Train On The Same Surface You Will Race On

A question that I often see from newer ultrarunners  preparing to do some trail race is "Should I get some trail running in prior to this trail race?"

The answer is absolutely yes!  If you don't you could be and for a rude awakening on race day. 

Different surfaces use different types of muscles and if you're training on pavement or the sidewalk every day and then go try to run a tough trail race there's a good chance that you won't get the results you are looking for.  Different terrain like rocks, sand, and hills impacts your running.

Even if you don't live close to the course you will be racing on you can almost always find a little bit of something suitable to run on.  When training for the 100% trail Lake 2 Ocean 100K that is full of mud, water, and sand, I found a park close to my house that had an 8 mile trail loop with enough sand to make things interesting.  It was not exactly like the course but it got me ready.  I did several hard workouts on the trail and made a point to get there at least once a week.

It paid off because I ended up placing 5th and getting the best time I've had at the race!

The same thing applies if you're training for road.  Trails are fun, but they don't help you get fast for road races. After the trail 100K, I switched focus to the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon and the Daytona 100 the back half of the year.  Most of my runs were on road and at a faster pace than they would be for trail race.  There are different physical challenges on the roads.  While a road 100 mile might be easier theoretically than a trail marathon, the surface is much harder and there's a lot more pounding so you have different things to worry about more along the lines of repetitive use injuries.  The amount of cushion in my shoes made a huge difference in the back half of the Daytona 100.

I got PRs in both road races as well, 3:29 at the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon and 20:54 at Daytona100.

I would still run trails occasionally but on an easy or recovery day just to get away from the pounding but most of my runs and hard workouts were on the same surface that I would be racing.  

Let me know what you are racing and and where, it's a small community it would be great to see you all out at some of the races!

2017 JW Corbett 50K

I've run the JW Corbett 50 aka "The Easiest 50 in Florida" twice before.  The first time I got a big fat DNF in the 50 miler, the second time got a personal worst in the 50K.  After deciding not to do any ultras in 2017 then receiving an invite to run the Lake 2 Ocean 100K in June, Corbett seemed like the right thing to do as the longest run leading up to L2O.  Rewinding a bit, in 2016 I ended up spraining my ankle pretty bad at the skatepark with my kids, which ended all racing after October.  After taking a 4 month running break, it was time to get back and see how things would work.  In March, I started with a new coach and got back into running some.  While injured, I had been doing some strength training at my Crossfit gym, but bypassed the normal classes for non-impact workouts, and when feeling stronger, began to add some deadlifting, rope climbing and other things in because I had also signed up for and did a really short Spartan Race in March.



The race plan was to go out easy for a while, and then find a comfortable but runnable pace, and see how long I could hang on there.  At the start, I went out at the very back of the pack and did a run walk keeping the heart rate very low for the first 5 miles to the un-manned aid station.  After that it popped in my head that this is a race and I should treat it like one, and actually see what type of shape I was in for L2O, so started running.  The comfortable but not dying pace turned out to be around 9:40, and I ended up maintaining that through the turnarount point.  I started to catch some people and the race leader passed me on the way back about 3 miles before the halfway point and was flying.


At the halfway point I caught up with one of my buddies who we had a friendly pre-race banter back and forth and he flew out of the aid station when he saw me pulling in.  After quickly refilling my bottles, I took off heading back to the start.  It began to get hot and I slowed down a bit but still caught my buddy.  He told me he was out of gas, and congratulated me on having a good race so I kept on going.  A few miles up I caught up with another runner who usually kills me at about every race.  It's not that she kills me, it's that I go out faster, and later on blow up, and she passes me on the trail half passed out.  We ran together for a bit, and I tried to pick it up a little more and eventually got past her.  The same thing happened with a few other runners.  I'd catch them, and settle in to a 9:30-9:40 and they'd fall back eventually.

About mile 26 I caught up with these 2 guys and was running with them for a bit, and they told me to go ahead, so I passed, and one of them just wouldn't leave and it seemed impossible to drop him.  It was getting hotter, and I decided I was going to keep it under 9:40 for that mile, and was running and when my watch split went off, I took a short walk break to look back and he had dropped back by about 30 yards and was walking.  At this point I figured if he saw me walking he'd just take off and drop me so I ran until I was well out of site, took about 10 steps to catch my breath and ran some more.  Finally felt like I caught a break for a second!


At mile 29 I caught up with the guy who was leading the race when he came past me prior to the halfway point.  I saw him up ahead walking, and I didn't realize that he blew up and was in really bad shape.  I took a second to pull myself together and then passed him again at a pretty good pace worried that he would just take off and drop me if he sensed any weakness.  It was at this point in the race that I realized there was only one male in front of me.  As is common in Florida ultras, there were 3 fast females who got 1st-3rd place.  I really didn't care about catching the girls but thought if the previous race leader blew up, maybe the other guy was having a rough time as well, so I tried to push it hard going in, but began getting some cramping in my right calf from kicking a small stump, so slowed down a bit and just tried to get in a reasonable time without anyone passing.

I finally ended up crossing in a 50K PR for me on a course that is a non-PR type course and had one of the better races that I've had to date.