How to Train for Endurance

Twelve weeks from 10km to ultra distance, built on a base most runners skip.

A twelve-week frame for going from 10km to ultra distance without breaking yourself in month two. It starts slower than you want it to.

Weeks one to four are aerobic only. No tempo, no intervals, nothing that makes you breathe hard enough to stop talking. Most runners quit this block early because it feels like nothing is happening. What is happening is capillary density, mitochondria and tendon tolerance, and none of that shows up on a watch until week six.

Weeks five to eight add one quality session. One. On Enterprise Road we run six by one kilometre at threshold with ninety seconds float, and that is the whole hard week. The long run keeps growing by no more than two kilometres a week.

Weeks nine to twelve are where the Sunday run does the work: 28km, 32km, 35km, then back down to 24km before the race. Christon Bank gives you the climb, and the last hour of every long run should be run on tired legs deliberately.

Two rules hold the whole thing together. Never take the long run and the quality session in the same 48 hours, and never add distance and intensity in the same week. Everything else is negotiable.