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If, when planning a B2B, you decide to run one hillier route, such as on mountain trails that will require intermittent hiking, and one entirely runnable effort, schedule the runnable session first. You will have no problem walking up steep climbs and rolling down hills on road-deadened legs, but you aren’t very likely to enjoy running for hours straight with an unchanging gait on already tired legs.

Back-to-back runs can also useful in advanced ultra training. An experienced ultrarunner may head out for massive B2B or even a back-to-back-to-back long weekend shortly before tapering into a big race. This final training push might be as much as 100 miles over a three-day period.

Bonk Runs

A number of elite ultrarunners use an advanced B2B technique known to some as the “bonk run.” On day 1 of this B2B, you complete a moderate-to-high-intensity run of at least 25 miles, but up to 35 miles. While hydration and electrolyte consumption remain important, you don’t consume any calories during or in the few hours following the run. The point of the first run is to deplete your muscle glycogen stores. The second run is a more modestly paced run in the 20-to-25-mile range. Again, you abstain from consuming any calories during this second run and don’t compensate by having a large, carbohydrate-rich meal beforehand. The more depleted you can keep your glycogen levels for this second run, the better. You are quite likely to feel lethargic, cranky, or downright miserable from late in the first run until you eat after the second run. That’s all part of the process.

The Need for Speed: Intervals, Fartleks, and Tempo Runs, Oh My!

Many runners who have followed a marathon-training program or who have trained to competitively run shorter-distance races are familiar with the concept of speed work. Speed work includes various training tools like fartleks, hill repeats, tempo runs, and intervals. Speed work has many purposes depending on how it’s structured. Benefits range from improved running efficiency and injury prevention to increased speed and enhanced fat metabolism.

Speed work is exhilarating. (Photo by PatitucciPhoto.com)

There are multiple schools of thought regarding the need for speed work during ultramarathon training. Dueling essays regarding the need for speed from Ian Torrence (pro) and Geoff Roes (con) explore both sides of the debate. This book takes the position that speed work is an unnecessary but welcome component. With that in mind, speed work is included in the training plans found in subsequent chapters with explanations of alternative, non-speed workouts. However, if you have never run speed work or have found yourself prone to injury when you have included speed work in your training regimen, ease into it with care. Ratchet back the intensity of workouts if you’re uncomfortable with moving at the prescribed speed. On the other hand, if you are comfortable with the speed, but haven’t recently run at similar speeds for close to the prescribed distance, run the set intensity while gradually building up the total volume of speed work in a given session. If you feel strongly that any speed work presents too great a risk of injury, then substitute a continuous run equal to the day’s prescribed mileage, with the bulk of the run at the fastest pace you are comfortable running.

There are a slew of speed work options, each with its very specific benefits. Choosing a precise mix of speed work at very specific paces is important for shorter races as well as elite ultramarathoners aiming for unfathomably quick road ultra times. For the rest of us, I feel that the devil isn’t in the details; rather, it’s more likely to be in worrying about the details. I would, instead, categorize speed work into two broad categories, interval and tempo work, with striders being a tool that falls outside the scope of speed work.

For purposes of this book, intervals incorporate a range of workouts that consist of 2 to 5 miles of high-intensity