Who is this plan for?
This plan is specifically designed for 'intermediate' level athletes training for an off-road mountain race or event of approximately 40-60 miles or 60-100km, and roughly 17,000-27,000ft or 5,000-8,000m of elevation.
We'd expect these athletes to have already been completing 5-7 hours of running per week, and to already be comfortable with running for around 2-2.5 hours at a low intensity (i.e. a social/conversational pace), and doing ~5000ft or 1500m of elevation per week.
What does this plan do?
This plan seeks to build the key aspects of fitness that are imporant for shorter ultra-distance trail events. These include:
- Improved muscular strength.
- Improved resistance to fatigue.
- Improved fat oxidation and 'first lactate/ventilatory threshold', which are key determinants of performance in ultra-distance events. For more on these see here.
- Opportunities to practice off-road technique, including descending skills and race nutrition.
Note this is a 20-week program, but the plan itself is 21 weeks, because we include two options for the taper, depending on whether your event is on a Saturday or Sunday.
Plan Key Features
We believe our plans stand our from the crowd. We’ve done our very best to provide an experience that’s as close as possible to having on-hand coach support, with ample guidance on how to get the most out of our plans, and clear information on what we’re trying to achieve both session-by-session and week-by-week to keep you motivated. Our plans are grounded in science and supported by over a decade of full-time coaching experience. Key features include:
- Two taper options for the final weeks, each geared towards a Saturday or Sunday race.
- A comprehensive PDF user guide to help you individualise your plan, and make adjustments as needed to suit your unique physiology and circumstances.
- Each workout’s purpose and key adaptations clearly communicated, including references to scientific papers where relevant.
- Guidance on how to integrate club runs within your plan.
- Weekly notes explaining how training progresses from week-to-week.
- Structured sessions, meaning all sessions can be automatically exported to your Garmin or other running watch.
- Home-based strength training, which can be upgraded to gym-based program for free.
- Sessions that are directly geared towards trail, fell and mountain runners, with close appreciation of the unique skills and fitness required for these disciplines.
With nearly 15 years’ of collective coaching experience and a solid scientific basis, we create resources and offer guidance to help you optimise your fell, trail and ultra-running training and performance.
We provide a variety of options to suit your budget and support needs, ranging from pre-built plans, to consultations and 1-2-1 coaching. We always strive to provide the highest level of service, with a high attention to detail and customer service.