UKC

I ran my first ever road ultra yesterday, the 32 mike Dartmoor Discovery done lots of trail ultras and road marathons before but never a road ultra.

I now feel broken, truly broken. Give me a sixty plus mlle trail race any day, Road running is just brutal and far tougher on the body than the toughest trails I've done....

Happy with my overall performance though (left calf doesn't agree though) made the inning ladies team so trinkets to show for it :-D

But knowing me I'll do it (or similar again) so apart from being a road convert anyone got any tips for quick and not too consuming road conditioning or is it just a case of getting the road miles in beforehand?

In reply to Wonrek:

It is a question of getting the road miles in, but road ultras will always hurt more than trail ultras afterwards. Repetitive pounding, same foot placement all the time. You also generally work harder on the road and don't get the walking breaks.

I did a 50K desert race yesterday, not on road but on a very hard and runnable surface and I am completely destroyed today. I have felt better after 100k mountain races with four times as much ascent.

In reply to Wonrek:
Well done, it looks like a very tough race and it must have been hot up on the moor. Four guys from our club ran it, one came in 5th and was running with the club this morning!! The other three struggled to the icecream van in Brixham and that was an effort. Not sure I could run that far on the road, but I do quite fancy giving it a go next year as I love Dartmoor.

In reply to Wonrek:

Huge respect I was there clapping you all in to the finish line by the Fox Tor Cafe.

As us cyclists say - "chapeau"

In reply to Wonrek: Road road and more road.. its the only way. I find 100k on the flat in 7:20 harder on my body than 167k at the UTMB in 29 hrs..

In reply to Wonrek: Thank you everyone. I did suspect that the answer lay in pounding roads more......

Today is going to be the real killer, two days after the race and DOMS in full flight. Plus I've pulled a muscle in my calf at the beginning of the race but continued anyway so that singing the hallelujah chorus at me.

I think it was around mile 17 that I swore (profusely) that I'd never run on a road again......I know this isn't going to happen and I'll be suckered in again.

It was a great race for road, if I hadn't been in so mucho pain with my calf I'd nearly say I enjoyed it! I guess winning the ladies team prize and having such amazing support made it all worthwhile though