I have my first ultra (Moab Red Hot 55K) coming up in a few weeks and I'm looking for some advice on my taper schedule.
This is what I've come up with so far
Monday
Tuesday
Wed.
Thurs
Fri
Sat
Sun
Jan-21-27
6 - Speed
swim
5 - Hill
5 Easy
6+ hour trail run
Rest
38ish total
1-27 to 2-3
5 - Speed
Swim
3 hour trail run
28-30 total
Feb 4- 10
4 - Speed
4- Hill
4 easy
1.5 hour trail
20 total
2-11 to 2-17
4 - Hill
2 easy
Race Day- 34 miles
I'm going to cut back on mileage, but the plan is to up the intensity for the duration of the taper. Most of the cutback is coming in duration of long runs. I've made my log public so you can see how I've built up.
I wanted to really focus on speed work for the duration of the taper. My concern is that it may not be a good idea to shift my focus so close to the race.
My base goal for the race is to run 80% of it, and swiftly hike the rest. Secondary goal is run the whole thing.
Am I asking for trouble? Any advice would be appreciated, related to the taper or not.
Thanks in advance
Trail and Ultra Running User Group
There are two things that I see:
Unless you do 6+ hour trail adventures regularly, the one you have planned coming up is not likely to help and may even cause a setback. 3-4 hours is plenty for a shorter ultra. Save the 6+ hour ass-kicking for race day.
Swimming, to first order, will not make you a better runner. It could help at the margins, such as weight loss or maintenance, or as part of injury rehab. Similarly, it is better to run 5 days a week as compared to 4. Thus, it is more beneficial for your running to do an easy 4-6 miles on one of those swim days.
Thanks for the feedback. My last few long runs have been in the 4-5 hour range. the six hour one I had planned was going to be a race simulation, but I can cut that back.
The swimming two days has simply been part of my workout routine for a while, and I didn't see any reason to change up the routine.
I have been looking to add another run workout each week though, in addition to the swim.
Thanks again!
Trail Monster
Have you been regularly incorporating speed work up to this point? If not I probably wouldn't add it now and I definitely wouldn't do it race week. I also would skip the hill workout only 3 days before the race. It is likely to leave you still slightly depleted for race day. Instead I would probably do 4 easy on Monday (or keep the speed work easier/shorter), 3 easy on Wednesday, and 2 easy on Friday. Nothing you do in the 5 days before your race will improve your performance but you can definitely screw it up.
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