Think of these as bigger days out on feet and rather than running everything, do as you would on race day and practice hiking, using poles, fuelling and enjoying the descents. The Brecon Beacons, Snowdonia, the Peak and Lake District or the wilds of bonnie Scotland all have great mountains to enjoy. If you can, government guidance allowing, get to some of the beautiful bigger hills in the UK – they can be great training. Pick a gradient and terrain that you are comfortable running down at effort as if you have to slow down because it’s too steep or too technical then you’re losing a bit of the purpose of the session. This can be quite a hard session the first couple of times, so allow decent recovery between and don’t progress too quickly. Not the same pace, as you’ll be slower going up, but maintain the same effort for the entire 8-10 minutes, then rest for 2-3 minutes and go again. Then it’s a controlled effort, for example, 3 x 8-10 minutes, where you go up AND DOWN the hill at the same effort level. The biggest damage comes from having to slam on the brakes too often, so if you go a little bit slower, don’t have to brake as often and can manage the obstacles in front of you by jumping from side to side, then you will find you actually get down the hill quicker, but also in better shape.Īnother great session for downhill conditioning is continuous hills, which you only really need 45-60 seconds of runnable up and downhill to work with. Every hill you run down, from now until UTMB, is a chance to think about your technique and often getting people to slow down a little is the first step. Think about conditioning your legs for the descents, but also working on being as efficient as you can downhill, which might be more down to technique. People think the uphills are the main issue at UTMB but it will be the long descents that will be the undoing of many an unprepared runner. Plenty of people have successfully trained for mountainous races in flatter countries and 240m is pretty handy actually. How can I best prepare for alpine running when my nearest peak is only 240m? Here’s the conversation… it’s an education.Īlthough I hope to get to the Alps as part of my preparations (travel bans notwithstanding) most of my training will be here in the UK. Whilst Iain is immersing himself in training we took the opportunity to ask another Profeet Ambassador, former Team GB ultra runner Robbie Britton, who has already faced down the UTMB, for advice.
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