In order to improve your ultra-running without risking your health, the first step on this pathway is to increase your ability to tolerate physical stress.

This happens by exposing yourself to training over a long period of time, in a controlled way. That means training, not just in the short term, but over years and decades.

Training Age

The concept of training age allows you to decide how long you should take before tackling longer distances and gives you a blueprint to plan your journey through ultra running.

This is a subjective combination of aerobic fitness and recent ability to run with no negative outcome.

Those most at risk of injury are those with a high aerobic training age as their cardiovascular system will be able to tolerate almost any length of training session putting their physical structure at risk of damage.

Fitness and Durability are Different

if you are a seasoned rower, you will have the ability to tolerate a large training load. Your aerobic capacity and “fitness” will be very high.

your bones, joints and connective tissue are less accustomed to the impact that comes with the hundreds of thousands of steps that are required in an ultra without breaking down. 

This same concept applies for runners who, due to injury, have not been able to run, but have been able to maintain aerobic fitness via other methods (eg. cycling).

The return to running needs to be slow and controlled to allow the connective tissue and bone to “catch up” and adapt to the impact stress that goes with running many miles on potentially technical terrain.

Preventing injury

Any return from injury should always be slow and controlled and ideally under the watchful eye of a trained professional such as a physiotherapist.

Most ultra runners don’t need encouragement to do more training, they need guard rails to slow them down and manage their health and injury risk in the longer term.

You need the ability to move well on technical terrain, to manage steep ascents and descents, to navigate, to fuel and be self sufficient for sometimes long periods of time. You need the mental resilience to manage the discomfort, the physical strength to carry a pack with mandatory kit, the confidence to run at night and to use a head torch in unfamiliar places.

Anna Troup

This disciplined approach is a pathway into building a long-term future in ultra-running, not just finishing a race.