How do you train for a fell race?
How do you train for a fell race (season)? (Gets up on soapbox/unpacks the deadly tomes)
**With thanks to adidas, who’ve kept me in gear for this particular fell season- especially the TERREX SPEED ULTRA TRAIL RUNNING SHOES and MULTI HYBRID INSULATED JACKET**
I’ve been asked a few times at local fell races, how I train to run the fells. I certainly don’t claim to have all the answers but just wanted to share my experience, in the hope that some of you may find it useful.
First of all, a disclaimer: I don’t consider myself to be an athlete. An athlete is 24/7 and looks after themselves as if they were. I am a runner who no longer partakes in as many other activities as I used to, apart from the odd bit of swimming and surfing and as such, I currently train like a runner.
The overview
As a teenager, my training was fairly unstructured and lacked any cohesive long-term strategy. I ran mostly on feel and according to what my then coach, asked us to do, as part of a group of runners. I also played tennis, football, rugby and hockey to a reasonable level, so my general sporting background was good.
When I was 17, I trained for a while with an elite group under Lindsay Dunn at Gateshead Stadium, which included the likes of Steve Cram, David Sharpe, Mike McLeod, Vince Wilson and Charlie Spedding, among its numbers. I always found track training a bit boring, although I liked the competition. At Loughborough University, I was lucky enough to captain a very talented cross-country team. In my thirties I went back to rugby, playing on the wing up to county level, where we were coached by former British Lion Nigel Redmond and Scottish and English Internationals Jim Pollock and Colin White, who was also an ex-SAS soldier (you didn’t want to get on the wrong side of him!)
This is an unusual combination I realise. But it taught my body to relearn how to sprint (and to recruit fast twitch fibres) and how to develop a tolerance for lactic. As a result, I’ve been exposed to a lot of different training stimuli and probably have larger than normal thigh and hip muscles (for an endurance athlete), which I don’t consider a hindrance, except after a long car journey!
Despite the relative lack of structure, it was enough to win national cross country titles English Schools Senior boy, National Youths Cross Country, British School juniors Cross Country and two English Schools third places, as well as 6th English schools 1500m and 4th 3000m and AAA 3000m.
Back then, you could have probably counted on one hand, the number of athletes who were using threshold training and lactate training to guide them. Paula Ratcliffe may well have been one of them. Our diets were appalling, given what we know now and sleep was something you did when you ran out of energy.
It’s a cliché but true, that you have to listen more to your body as you get older (pure talent is wasted on the young and the older!) especially if your business relies on you remaining injury free 24-7. My training has to fit around work and family commitments, which means it’s not my number one priority. But it is something I do (almost every day when I’m fit) and although I no longer keep a diary as such, like most runners, I do have a very good recall for times, previous sessions and unfavourable currents, when you’re best advised not to put your foot down.
I tend to train between 40 and 60 miles a week but this year I have divided this into phases. Aerobic base (approximately six weeks), muscular strength/aerobic endurance -hill strength and aerobic capacity (2 to 3 months) and speed endurance with core strength endurance. I do very little lactic tolerance or V02 running these days, until late in the summer when (in these parts at least) we’re into peak fell running season but I always try to incorporate some hills, or to do something every fortnight, which requires some kind of fast turnover. This could be a fast feet downhill stretch on a steady run or a one-hour interval session interspersing speeds of 5.30min and 6.30 min miling with the latter as recovery. This has the effect of increasing my aerobic threshold and I like to include one of these sessions at least every three weeks.
In the summer, it’s time for a bit of fartlek (which means stretching out on some long descents and fast feet up the hills) and short intervals on a treadmill (these days I combine my strength and conditioning with a treadmill session to minimise my visits to the gym!). I don’t do any heavy lifting, just squats, calf raises, lunges and box jumps for plyometric (elastic) strength to absorb impact better and respond better to the changes in terrain.
Musculo skeletal feedback relies on good pro proprioception and balance, which is something that can be developed by standing (or kneeling at first) on a Swiss ball, box jumps (don’t overdo it), and yes hula-hoops, which are great for engaging the core! (It took me a while to pluck up the courage to do this in the gym!)
As with every kind of training regime, it’s never one size fits all. You have to be honest with yourself about your objectives and motives. If your objective is to finish a race (no matter how tough), that becomes a lot simpler, because you can train your body to become more resilient, without touching the invisible threshold of trying to eke out that extra 10% to beat a time or set an FKT for example. If your objective is to improve or maybe win a race, the lessons are the same but they just become more critical!
Be fit for purpose
To run and enjoy a fell race, your body should be fit for purpose. Which means maintaining some core strength, ankle mobility and muscular endurance. Make this part of your training and you’ll live to run another race!
Week hip flexors and glutes don’t survive long on the hills and mountains. So stretch and strengthen these. Develop the mentality to run downhill at speed. The ability to be relaxed and enjoy what’s in front of you with a hybrid smile/grimace on your face.
What training?
Muscular endurance and eccentric loading are essential for fell runners. So you need to build this in to your training. This is when the resistance applied to the muscle (and tendons) is greater than the force produced by the muscle. So calf raises on the edge of a stair, perhaps with an added weight on your shoulders. One legged squats and perhaps some banded exercise where the external resistance is increased.
Muscle endurance can also be improved with hill repetitions over varying distances and gradually increasing the volume. This will also build your enthusiasm for running up hills!
Increase your aerobic threshold for a given heart rate. Build the base with Zone 1 and 2 training to extend your aerobic threshold. If you want to know what this means, listen to my podcast interview with Eoin Everard
This will also have the effect of pushing back the dreaded lactic zone.
Also…
Stand up and stretch whenever you can to keep the lower back mobilised and the hip flexors stretched.
Never bound on a treadmill. The exaggerated movements may create too bigger impact.
Get familiar with the landscape and combine this with a knowledge of navigation.
What are your barriers to enjoying it?
- If you’re too results focussed, you won’t enjoy the outcome for very long.
- Don’t expect markers all the way round a fell course and be prepared to go wrong,
- Turn up with the right kit! (guilty many times over!)
- Study a map of the route (I’ve been guilty of not doing this on several occasions and it has almost always caught me out!)
- Cultivate a sense of hope but don’t expect. This is also a great lesson for life!
- Stick around for the postrace pint. You never know what you may learn or discover.