How to train
100 Mile Run
8 tips for 100-mile trail races - from Anton Krupicka
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mentally I think that's important part
of it the mental preparation is maybe
something that's overlooked sometimes
people will get very intimidated by the
distance and what takes you from 80
kilometers or 50 miles up to the hundred
mile distance is your mental kind of
approach to it the first time that I
ever ran 100 miles I had never run
further than 50 miles before and that
was only three weeks before the race so
it was definitely a mental thing level
100 yeah 2006 the first time I wanted I
made me feel like I could do well on
this fine um you know it's weird because
you finish a hundred miles like that and
it's especially your first time it's a
super humbling thing because I mean I
got 280 miles then and I always knew I
was gonna finish but it I was walking I
was like there's just no way I want to
walk the entire way to the finish but
you have that I don't know that
experience of coming out of a low
unexpectedly and I think that's sort of
the quintessential ultra experience is
going through those peaks and valleys of
energy and emotions and realizing that
you can rebound from a really little
point and that goes back to the mental
game is it's not gonna go perfect all
day at the hundred mile distance ever
and you're gonna have to it becomes a
problem-solving game of well do I need
extra calories or water or do going to
back off the pace a little bit and just
realizing that that's the whole game is
enduring through those variables and
being prepared for that mentally that
there's gonna be a tough spot but it can
get better later on and what do you do
when it really starts to have the whole
discomfort thing for me I have to decide
before I start the race before I'm on
the starting line that I'm gonna finish
no matter what because if I go in with
any doubt in my mind it's easy to
rationalize a DNF while you're on the
racecourse cuz yeah because you're
uncomfortable for a long time and so but
if I go in with the conviction that I'm
going to finish
when those doubts arrives you just you
just push aside the thought of dropping
out and and just work towards an
intermediate goal well I just want to
get to the next aid station and you know
or the top of this hill on then to the
next day station and so on you can't
think about the end until you're
actually getting near the end otherwise
yeah it just becomes demoralizing you
want to drop yeah and so what do you
wish you'd known before you did your
first one oh that's a good question
actually um well I'm gonna flip it
around actually and say that the
ignorance that you have going into your
first 100-mile race is sort of
underrated I think and really valuable
and for me about was certainly the case
for me if I had gone with conventional
wisdom beforehand I think I would have
limited myself and maybe not have had as
good of a race as I ended up having or a
successful of a race and so I think it's
important to go in with an open mind to
what kind of experience you can have
that it isn't gonna necessarily be this
kind of soul-crushing I don't know
negative thing but yeah it can be a
really positive and it's gonna be really
hard no matter what uh what I wish I'd
known yeah I guess that the whole the
whole cliche that it doesn't always get
worse it turns out to be true
maybe it's hard to believe that until it
actually happens to you but that's
something that's worth knowing
beforehand that yeah you can be feeling
horrible and still feel great later on
in the race saying somebody's gonna do
that first hundred my last name next
year what's your biggest piece of advice
for them before the 100 mile race to do
with training you need to get a couple
of long runs you know and maybe that
comes in the form of a race and by long
I mean seven or eight hours on your feet
kind of thing which for me ends up being
around 50 miles but the distance isn't
so important as time on your feet I
think because you know maybe someone in
the mid pack a 50 mile of training run
would take 10 or 12 hours or something
which I think it ends up being a little
too long so
helps to do intermediate races along the
way because it a race you have the
support of East Asians and that kind of
thing that's nice to build up to the
hundred mile distance but don't
underestimate getting a couple of those
long-ago efforts in I think it's
important to get that time on your feet
especially before your first hundred
mile or in subsequent hundred miles
having that experience that first
experience under your belt I don't think
it's as necessary to do all the long
runs but the first time definitely and
if nothing else you try out different
kinds of fuel you build mental
confidence for enduring the distance
yeah long runs are important and then
during your first 100 miler and what's
your top piece of advice there during
the race I would say my top advice is to
stay in the moment and don't project too
far into the into the rate the distance
of the race because it goes back like I
saying you can have a demoralizing low
point at 25 miles and you're like oh
gosh I'm only a quarter of the way
through Andy it's really easy to get
down on yourself but especially with so
much distance remaining that's a long
time for things to turn around - so just
- just remember during the race that
there's going to be low patches they
might come earlier than you expect and
that it will get better and anything
around nutrition during the race
I mean I avoid talking about nutrition
because it's so individual it's the I
don't think there are really any hard
and fast rules so many different things
work for people I stick to sugar and
water and salt but that's I've had
pretty good success with that I'm
jealous jealous jealous yeah sorry I've
you know it's all the same like gels in
can do the same thing basically you know
coming berries and a GU chomp or
essentially the same thing so yeah some
kind of quick sugar and then but a lot
of people that doesn't work for them
their stomachs go bad they need more
solid food so I don't really have both
it but just you should be trying to get
in two or three hundred calories an hour
and probably drinking trying to stay on
top of your hydration before you get
behind a lot of the races in the states
are hot so that's always an issue it
seems like
host race then how should you recover
from hundra milah well I don't know how
you should recover from a hundred-mile
er for me it takes a while like if I'm
running 100 miles it's been an all-out
effort and I need a month of like well
at least a week of no running at all
maybe two weeks it takes me a while to
be hungry again after 100 miler but yeah
then just eating normal food and you
don't love cross-training now yeah so I
mean cross-training is definitely
important part of my overall training
biking in the summer skiing in the
winter so now being the end of November
ski most season is upon us and I'll be
doing that through the spring basically
yeah well hope see you back in the UK in
the spring thank you very much for
talking to us today
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