If you are looking for a new goal for 2022, then why not try your hand, or should we rather say legs, at an ultra-marathon trail run? There are many fantastic trail run races taking place across South Africa throughout the year. The trick is to pick a great race for beginners a few months away and start your training with the goal of completing it in mind. Taking place on Saturday the 1st and Sunday the 2nd of October 2022, the K-Way Maxi-Race Cape Winelands 75km and 120km routes are becoming firm favourites with both local, out of province and even a few international runners too.
Now that you know which race you very likely will be doing, how exactly should you go about training and prepping yourself for an ultra-marathon trail run? After all, you not only want to run it, but want to have at least some moments of enjoyment whilst running it, and of course making sure you get to the finish line!
Here are some tips from our top athletes on how they have done it, but before you get going, remember to stock up by finding the best deals on running essentials from PriceCheck:
Train as consistently as possible throughout the year.
Unless you have superhuman powers, you cannot simply run a 75km or 120km route with only a few weeks of training under your belt – give yourself time. Spread your training out so that you are not cramming too many big weeks in right before the race, and don’t push yourself to do too many massive peak weeks. Keep it consistent.
Work to a training programme.
It doesn’t have to be a super detailed daily training programme, but simply one that can help you know when to focus on bigger training weeks and how to structure your training around family and work commitments, in other words, life. Having a programme is also a great way to set yourself mini goals that you can easily work towards, this will help you keep both mentally and physically focused.
Train for the race you are running.
Get yourself out onto the actual race route before you run it, take advantage of the pre-runs that the race organisers set up. This will help you know what to expect and pick up some valuable advice from the race organisers and guides about the route.
Practice makes perfect.
ALWAYS practice your race nutrition and wear your race gear before the event. If you’re breaking in new trail running shoes or have specific running shorts, compression gear, and a hydration pack to test out, this is the time to do it. This will ensure that you don’t have any additional variables to deal with on race day – trust us, it helps to have one less unknown to worry about on race day.
Set yourself a race plan.
Finally, try to set yourself a race plan that you can use on race day, this will help you through the route and help to give you an idea of how well you are doing on race day.
