134 Days from Monster Ultra 200!

Morning 

8km easy

5x 200m striding (with a 200m jog back)

I have made up my mind to take part in the Monster Ultra 200! It is going to be my 2nd Ultra, double the distance of the first ultra I did last year! It will be a great challenge and I really really reallly wanna complete it!!!

This time round I will be adopting a different approach to train for this ultra.

First thing is to stick strictly to a progressive back to back long run regime on the weekends. The previous time round I had not stuck to that and got stuck at 20km-20km the most. And I tried to do as many of these as possible. Which is not as effective. I plan to go up to as long as 40-30 this time round.

Secondly is to only do key run sessions and cross training the rest of the time. I have a history of ITBS and hence it is best to only run when necessary. One speed session, back to back long runs and maybe one more medium length run mid week is all that I am going to do. The rest will be on elliptical to minimise overuse injury.

Thirdly, maintaining high intensity training. From the previous ultra experience, I realised that I had lost alot of power, strength and speed due to lack of high intensity workouts. For the past few months I had been focusing on that and I plan to keep these workout and slotting into my training week. This will keep my speed up as well as improve my strength and conditioning which will help to hold my running posture longer with lesser effort.

Fourth, don't go too fast for the longer runs! It is tempting to go faster. I did so when I was training for my first ultra. All those 20Ks. But I felt that I wasnt able to pace myself properly for the ultra and hence the pacing killed me as I thot that I might have gone out too fast for my first 50K! So YEAAA, learn the race pace by doing so in the back to back long runs!

Fifth, stretching and foam rolling sessions! To keep those muscles loose and flexible to decrease reinjury and overuse injury. Running long and slow will make your muscles tight and increase chances of injury.