The Everyday Ultra Newsletter

Ultra training tips to help you be a better endurance athlete, every day
by Joe Corcione

How to prevent “dead legs” in your next ultra

We all know that "lead legs” feeling

Ever have that feeling where your legs feel like a ton of bricks? The feeling when you try and move faster, but the legs are just like “nope” because they’re feeling dead?

As ultrarunners, we’re all familiar with it. Whether we’ve had it on a long training run, or in the middle of a race, those heavy legs are no strangers to an ultrarunner.

And let’s face it: if we are running an ultra, our legs are bound to get fatigued.

But when you’re in the middle of an ultra, avoiding this feeling in the early stages of a race (think mile 30 of a 100 miler or mile 10 of a 50K) is a skill to master so that you can run the best race you possibly can, while avoiding the dreaded death march.

Here’s how to avoid those dead legs:

1. Train for durability

If you know that your legs start to feel dead really easily, then it may mean we need to increase durability of our legs.

And what is the way to increase durability? Well, more volume, of course!

But here’s the catch: you have to avoid dramatically increasing your volume right off the jump to avoid injury. It has to be a gradual increase from week-to-week.

So, what’s the solution for optimal durability and volume in your training?

Train for longer periods of time for your given races.

Besides the obvious fact that you’ll have more time to train, having a longer period of time to train for an ultra allows you to safely increase your volume to high volume training where you can really focus on building more durability. Because the more you train your legs to go more miles, the stronger they get.

To take this concept further, if you know that your legs get dead at a certain point (say the 5th hour for example), you may want to throw in some 6-7 hour long runs to assess your durability and get your body used to traveling for that long.

Again, don’t take this tip to mean you can just sling 100 mile weeks tomorrow. Make sure that you build up to this safely. And with the more time you give yourself to train, the safer you can build your volume.

2. Make sure you are hydrating and eating enough

Your muscles are 70% water and the fuel that they operate off of comes from the calories you are consuming.

And most of the times, when I chat with an ultrarunner on their nutrition/hydration intake, it is much lower than what their body typically needs.

If your body is lacking the water, electrolytes, and fuel needed to continue to go strong, then they won’t be able to push in the moments you need it the most.

So, having a dialed nutrition and hydration strategy is crucial.

For hydration, I suggest doing a sweat rate test which I detail in this post here on IG. Once you see how much you’re losing (at the given temp you test it at), you should be targeting anywhere between 400-1000 mg of sodium per hour depending on how much salt you sweat out, and the more you sweat, the more sodium you’ll need.

For nutrition, I suggest anywhere between 250-400 calories per hour. Finding this number can be done through training on your long runs to see what the best amount is. Start on the low end, and if you’re feeling depleted on your run, try higher on the next run.

Once you have this strategy dialed down, your legs will be much more fueled and primed to keep going.

3. Pace conservatively and take it easy on the downhills

This advice is simple (although very hard to follow in practice): don’t go out too hard in the early miles of your ultra!

With all the excitement in the air of the race and the body feeling fresh from the taper, it’s incredibly easy to let it rip on the starting line at a fast pace.

But if you’re running hot out of the gate for the first 20 miles of your 100 mile ultra, you may burn all the matches you have to keep your legs strong for the remaining 80 miles of the race.

Plus, the number one cause of muscle damage in an ultramarathon is downhill running. It puts immense strain on the quads and if you’re bombing downhill early on in a race, your quads can be shot to take on the second half.

So, how do you pace smart?

Most of the times, people subconsciously will go out fast because it’s easy to believe that no matter what, the end of the ultra is going to hurt and it’s going to be slow. So, logically, that would mean to bank the fast miles early when the legs are fresh.

But this has much more risk than reward. So, to show your brain that it doesn’t have to be painfully slow at the end of an ultra, practice even splitting or even negative splitting some of your longer runs. That way you can show yourself the benefit of going slow to start, and you give your brain tangible proof that going easier to start will pay off with finishing stronger.

Plus, giving yourself mantras like “slow and steady”, “be patient”, “take it easy”, can all be useful phrases to remind yourself to save the legs for slamming towards the end

Even with all of these though, your legs will get tired

It’s an ultramarathon; our legs will be fatigued. And accepting that fact beforehand helps us to manage it better when it does happen.

But, we want to be intentional with our training to have that fatigue set in as late in a race as possible.

So, the point is not to avoid fatigue all together. It’s to delay it from coming on and then finding ways to manage it mentally (and physically) when it comes up. That “managing” part, we’ll dive into on the next newsletter episode…

What I’m loving in my current training

Gear testing!

As you all know, I’m training for the Cocodona 250 miler which is only a few weeks away! And one of the biggest things in a 200+ mile race to manage is your gear strategy.

I’ve tested out numerous hydration packs, cold weather gear, hot weather gear, socks, hydration vessels, hats, shoes and pretty much everything you could need in a 200+ mile race to be successful.

Because I truly believe that you need to train for the gear you’re going to use in a race in your training to be fully prepared for what you’re going to use on race day.

And that means going on your long runs with your exact race kit and gear you are going to use on race day, and take note of any issues that you need to fix.

One of the biggest things I’ve been needing to fine tune is how I’m going to carry 5 LITERS of water with me on the first 40 miles of the course (all because it’s incredibly hot, exposed, and there is a ton of climbing).

And now, I’ve confidently found the set-up I’ll use for that:

1. Using a 14L pack instead of a 12L pack to not feel like I’m stuffing a pack to force extra gear

2. Using trustworthy and versatile hydration vessels

   1. I’m using 2 Hydrapak softflasks, 1 Hydrapak handheld, and TWO Hydrapak bladders to carry all of my water out there. The reason why I like Hydrapak is that their gear is high quality, will not leak, and I can use them in ANY pack. So, if I change the brand of pack midway through the race (which I may), I can easily transfer the hydration gear (P.S. if you want a 20% discount on Hydrapak gear, use code EVERYDAYULTRA at Hydrapak.com)

3. Make everything easily accessible. I am using a lot of hoses and making my water easy to access without taking my pack off so that I don’t have to stop to access the water I need

Takeaway for you: it is essential to practice the gear you’re going to use on race day, no matter the distance you are training for. So, be sure to use the same exact set-up you’ll be racing in on your long runs and tweak any changes along the way to find the perfect race day set-up.

The mindset shift you need to accomplish any ultrarunning goal

“I’m not a fast runner”

“I started this sport too late”

“I’m not good at climbing mountains”

Have you told yourself any of these things or something similar about another aspect of your running background?

I get it. I used to tell myself that I wasn’t a fast runner or that I wasn’t a good climber.

But then, I decided to make a mindset shift that not only shattered my perception of those things; but it also helped me to accomplish some of my biggest ultrarunning goals.

And in this episode of The Everyday Ultra Podcast, I share how you can make that same shift in your ultrarunning to accomplish any goal you are going after.

In this episode, we discuss

• How to break through negative self-talk and beliefs to take your performance and training to the next level

• How to align your mind with your actions so that it is in accordance with where you want to go with your ultrarunning career

• How to achieve anything you set your mind to in the world of ultrarunning

Have questions about running, training, or anything else? Respond to this email and I’ll be happy to help.

Remember, strive to be a better ultrarunner, every day.

- Joe 🐺