ULTRAS

It is a strategy to ensure your muscles and liver store a higher than normal levels of carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates:
The main source of energy for distance running is carbohydrates. This includes such foods as fruits, vegetables, breads, cereals, maize, pasta, rice, potatoes and millet.

You should aim to make around 60-70% of your normal diet up from these items. By providing ample nutrients during and after training, you can reduce the recovery time and that allows you to maximize your training effect and intensity. It is virtually impossible to do this without the use of some of the serious sports supplements, which provide an efficient way of replacing fluid, glycogen and the building blocks required for repair and recovery.

In races where seconding is impossible, the best solution is to carry packets of GU with you. These small sachets hold enough energy for around 40 minutes, and by taking a small amount in your mouth with some water can be mixed before swallowing. Take 250ml of water with every GU. On long runs schedule your GU’s to match regular 2 minute walk breaks at one of the tables or up a hill.

Loading Phase:
The loading phase begins 3 days before the race. The average 65-70kg runner needs over 600 grams of carbohydrate for the 3 days immediately prior to the race in order to effectively carbo-load. This is equivalent to 30 baked potatoes, 30 bananas or 5 boxes of pasta per day! Obviously this is impractical. However by taking three 500ml carbohydrate drinks each day, you cover 50% of the requirement and can gain the remainder from your normal meals, which not only emphasise carbohydrates, but still contain the needed protein and fats.

The secret to success in this phase is:

1. Never, ever overeat. If you had enough, don’t force yourself. Rather eat more regularly.
2. Drink water: at least 2 liters per day — if you ain’t drinking enough water, you ain’t going to store any carbs.

The amount of glycogen (carbs) in your muscles does nothing for strength, power or VO² max. It simply enables you to continue longer at your maximum aerobic pace. With carbo loading you will have as much as 50% more muscle glycogen at the start which will help you go so much further.

Vitamins & minerals
Many runners find benefit from regular supplements. Most minerals, vitamins and amino acids, (the protein building blocks), inter-relate with each other. It is thus better to take a more balanced approach in the form of a multi-vitamin and mineral, such as Dual Tabs. This provides a basic insurance against the losses and deficiencies created through extensive training.

Protein
One of the side effects of the carbohydrate "trend" is that many runners have overlooked the role of quality protein. There needs to be a balance in all meals, and it is important to ensure that quality protein is available to the muscles to allow them to rebuild and repair after training. Drinks such as Metabolol II and Metabolol Endurance provide a balance between carbohydrates, protein and other nutrients, which are ideal for post strength or quality training sessions. In addition, these have been used extensively by top ultra runners, for a more substantial energy intake during Comrades and longer events, it would be normal to arrange for 250ml drink of this after 3 ½ to 4 hours and every two hours thereafter until the end of the race

Creatine
This is not a drug, it is a natural substance, and can be found in red meat. The most recent research has confirmed the advantages of creatine supplementation for recovery in endurance athletes. However, it is NOT recommended that the loading regime be used. Instead rather take between 1.5 and 2 grams of creatine per day. This avoids the negative side-effects associated with loading. Creatine must be taken with water and carbohydrate to be properly absorbed. Taking caffeine (coke, coffee, chocolate etc.) negates the beneficial effect of creatine. (Much of the negative publicity on creatine comes from people abusing it with mis-use). One of the most convenient ways to take creatine is by taking one drink of Metabolol Endurance every day, as this contains not only the carbohydrate and protein, but also 1.5 grams of creatine.

Why taper?

Resting at the appropriate times allows your body to recover, re-build and become stronger.

• Bruce Fordyce always said it is best to line up a bit under-trained and well rested.
• Ciba-Geigy (Voltaren): During a jogging session each foot hits the ground 60-70 times per minute with an impact, which may be about 3 times the mass of the body. For a 70kg jogger running at a speed of 5 minutes/km for half an hour, the total load per foot amounts to about 400 tons. If you increase your jogging speed from 5 minutes/km to 4 minutes/km the average increase in the load per foot is 30-35%. The load increases if the jogger is heavier, the speed greater and stepping frequency lower.
• Comrades Jitters on Comrades7 e-group: Just put one leg in front of the other, 80,000 to 90,000 times, and then stop. NO BIG DEAL!
• Athletes generally don’t like resting for fear of losing all the fitness that they have built up. The training base that is built over a couple of months or years cannot be "erased" by a few days rest. Maximal exercise measures, (which includes VO2 Max), maximal heart rate, maximal speed and workload are maintained for 10-28 days with training reductions of 70-80%.
• This is how it should be done for the COMRADES:
  • 4 Weeks to go: 80% of peak week at marathon pace
  • 3 Weeks to go: 60% of peak week at ½ marathon pace
  • 2 Weeks to go: 40% of peak week at 10km pace
  • 1 Week to go:
    • Sunday: Active Rest
    • Monday: Rest
    • Tuesday: Rest
    • Wednesday: Train Easy
    • Thursday: Train Easy
    • Friday: Comrades

Active Rest: Allows for a maximum of 20-30 minutes of light training. 20 Minutes of training acts as physical therapy for your muscles and joints, allows healing but is not long enough for destructive training.

Train Easy: Allows for 20-30 minutes of moderate paced walking or a maximum of 20 minutes shuffling. Too fast a walk or shuffle will create an aerobic training effect. Remember, this is mental preparation time and not training time.

• Norrie Williamson: The biggest dangers are that either you do too much, or you become ill or injured. Your Comrades finish time has been determined by your training in the past months. Your ability to rest and allow your muscles to recover, plus the pacing adopt on race day, will determine just how close you will get to your potential finish time.
• Training is a process of overloading and adaptation. Every time we train small micro-tears are generated in our muscles. The rest and recovery periods allow the muscles to rebuild. Recovery requires two aspects to be provided:
  a) Rest and
  b) the nutritional building blocks.
  If either is missing, the recovery will be compromised. Good recovery results in an overall gain in strength. However, muscles can take up to six weeks to fully recover, and sports scientists have proved that the muscle damage becomes more severe when running further than 25km. This leads to two of the main principles behind the taper period:
  • your last long run (greater than 25-28km) should be no closer to the race than 3 weeks,
  • your last 18-25km should be no closer than about nine days before the race.
• Make these drops in total distance by dropping the distance runs, but keep the quality sessions. There are a number of reasons for this: Firstly you will find that as you get close to the race, you tend to start doubting your ability to cover the distance of 90km. An easy slow run of 8km, particularly in the final week, often turns into a slog where your mind starts questioning: "if this is how I feel doing 8km, how can I run 11 times the distance?" This doubt and negativity festers and has the exact opposite effect to the one you desire at this time. By contrast when we run quality sessions you feel light on your feet, and how relaxed and fluid your stride feels when you have finished a time trial, or quality session. The satisfaction of completing the session always results in a positive mindset. This is clearly a better frame of mind to have as you get closer to the race. Secondly, because you have reduced your total load of training, the energy you have for the quality sessions is greater, so the session is either slightly quicker, or feels easier. This adds to the positive effects of the session, creates a greater belief in your own abilities and increases your confidence for the race.