Lessons from the Road
February 11, 2013 by Devon Yanko · 38 Comments
In the fall of 2010, I decided to try and qualify for the Olympic Trials Marathon. I was afraid at the time that this meant I would have to give up my “ultrarunning card.” What I instead discovered, over the course of the last two years, is that pursuing a marathon PR has in fact made me a better, stronger, and faster ultrarunner.
The 2012 Olympic Trials Marathon. Photo: Nathan Yanko
Like many ultrarunners, I didn’t have a healthy respect for the marathon. I would quip “marathons are my speedwork” with the best of them. I didn’t understand at the time how much I would learn about myself, my training, and my racing.
Ultrarunners routinely run marathons, sometimes four times over. But the lessons I’ve learned are not about marathon participation merely, but marathon PR-ing. I firmly believe that every ultrarunner, even the “I never touch road” variety, can benefit from the pursuit of a road marathon PR.
Last year, I was fortunate enough to have a fantastic race at the Olympic Trials. My work and dedication paid off with a big PR. After the Trials, I leveraged that fitness into the two ultrarunning performances I am most proud of: Two Oceans Marathon (actually a 56k) and Comrades Marathon (actually an 87k). That made it clear to me that I had never sacrificed my “ultrarunning card” and that I hadn’t turned into a “roadie;” I had simply transformed myself into a better runner.
This year, my schedule is filled with a variety of races and adventures, from 10-mile road races to Comrades to the possibility of a multi-day backcountry adventure. I am as excited and inspired by running and racing as I have ever been. Whether it encourages you to think differently about your training, inspires you to try for a marathon PR, or simply makes you a better ultra-racer, I wanted to share what I have learned from road marathon-ing because I think every ultrarunner can benefit.
Comfortable is not a race speed
My mantra in ultras had always been “stay comfortable.” Fifty or 100 miles is a long way and I’ve always tried to find a zone that I feel I could maintain forever. In the past this has meant that I could run comfortably and still have enough to notch it up at the end. The JFK 50 in 2009 was a perfect example of that kind of effort. I felt smooth all day and had enough energy to finish faster than I’d been running all day. I never pressed myself and I definitely didn’t feel that I crossed the finish line having given it my all. I was, of course, ecstatic to have broken a strong course record, but I also knew I had not run out of my mind or spent everything I had. I didn’t understand at the time how to do that.
Focusing on the marathon, I quickly learned that comfortable is not a race speed. Instead, there is something beyond that something I can only think to describe as “maintainable discomfort.” My good friend Hollis Lenderking calls this running “eyeballs out.” Before I started racing more marathons, I equated discomfort with blowing up and slowing down in the end. Now, I see that racing – truly pushing yourself – means sometimes putting yourself in the pain cave and having faith (which is born out of training and practice) that you can hold it there.
I have more than one speed
Throughout my career, people have asked questions like “what’s your half marathon PR,” “how fast can you run a mile,” and “what’s your 10k PR?” For the longest time, I would joke “you mean as a split in a longer race?” Except I wasn’t really joking. My paces across different distance events were remarkably narrow. Until I started training for the Trials, I just thought this was because I was an endurance monster. The reality was that this was the case because I was not training at a range of speeds. I didn’t even know I had other gears. Once I started training with track workouts and tempo runs, I realized that my “maintainable discomfort” level did in fact vary with the distance I was going. Now, the speed I can maintain for a 10k is much faster than a marathon.
The value of having different speeds is essential for ultrarunning for many reasons. Having more than one gear in ultrarunning means you can better respond to the terrain, holding back and letting it out at different points of the race with a more varied pace range. Having pace range also means you can make bold tactical moves or respond to a course profile with a plan. If you know you can race a marathon at 6:00 min/mile pace, then the idea of maintaining a 7:00 min/mile pace over 50 miles seems much less daunting. I have enjoyed a boost in racing confidence knowing what my body is capable of speed-wise.
I have to run faster in training to race fast
In early 2010, while training for the Western States 100, I ran a lot of miles. Somewhere in the range of a 120 miles per week. I didn’t get any faster though because I ran the majority of my runs at pretty much the same pace. I can’t even qualify the runs I was doing as “workouts” because they were more simply an accumulation of miles.
Toward the end of the year as I began to train for my Trials qualifying time, I made a huge leap in my fitness when we (my coach and I) started incorporating serious track, tempo, hill, and other specific workouts. I got out of the rut of simply running a ton of comfortable miles and started focusing on target paces for my specific workouts (I used the McMillan Running Calculator.). Incorporating hard workouts into my training is the single most important addition to my training that I made and the only reason I was able to progress from being a 2:49 to a 2:38 marathoner.
Quality comes before quantity
As I mentioned, mileage quantity was never a problem for me. More was more and I followed the basic ultra model of long on Saturday, long on Sunday. I glutted myself on miles. I thought that I would be able to maintain my 120 miles per week volume (Which I do in six days, as I take Mondays off generally.) when doing marathon training. I figured it would benefit me aerobically and for strength. What I found instead was that once I began doing the hard workouts and more specifically focused long runs, my ability to maintain that volume decreased. It was simply unsustainable. The speed workouts took too much out of me and required more careful recovery. I never found it difficult to recover from 20 miles of easy running, but recovering from 15 miles with seven miles at half-marathon pace, for example, or 8 x 1,000 meters takes longer and more careful consideration. Because of the necessary recovery from hard workouts my volume has gone down slightly. Now, I tend to run between 100-110 miles per week with two to three specific hard workouts. The quality comes before the overall quantity.
Shorter distance suffering makes it easier to endure longer distance
I have never nearly barfed so many times after a run as I do after hard, short-distance speed workouts. Burning around the track at sub-five-minute pace is a special kind of suffering that isn’t common to ultrarunning. Running close to your max speed would be silly in an ultra, but knowing what it feels like is a powerful ultra-racing tool. For me, remembering the sensation of lungs and legs burning, heart racing, feeling on the edge of complete collapse in a short distance workout makes it easier to endure the feelings and suffering that come up in the longer distance. I know where my red line is, so I also know how close or far away from it I am.
You don’t have to go the distance, to go the distance
In 2011, I qualified for the Olympic Trials by running a 2:43 at the LA Marathon. I was ecstatic. I had little time to savor my personal victory because three weeks later I was turning around to run Mad City 100k in order to re-qualify for the 100k national team. It was my only opportunity to qualify for the team and since that was my second most important goal for the year behind the Trials qualifier, I was going to go for it even if it wasn’t ideal timing.
Recovery from the marathon was not the concern for me. My biggest concern heading into Mad City was that my longest training run had been a marathon. I hadn’t raced an ultra since the 50-mile national championship in fall of 2010. I was certainly fit, but I had conditioned myself to think that I needed to have a few 30 to 40-mile runs under my belt to do my best at Mad City. In this case, there just wasn’t time for any of those runs. But I still ran a huge PR and won the race. Moreover, I felt good doing it. I felt really strong throughout the race and was able to finish with three of my fastest laps in the entire race. I am not arguing for minimal training here; instead I’m illustrating that my steady diet of hard long runs, solid volume, and workouts was able to provide me with the endurance necessary to go the distance.
Road for speed, trail for recovery
Devon Yanko winning the San Francisco Marathon. Photo: SF Marathon
I’ve made many road running friends along the road to the Trials. One fascinating thing I have learned about “roadies” is that so many of them hammer day in and day out on every single run. I marvel (or maybe recoil) at the thought of running seven-minute pace for every single run and six-minute pace for every single workout. They lament that a snail’s pace is a 7:30 and wouldn’t touch a trail that would slow them to a crawl. I am not surprised by the proliferation of serious injuries that occur at the top.
Instead of buying into that mentality, I found that the most effective way for me to maximize my training is to run my hard workouts on the road. Running the workouts on the road gives me the best opportunity to get the most out of workout and thus the training adaptation I am looking for. I then spend the majority of the rest of my mileage on the trails, slow or steady as I want, unconcerned about pace. I firmly believe that this combination has allowed me to stay healthy while pursuing more road races and simultaneously adapt.
Figure out what works for you
Looking back, 2010 was my worst year of running. I just never felt fit, fast, or like my training fit me. I realize looking back that I was trying to adopt other people’s training as my own, instead of doing what had worked or figuring out what could work for me. When I started to train for the Trials I discovered that I was a fast “adapter” and that shorter training cycles were necessary to prevent burnout. I already knew that I could handle high mileage, so the other components helped me and my coach develop a training and racing schedule that kept my progress moving rapidly toward my goals. I am in my running happy place now. I feel like I understand the kind of work I must undertake to get where I want to go. I firmly believe that everyone must figure out for themselves the combination of things that works for them. Fast adapter, slow adapter, long cycle, short cycle, high mileage, low mileage: there are an infinite number of combinations to explore. Above everything else I have discussed, discovering your running happy place is the most important.
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Devon Yanko loves to cook, eat, run, sleep, repeat. She is a runner (distances and surfaces of all sorts), certified personal chef, and cafe/bakery owner. Three times she's competed for Team USA at the IAU 100k World Championships, while also being a two-time national champion (100k and 50-mile). She competes in distances from the marathon to 100 miles, but the 50-mile distance is her favorite. She recently raced in the Olympic Marathon Trials setting a PR of 2:38:55. She documents her adventures on her blog.
All posts by Devon Yanko
Great article Devon! Your results are the proof that your advice is well advised. Thanks for the inspiration to reach for more than just logging miles. I especially like the phrase “maintainable discomfort” and will be using it with my athletes when asked of what effort they should maintain in races where they want to reach for their best. I hope you have a great 2013 and will follow your progress. Happy running!
This is good stuff Devon and timely as I’m running my first ultra this weekend. Glad to know that I’m not the only one who feels barfy at the end of speed sessions! I appreciate your giving respect to the marathon distance too. I purposely put them into my race schedule this year because I like them and assuming they would help me prepare for my ultras. Good luck with 2013 and thanks for sharing your tips on better running. I’ll shoot for that “maintainable discomfort” this weekend, if only to beat the cutoff!
Devon, I love that. Comfortable is not a race. Great post.
Great timing…I am the run every run the same pace and just add “time on feet” guy. I gotta say it’s boring some days, and I don’t feel like I’m improving a great deal. I have a friend who’s a pretty accomplished marathoner who blows my doors off in terms of speed. He’s been trying to get me to do speedwork with him, I’m now thinking I may take him up on it.
I don’t run to be the fastest…I frankly don’t care if I’m in 1st or 400th. I run for health, enjoyment, fun, and because I associate myself as a runner. BUT!!! I do want to be stronger, more fit, more comfortable. If this is the secret elixir it’s worth a try.
I’m not at the top but my fear of hammering a run is injury. I tend to get flair ups of old injuries that are long past when I push to hard. How did you avoid this?
caper,
thanks for the comment and great question! I think the key to avoiding injury when bringing in the hard workouts is to do it gradually. If you go from 0 speed sessions to trying to hammer out a Yasso 800 workout your body will not be happy. Start slow, with something like 5 x 30 second pickups, with 30 second rest. Then increase the pickups from there. Also, working with a good coach will help guide you through the adding speed!
Thankyou Devon, so simple, but great advice. I’ll be adding speedwork to my schedule.
Also, in my experience and humble, mid-packer opinion, some types of speed work have been more likely to cause injury – at least for me – then others. For example, my body likes trail hill repeats much better than, say, flat 800 repeats on a hard surface. You do have to start gradually, experiment, and see what works.
Caper,
I missed this comment earlier.
How easy is the same pace?
I would not run with your friend if I were you, as that will likely cause you to train at a much higher level than you should (Thus nagging injuries).
If you aspire to what you have said and train properly, (stronger, more fit, more comfortable) then you will make gains in the speed department by definition, if only incidentally.
Its odd in that, most young athletes hammer too hard for too long in the (relatively shorter distances), and then look at the ultra-scene (largely an older crowd) and most training runs, albeit with tons of mileage, are done far too slow for maximum aerobic development. Stalking more ultrarunner training logs and blogs than I care to admit, thats the only conclusion I can draw. Why else would runner A that routinely logs 100 plus mile weeks? Run a flat 100 in over 28 hours? Then a guy like Ian Sharman drop 12:44 at RR…(Granted I don’t know his training schedule but I would venture to guess he doesn’t run 200 mile weeks). Yes temps can vary, terrain, digestion rates etc, but the reality is that most people don’t know how to train and thus right it off as “Superior genetics” or “He’s born with it”…which in some cases is true, but is generally the exception and not the rule. And/Or, as Devon said, it’s just freaking hard/scary to actually “race” a 100.
If you are going to run 100+ mile weeks you might as well get the most benefit right?
I’m ranting now and alot of this is unstructured, anyway, caper if you have a strong foundation you shouldn’t be plagued by injuries. (Unless something has happened beyond recurring running injuries…which in that case, I feel for you.)You can’t train above your fitness level for very long without crapping out in a couple of weeks. Remember, you don’t start building a house from the top down.
Thanks for this Devon! This is a great article and reminder for all of us that changing it up, although difficult to mentally get through, is important for the long term and seeing results. Comfortable is not a race pace is going to be my new mantra thanks!!
Just perfect. Every ultra-runner would benefit from a marathon on a road at PR pace, and quality comes before quantity. Yes!!!
Great article! I love how you show that there’s always something new to learn, no matter how accomplished a runner you are. Thanks for sharing.
Why does the marathon PR have to be on roads? I think many of us acknowledge that road running is more damaging to our bodies and far less enjoyable to our senses than trail running. Not all trails are super difficult and technical, can’t we just do speedwork on easier trails to get the same benefits?
I certainly think you can do speedwork on the trails, but I agree with the author that there is something to learning how to churn a consistent pace for 26.2, that you’d be unable to hold for, say, 28 miles. It takes a different kind of concentration to run really hard on boring yet potentially damaging surfaces. It isn’t enjoyable. That’s part of the point. Road marathons are measured quite accurately, but we’ve all done something like a mountain “half marathon” that’s actually closer to 16 miles than 13.1. It’s one of the reasons the trail makes it so easy to slow up, to conserve, to take a look around and enjoy the scenery (also, to make sure you know where you’re going ;-) On the trail you have to pay attention to your surroundings, which is a good distraction from the pain. There are no distractions on the road.
Many track surfaces are soft and much less damaging than blacktop or concrete (and even some packed trails), and the mental training of pushing through the “less enjoyable to our senses” running is invaluable during the last marathon of an ultra… and you’ll be faster.
I think the biggest bang for the buck (improvement vs injury risk) is tempo work in the 10k to 1/2 marathon pace range.
3-6 miles at PR half marathon pace or 4×1 mile at PR 10k pace really gets you working, but has almost zero chance of injury.
Last year I ran 2 half marathons and a road 50k as my only races leading up to a great time at Vermont 100. I only had 2 other 4-5 hour runs.
good article, thanks!
Tempo work is definitely under-utilized by ultrarunners (and most runners that get started as adults). I guess that has more to do with the bulk of participants not caring if they are competitive or not and just in it to finish. (Nothing wrong with that!)
Great article… and excellent point about the “ultra card”… running is what we as individuals want it to be… you can be an ultrarunner and a roadie and a trail lover and whatever else… it’s ours to define for ourselves… not collectively per se… Great job on finding YOUR path, Devon and for inspiring along the way!
Can you go the other direction? I want to get into ultra, but don’t want to lost my road speed or road “card.” Can it go both ways?
I think it can Kelly. If you maintain the type of workouts that enhance your road speed, you should be able to!
Hope so. Want to try this summer!
Absolutely you can. What do mid-pack short-middle distance runners do after they can’t compete anymore? :)
thanks for sharing this, devon.
Great post! I think there is something to be said about running marathon (and even half marathon) race pace velocity on the road in terms of actually improving running economy at all submaximal velocities/intensities at ultra-trail race pace. Efficiency and energy conservation is still the name of the game when it comes to burning glycogen (and fat of course) for hours on end.
Combined with dialing in on the lactate threshold by having sustained efforts at around 85% max HR, this type of training and racing just gives you the aerobic engine to really push the uphills you may encounter on the trails. Also is the confidence of knowing you can change gears on the flats during more runnable sections of an ultra.
Great article Devon! Thanks for giving me some things to think about. I have felt that I’m getting slower as I increase my stamina, and have wondered if there was something I could do about it without getting injured.
Such infinite wisdom, thanks for sharing! I’m a crossover from Ironman to BQ hopeful to ultras. One thing I can’t deny is the discipline I’ve earned over the years of training for endurance events. When I’m bombing the hills, I savor the speed as much as during my speed sessions. And I always remember what we in the triathlon community ingrained in our minds that an Ironman is all about the management of pain. How can a 100-miler be any different?
this is a great article. to back up mrs yanko – i ran a 259 marathon at the SF marathon in ’09 and later that year like 3 months later ran my first 50 miler at Dick Collins and came in at 759 – was near the front all day. Since then I dropped road running and did only slogging miles and no speed work – thinking the hills and mtns and the road where for “them” not me, i wanted to be a trail guy who consumed miles I have returned to Dick Collins 2 times since that and have been a mid packer coming in at 9:15 and 9:30. I also have a couple 100′s under the belt.
Anywho what I am getting to is that this year I am training for a 1/2 marathon, then a full marathon, then a 50k, then i plan on doing Dick Collins and PRing. I will because I am gonna hit the roads relearn that shorter distance suffering that I learned in ’09 and use it to my advantage……
i did my first concrete run the other day (3 miles) and hated every minute of it but it felt good!!
Thank you SO MUCH for this post. It was exactly what I needed to read at exactly the right time!
If you want to run fast then you have to develop the spectrum: Aerobic endurance, aerobic power, anaerobic endurance and anaerobic power.
Typical athlete personalities are OCD by nature…in the case of runners; way too many miles and not enough speed, or way too much speed and not enough miles. I think this is where the coach that Devon referenced earlier comes into importance.
Have you all gone nuts. The fastest way to lose the “Ultra Card” would be a road marathon. Unless you are into that “Hybrid” sort of thing.
Idiot
Hey person commenting as both “Pureist” and “Dave M,” as well as various other pseudonyms, please (1) be respectful when commenting on iRunFar, (2) use a consistent pseudonym if you feel it’s necessary to comment anonymously, and (3) leave your valid email address (only iRunFar’s admins see it and it won’t be used for purposes other than moderating commments) with each of your comments.
Thanks,
Bryon
I also want to clarify that the above comment is NOT that of Dave Mackey, iRunFar’s usual “Dave M.”
Awesome article! Thanks Devon!
Great stuff DY (thanks for pace calculator link…helpful), congrats on all your success. Lots more to come, no doubt.
A lot of trail focused runners seem to really dread putting in road miles or, god forbid, track workouts. Group runs, however, can make road mileage fun in a way that isn’t really possible running trails (except for races, of course). If you approach road miles as a good chance to get rout unning with some friends rather than a chore it’s much easier.
Here in DC local clubs have long runs every Saturday and Sunday with pretty wide ranging paces (I’ve seen some groups as low as 6:30 and others practically walking). Track workouts can be a lot of fun too when there’s a big group at the track putting in some hard work. For me group track workouts have some of that team sport camaraderie that you rarely get running. I still far prefer doing most of my miles–especially long weekend runs–on trails, but logging road miles at a good pace has a huge impact on my flat ground and downhill turnover and is a great opportunity to meet other local runners in a way I don’t on trails.
Great article, Devon.
This makes me feel a lot better about my decision to focus on a road marathon PR for late April rather than my usual build-up directly into trail ultras. I’m curious to see how “differently” I feel as I transition to the longer distances in May, June, July.
I had the chance to talk to Joe Fejes for a few laps at Across the Years.
Everyone knows by now that his PR’s for the 24 hour have been taking leaps and bounds towards all-time status. He also completed 329 miles in 72 hours only 2 weeks after doing 156 miles at Dessert Solstice.
He mention that in the past year what had help more than anything, (other than dropping almost 15 pounds) was the speed workout he was now doing. He has been getting much more out of a fast 2 a day hard runs than he had ever had at his long runs. Said he would never go back to long training runs just to get mileage in.
So the speed workout works even on a level way beyond 100 miles.
Wither it works for you?
Amen, Exactly–Beautiful advice–love it!!