Can we talk about ultra distance?

[mrs.jacinthe]

In general, since I know that I'm the only crazy-distance swimmer here.

I'll say it out loud: I'm training for a 36-mile swim next June. My longest swim to date was about 10 miles. So this is the equivalent of going from a marathon to a 100k-ish. Or, more accurately, a 75 miler, if that's a thing.

Here's my question: how do I do long swims? I mean, no one running a 100k is heading out for 50 mile runs, right? Do I do three 10-mile swims in a row on three consecutive days? One 18-miler? Anyone have a (free/easily accessible) ultra-run training plan or two to share with me?

[labbie]

Total ultra newbie here, but fwiw I am loosely following a plan for a 50 miler generated by this calculator.

www.scrunners.org/ultramarathon-training-schedule-generator.html

The longest single run is 31, and the back to back long runs are key to learn to run on tired legs . For me, I'm giving myself flexibility to swap some midweek runs for x-training. Not sure how this all translates to swimming, but I'm definitely not approaching anywhere near the race day mileage in a single run.

I'm in awe of that swim mileage, and can't wait to hear about your journey!

[Deleted]

I'm so excited to hear how you do this (and you will do this, I know it).
I can't speak from personal experience, but people that I know that have done ultras train more based on time on their feet. One woman said she was going to be running 6 x 10km laps of our local park and invited people to join her on the hour so she had company. How this translates to swimming I don't know unless you have a massively long lake and have people swim laps of it with you? That way you can have fresh swimmers to keep things interesting and a feed station.
Sorry, probably not helpful but I'm so curious to hear more about this though!

[cinco]

Wow! I have a couple running buddies training for a 100 miler and they are doing a 50m race as a "training run", but for the most part rely on weekends of back to backs in the 20-30m/day range. I feel like your swim is more along the lines of a 100 miler vs. a 50 (where I did one 31m, and a couple marathons, followed by a 10m the next day)

Good luck! Can't wait to hear about it.

[fuckyourcouch]

Aug 2, 2017 7:33:26 GMT -5 cinco said:

Wow! I have a couple running buddies training for a 100 miler and they are doing a 50m race as a "training run", but for the most part rely on weekends of back to backs in the 20-30m/day range. I feel like your swim is more along the lines of a 100 miler vs. a 50 (where I did one 31m, and a couple marathons, followed by a 10m the next day)

Good luck! Can't wait to hear about it.

My ultra running friends do this. There's lots of 100mi races around here and they are out there constantly doing back to back days. I would also say though, they are trail racers and while there is typically a lot of elevation, they are not running their "real" pace for these.

So I would say doing back to back swims is the strategy, while keeping whatever pace you do in check to not completely exhaust yourself.

Also, you are amazing. Can't wait to hear about this!

[al320]

Im no help, just wanted to reiterate how badass you are.

[scm1011]

Aug 2, 2017 10:21:13 GMT -5 al320 said:

Im no help, just wanted to reiterate how badass you are.

Yup, this. I cannot even compute swimming 36 miles. Holy moly.

[jene]

Wow. I can't wait to hear about this! So awesome!

[sadlebred]

You are insane. In that good way, and I can't wait to follow your racing journey!

[ktzmoh]

So many props to you for always blowing my mind. I have nothing to add to the advice (I was going to say back to back long swims) - just giving you a big high five on this.