In praise of the adventure day

From my most recent adventure day on the Esk Valley Walk

A common question about ultra training is ‘how long should my long runs be?’ This is especially common for people who have a background of marathon training; they’re used to the pattern of gradually building distance, often topping out at something in the 20 mile range (although for what it’s worth I don’t advocate this for everyone; that’s a post for another time!). They wonder, if my ultra is ten miles further, should my long runs also be proportionally longer?

We’re all different, and some runners adapt to repeated long runs better than others. But I tend to find that the maximum continuous long run people can absorb productively and sustainably (i.e. not need a week off running to recover from the effort) is about four hours, and for some people it’s less - much less if you’ve not yet built up to running those kinds of distances. There’s a recent study that found a higher incidence of overuse injuries in runners who had made big jumps in their long run duration - so it’s a good reason to be cautious.

Having a longest long run of four hours isn’t a problem in itself from a fitness perspective, perhaps surprisingly. Several of my runners race competitively up to 100 mile distances on a longest long run in the training block of four hours. (Note that you need to combine this with relatively high mileage through the week for best effect). But many of us want the mental confidence that comes with a longer training day - we want to know that we can do six, eight, even ten hours on our feet and in our heads. So how to achieve this when a traditional continuous training run of even six hours would be far too big a load?

My solution is the Adventure Day. For runners who have ultras coming up, especially if it’s their first ultra, I will programme between one and three of these days in the six to eight weeks before the race. Adventure days don’t have rules as such, but the guidelines are something like this:

• Time matters, not distance. Aim to be on your feet and moving for the planned duration, but don’t worry about how far you go, or how fast.

• Mix running with walking (about 50:50 is great, but don’t overthink it), and actively choose a route that will keep your pace easy, whether it’s because it’s muddy, hilly or needs you to navigate - go for something that matches the demands of your event if you can.

• Keep it easy whether running or walking - plan to walk up even the smallest hill, and go at a gentle pace for the rest of the time.

• Eat and drink! Part of the purpose of this day is to simulate race day fuelling, so try out what you’re thinking of doing on the day.

• Plan some treats - it could be a cafe stop or a special playlist, but you want this day to feel fun, relaxed and positive, albeit a challenge.

• Remember you’re a problem solver! Ultra events typically will throw up something unexpected along the way, and adventure days do this too. You don’t have to have anticipated every eventuality, but trust yourself and build confidence that you can resolve anything that arises in the moment.

looked forward to this sandwich for many miles!

I also think that adventure days are great times to try something new. When your goal is to have an adventure, rather than ‘run X miles’, you have the freedom to pick a new route (who cares if it’s muddy, soggy or you get lost a time or two?), have a linear adventure with a fun train ride, stop at your favourite cafe at the end or en route, or head out with a friend whose training pace doesn’t normally match up with yours.

and enjoyed seeing this bear on the way to a linear adventure

If you’re further along in your running journey and aiming for longer or multi-day races, multi-day adventure runs are a great addition to training; my favourite way is to fastpack somewhere lovely for the night so it feels like a holiday as well as training.

The outcome is a day (or two, or three) when you’ve spent a long time on feet, and built confidence in your ability to handle bigger miles in your legs and your brain, but you haven’t also created the fatigue and physical impact that the equivalent continuous run would do. Hopefully you’ve also generated a bit of freshness - by mixing up your routine and doing something different, it breaks any boredom or staleness that your usual long run may have developed, and you come home feeling mentally refreshed, reset, and positive.

Enjoy! I’d love to hear if you try out an adventure day, and what you make of it.