It has to be one of the most iconic ultramarathon distances: 100 miles. Some of the most famous ultras in the world are 100-milers (such as the UTMB® and Western States Endurance Run), so it’s easy to see why the distance captures the imagination of so many runners.
Racing 100 miles is no small undertaking, so as with any other running goal, it’s crucial to have a plan. That’s not just a great training plan (more on that in a minute), but also a plan for hydration, fuelling, sleep, strength work and general self-care.
We’ve asked international athlete and UKA-certified coach Sarah McCormack to write a training plan to help you prepare for your 100-miler. The plan is aimed at experienced athletes, who have previously run an ultra – although it doesn’t matter whether you’ve run a 100-mile race before.
We hope you enjoy it and that you race strongly – happy running!
BEFORE YOU START
It’s important to be honest with yourself before embarking on a training plan. Sudden jumps in weekly mileage, ascent and speedwork are a recipe for injury or burnout.
Our 100-mile ultramarathon plan is for experienced runners. You will need to already be running a high mileage in training and have completed a couple of ultras previously. You don’t have to have completed a 100-miler before though, so this plan can be used for first timers and battle-scarred veterans alike.
SARAH MCCORMACK’S 100 MILE ULTRAMARATHON TRAINING PROGRAM
It's important you read the training guidelines in conjunction with this program, as it explains the sessions in more depth. It’s also worth reading the section on working out your effort levels too, particularly where the plan talks about running sessions at different race paces.
| Week | Mon | Tues | Weds | Thurs | Fri | Sat | Sun |
1 | Rest | Surges: 6 x 30s quick but relaxed/2 min easy jog in between | Rest or 3 miles easy | Hill reps: 5 x 2 minutes hard uphill with easy jog recovery back to your starting point. Aim for fastest sustainable pace & consistent pacing between reps | Rest | 5 miles - easy | 14 mile long run with 20% of the climb you will do in your race |
| 2 | Rest | 4 miles - easy | Rest or 3 miles easy | Hill reps: 5 x 2.5 minutes hard uphill with easy jog recovery back to your starting point. Aim for fastest sustainable pace & consistent pacing between reps | Rest | 5 miles - easy | *16 mile long run with 20% of the climb you will do in your race |
| 3 | Rest | 15 mins steady tempo @ 3h race pace (65-70% effort) | Rest or 3 miles easy | Hill reps: 5 x 3 minutes hard uphill with easy jog recovery back to your starting point. Aim for fastest sustainable pace & consistent pacing between reps | Rest | 4 miles - easy | 10 mile long run with 10% of the climb you will do in your race |
| 4 | Rest | Surges: 6 x 30s quick but relaxed/2 min easy jog in between | Rest or 3 miles easy | Hill reps: 4 x 2 minutes hard uphill with easy jog recovery back to your starting point. Aim for fastest sustainable pace & consistent pacing between reps | Rest | 5 miles - easy | 4-5h hilly hike |
| 5 | Rest | 20 mins steady trail tempo @ 3h race pace (65-70% effort) | Rest or 3 miles easy | 20 min hill fartlek - all uphills a hard effort (1h race pace or 90% effort) and all flats & descents easy recovery pace | Rest | 3 miles - easy | *18 mile long run with 20% of the climb you will do in your race |
| 6 | Rest | 4 miles - easy | Rest or 3 miles easy | Trail fartlek: 3 x 8 min tempo @ 2h race pace (80% effort) with 2 minutes easy running in between | Rest | 6 miles - easy | 6-7h hilly hike |
| 7 | Rest | 25 mins steady trail tempo @ 3h race pace (65-70% effort) | Rest or 3 miles easy | 25 min hill fartlek - all uphills a hard effort (1h race pace or 90% effort) and all flats & descents easy recovery pace | Rest | 4 miles - easy | *20 mile long run with 20% of the climb you will do in your race |
| 8 | Rest | 4 miles - easy | Rest or 3 miles easy | Trail fartlek: 3 x 10 min tempo@ 2h race pace (80% effort) with 2 minutes easy running in between | Rest | 7 miles - easy | *6-7h hilly hike |
| 9 | Rest | Hills: 1-2-3-3-2-1 min hard uphill/easy run back down to your starting point after each rep | Rest or 3 miles easy | Trail progression: 15 min @ 3h race pace (65% effort) followed by 10 min @ 2h race pace (80% effort) | Rest | 5 miles - easy | 10 mile long run with 15% of the climb you will do in your race |
| 10 | Rest | 5 miles - easy | Rest or 3 miles easy | 2 x 15 min steady tempo @ 3h race pace (65-70% effort) with 3 min easy run in between | Rest | 6 miles - easy | *24 mile long run with 25% of the climb you will do in your race |
| 11 | Rest | 4 miles - easy | Rest or 3 miles easy | Surges: 6 x 30s quick but relaxed/2 min easy jog in between | Rest | Trail fartlek: 2 x 10 min tempo@ 2h race pace (80% effort) with 2 minutes easy running in between | *8-9h hilly hike |
| 12 | Rest | 5 miles - easy | Rest or 3 miles easy | Trail progression: 15 min @ 3h race pace (65% effort), followed by 10 min @ 2h race pace (80% effort), followed by 5 min @ 1h race pace (90% effort) | Rest | Hill reps: 4 x 2 minutes hard uphill with easy jog recovery back to your starting point. Aim for fastest sustainable pace & consistent pacing between reps | 12 mile long run with 10% of the climb you will do in your race |
| 13 | Rest | Surges: 6 x 30s quick but relaxed/2 min easy jog in between | Rest or 3 miles easy | 2 x 20 min steady tempo @ 3h race pace (65-70% effort) with 3 min easy run in between | Rest | 3 miles - easy | *28 mile long run with 30% of the climb you will do in your race |
| 14 | Rest | 3 miles - easy | Rest or 3 miles easy | 6 miles - easy | Rest | 3 x 3 min hard uphill/easy run back to starting point, followed by 20 min tempo @ 3h race pace (65-70% effort) | 12 mile long run with 15% of the climb you will do in your race |
| 15 | Rest | 20 min hill fartlek - all uphills a hard effort (1h race pace or 90% effort) and all flats & descents easy recovery pace | Rest or 3 miles easy | 40 mins steady tempo @ 3h race pace (65-70% effort) | Rest | 4 miles - easy | *8-9h hilly hike |
| 16 | Rest | 4 miles - easy | Rest or 3 miles easy | *Trail progression: 20 min @ 3h race pace (65% effort) followed by 20 min @ 2h race pace (80% effort) | Rest | 6 miles - easy | *16 mile long run with 10% of the climb you will do in your race |
| 17 | Rest | 4 miles - easy | Rest or 3 miles easy | Surges: 6 x 30s quick but relaxed/2 min | Rest | 4 miles - easy | 7 mile long run with 5% of the climb you will do in your race |
| 18 | Rest | 4 miles - easy | Rest or 3 miles easy | 3 miles - easy | Rest | 2 miles - easy |
Race |
*Runs marked in bold are good opportunities to test your race day fuelling strategy.
ABOUT SARAH
Sarah McCormack is an athlete, running coach and INOV8 ambassador. Based in Cumbria, Sarah is an accomplished trail, cross country and mountain runner. Her victories include:
- Irish Cross-Country Champion (2014)
- 3x winner of the Snowdon International Mountain Race (2014, 2015 and 2019)
- Mountain Running World Cup Winner (2019).
Sarah uses her wide-ranging running experience to coach and develop other athletes, designing individual training plans to help them achieve their goals. Visit her website, Missing Link Coaching, for more information.
TRAINING PLAN GUIDELINES
For structured sessions, warm up for 10-15 minutes before (including 4 x 10s strides) and warm down for 10-15 minutes after. Structured sessions are tempo runs, fartleks, hill reps, progression runs, and runs with surges.
Fartleks
Aim for a hard 90% effort for your reps - but not flat out (90% effort is approximately your one-hour race pace). Your fartleks can be done on firm, rolling trail, or on grass in a park.
Surges and strides
These are not sprints! They are fast 10-30 second accelerations that are great in a warm-up for a session/race, or as a way of including a little bit of leg speed training at the end of your easy run. They should be nice and quick, but not flat-out sprints. Aim around 80-90 % of your top speed, so you get the benefits of spinning the legs quickly without any fatigue or muscle soreness.
Tempo runs
Most of these should be done at a steady 65-75% effort, which is approximately three-hour race pace.
Hill reps
You should run these reps at your fastest sustainable pace (but aim for consistent pacing).
If you only have a small hill to work with, it’s fine to improvise. You could:
- Run back down again when you reach the top, then go up again, until you accumulate the total amount of uphill running time.
- Start with a flat run into your hill. For instance, if the plan specifies a 4-min uphill rep, but you only have a 2-min hill, you’d run 2 mins hard on the flat then straight into 2 mins hard uphill.
- Use a treadmill with an incline function.
When running hills, you should aim to work on your technique too. Our blog “10 Essential Tips For Running Up And Down Hills” is packed with useful information to help you make short work of challenging climbs and technical descents.
Training terrain
Training on terrain that mimics the route you’ll be racing on can really help, particularly for your easy and long runs. However, don’t make big changes to the amount of weekly elevation that you’re accumulating.
Long runs
Ultramarathons can be quite hilly. The long runs in the training plan are designed to prepare you for this come race day. Each long run has a percentage of the race-day climb that you should aim to do. For example, if your race has 1,000 metres of ascent, and your long run says you need to run 30% of that climb, you should incorporate 300 metres of climb into your route.
Run your long runs at an easy pace, unless otherwise stated in the plan.
Hiking
Hiking is an important part of racing on steeper terrain. It’s fine to include hiking on steeper sections of trail, particularly within your long run when it feels more efficient to hike than to run uphill.
This plan also includes five long hikes, in place of the weekly long run. These hikes are a great way to condition your legs to being out on the trails for several hours, without the injury risk associated with doing a 6-7 hour run.
We highly recommend that you give these long hilly hikes a go, you’ll find them just as tiring and worthwhile as the longest runs. You can use undulating/hilly trail, or more challenging mountain routes if you’re used to them. It’s a good idea to bring a well-stocked pack and poles for these, as you will in your race.
WORKING OUT YOUR EFFORT LEVELS
Understanding your effort level is a key skill in being able to pace and execute a successful ultramarathon. Gauging your effort levels during your fartlek, tempo and progression runs will help you get a really good sense of pacing... even if it takes a little bit of trial and error!
1-hour race pace
- Feels like a controlled hard effort, but not working quite at your limit. The pace will feel difficult to sustain and you'll be looking forward to the rep being over!
- You should only be able to say a few words at a time.
- Maintaining this pace will feel like you are working at 90 % effort, closer to 95 % towards the end of the session.
2-hour race pace
- Feels like a moderately hard effort, but that you’re keeping something in reserve.
- You might be able to say 1-2 sentences at a time, but will have to pause between words frequently to breathe.
- Maintaining this pace will feel like you are working at 80 % effort, closer to 85 % by the end of the session.
3-hour race pace
- Feels like a fairly fun, cruising effort… at least for durations of 20 mins or less!
- You should feel like you’re keeping plenty in reserve and able to say multiple sentences without too much difficulty.
- After the first 15-20 mins of running at this pace, an element of fatigue will start to creep in. However, this should be a gradual process, and your main feeling should be one of moving economically and with only moderate effort.
- Finish these tempo runs with plenty left in the tank.
- Maintaining this pace will feel like you are working at 65-70 % effort, closer to 75 % by the end of the session.
Easy runs
- By contrast, easy runs should be very relaxed and within your comfort zone.
- You should be able to have a full conversation and not need to pause for breath in the middle of a sentence.
- If you’re running in hilly terrain, it may be necessary to incorporate some hiking on the steep sections, to ensure that your effort level doesn't shoot up.
- In general, easy runs should feel like 30-40 % effort.
FUELLING DURING SESSIONS & RACES
It’s important to practice fuelling during your more ultra-specific training runs. This will help you to work out a fuelling strategy for race day and train your gut to absorb nutrition while you’re moving. In general, 60g carbohydrate/hour is a good minimum intake rate to aim for, though fuelling requirements vary on an individual basis and may take a bit of trial and error.
In the training plan, the runs marked in bold font offer a good opportunity to test out your race-day fuelling strategy.
Where this run is only an hour long (including warm up and warm down), this might be as simple as bringing a couple of gels and a drink. For Sunday long runs, this may require bringing a number of snacks such as gels, chews, or carbohydrate mixed into your drink, in order to achieve at least 60g carb/hour for the full duration of your run.
It’s also a good idea to test out your pre-race breakfast before the long runs that include faster running. For Sunday long runs where full race-day fuelling is not suggested, it’s still a good idea to bring a drink and some snacks.
If you’re looking for some further inspiration, check out our blog “Top 10 Trail Running Superfoods”.
STRENGTH TRAINING
Training for a 100-mile ultramarathon is a serious time commitment. But alongside the running training, you need to incorporate strength work into your routine.
Strength training is so important for ultra-runners; it:
- Helps improve your running economy
- Decreases muscle fatigue
- Helps you maintain good form for longer
- Reduces the risk of injury
Create your own strength training routine using these articles written by record-breaking ultra-runner, Damian Hall:
MENTAL PREPARATION
Ultras are as much about the mental as the physical struggle. Check out this great article from Damian Hall on how to mentally prepare and deal with an ultramarathon.
To paraphrase Damian, the first thing is to really want to do the race you’ve entered. Know why you want to do the race and what you want to get from it. Having these answers defined and clear in your mind will be invaluable when things don’t go to plan, or you experience a rough patch during the race.
Spending some time in the weeks leading up to the race on mental preparation can also pay dividends. Breaking your race down, defining you’re A, B and C goals, etc. These things can help you problem solve on the fly during your race, and keep you calm during difficult periods.
So bookmark Damian’s article – it’s jam-packed with hard-won wisdom, and something you’ll want to return to throughout your training.
SOME GREAT 100 MILERS TO TRY
If you’re in need of inspiration for your next race, check out our top picks of 100-mile ultramarathons. Beware though, most race organisers will ask for minimum levels of experience in order for you to participate.
- Thames Path 100, London - Oxford
Normally run in May, the Thames Path 100 follows one continuous trail (the Thames Path) from London – Oxford. A perfect race for your first 100-miler, or if navigation isn’t your strong suit! - South Downs Way 100, Winchester
Taking in the full South Downs Way, the fully marked course takes in 3,800m of climb. Usually run in July, the stunning route is steeped in history and dripping with expansive views. - Lakeland 100, Lake
District
Run in July, the Lakeland 100 follows a circular route that incorporates 6,300m of ascent and takes in some of the most stunning parts of the Lake District. It’s a challenging course – 40-50% of starters don’t finish! - Vermont 100 Endurance Race,
Vermont, US
Also run in July, the Vermont 100 takes in over 5,000 metres of climb over an unrelenting, rolling course. Expect country roads, forest trails and epic mountain views. And it's also the only ultra in the world that has a concurrent horse race.