Ultra X Morocco 110k 2024

Created: 2024-01-28 11:52

Ultra X Morocco 110k. 16-17th of November, 2024.

Training

I started to train officially on 2024-01-22.

Before that I had run around a total of 250km starting 2023-11-13.

I will be doing the Runna 50k 16 weeks cycle ending the beginning of May, and do a 110k 16 weeks cycle, ending on race day. I have around 10 weeks in between both cycles to rest and do my own training.

My longest run so far has been on the 14th of January. 16k, ~6’08” pace, 487m elevation gain.

Besides that I’ve been training in the gym for the past 6 months pretty much consistently. 3 days a week, full body routine. I will switch to 3-4 days a week with more focus on legs.

After these three months of consistent running I’ve done so far, I can already see improvement in pace and endurance.

1st Cycle

A 16 weeks training cycle with Runna’s 50k plan. I chose the Intermediate option, since I hadn’t run any (half)marathon thus far.

Week 1

The training plan includes easy recovery runs, paced runs, speed intervals, and a weekly long run. Coupled with more leg focus at the gym, I ended the week more tired than ever before.

Week 2

The training plan I was following before only included one legs exercise per day, that’s three per week.

With this new plan, I’m doing a few on every training session, and the exercises are also more varied. Two weeks in I can already notice a difference. I feel more tired, but it’s strengthening muscles that I wasn’t engaging before.

Week 3

Enjoying the rotation of different running workouts. My legs (mainly quads, but also calves) are constantly tired. It’s definitely more intense than only running at the same pace 5-8k every day.

Week 4

I can see the improvements in terms of speed thanks to interval workouts. I had done a few before starting this cycle but not much.

For example, last week’s long run was a 12k with a Negative split, faster on the last 4k. My faster kilometer was the 11th.

I’m also back to the flat lands of The Netherlands, which is easier for easy and long runs but also much more boring.

Week 5

Fatigue caught up with me this week. Maybe I’m leveling up and this could be the turning point (or leveling up point?) The runs felt harder, but I was able to still do 4/5 of them, with a 16k for the long run. Which was meant to be 15k but I paused the tracking by mistake for around 1k at the beginning. 🤦‍♂️ That was my longest run so far.

I did skip the gym sessions (was sick a few days).

Week 6

Coming back strong this week 💪

I’m trying less volume this week, changed the running plan to run 4 times per week, instead of 5 times. Will see the effect in the upcoming weeks.

This week’s long run was my longest ever so far. 18k at 5’50” average pace.

On race day I’d like to maintain a 5’30” pace on flat and low elevation terrain and finish with an average of less than 6’30”. Starts to feel doable! Maybe my goal is not even as ambitious as I thought, although my long runs haven’t reached even a 20% of the distance I will cover in those two days.

Week 7

One less day seems to be the sweet spot, it does still require effort but it’s manageable. 5 days a week might’ve been too much for my first training cycle. I might ramp up the intensity again when I target the 110k in my next training cycle.

It’s week 7 of two 16-weeks cycles, the initial motivation starts to run out. The novelty of the challenge wore off already. Although each week is a new challenge, going further on each long run and faster on the interval training, it starts to feel like a routine.

The two initial reasons to take on this challenge were:

Perseverance and consistency. I planned two 16-weeks cycles back to back, I knew I’d want to drop out of the process plenty of times in that period. I envisioned motivation running low, as it is happening now. All is going according to plan, now it’s just a matter of pushing through.
The mental aspect of the race itself. Running for 5 to 7 hours, or more, is more of a mental challenge than it is a physical one.

Kevin Thomas and his colleagues at Northumbria University in England conducted an experiment with cyclists in which they demonstrated that the shorter the period of physical exertion, the more exhausted the muscles become. And the longer the period, the more tired the brain becomes. So in the case of short, intensive exercises, the legs suffer the most, while longer endurance exercises tend to exhaust the brain. Running and the Science of Mental Toughness

Week 8

Pretty uneventful week. Lighter training since the previous week was the longest run so far (22k).

Feels good to have a recovery week in between.

Week 9

I traveled and had a friend over. My routine was a mess, I skipped the gym but still managed to do all my runs. Ending strong with a 25k.

As for nutrition, in the long runs so far I’ve tried:

Eat: every 4 or 5k. Chews, cereal bars, caffeine gel, bananas.
Drink: electrolyte solutions, coconut water, water.

For the 25k I drank 1l of coconut water, it seems to be a good natural(ish) replacement to electrolyte drinks. It lacks some sodium, but I will try adding a pinch of salt or even salt pills for that.

So far I never felt a lack of energy or cramps. But that’s yet to be tested on longer runs.

I took the caffeine gels around 10k before the end and it’s a nice boost of energy. I’m not sure if I want to rely on that, specially on the longer (+30k) runs, since it would require either keep up the caffeine level for the rest of the race or only take it for the last ~10k.

Week 10

More consistency this week 💪

The long run was a half-marathon. Sub 2hs for the first time. The plan was three parts of 7k each at increasing speeds (6:30, 6:20, 6:10/km). I stuck to it for the first part but then increased the pace quite a bit on the last two, 5:25 and 5:05/km respectively.

I didn’t have chews or cereal bars, so I took two hard-boiled eggs (one at the start and one at 4k) 3 Ferrero Rocher and a caffeine shot (100mg?). The sugar has a quite fast and noticeable effect. The caffeine as well, but lest pronounced.

Although sugar isn’t a sustainable source of energy because the spike and crash pattern is no bueno. But it made me realize it can come handy for the late stage of the race.

For the race day, I will split the nutrition in 3 stages:

Early Stage: protein, fats, and complex carbs. Slow absorption/release for sustained energy. The body has plenty stored glycogen.
Middle Stage: Simpler carb-dense foods. Support continued high energy. Glycogen stores begin to deplete.
Late Stage: Simple sugars. Instant energy boost for the final push when glycogen is fully depleted.

Week 11

Consistency 10/10. Which made it hard, specially due to longer gym sessions.

The long run this week (32k) was the longest and hardest so far. The last 7k took quite some mental effort to finish, mainly to fight through the pain (feet mostly). Until now the mental game was relatively easy, but I can see from this level onwards that will become the real challenge. As I pointed it out already, that is the reason I’m doing this so! 🤘

Week 12

Easy recovery week. Consistency 9/10 (skipped one gym session).

Swapped hills intervals with sprint ones because there are no hills in this country. Zone 4-5 is 🔥

That is what Beyond Training proposes, a split of 80/20 of easy Zone 2 and intense Zone 4-5. Once I’m done with this cycle I will switch to that for a couple of weeks before the second cycle.

Week 13

Had quite the busy week. Consistency 8/10.

I sound like a broken record already, yet again the long run of the week (38k) was the hardest thus far. I think I could’ve easily finished the 4 extra km to do a full marathon but setting out to a specific goal makes it really hard to keep going once the goal is reached. The brain becomes fixated with reaching that and nothing else.

Tested the strategy of transitioning from complex to simple fats/carbs as the run progresses. It seems to work fine. But I wonder if a different approach could work better (ie. if this is a local minimum).

Week 14

Started tapering. “Only” 25k for the long run this week. Run on the treadmill, it sucks for long runs. But there’s one aspect of it I do like, keeping pace is a solved problem since you just set it and remain there.

Week 15

Easy week before “race” day. Long run is only 12k.

Week 16 ~ 50k Race Day

Race day! 🙌 50k done!

Run it on a relatively small park in front of my house. That way I could leave a backpack in the bushes with water and food as a “checkpoint”. Did 4 checkpoints, every 10k. The park is all trails with sharp turns and small hills, but even though small it made quite the difference, adding up to ~450m of elevation.

Nutrition and hydration

Coconut water. Drunk ~2.5l. It’s great, although the flavor becomes a bit repulsive so I was drinking mostly water at the end.
Ate around every 5k. See Week 10 for the breakdown
- 5 & 10k: hard boiled egg
- 15, 20 & 25k: sunflower seeds cracker
- 30 & 35k: 3 dates
- 33k (or 36?): caffeine shot
- 40k: 2 Ferrero Rocher
- 41 to 49k: 1 Ferrero Rocher on each kilometer
- 20 & 40k: salt pill

Didn’t feel any lack of energy or dehydration. I’m quite happy with this approach to nutrition.

Shoes

Nike Pegasus Trail 4 Gore-Tex.

Really comfortable. Relatively soft, good drop. Fit is roomy on the toe area but snug around midfoot and ankle. Didn’t experience any discomfort with them. Some blisters, but that’s expected on such distance.

Mental aspect and performance

Definitely the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

From around the 20k mark I wanted to quit already. Pain in my feet was the main reason, started off quite strong on the arch of the right foot and became less intense but more even on the whole foot on both feet.

The last 5k were a grind. Walked the first ~200m of each kilometer.

The bottleneck was not so much the pain but rather the heart and breathing rates. Didn’t manage to do a Negative split, the second half was slower. Got to around 6:20 average pace and the slowed down to finish on a average 6:58 pace. Running on a 6:30 to 7:00 pace was relatively easy to maintain from the heart rate and breathing perspective but it was more painful to the legs than running on a faster pace (~5:30). Walking was even more painful, but helped a lot to recover the heart and breathing rates.

My aim was to do a ~6:00 average pace, so finishing at 6:58 wasn’t bad at all. Considering that I normally struggle to maintain an steady pace, even when running on flat surfaces my pace fluctuates by 30s to even 1min.

Rest period

I had around 10 weeks of rest between cycles. I continued with easy runs (~7-10k) and some trail running during the holidays in Spain and Italy ⛰️

I also participated on a 15k race event, Dwars Door Groningen, setting PRs for 5, 10 and 15k.

And lastly, I joined (informally) a Track and Field team with the goal to train for mid distance races (1500m and 5000m, maybe 10000m as well). I’m getting a great deal of feedback from the coach, since my form is trash.