What I've Learned From 30 Ultras: The Honest Training Guide Nobody Gives You

I've finished more than 30 ultramarathons. I've also bonked, cramped, DNF'd, and sat on the side of a trail at 2am wondering what I was doing with my life. The lessons below didn't come from a textbook. They came from getting things wrong enough times that I eventually got them right.

If you're training for your first ultra, or your fifth, this is what I'd tell you over a coffee.

Train consistently, not heroically

The biggest mistake I see from new ultra runners is jumping straight into big volume. They run 60km one week, feel great, and push to 80km the next. Then something tweaks and they're off for three weeks.

There's a rule that sounds boring but actually works: never increase your weekly mileage by more than 10% from one week to the next. Your cardiovascular system adapts quickly. Your tendons and ligaments don't. Running feels easy long before your body is ready for more load.

Five 8km runs beats one 40km hero run and four rest days, every time. Your body adapts to what it consistently sees.

I run on an 80/20 intensity split. Eighty percent easy, fully conversational. The other 20% quality work. Most runners train at around 70% intensity: too hard to recover properly from, not hard enough to get a real stimulus. It's the worst of both worlds.

Your long run is where the race is built

The long run is the cornerstone of ultra training. I've told athletes they could skip almost every other session in a block and still finish, as long as they did their long runs consistently.

Keep the pace easy. The point isn't speed. It's time on feet. For races over 21km, your longest training run should max out at about 70% of race distance.

Back-to-back long runs transformed my preparation. Saturday long, Sunday medium. Running on tired legs teaches your body to be efficient when fatigued. That's the exact skill the second half of any ultra demands.

Use your long runs as race simulations. Test your nutrition. Test your gear. Everything going on your body on race day needs to have been worn for hours in training first.

Hydration: water isn't enough

Plain water is not a hydration strategy for ultra running.

Sodium, potassium, and magnesium all deplete through sweat. For any run over 90 minutes, electrolyte replacement is not optional. You're not sweating water. You're sweating minerals, and if you don't replace them, performance drops, cramping follows, and recovery suffers.

Hydration starts the night before, not at the aid station. If you begin your run already slightly dehydrated, you're starting behind.

Morning runners especially: you lose fluid overnight through breathing and passive sweating. Before any long effort, I drink water with electrolytes as soon as I wake up. [CIRCLE HEALTH PRODUCT LINK] mixed into a glass of water is my standard pre-run routine. It takes two minutes and the difference mid-run is noticeable.

On runs over 90 minutes, I'm adding electrolytes to everything I'm drinking. [CIRCLE HEALTH PRODUCT LINK] goes into my soft flasks. Not every runner sweats the same. Pay attention to salt stains on your kit after a run. White marks mean you're a salty sweater and you need to be more aggressive about replacement.

One of the highest-impact recovery habits I've found: rehydrate with electrolytes within 30 minutes of finishing a long or hot run. Your body cannot begin muscle repair while it's still in a hydration deficit. Salt is the key ingredient. Plain water passes through faster without sodium to hold it. [CIRCLE HEALTH PRODUCT LINK] mixed into a recovery drink right after I finish is non-negotiable after any run over two hours. The days I get this right, I feel noticeably better the next morning.

Nutrition: more ultras are lost in the stomach than in the legs

You might get away with brute-forcing a 50km. Once you're over 12 to 15 hours, nutrition is no longer optional.

Start fueling before you feel hungry. For any run over an hour, you need carbohydrates coming in. Target 30 to 60 grams per hour for runs over 90 minutes, up to 90 grams for ultras.

Rotate what you eat. After hour 8, sweet foods can become nauseating. Have a plan B and a plan C before you need them.

And this: if you feel flat, negative, like you want to stop, eat something first. What feels like a mental low is very often a blood glucose problem. Fast-releasing carbs can shift your state within minutes. Before you draw any conclusions about your race, eat something. Reassess 15 minutes later.

Gear: get the shoes right, almost nothing else matters

The ultrarunning gear industry will happily take all your money. Most of it doesn't matter nearly as much as the marketing suggests.

Except shoes. Get them wrong and you'll manage blisters, knee pain, and ankle issues from kilometre one. Select shoes based on your biomechanics and race terrain. Lock them in at least eight weeks out and don't deviate.

For anything touching your body for hours, spend properly: shoes, socks, vest, shorts. A cheap pair of socks that causes a blister at hour 6 of a 100km race can end your day. Fancy tops and hats don't really matter. But if a piece of kit makes you excited to run on a Tuesday morning when you don't feel like it, buy it. Consistency is everything.

Recovery is the other half of the work

Sleep is the only performance supplement that actually works. Eight or more hours a night during a training block is not optional. Human growth hormone is released during deep sleep. Tissue repairs. The nervous system recalibrates. No ice bath or compression boot comes close.

Your body also doesn't distinguish between training stress and life stress. A brutal week at work landing in your peak training week is one compounded load, not two separate ones. Check your life calendar before you start a build. If the next few months look heavy, adjust the training accordingly.

Deload weeks matter. Three weeks of progressive load, then one week at about 30% less volume. This is when adaptation actually sets in. Skipping deload weeks because you feel good is one of the most common and costly mistakes in ultra training.

The race: it's mostly a mental game

The runners who finish well aren't the fittest people on the start line. They're the ones who manage themselves best when things get hard.

Hold back in the first two hours. The adrenaline is intoxicating. Let people go. You'll see most of them again later, walking.

At around 60 to 75 percent of any ultra, you will hit a deep low. It's neurological. Your brain applies its strongest brake right at this point. It passes. The runners who know it's coming move through it. Break it down to the next marker. The next aid station. The next 3km. String those together and you finish.

The full guide is free

Everything above is a condensed version of the 0 to Ultra Guide at runantrun.com/guides/zero-to-ultra. It covers all eleven areas of ultra preparation in full: training fundamentals, long runs, strength and injury prevention, nutrition, hydration, gear, taper, recovery, life stress, race day, and post-race recovery. It's free and it's the guide I wish I had when I started.