How much to run to do an 100 miler?

That’s a question I ask my self often, and I believe its a common question for many runners aspiring to run their first 100 milers. But what’s so special with 100 miles? I guess everyone have their own opinion on that as well and how you prepare for it. I also believe that how you should get there, depends on what you are trying to achieve. I thought I would share a few words on, first of all, why I want to run 100 miles, then what my thoughts are on how much I need to run for my first 100 miler and share some of my general preparations.

First of then…

Why I want to run 100 miles?

Ever since I bought and read the book “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall I have been aspiring to run further. To do more! To experience more! To feel more natural and be close to the natural feeling of movement. This combined with the love of nature has made me to aspire to one day run 100 miles.

I did try (and partly love barefoot shoes), buts that’s a whole other blog post. 😉

It did take a few years until I manage to convince my self that this was actually something I could do. The goal simply felt too far away. It felt unachievable to run 100 miles. I thought at that time, how can people even run a marathon?

While I continued my running “career”, I got to know of more adventures out there. I saw more races and beautiful experiences, both in nature and personal development that only seem possible to experience after a truly long run. Something like a 100 miler run.

This feeling, to experience something more, to experience new environments and beautiful places while I push my body and mind to do better and more is what makes me excited to run a 100miles long run. There are so many beautiful races and places out there, that I don’t believe I would have experienced without running a 100 mile race.

Needles to say, I don’t want to experience this or run 100 mile at any cost. I want to complete 100 miles and have manage to do so, without falling to pieces.

I have never been a fast runner, or even experienced much joy while, feeling exhausted of running fast. Not entirely true, but I don’t like to run fast. Therefore, I don’t have any aspiration to complete a 100 miles within a certain time frame. I just want to complete the race in one piece (at least body and muscle wise) so I hopefully shortly can run again.

As its the continuous running that truly makes me feel good and help me learn more about my self.

What 100 mile races can I chose?

Oh… there are so many races out there. Of course, when reading Born to Run, I got to know of all of the classic races in US , such as Western States, Leadville and Hardrock. When I later continued to read other books and more importantly watched endless of hours of trail running on Youtube I discovered Hurt, Badwater and many other 100 mile races in US. Being a Swede, located in Stockholm, Sweden many of these felt and continue to feel like unachievable dreams. In Sweden, I’ve seen a few classical races like TEC (which is also then only Western States qualifier in Sweden), GAX and Kullamannen but none of them really checked all the boxes. Looking out in Europe there are of course many beautiful races that has got my attention, but the race that sticks out are of course UTMB – which for people “not in the game” could be seen as the unofficial World Cup of trail running.

Over the last couple of years, I have slowly increased my training load and this year (2022), I was after running a few great races 2021 (val d’aran utmb, Kullamannen Sprint, UTMR), qualified to apply for the lottery of UTMB. Despite that, or perhaps thanks to some of the beautiful races I did last year, I did chose not to put my hat into the ring for UTMB. Instead, I chose to sign up for the lottery of TDS 2022. TDS, being just short of 100 miles (145k) starts earlier in the UTMB week, and caught my attention more than UTMB as I believe the views, climbs and experience will be just a step more exciting than UTMB. With 25k short, but only 900m of elvanation less I believe TDS will be an experience that I will never forget. To my big joy, excitement and a bit of nervous smiles I got accepted. So come August of 2022, I will run and complete TDS by UTMB.

As you can read in this post, there are also many other races I will run in 2022, like Trans Gran Canaria 125k, and Andorra 100K. All with a good amount of elevation gain, but also all short of 100 miles. If I do qualify for UTMB 100 next year (2023) I will for sure apply. This year though, I believe I will try to enhance my changes for UTMB next year, by signing up for my first 100 miler. Kullamannen 100 in Sweden. Kullamannen is a beautiful , mostly relatively flat races which I ran the Sprint version of during 2021. The “Sprint” is actually not really a sprint, more a 100K+ races that allow you to experience both beautiful beaches, climbs, winds and lots of friendly people cheering you along. During that race, I told my self a few times, “nah, this isn’t for me”. It took only a few hours after I completed the run before I promised my running friends that I would stand on the starting line again next year, but that time ready to run the 100 miles. So, if I do get in. Kullamannen 100 2022 will be my first 100 miles run.

What I believe I need to run, to run 100 miles

After speaking to my good friend Mikael Melto, I realised that I don’t need to run as far as I thought. I did get two progressive running schedules from Mikael which I intended to follow. But as like with many running and training programs I’ve started, I relatively quickly stopped. I’ve also tried runstreaks, the Pace on Earth (10 månader mot 10 mil) and a good amount of running apps. What happen with them all, is that I start to feel controlled by the progress on how to get there, and the fun disappear. There are soooo much I have to do in life. I don’t want running to be another thing I have to do.

Another thing, Mikaels advice and all the running schedules I have read and followed have in common is consistency. Consistent running over a long period of time. Ideally continuous and progressive increase with frequent and re-ouccuring rest days and rest periods. This is something I now try to achieve without being controlled by it. Another thing I’ve felt is good, and frequently hear is a good thing is back to back longer running sessions. This is something I true to achieve every weekend. At least 15K+ every Saturday and Sunday.

I believe the consistency is greatly captured in this video about the resistance.

My current training load

I have since a few months ago, set my training goal in Strava to be 70k, just shy of 50 miles. As I run most of them on trails, this means about 8 hours+ of running per week. I don’t always get there, more frequent I do between 50-60k per week. Though , as January came and I needed to wrap up my training for Trans Gran Canaria, I thought for my self I had to increase. December was particular poor due to illness, work and life in general. During January I managed to kickstart the year with a months run streak, and had two weeks of 90k trails, followed by a shorter 60k week and then up to another 90k week. Whats coming next is yet to see, but I might reduce the milage and increase the elevation gain further.

During the final two weeks before Trans Gran Canaria, I will take it back to a minimum and stay at home mostly. I will only do short sessions on the treadmill to ensure I move. Stay at home primarily to reduce the risk of catching COVID in the last weeks before TGC / Trans Gran Canaria. An important milestone before my first 100 mile race.

If you want check out more details of how I run, check out my Strava profile.

Which race should be my first 100 miler?

As mentioned above, if stars align and I get in: My first 100 miles race will be Kullamannen 2022. I could for sure have chosen both a harder, and an easier 100 miles race but Kullamannen is the race to complete in 2022. It works great in my running calendar, I earn stones for UTMB 2023 and I’m already now plan the trip to Kullamannen with my running friends. As the comradeship is as important, its hard to say no to Kullamannen, when we are a group of friends that will experience the race together.

Running 100 miles in a Backyard Ultra race

This is how I thought I would do my first 100 miler. Running backyards races I believe is extremely fun. Its a far bigger and more fun experience than what I first thought it would be. Running the same loop is not at all as dull as one first think it will be. You can enjoy new friends to chat with every loop. This together with excellent support every 6.7k, I believe running your first 100 mile as a backyard ultra marathon race, I think is a good idea. Despite that, I still haven’t managed to do it. The closest I’ve been yet is a 15 hours backyard ultra marathon… So how the h.ll should I be able to complete all the long races I’ve set out to run this year…. 😱 oh well, it’s just a target.

A target that makes me continue to dream and improve. Continue to fight the resistance.

How and when will you run your first 100 mile race?