The Ultra-Distance Experiment

I’m not trying to re-invent the wheel here, nor am I trying to flick the bird at all the runners out there who regularly train hard every day to shave a second here and a second there off there PB. I don’t doubt the training principle of specificity (i.e. You get good at what you repeatedly do), if you want to get good at running you have to run. All I’m trying to say is there is more than one way to skin a cat.

The Ultra-Distance Experiment was born out of my interest in what is necessary and what is not. I’m working towards a race in June called The Wall. The Wall is a seventy-mile race from Carlisle to Newcastle along the length of The Hadrians Wall. The vast majority of which is off-road, hilly and knowing that part of the world wet and windy.

I suppose I’m an unlikely candidate for this type of race. Up until 18 months ago I hadn’t run a marathon. In fact I hadn’t run anything over 10 miles and I certainly hadn’t trained for a race. My friend pulled up a week before the London Marathon with a calf strain that meant he could not run. With less than a week to go and lots of money raised for charity I stepped in and took his place and the rest they say is history.

Later that year I took part in a race called the Trans-Britain a 156 mile footrace that takes place over six days (the equivalent six marathons in six days off-road) and runs from Gretna in Scotland to Ruthin Castle in North Wales. Since then I have run several marathons (none of which I have trained specifically for) and competed in Ironman France having never owned a bike nor competed in a triathlon before starting training.

I don’t class myself as a runner nor a triathlete. I don’t run regularly. I guess I’m just a broken rugby player with a bit of courage. I suffered a wrist injury and after having it pinned back together didn’t fancy going back to the sport and breaking it again. There is perhaps one factor that might go in my favour - I am of course a personal trainer.

Everyday I work with people to help them achieve there health and fitness goals. Perhaps it is this that has inspired The Ultra-Distance Experiment. I realise that regular runners are often ambivalent about other factors that contribute to fitness and performance. Things like strength, structural integrity, soft-tissue release and mobility, preferring instead to run, run, run instead of utilise other more scientific and intelligent approaches to achieve optimum performance.

Just to reiterate I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel here, I just want to help people recognise there is more to running a sub-40 10k than just ‘time on your feet.’ I realise my proposition might cause some athletes to get on there soap box. I mean how dare someone suggest there is another way?! I mean I understand that runners like to run and cling to it like religion. Believing the key to success is hard work and only hard work. How dare someone suggest otherwise?? Especially someone who up until 18 months ago only donned a pair of running shoes once a month to take part in an occasional trail race...

Let me just confirm - I have trained. I followed a sixteen week training plan for my six marathons in six days Trans Britain race and I followed a thirty-six week training plan for my Ironman. Both of which, in comparison to my peers were perceived as relatively time-friendly reduced-volume approaches and both which gave me relatively good success. My experiences up until this point have all eluded to one thing. Training less and more intelligently can often bring about faster performance and fitness improvements than training more.

Wow! Quite a statement, I know. It’s not that I necessarily believe in overtraining, I think under-recovering is more the truth. I believe many people (especially runners) are ignorant to other factors such as rest, good nutrition, strength and mobility can have on performance. And that perhaps if these things were given a little bit more respect people would see a vast improvement in speed, a greater reduction in injury and a lot more joy and satisfaction from there sport.

The Ultra-Distance Experiment is not an absolutist approach. What I am proposing is more of an idea. I want to put myself up as an example. I am planning on racing in a seventy-mile race, running just three or four times per week and supplementing the rest with gym work and recovery (eating better, foam rolling, massage, etc). I also want to raise MASSIVE amount of money for my local charity which supports people with learning difficulties (but I’ll elaborate on that in later posts...)

I’m looking to represent the time-shy athlete who wants to participate in something purely unique. I’m looking to give hope to the guy who feels they ‘don’t have the time’ to train for a marathon. I want to prove low-volume training is a safer, more sophisticated and healthier approach to achieving success in any sport - most noticeably in this example - running.

I’m not trying to challenge the tried and tested approach of getting time on ones feet, you most certainly do get good at what you practice and for optimum running performance you do need to run. But my question is where does it start and where does it stop. I genuinely believe there is some advantage to most runners skipping a training run and having a massage once every fortnight.

Take for example my challenge, I can’t run anywhere near seventy miles in training. The further I go in training the greater the risk of injury. The most I could perhaps do is run between 20-22m on a training run which let’s be honest is a drop in the ocean in comparison. This would be like training for a 100 metre race by doing one 30m sprint each week, right?!

What I’m suggesting is following a 20wk training plan with three or four runs a week. One long run, one fast interval one and one somewhere in between. It will be progressive, structured and periodised. It will utilise aspect such as rest, recovery and cross-training. It will bear in mind important factors such as sleep, stress management, childcare and family life - I too have a wife and twelve week old baby! We could look at nutrition, stretching and fun too.

The lower-volume means I will be able to put forward my best (or most appropriate) effort at every training session. This means when I schedule a hard run it will be that, and when I schedule an easy run it will be that). The lower volume means I will be able to maintain health as I will not burden my body with stress which is so often the case with endurance training programs and I will not become helplessly addicted to unhealthy foods such as chocolate and caffeine which is so often the case with the typical marathon training plans.

I’m gonna write about my experience, impart a bit of knowledge on alternative ways to run quicker. Stuff like how to strength train to improve running and why most so-called sport specific strength training plans are woefully inadequate. I can elaborate on why soft-tissue release leads to far greater performance gains and why when your muscles are softer and more pliable they actually perform better. I will provide examples of the benefits of creating good health with good nutrition will lead to far greater performances. I can highlight how once you have cleaned up your diet supplementing can be helpful and why supplementing with something like magnesium, whilst not an ergogenic aid, reduced my cramps during ironman training.

So here it begins... 21 weeks to go... Wish me luck and stay tuned!!!