12 Ultrarunning Workouts for Ultramarathon Success

By Jason Koop,
CTS Head Ultrarunning Coach

When I build ultrarunning workouts for athletes, I have unlimited combinations to choose from. I can create intervals ranging from seconds to hours. I can manipulate the intensity of intervals, combine different interval modalities into one workout, vary the amount recovery between intervals, and more. Despite the choices available, most of the workouts I use come from only a few combinations.

Why? Because workout architecture doesn’t need to be complicated to be effective. Furthermore, because many ultrarunners determine their intensity by Rate of Perceived Exertion (vs heart rate or pace), the structure of the intervals and recovery periods will dictate the intensity and how much time is spent at that intensity.

By reducing the complexity, I can derive most adaptations I’m looking for with the right combination of interval number, duration, and recovery period. Below are the twelve most common ultrarunning workout combinations I prescribe, categorized by workout type.

RunningIntervals

If there was an ultrarunning workout athletes are allergic to, it would be RunningIntervals. The lung-searing intensity is seemingly incompatible with the long, slow nature of an ultramarathon. Combine that with the sheer discomfort these intervals elicit, and even the most seasoned ultrarunners avoid these like the plague. Yet, even ultra-distance athletes can reap benefits from this type of work.

How RunningIntervals Work

RunningIntervals improve your stroke volume and maximum cardiac output, and therefore your VO₂max. But the benefits do not end there. Adaptations from RunningIntervals can also increase your plasma volume, giving you the ability to tolerate heat better, as well as improve muscle capillarization, which helps improve blood and oxygen delivery to working muscles.

Athletes perform RunningIntervals at an effort coaches call ‘VO₂max’ intensity. The quotes are intentional, as you are only at your true VO₂max for part of the workout. More importantly, and what drives most of the adaptation, is that you are running at an effort that elicits 90% of your VO₂max oxygen consumption for greater than 10 total minutes.

Most of the research behind this specific time-at-intensity (10 minutes at 90% of VO₂max) was done by French researcher Vérinoque Billat, who interestingly enough won the famed Sierre-Zinal race in the 1982. Now that the history lesson is over, let’s get into how to structure a workout to drive this critical time at intensity.

How To Do RunningIntervals

In order to derive the critical amount of time (>10 minutes) at the specific intensity (>90% of VO₂max oxygen consumption), I target individual intervals that are 2-4 minutes in length, separated by equal recovery periods, to accumulate 12-24 minutes of total interval time. The RPE for these efforts is between 9 and 10.

Although you can complete these intervals on any terrain or on a treadmill, I recommend doing them uphill if possible. The incline is helpful for increasing the workload and enabling you to reach 90% of your VO₂max oxygen consumption more consistently. RunningIntervals should never be done downhill as it will be nearly impossible to achieve >90% of your VO₂max oxygen consumption.

TempoRun

TempoRun intervals are a crucial ultrarunning workout for making you faster and stronger. The pace and intensity of these intervals are strenuous. This is because you will be running slightly below or at your lactate threshold intensity. These intervals help to drive the process of increasing the size and density of mitochondria in your muscles. That improves your ability to burn fat and carbohydrate, as well as process and utilize lactate as a fuel. Like RunningIntervals, they can also increase plasma volume, giving you greater ability to manage your core temperature, and increase mitochondrial enzyme activity which helps you produce more energy faster.

How TempoRun Works

Like RunningIntervals, the critical component of TempoRun intervals is the time spent at the particular intensity. So, the design of the interval structure is imperative. Too much interval volume combined with prolonged interval length and insufficient recovery leads the intensity level to be too low to be effective. On the other end of the spectrum, too little volume with a protracted interval length and copious recovery leads the intensity to be too high.

TempoRuns target an intensity that is at or slightly below your lactate threshold. For most trained runners, this intensity should be sustainable for 40-90 minutes as an all-out time trial. That’s a big range. But, in the laboratory and in the field, we see this range play out.

Less experienced runners start out with the ability to tolerate only 40-50 minutes at their lactate threshold pace. As they become more trained, they can increase this tolerance to an hour or even longer, even when adjusting for the increase in pace to accommodate the increase in fitness. In other words, training makes your lactate threshold pace faster and increases the time you can tolerate running at that faster pace.

How To Do TempoRun Intervals

Accordingly, the total amount of interval time for a TempoRun workout will be between 40 and 90 minutes. Divide the total time up into 8- to 15-minute intervals. Recovery periods between intervals should be half the duration of the interval. This means a 2-to-1 recovery ratio, or 6 minutes of recovery between 12-minute intervals. Runners should complete TempoRun intervals at an RPE of 8 or 9.  Be aware that RPE gradually creeps up during each interval and throughout the set. TempoRuns can be done on flat, uphill, or slightly rolling terrain.

SteadyStateRun

A SteadyStateRun workout pushes you to a challenging aerobic pace but keeps you below your lactate threshold intensity and pace. This intensity is important for developing a stronger aerobic engine because you’re maintaining an effort level greater than your normal “forever” pace.

SteadyState intensity is very close to your everyday EnduranceRun intensity. Most runners find that they naturally fall into this intensity when doing continuous climbs of >20 minutes. SteadyStateRun intervals should be as continuous as possible. Individual intervals should range from 20 to 60 minutes. And total time at intensity for a single workout can range from 20 minutes to 2 hours.

A typical SSR workout might feature two 30-minute SSR intervals separated by 5 minutes of easy recovery. The RPE for SSR is 7-8. It takes extra attention not to let your intensity level creep up toward TempoRun territory on climbs. Runners can complete SteadyStateRuns on flat, uphill or slightly rolling terrain.

A Word on Recovery 

All this ultrarunning workout talk about interval RPE, duration, the number of intervals, and terrain should make you think ‘What about the recovery period?’ Don’t overcomplicate the recovery pace. Do the work periods hard and the easy periods easy. This means that the recovery between intervals can be easy running or even walking. Remember, the structure behind these workouts is specifically designed to target an amount of time at a physiological intensity which then drives certain adaptations. Running slightly harder during the recovery period does more harm than good. Increasing the intensity of the recovery periods beyond an easy jog or walk will limit the intensity you can achieve during the actual intervals, which will limit the total time spent at the target intensity. This reduces the overall quality of the workout as well as the benefits you can reap from it.