In this monthly article series, ultrarunner, race director, and coach Gabe Joyes answers reader questions about anything and everything running. Learn more about this new ask-the-athlete column, and be sure to fill out the form below to submit your questions for a future article!
In this article, Gabe tackles questions on everything from plantar fasciitis to how the elites train, and from interval training to how to build a training plan.
Gabe’s tip of the month: “I set a ’smile and eat alarm’ on my watch to go off every 30 minutes. I promise you will run better and have more fun if you remember to smile and eat!” Photo courtesy of Gabe Joyes.
What To Do if You Miss a Run
“Curious to hear from you, Gabe, how you make judgment calls about missed days on your training plan. My tendency is to want to go big the next day, but if I go too hard I’m often too wiped out the following day, and it can ruin the flow of the plan. What are your thoughts on this?” -Adam
A lot of the answer depends on why you missed a training day and what sort of training day you missed. If you missed a recovery run because your father-in-law invited you to play pickleball with a bunch of 70-plus-year-old crushers who absolutely humbled your ass, go ahead and just let that recovery run slide.
If you missed a structured workout because something flukey or unexpected came up in life, it might be worth “making up” for that missed run the next day, but not in its entirety. For example, if you missed a 60-minute run that has 3×5-minute uphill intervals on a Tuesday, and you have a 60-minute run scheduled for Wednesday, maybe Wednesday turns into 3×5-minute uphill intervals with an extended cool down that’s about 75- to 90-minutes of running.
If you missed any sort of run because you were sick or otherwise not healthy enough to run, then just let that day go — you needed the rest!
Plantar Fasciitis
“What suggestions would you have for anyone who deals with plantar fasciitis? I’m going on the understanding ultrarunners deal with the condition. What recommendations do you have?” -Jesse
Physiotherapist Joe Uhan’s Stay the Course column on iRunFar has all sorts of great insights on injury recovery, but I can share a few hard-earned lessons from my woes in dealing with plantar fasciitis. I found that running in shoes that are more flexible and neutral feeling, with low to moderate arch support with a wider toebox, help my feet function better, but wearing more supportive footwear while not running is a great way to give the bottoms of the feet a break. For me, that has been Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 for most runs and Birkenstock sandals and clogs while not running.
Using a Graston or muscle-scraping tool on my feet and calves helps loosen up some of that overly tight tissue. I used a sturdy metal spoon for a while instead of an actual muscle-scraping tool, thinking that I was being really thrifty and clever, but it turns out my family thought that was disgusting and cheap.
A runner descending a hill during the Caw Fell Race in the Lake District of England in 2017 in flexible shoes. Photo: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
How Do Elites Train?
“What does a 100-mile week schedule look like for an elite runner? And what is a typical ‘easy pace’ for an elite athlete?” -John
Personally, I rarely look at my weekly mileage. Every now and then, I’ll unintentionally finish a week with something like 99.3 miles. Would 0.7 more miles have made that a complete training week? Of course not! I tend to focus more on time and also elevation gain in proportion to miles — for example, averaging 200 feet per mile for all the miles that week.
A 100-mile week could shape up in a variety of ways, but having at least a couple of larger efforts with some shorter and easier runs in between would likely be most efficient and provide the best training effect for ultrarunning. Perhaps something like this:
- Monday: Rest
- Tuesday: 10 miles with some sort of speed or intensity mixed in
- Wednesday: 15 miles
- Thursday: 10 miles
- Friday: 10 miles — maybe split into two easier five-mile runs, one in the morning and one in the afternoon
- Saturday: 30 miles
- Sunday: 25 miles
That would get you 100 miles and include the mega-important rest day after all that running!
As far as easy pace goes, that is influenced by fatigue, weather, terrain, and, of course, fitness. Having standard recovery run routes can be helpful as a baseline for measuring fatigue. For example, on one of my recovery routes, I might run at a 7:45-minute-per-mile pace when I’m mega-fit from tons of intervals late in the spring. But, that same route, run at the exact same effort, might be at a 9:30 pace late in the summer when it is swelteringly hot out and my legs are toasted from high-volume training.
The key point here is that both of those paces would have been run at the exact same effort. There is no standard recovery run pace because so many factors determine how fast we run on any given day.
While it may be tempting to rely heavily on running metrics for training, there’s more to consider than miles on the feet. Photo: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
The Benefits of Interval Training
“Are intervals a waste of time if you’re training for an ultramarathon?” -Pedro
Definitely not a waste of time! Have you ever witnessed the start of a kids’ race? It looks about like the start of UTMB, with a whole bunch of over-eager runners going out at silly fast paces that are not sustainable for the duration of the race. Practicing faster paces in training helps you understand what sort of effort you can maintain on race day, which ultimately helps you pace yourself to the finish line.
Even though you might never run your interval paces during an ultra, doing those intervals in training raises the roof on what your easy or endurance effort pace can be. There are other physical benefits too. Those intervals act as a strength training stimulus, and they increase the range of motion in your stride. Structured hard efforts benefit the brain as well, for without a doubt, having the mental skills to successfully tackle tough interval sessions translates nicely to ultra challenges as well.
Submit Your Questions
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Call for Comments
- Do you agree with Gabe’s answers to this month’s questions?
- What questions do you have for Gabe? What have you been wondering about?
