebb and flow of continuously moving for 2-3 hours without any breaks. I understand perfectly what it feels like to have anything from a poor to great training session within that duration, and even know when it is almost certainly best to cut a run short, or even extend it if the signs are there and the timing is right. Doing these longer events in training provides an opportunity to stretch duration out and practice what to do in situations that are unique to being out for a longer timeframe than a typical training run allows.
Practicing the uniqueness that is an event can be achieved by doing more events. Getting up on a weekend morning and going for a very long training run is doable. One could just do 50 miles at home and practice an ultra duration long run without the event. However, anyone who has done an endurance event knows that managing things at an event differs from the comforts of your home. Things like navigating travel hurdles, practicing sleep hygiene techniques unique to the procedure and emotions around an event, practicing how certain foods/meals impact the way you feel in the context of an event, navigating aid stations, learning more about what fueling and hydration changes may present themselves over the course of an event, and even stress testing a new fueling/hydration strategy in an event setting that needs confirmation before rolling it out at a goal event.
In many cases, people do events because they enjoy the community and atmosphere they provide. Seeing a new place or route, meeting new people, enjoying whatever built in festivities are present before and after events is a big draw for some people. It is okay to step outside of the realm of optimal occasionally in order to enjoy the experience and remember the varying “why” for what we do. In fact, these scenarios can even reignite the passion and motivation required to get the most out of the next phase of training.
With all of that said, the goal of not leaving your A race at a B race still remains. In other words, being mindful of how certain activities may positively or negatively impact the primary event is very much worth considering.
The best case against doing training events in my opinion is centered around doing too much. Doing too much is relative, so let’s define it as participation in a way that results in chronic overreaching to the degree that meaningful portions of a well structured training plan get missed. In other words, development is missed due to less overall training load over a given timeframe. This is the same argument that is often used against doing ultra specific long runs or back to back long duration training sessions in general. If you want to dive deeper into that topic, and my thoughts on it, consider checking out my podcast: Episode 337: The Long Run - Considering The Variables.
An example of this I sometimes see goes as follows. The week before a training event overall training load is reduced in order to feel reasonably good during the course of the event. Due to feeling relatively fresh, the event is done at a max effort for the duration. The following two weeks are met with more reduced training load. In this scenario, the tradeoff for the experience at that event is large enough that it at least partially interrupts an entire three week block of training. Now run this scenario multiple times over a six month span of time and there is a meaningful disruption in desired consistency of the training process.
In the above example, much of this can be mitigated with proper planning and execution. Here are some things to consider if including training events in your preparation.
Plan well in advance. In most well structured training plans, there will be what I call deload weeks. They follow a block of training, approximately three weeks, where you intentionally reduce training load in order to recover from the previous training block and gear up for the next one. When planning training events, it is a good idea to plan your schedule to line up with a deload week the week following the event. This scenario allows for some of the reduced training load that will be necessary in the days following a larger session to be built into the plan. In this scenario, it is still likely preferable to scale back for a few days leading into the event, but due to the large load of the event, it can be that this just balances out the load for that week. If paced properly, after a deload week, return to normal training should be manageable.
This leads to the next part of the strategy, proper pacing at training events. Training events give you a unique opportunity to practice avoiding what I believe many ultramarathon runners, myself included, are vulnerable to on race day. This is going out too fast. Going out too fast guarantees a slower finishing time if done to the degree that the back half of the event is done at a noticeably lower intensity. Endurance records have tight margins between the early and late miles for a reason, and I do not see a compelling case that it isn’t also true for ultramarathon, even though the temptation to “bank time on fresh legs” is strong. If interested, I dove deep into this topic with Nick Coury for Episode 294: Ultramarathon Pacing & Fueling With Nick Coury.
One hurdle that is important to navigate is the very common scenario where someone starts out too fast due to a combination of emotion and adrenaline. A second hurdle is simply having a much harder time predicting what an optimal pacing strategy is for an event that is so long you rarely approach it. This makes predictions more difficult. Training events have the added advantage of removing some of the incentive to go out too fast in the beginning, because the goal is to get the experience at a sub maximal effort and return to training sooner. This can instill confidence in how good one can feel near the end of an ultramarathon. The goal should be to go out slow enough in these events that you finish without feeling like the effort was at max for the given duration. It should be feasible to run stronger at the end if needed, because the first half was conservative. In short, it builds confidence and proof of concept that a strong finish is not only possible in ultra, but preferable.
At the end of the day, it is going to be largely individual as to whether or not someone is going to benefit from doing training events. If done properly, I consider them a value add that often results in better decision making and a more precise strategy come goal event. If you find it difficult to include them with the above strategy, it is worth considering avoiding or minimizing them. It is a scenario where it pays to be honest with yourself around how well this framework will play out when done in practice.
If you are interested some additional support, I am currently onboarding for my group coaching package. It is designed for all abilities, and race targets that will help you better understand the training and racing process. It includes: access to my complete catalog of training plans from 5km to 200+ miles, weekly group meetings to help adjust your plan and cover questions/topics, recording of meetings, office hours, future guest speakers, and a private forum for all members. Details can be found here.
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