Coach’s Corner | Six Ultramarathon Racing Tactics For Peak Performance

By Chase Parnell — January 28, 2020

This article isn’t going to be for your finish line hand holders, it’s more for those who are competing and wanting to finish as high in the field as they possibly can. I don’t care if you’re a back of the packer, a mid-packer, or leading the charge, these tips can be applied to your racing strategy and they might just be the difference between a mediocre day and one you’ll always be proud of. Disclaimer: despite a few light-hearted jabs like the above “finish line hand holders” comment, this post is in no way meant to disparage those of you that run ultras for the sheer fun of being outside and in community with other ultra runners. Crossing the finish, in any form, is a powerful moment no matter how you look at it. But I’m writing here to the segment of population out there that is looking for marginal gains and ways to climb up the results any way they can.

ONE — Have a Race Plan

This might sound like a no-brainer but I think a lot of us are going into these long ultras just hoping to survive. Hoping that if we’re feeling good, we’ll just run fast, and the race will take care of itself. I remember running in The Bear 100 in 2018 and bumping into Jeff Browning out on the course. I was sitting in 5th place and only about 8-10 minutes behind the leader. Jeff ran with me for a couple minutes and told me the status of all the runners ahead of me. He started talking about the importance of the next climb. He told me that the ultimate winner is going to be the one who runs the next climb well. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the fitness on the day to capitalize on this great piece of beta, but it clicked for me there that winners, like Browning, have concrete racing plans and strategically implement tactics during their races.

What are you going to do that others aren’t? Where are you going to make your moves? Maybe talk to a local beforehand and ask for their take on the course and where there are big gains to be had. Make a strategic plan — don’t just cross your fingers and hope it all falls into your lap. You have to take it, you have to execute.

TWO — Strategically Fuel

This is something I’ve only recently started doing and, frankly, I don’t know why its taken me so long to implement. In the past I’ve typically set an alarm on my watch for a beep every half an hour, at which point I’d take a gel and make sure I’d get my 200 calories per hour. While that did provide a fairly steady drip of carbs and took the guess work out of my fueling, I found that I was similarly not engaged in RACING, which is what I was out there to do. Recently I’ve started to take my gels more as needed and in response to my effort in the race. I still try to make sure I’m getting at least 200 calories an hour but if there’s a long climb coming, I’ll take a gel at the base even if maybe I already took one 20 minutes prior. Or if I’m about to start a surge to pass someone, I’ll pop a gel and dig in. Or even if I’m just feeling like crap, instead of looking at the watch and saying shoot, 20 minutes until the alarm, I’ll just take in calories right then and there as part of my problem solving process. The effect and energy boost from the calories feels essentially automatic.

Now of course, calories aren’t always going to dig you out of your pain cave, but your relationship with your fuel should be framed correctly. If we can transition our perspective from a metronomic 200 calories per hour every hour to more of a strategic and responsive fueling protocol, I think you’ll see returns, even perhaps if there’s some mental placebo effect going on. Any positive boost, especially late in a race, might just turn over the gears enough to take you off the ropes and on to the attack. As someone who has had a tenuous relationship with consuming gels and other foods during races, I’ve needed to reshape my outlook with it from the nauseating ordeal of trying to force food down to more of a positive thing where I actually view the food as integrally important energy-giving fuel.

THREE — Surge When Passing

Don’t be fooled. When you pass someone, they’re typically not all that happy about it. Sure, they’ll give you a fist-bump or some words of encouragement, and that might be totally genuine, but probably also, they’re a little sour that you are moving faster than them and you are serving as a reminder that their day might not be going as planned. If they have some life left in them, they will be analyzing you closely as you go by. So this is a bit cruel, but what you want to do is really crush their spirit and kill their dreams that they might be able to hang with you if they then and there decide to go with you.

Here’s what you do: you close the gap and move to within 20-30 meters of them, and then take a minute to recover by running at their pace. You want to save up some energy in preparation of your surge. When you’re feeling ready, you turn it on and blow by them — don’t hang right on their butt, don’t engage in conversation other than a quick Good Job or whatever. You need to go by them before they know what hit them. Then, the crux is maintaining your surge until you’re well out of site. You might go into the red a bit during the minutes it takes you to do this, but that’s okay. What you can’t do is give them a chance to marshal their will and latch on to you.

This may be a bit tough to swallow, but I’ll reiterate, you are in a race! I know, I know, ultra running is supposed to be super chill and laid back and all that, but don’t feel bad about trying to break people and do your very best out there. Sure, don’t be a dick…ever. Full stop. And when the race is over, go hug all the runners and complement their calves and all that, but a race is too great an opportunity to waste. It is a time to push yourself to places you never thought you could go, to tap into the energy and experience that you can’t get on your own.

FOUR — Play to Your Strengths and Take Risks

Playing to your strengths not only includes the race itself, but also the selection of your races on the frontend. We are all unique in our abilities. Nobody, and I mean nobody, is the full package. If you’ve done a lot of running then you probably know what your strengths are, but if you don’t, here are some questions to spur your thinking. Are you a good climber? If so, on what types of climbs? Long grinders where you’re able to cruise on a moderate grade? Or short pitchy climbs where power hiking is required? Are you a good descender? Are you better on buffed out bombers or technical rooty rocky descents where agility and athleticism is key? Are you a flat-lander? Do you have a road background? Go back and look at your results. What were the types of courses that produced your top performances? The course was likely a major factor.

Once you’ve found a race course that suits you, make sure to capitalize on your strengths during the race. If you know you’re a strong hiker but don’t have a lot of speed, really get after those steep climbs because you likely aren’t going to make up any time on your competitors on the descents or flats. This might seem obvious but I’ve gone into a lot of races with essentially no plan other than to try to stay as comfortable as possible for as long as possible, and from my experience, that won’t take you very far. In 2016, I ran Run Rabbit Run 100 in a hair under 23 hours for 15th place. I essentially ran a nice easy pace for the entire race. I executed my plan and it was a total snoozer. Sure I moved up towards the end because there is always carnage, but I didn’t intentionally put my best foot forward by attacking the sections of the course that I could have excelled on.

At some point, if you want to have a great day, you need to take a risk and you’ll want to make sure that risk is tied to your natural strengths and abilities. This was first drilled into me when I read about how Hal Koerner popped a win at Hardrock way back in 2012. How did he pull it off? From what I know, Hal can descend and he’s got speed, so he purposefully hammered the long descents while others were playing it safe. You always hear people say you need to save the quads, especially at a race like Hardrock, but Hal turned that on its head, went for broke, and kissed the rock first.

FIVE — Consider Starting the Race Water-Poor and Skipping Aids

Before you get all bent out of shape with this one, consider the following example from my own personal experience. I ran the McKenzie River 50k near Bend, Oregon in 2018. It’s a fast course with a net loss in elevation. There is an aid station at mile 5 and mile 11 and every 4-6 miles thereafter. Consider this: why are you starting with water in an ultra? You are completely hydrated and your body is very comfortable running without water as you’ve done countless times in training. So what I did on this day was start with an empty bottle and I decided to skip the first aid station. I knew I’d be arriving at the mile 11 aid perhaps a bit thirsty but on a fast course, only 70-80 minutes would’ve elapsed. In my opinion, I could fill up there and re-hydrate without any detriment to my race and save a few minutes in the process.

I’ve also been known to skip the last aid station on a course to gain a competitive advantage. You need to listen to your body of course but if there’s an aid within 3 to 5 miles of the finish and you’re feeling great and maybe you still have a little water and a gel or two, consider just blowing by it and making a run for the finish. This can be especially useful if you are neck and neck with someone and you see them stop. There is some risk of course of blowing up so its important to check in with your body and make a calculated risk. The terrain might also help dictate your decision. If the course ends with one long descent and all you need to do is get the legs turning over, you may choose to maintain your momentum, skip the aid and keep bombing.

Think about it. Just because there is an aid station doesn’t mean you need to stop at it. Do the analysis and consider your options. I know I’ve benefited here and there from strategically skipping them when the circumstances aligned.

SIX – Use of Carrots

This is a form of comfort-restriction and patience, but really just a mind game. I recommend planting carrots along the race that you know you’ll look forward to. My first thought of this concept is actually from my early running days. In high school, when doing interval workouts on the track, I would always restrict myself to taking off one piece of clothing for each interval and never my shirt until the final rep. For example, if we were doing 5 by mile on the track, I’d start fully dressed on a typically cold early spring day, then maybe take off the gloves after rep one, then the hat after the second, then the jacket, and finally the tee-shirt, leaving me top-naked and showing off my boy-chest for all the soccer babes playing on the in-field. Oh, those were the days. But you get the idea right? As my core temperature was rising, it felt so good to strip off clothes, but I restricted it to one piece at a time (placing carrots) to help me get through the entire workout.

So what are things that you can do in an ultra that will help sustain you throughout the entirety of the race? Here are a few that come to mind:

For longer ultras, plant fresh socks and shoes in your drop bag. I’d recommend somewhere around the two-thirds of the way through mark. They’ll perk you up, I promise.
Make a deal with yourself to not listen to music until the half way point, then listen to music, but don’t go to your ultimate pump-up playlist until the final quarter of the race. 2019 UTMB champ, Pau Capell, said his girlfriend created a playlist that had words of encouragement from his family and loved ones interspersed between the music. That’s next level right there!
Special foods. If your favorite race food is Totino’s pepperoni pizza bites and you know they’re going to be at mile 85 of your 100, first of all, you’re going to think you are smelling them by about mile 75, and second, you’re definitely going to be less likely to linger or drop out at the mile 80 aid when you know you’re so damn close to them pizza shooters.
Caffeine restriction. I’ve utilized this in races that involve a night element. When the sun goes down and you’ve been running all day, your body is going to think that surely you will soon give it a break. You aren’t. What I recommend is wait to implement fuel with caffeine until your body really needs it — typically at night. Contrarily, if you have been taking in caffeine all day already, your body is not going to respond in any meaningful way when you get really tired. In my opinion, there is some performance enhancing element to caffeine if used strategically so you might as well optimize it. Some elites have even been known to fast from caffeine in the days leading up to the race so that they really experience some pop from it in the race.

Alright, there you have it! Hopefully you added a few arrows to the quiver with this article. Racing season is fast approaching so let’s make sure we start laying the groundwork to set us up for some really great performances this year. If we’re not growing, we’re dying, right? Let’s keep on trying to get better, keep challenging ourselves, keep learning, and get it done come race day.

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