I’ve mentioned before that my husband Mark runs ultra races, so here’s my attempt at explaining a bit more about how he trains and why he does it.
For starters, he started running ultras because he was sick of racing shorter distances on the road. He ran through college cc and track, and after running road races for years after college, he started to burn out. He grew tired of the shorter quicker races beating up his body and consuming all of his weekends.
The first ultra-marathon he ran was the Jeju 100k in South Korea. The race actually turned out being the Asian National Championships for the 100k. He got 2nd place in the open competition, and 4th place in the Asian Championships. He ran it in 8:10, which was at a a whopping pace of 7:53. Not bad for a first ultra!
This is the start of the 100k in Jeju, SK. Some people suggest running with water backpacks, but he only does if there’s no water available and he can’t place it along the course. 
Jeju was one large loop around an island, and was all on the road. This past fall he ran his first trail ultra, the Wild Duluth 50k. Being that it was all on trails, and major major hills at that, he said it was incredibly difficult. It took him several weeks to recover from it. By the end of the race he was close to delirious because he hadn’t eaten enough.
The road ultra though took much longer for him to recover from.
(This wasn’t taken from his trail ultra, but a shorter more obstacle like trail race he did last fall).
His training has always been intense. He says that he averages around 90-100 miles a week. This looks something like 3 weeks in a row of 90-100 miles, and then an easier week around 70 miles. He plans to go no higher than 110 miles at peak. About once every 3 weeks he’ll take a day off as well.
When he’s feeling fancy, he’ll pack a gu on his long runs, but for the most part he’ll pack a pb and honey sandwich into his race ready shorts.
Mark says that body glide is really important. He coats his whole body in it before runs because if he doesn’t, he’s bleeding from the armpits, legs, nipples, back, everywhere. It’s pretty gross and painful looking.
As far as what he eats, we pretty much eat the same meals everyday, but his portions are larger. Usually he’ll have a few servings of dinner and a pretty large lunch. He also eats a granola bar on the bus home from work as his pre-run snack. His best caloric estimate (though he claims he has no idea) per day is roughly 3500 calories. He also drinks probably 2 gallons of water a day. I’ve never met anyone who drinks as much water as he does.
As far as upcoming races, he’s got plans to do a 50k trail race in a few months, and hopefully a 50 mile trail race in the fall. There’s longer term plans of him (and maybe me?!) running the Comrades Ultra-marathon in South Africa.
Have you ever done an ultra? If so, which one? Have you ever thought about it? If you’ve run distances beyond the marathon distance, what are your best tips?
