Surviving Ultra

Because DFL is still an accomplishment

Author: Christopher Frenz

  • Running for Time vs Distance

    At this point I’m about half way through the Tactical Barbell Base Building phase and one of the things about the program that I have never rigorously tried in a training phase before was implementing the concept of running for a set amount of time vs a set amount of distance. I always went out for runs with the idea of completing a certain route or a certain number of laps and not a time goal.  While I know phases that involve distance are essential at some point, I really like the concept of running for time as part of a phase geared around building an aerobic base.  Building an aerobic base is largely centered around performing runs (or other cardio) for a minimum of 30 minutes in zone 2 (although I set longer time goals).

    At least for me, having a time goal seems to make it psychologically easier to stick to zone 2 even if it means slowing down on or walking up a particularly steep hill.  The goal is to maximize time in zone 2 and this takes away the inherent pressure to try to perform better than I did at a previous attempt of the same distance which can drive heart rate into higher zones.

    The best part is the adage run slow to run fast really does work.  While I still have a lot of room for improvement, I am seeing improvements in my per mile time after the first month of this block and I am looking forward to seeing more improvements over the 2nd month and in future training blocks. I think in the past I often ran too fast, and spent too much time in higher heart rate zones to see this benefit.

  • Burpee Ladders

    While trail running tends to be a largely aerobic activity and burpees can rapidly turn into an anaerobic one, being introduced to ultrarunning through Spartan races, you can’t help but form a love/hate relationship with the burpee.  Burpees feature prominently not only in Spartan inspired workouts, but also as penalties for failing an obstacle (although penalty loops have become more common in recent years).  Burpees have long been a staple of my training and burpee ladders in particular are a go to when looking for an intense HIIT workout. Burpees are something I find:

    1. Help build explosive power – The quick transitions between positions and the full body muscle engagement makes burpees a great way to train explosivity, which as a Spartan racer can help you power your way over an obstacle.  As a trail runner they can help you power your way up a particularly steep section of the trail.
    2. Mental Toughness – Burpees rapidly get challenging. Just like the ultra saying “run the first half with your legs, the second half with your mind”, completing a burpee ladder can often turn into a mental game.  They are a great way to prove to yourself that you can endure.
    3. Can be mixed with hill sprints  – Mixing alternating rounds of burpees and hill sprints forms a killer workout.  For example, do a set of burpees and then sprint up a hill, walk down, and repeat. 
    4. Can be done indoors with limited space – We all have days when we can’t go outside or get to a gym.  Burpees require no equipment and very limited space allowing for an intense workout almost anywhere.

    For some interesting ideas on burpee ladders and burpee variations I found the Jailhouse Strong book Josh Bryant and Adam benShea worthwhile.  I liked the different burpee ladder options that it offered such as the Baker’s Dozen and the Prisoner Burpee Challenge, but what I really liked is that it did not just provide the workout but target times for different levels of fitness.  While progress can always be assessed by I ran faster or I lifted more, sometimes it’s nice to see how your time stacks up against a standard as a goal of beating or exceeding a certain standard can be motivational.

  • Rucking Cross Training

    When I laid out the Base Building Phase that I am currently running, I mentioned that one of my zone 2 cardio activities was going to be a hilly ruck with a 40 pound vest.  Rucking for ultramarathon prep seems to be a topic that elicits very mixed reviews when you search for opinions on it with some saying it has helped them and others saying the time would be better off spent running.  I think it is a bit more nuanced than “it’s great, everyone should do it” or “it’s a waste of time, just run”.  Here is my rationale for using rucking as a cross training activity and why I think it benefits me.

    Elevation Gain Differences – While I have access to some decent sized hills, sometimes the races I like to run are often in locations that have steeper elevation profiles than I can run on a day to day basis.  I find rucking up the hills I have access to a great way to build the “mountain legs” required to get myself up those steeper race day climbs.  To me it’s the same principle as using an ultra-training program where they have you perform a prolonged period of dumbbell step ups to strengthen and build endurance in your legs, only less monotonous. While I do think there are advantages to dumbbell step ups and do incorporate them in some training blocks, rucking, for me, is a way to gain a similar benefit while getting to explore someplace interesting.

    Not a World Class Runner – One of the common arguments against rucking is xyz champion doesn’t do it.  I think being realistic about where you stand is important though.  A championship runner maybe can run the entirety or at least the majority of their race, but that is not the case for me.  If I’m realistic with myself, I have to admit that there are going to be significant parts of a race where I will probably need to switch from running to power hiking. These parts are significant enough that there is benefit to training the power hiking component as a way of improving my completion time. While it’s hard to say for certain if it has made me a faster runner, it has definitely helped to improve my hiking speed which is a win for my current ability level.

    Lower Impact – For me personally, I find it lower impact than running with the added benefit that it uses many of the same muscles as running but in slightly different way.  The slight difference seems to allow me to add in rucking as a cross training session each week without feeling like I am over training.  I don’t run with the added weight as that much too high impact, but stick to a power hike.

    Functional Core Strength – Rucking is also a great compliment to other core strengthening exercises and helps you build strength and muscle endurance in your core which helps with maintaining good form in the later stages of race. 

    Perhaps if I had everyday access to steep terrain and the time to build up to such a high weekly mileage that running the majority of an ultra was not a question, I would reconsider my approach.  However, as a frequent power hiker without daily access to race-like elevation profiles, rucking is working well for me as a cross training option.

  • Trap Bar Deadlifts for Ultrarunners?

    Deadlifts have been a part of my strength training routine for quite some time now, but for the longest time I performed them with a barbell and never gave any thought to trying a trap bar.  Prior to starting my current round of base-building I did a 3-month strength focused block where I gave a trap bar a try for the first time.  The idea to give it a try was largely inspired by a lot of the research compiled in this article on the trap bar authored for Stronger by Science:

    Trap Bar Deadlifts are Underrated

    While this is just my personal experience and therefore anecdotal, my experience was a positive one and I can see myself using the trap bar again in future training blocks.  For the duration of the block I used the trap bar in the low handle position to try to maximize the hinge effect.  I found that:

    1. Less fatigue: Deadlifting with the trap bar was less fatiguing for me.  Working out the day after a heavy deadlift session was always a bit of a challenge as I always felt a bit more fatigued than I would after any other type of strength session, which often impacted my desire to run the next day. When I switched to the trap bar, I felt I still solidly worked out my posterior chain but I did not feel the same level of post workout fatigue which allowed me to push harder on the next day’s work out.
    2. More forgiving of form: While properly positioning the spine and bracing your core is essential before any lift, the trap bar is a bit more forgiving if everything is not perfect.  This made me a little more comfortable challenging myself to get in the extra rep or two as even if my form degraded a bit because of tiredness, the same likelihood of injury was not there. I was a bit more comfortable pushing myself closer to form failure which in turn helped make for a better workout. 
    3. More quad activation: Given how quad destroying running downhill segments can be, I found this to be an added benefit and not a downside.  It turned the deadlift into a bit of an “accessory” exercise for the quadriceps which I feel has had a positive impact on running hills. 

    Given my experiences I plan to use the trap bar deadlift as my primary deadlift variation going forward, particularly for the months of the year where I will be more running focused as the lower level of fatigue is a major advantage. I will likely not abandon the straight bar deadlift entirely though.  I can see myself occasionally going back to it in strength focused blocks or if I hit a plateau with the trap bar to hit the muscles in a slightly different way. 

  • Planning the Next Adventure

    As an avid hiker and trail runner I am always on the lookout for interesting places to explore and there are a couple of ways I routinely seek out my next adventure. When seeking to explore a new area getting a trusted opinion of someone who has hiked the area before is usually the best bet but not always feasible.  When there is no one to ask, however, I have become a fan of using some apps/online research tools to identify trails that would interest me. The approach that I tend to use is as follows:

    1. AllTrails – This app has been around for a relatively long time and was one of the first hiking apps I can remember using, but it is an app that I find myself using less often as time goes on.  I think it is still a great resource to identify interesting areas to hike and run as you can view pictures of a trail and frequently read reviews of a given trail.  The downside to me is that you are only readily presented with a pre-canned list of routes with no easy way to create a custom route from point A to point B if it does not already exist. It’s great for ideas of where to go, but necessarily the best for planning how to see everything you want when you get there.
    2. Hiking Project – Hiking Project is an app that I find myself using more and more often for the role that AllTrails used to fill – finding an interesting area to explore.  I really like how they overlay pictures of different scenic views onto the map so you can figure out that you want to see these 3 sites off the blue trail and these 2 off of the red trail along with an idea of where they are on each trail.  It gives you a bit more granular insight into how you can make the most of your adventure.
    3. Komoot – this has become my go to app for route planning.  Once I identify an exciting area to explore using AllTrails or Hiking Project I will turn to Komoot to plan a route through the area.  This way I can easily see that in order to hit every site I want to see on my journey I need to start on the red trail and then switch to the blue and then finally take the yellow trail back to the start. I can layout a route that works for me and not just follow a pre-canned route created by someone else. I also really like the elevation profiles that they provide as part of the route planning. If I am training for a particular event I can try to find routes that will have similar elevation profiles to race day.
    4. Paper maps and compass – Not an app by any means but something I always like to keep handy.  GPS navigation is great and highly convenient, but things can occasionally go wrong – batteries die, signals can be poor, devices break, etc.  When this happens, you need to ensure that you have a way to navigate out if needed. While plasticized or laminated maps are best for the waterproofing, even without having the ability to purchase those it’s trivial to print off a map from one of the above apps to have a hard copy that you can store in some place where it will stay dry.  It adds negligible weight to your pack but is invaluable when the need arises. 

  • Yin Yoga for Recovery

    I’ve incorporated yoga workouts into my training for a while now, but recently have become a real fan of Yin yoga on my rest days as it has a focus on holding poses for an extended period of time to target the fascia and other connective tissues.  It’s a passive form of yoga and one that I have found to be highly restorative as releasing tension in the fascia helps to improve blood flow to the muscles which reduces soreness and promotes muscle recovery.

    Yin yoga is a form of yoga that I came across when researching ways to improve the flexibility of my hamstrings and hip flexor muscles like the psoas as a way of improving my running efficiency.  It was during this same research that I came across the stretch that I now love to hate – the couch stretch. 

    I haven’t been doing yin yoga for long, but so far it seems to be helping to overcome some flexibility plateaus I encountered with the more active forms of yoga I’ve tried in the past and I do feel it has improved my recovery. 

    I’m not a fan, however, of the deep stretches of yin yoga prior to any workouts and prefer a more dynamic set of mobility drills as a warmup on workout days.  It’s great on rest days though.

  • Base Building SE Initial Thoughts

    I am enjoying the SE cluster I chose for the Tactical Barbell Base Building phase which consists of:

    Dips

    Inverted Rows

    Goblet Squats

    KB Swings

    My logic behind each of these choices was that that I wanted each element of the cluster to cover a different movement pattern (push, pull, squat, and hinge) and that I wanted movements that would really challenge me to complete some of the higher rep schemes later in the SE phase while still giving myself at least a small chance to complete them unbroken (e.g. it won’t be easy but it may be feasible for me to complete 50 unbroken inverted rows, whereas 50 unbroken pullups is not within the realm of possibility for me right now).  I wanted it to be hard, but I think the unbroken set is important for maximizing the SE effect.  I also wanted to pick movements that would functionally translate to running an ultra-length OCR (e.g. dips to help push yourself over walls).

    I ran the sets as a circuit for the first time and think it is a circuit that will work well with my goals.  I performed the circuit in the order that I had it written out, but am thinking of making one minor change to the circuit to potentially squeeze out some more aerobic benefit.  I was thinking of changing the order of the exercises a bit to make it resemble a Peripheral Heart Action Training (PHAT) circuit (https://blog.nasm.org/certified-personal-trainer/peripheral-heart-action-training).  I first became introduced to the concept of PHAT circuits when I ran the AthleanX Built for Hollywood (https://athleanx.com/built-for-hollywood) program last winter to keep my conditioning up during the winter months in preparation for a 50K Spartan Trail Ultra and found they worked well for me.  They work by alternating between upper and lower body exercises to make the cardiovascular system have to work a bit harder to get blood to the areas of the body where it is needed and have been shown to result in aerobic capacity improvements.  Given the aerobic capacity goals of this phase I think for future sessions I’m going to instead runs this as:

    Dips

    Goblet Squats

    Inverted Rows

    KB Swings

    And see if I can eek out some additional cardiovascular benefits.

  • Base Building

    I came across the Tactical Barbell books about a year ago and enjoyed reading them but never actually ran one of the programs, although I did loosely try to incorporate some the approaches from the conditioning book.  Given I want to run a program that will still allow me to make strength gains but has a structured running component they seem like an ideal fit for my goals.  In particular I am interested in running the Green Protocol book phases this year, but want to try a smaller block of training first to see how it works for me before I embark upon a 9-month training journey. The Base Building phase described in Tactical Barbell II seems like an ideal way to give the system a try in a manner that is consistent with my goals.  Base building is an 8 week program template designed to build an aerobic and endurance base that can serve as the foundation for later training phases.  It starts with 5 weeks of strength endurance (SE) work alongside zone 2cardio, followed by 3 weeks of max strength (MS) sessions and a mix of HIIT and zone 2 cardio.  Base Building requires that you select exercise clusters to fill out the template. 

    For the SE portion of the training I have decided to use the following 4 exercises:

    • Dips
    • Inverted Rows
    • Goblet Squats
    • KB Swings

    and will run those exercises alongside zone 2 runs and rucks, where at least one zone 2 session each week will be a ruck with a 40-pound vest.

    For the MS sessions I’m going to use the cluster of:

    • Bench Press
    • Weighted Pullups
    • Back Squats
    • 50 KB swings as a finisher

    For the Zone 2 cardio I intend to use 60 minutes as the minimum session length for the “short run” days and 2 hours as the “long run” session minimum.  Now that the winter weather forecast looks manageable to regularly run outside again – here we go!

  • Deskbound

    This book is not directly related to Ultra running and one that I read more out of curiosity, but was a book that I found well worth the time and one that has actually benefited my training. The premise of the book is that extensive sitting causes all kinds of damage to the body and that sitting for hours on end is not healthy.  No real surprises there.  Where the value to the book comes in is with all the little prescriptions as to what to do to correct the damage caused by sitting as well as coverage of basics like how to stand properly and how to sit properly if you need to.  After many decades of life, which included a lot of standing, you would think I would be an expert by now.  Yet, I opted to give the bracing sequence in the book a try.  The bracing sequence is a series of steps to go through to ensure you are standing with proper spinal alignment and it turned out that there was one subtle way in which my posture was off.  If left unchecked, I had to tendency to stand with my right foot pointing a bit outwards which the book indicates can lead to stability issues and collapsed arches over time.  I started diligently trying to remember the bracing sequence and correcting this every time I was in a standing position.  My calf muscle was slightly sore for a couple of days and it took a few weeks for the corrected alignment to stick, but I’m glad I took the time to do so.  I used to get some minor soreness in my right knee after long runs, but the alignment correction seems to have helped correct that.  I’ve always been a fan of including corrective exercises into my routines, but the improvement I found here led to me making analyzing my running form a goal for this year.

  • Torched

    After finishing Train Like Bane as a wrap up to 3 strength focused months, it’s time to start focusing on turning the new-found strength into an increased work capacity and to top up my aerobic engine.  While, I was intending to do this with a more run and ruck centric training block, a quick look at the weather forecast still shows a lot of snow storms in my future over the next couple of weeks. Given the winter weather, I therefore decided to give the 1-month AthleanX Torched bonus program a try.  It’s a collection of conditionings greatest hits with days ranging from Zone 2 workouts to more intense cardio like Tabata circuits and barbell complexes.  I’m particularly intrigued by the weekly workout dedicated to Peripheral Heart Action Training (PHAT) where a circuit of exercises keeps alternating between the upper and lower body to make the cardiovascular system work harder.  I’ve had some of my best past endurance gains while running a PHAT circuits in conjunction with running and am excited to see a program that includes them.  A few days in and I’m already enjoying the program.