Surviving Ultra

Because DFL is still an accomplishment

Tag: health

  • 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.