[51010]

Hi all,

Recently posted about my long term goal to run a 100km mountain ultra in 2026. The spring race I have registered for in 2025 is 25km trail run on rolling hills (circa 500m elevation). After that, a similar distance skyrace in July with much more elevation (2000m).

Building for the first race, which is hilly but not mountainous, I am torn between following military athlete block 2 or intro to ultra training plans. Both plans start with about 4 hours of running each week, and progress volume enough to seriously build my aerobic capacity. However, MAF keeps two strength sessions focusing on general strength whereas the intro to ultra plan will focus on a gym ME  progression.

Given my long term goals to run mountainous ultras, is there any benefit with staying on the MAF plan with greater focus on general strength for this first block of training or would it be best to lay a foundation of more specific training on the Intro to Ultra plan? The following block will focus much more on ME and hill strength ahead of the skyrace.

I have run trail races before, but am currently relatively detrained averaging under 20mpw. Either plan would certainly make me fitter and stronger. Subjectively speaking, I enjoy strength training so would like to keep it in my routine in some capacity.

 

 

 

 

 

[Scott Johnston]

with those goals I would recommend shifting to the intro to ultra plan.  The ME workouts will be super valuable in prepping you for longer runs.  You could easily add a general strength session in the week although I would go a bit light on the leg work in it as the ME will be a pretty big leg load and you don’t want to have the strength work result in needing to decrease your running volume.

Scott

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