Mix it up - training for the upcoming ultras

In the past few years I have searched and read a lot about run training and ultra-marathon training. The latter is no science yet and after following different approaches in previous seasons, this season I have made up my own mix of training sessions and next saturday I will have my first test. Ofcourse there were a few reasons underlying the different approach this year:

• back to back long runs made me very prone to injury
• most schedules care less for VO2max training
• last year I did not feel strong in the up and downhills of UTMB
• continue doing some forefoot running

So my training of the last few weeks has consisted of the following:

Sunday: paced long run on hilly terrain, up to max 2 hours and increasing pace
Monday: rest or easy 8k with optionally some forefoot running at higher tempo
Tuesday: 15x200m sprints purely forefoot running
Wednesday: High intensity up and downhill training on stairs and steep mountain trail
Thursday: rest or easy 8k with optionally some forefoot running at higher tempo
Friday: 5x2k with 2 minutes rest, the typical 10k to marathon training series
Saturday: rest or easy 8k with optionally some forefoot running at higher tempo

The rest days depended on work and feeling, being at most 2 any week.

The results in training seem to be positive, this week, already tapering I did a 6x1k series training and could easily run times I only had during my peak 10k training so the speed is there and during the last long run, I could easily run even the steepest uphills and still have some breath left at the top.

So next saturday I will run some 62k as a test, not only for training, but also for fueling.