UKC

Ok folks, I've taken the plunge and entered my first mountain marathon at the end of August this year. I know ive not really left alot of time to train for this, but could any of the seasoned UKC running pros give me some advice on training?

At the moment im running in my local trails 3 times a week for an hr or so and also mountain biking for an hr 2 times a week. Any advice on a slightly more structured training approach would be much appreciated.

In reply to Jamie McCreath: Mountain Marathons are more about hill walking and nav work than running, just jog some down hills, occassional flats, don't mess up your nav and you'll do OK from my small experiences.

But the main thing I'd say is hill time, big ascents and lots of them, get out at the weekends, get used to multi days.

In reply to IainRUK: Cheers Iain, Forgot to mention my usual weekend hillwalks and climbing. I think if i'm honest with myself the mountain marathon is testing the water for a fell race (or at least fell running) once i get an idea of running in the hills....

In reply to Jamie McCreath:
I didn't know there was one in August - where is it? There's a gap in my diary at the moment!

In reply to Jamie McCreath: I think they are too quite different disciplines. I'm an OK runner and OK navigator, but there's people who I'll beat soundly in a MM who would beat me in a fell race and vice versa.

I prefer MM which are more macro naving, more about the running, less about the navving, others (the ones who can't run ) prefer the more complex nav MM events. I liked the GL3d as it was simple macro nav, get from A to B.

I wouldn't use MM's to get a route into fell racing, just look for local races on the FRA calendar, anyone with reasonable hill walking fitness will do OK in a race. Just enter a race, most organisers of short races are very welcoming of novices.

In reply to IainRUK: Thanks for the info Iain. I think i would like to enter a hill race but am little worried about my hill running fitness being a litle below par. Think ill have a look on the FRA website and see whats available. I'm in Galloway in south Scotland so im think i may need to travel abit farther afield. Cheers

In reply to Toreador: Its a wee event held at Langholm in August with only 20 pairs i think. Not sure of the exact name of it as a friend entered us. I'm sure you will find it through a search though.

In reply to Jamie McCreath:
Ah right, I think I know the one - it's usually in May or June I think, and clashes with other stuff. Should be good - you'll be in for a bit of a culture shock if you like it and enter the OMM which has 100 times as many teams!

In reply to Jamie McCreath:

I wouldn't worry too much, I walk more than I run but have still yet to come last in anything!

In reply to Jamie McCreath:

Get off tracks as much as possible, on fells, heather etc - terrain. Learn to trust yourself and shoes on rough stuff and you will save lots of time and effort. I have raced with people who have fast road marathon times, but who aren't used to running off road and can't contour or descend for toffee. They also get stuffed after 4 hours - so do some long days in the hills (walking or running).

The best way to ensure you enjoy the mountain marathon, and to help your placings, is to make sure your navigation is as good as possible! The much quoted "It is better to go slowly in the right direction, than fast in the wrong direction" or words to that effect.

In reply to Jamie McCreath:

Time on your feet in the hills is the only way. I suspect your current amount of running is not going to be enough to compete comfortably but would be enough to finish.

Get out on the weekend and get a few 5 hour days in there at a slow run. Pick a few points off the beaten track e.g stream junction, re-entrant and navigate your way there. Note roughly how long it takes to get there across the terrain as you are doing a score event therefore need to be back on time. Also get in the hills as the course designers usually ensure that you face a lot of up and over terrain.

Get your food and energy sorted before the race and practise with different food. What tastes nice at the start may not taste nice after 6 hours on a hill.

Main thing is to occasionally take in the views and remember you are doing it for fun. This can easily be forgotten when trying to battle cramp after spending a day in gale force winds and a night sleeping in a puddle.

Good luck! Mountain marathons are some of the best events in the running/adventure race calendar. Warning though it is addictive!

In reply to Jamie McCreath:

Hiya I just had my first mountain marathon a few weeks back. From what we experienced hill fitness rather than running fitness will stand you in better stead. We found that there were only a few sections that we would or could actually run on. Getting used to bashing up, over and most importantly downhill in fell shoes is important. Both our knees took a kicking as we weren't used to the rough descending.

For next years LAMM training the plan is to do more days and weekends in the hills covering 15ish km each day and maybe the odd day running along the South Downs path when I cannie get away for a weekend.

McFoostie

Don't assume that everyone in fell races is some kind of superhero. There's a huge spread of abilities in my experience and the races are friendly as hell. Turn up, pay your £3 and you're bound to have a good tussle against someone going your pace and have a laugh about it afterwards.

In reply to Jamie McCreath:

Could not agree more strongly with previous post - hill fitness and more specifically climbing steep hills quickly will be your best training.

Running is good for your endurance though - once your body is used to longer runs, you can start making bigger increases in distance but more importantly time - slow and steady over long distances is much better than fast and short.

Depending on what class you enter, you will soon realise you may run relatively little, unless your planning on winning one of the top classes!Having the strength to run when things flatten off or the terrain becomes less gnarly is critical as is being able to run down hill.

Take a pack a few times as well, dont overdo things but at least get used to your pack, making sure it isn't going to destroy your back and the extra abuse this will put through your body.

And practice navigation! Remember spending 5 minutes looking at the map could save your hours of running of time in the end, so dont think you are under massive pressure to make split second decisions to begin with!

In reply to Jamie McCreath:
Also - I believe it's a Score event, ie a fixed time to visit as many controls as possible. So make sure you get out into the hills and find out just how far you can go within that time - then subtract a bit, and use that as your target for the event. Otherwise, you will almost certainly over-estimate how far you can go and end up losing points - possibly all of them!

In reply to Jamie McCreath: As others have said MMs and fell running are a bit different. MMs require more navigation than your average fell run for a start and the pace is usually faster in fell runs as you're not carrying as much stuff.
I'd kind of agree with what others have said in terms of 'hill fitness' is better than being able to run fast on trails as you are at a slower pace and need to be able to keep going for at least 4 hours. I'd also say get used to running completly off path as if you trash your feet you're not going to get far!
I'd also ensure you do a couple of back to back days and definitely practice you're navigation but also choosing routes from the map - which way would be fastest from A - B for you?