Tag: training

5 Tips To Improve Your Climbing Grade

by  on  in Climbing • 0 Comments
Crag with climbers on hard routes

Watching climbers who are better than you can help improve your grade

When you first start climbing, you may progress rapidly through the grades. But whether you’re climbing indoors or outside, at some point you’re going to hit a plateau. If you want to make it to the next level, here are five tips to improve your climbing grade.

Get the Mileage In

As with anything, the more you do of something, the better you’ll get. This is particularly true with trad climbing. If I haven’t trad climbed for a while it takes me twice as long to pick the right piece of gear and I tend to be more cautious and place more gear than necessary. The slicker your gear placements, the more energy you save and the harder you’ll be able to climb.

Train Regularly

It’s sometimes said that climbing is the best training for climbing. This is partially true, but whatever level you’re climbing at, you should see an improvement in your climbing grade with a structured training programme. This needs to be specific to the level you’re climbing at; if you’re a beginner then jumping straight onto a fingerboard is a recipe for injured fingers!

Focus on Footwork

One of the key signs of a beginner climbing at the wall is shoddy footwork. It’s tempting to think you just need to get stronger to climb harder, but learning good technique is just as important as strength. By focusing on improving your footwork, not only will you be able to climb harder, you will become a better climber. Your strength may ebb and flow, but good footwork will stay with you for a lifetime.

If you find yourself kicking or scraping the wall when you climb, practice these seven drills to improve your footwork.

Don’t Be Afraid to Fail (or Fall)

I’d hazard a guess that the fear of falling is one of the most common things that stops people climbing to their full potential. The times I have climbed my hardest routes on both trad and sport are when I have been able to control my fear to a certain extent. To put it bluntly, if you’re terrified of falling off, you won’t push yourself to your physical limit. This means you won’t get as strong as you could do or climb the grades you’re capable of climbing.

Fear of failure also holds us back. Many people have a mental barrier in their heads around a certain grade. For example, they may be super confident climbing VS, but the mention of an HVS is enough to send them into shakes halfway up the route. You can often climb a lot harder than you think you can. Though please don’t take that as an invitation to jump on an E7 when you’re only climbing VS! Part of becoming an experienced climber is knowing when it’s safe to fall, and when it isn’t.

Learn From Climbers Who Are Better Than You

Perhaps the best tip to improve your climbing grade is to climb with people who are better than you. Seconding harder routes allows you to push your body to the limit without having to worry about placing gear or falling off. But don’t just hold your partner’s rope – watch how they climb. Look at what holds they use, how they position their body and how they rest on the route. Then, try and emulate this when you climb.

Even if you don’t have the opportunity to get out with better climbers, you can still watch how they climb and learn from it. Bouldering walls are great for this. If you’re struggling to figure out a particular problem, take a break and watch how other people climb it. Do they climb it differently depending on their size and strength? Experienced climbers will often know the best sequence for a problem just by looking at it. Once you’re fully rested, try climbing it their way and you may be surprised how much easier you find it.

Losing Motivation (and How to Find It Again)

by  on  in Climbing • 0 Comments
Climbing-Motivation

Happy climbing in motivated times

Motivation has always been a funny thing for me. I like to think I’m quite a motivated person, but I also take setbacks hard. Like most people, I sometimes feel tempted to quit when things aren’t going quite the way I want them to.

Take rock climbing. It’s been a huge part of my life for the past fifteen years. I would never go so far as to say there is one sport I’d choose over all others, but if I had to pick, climbing would be a strong contender. It’s not just the physical aspect of it – having the strength and flexibility to pull, push and twist your way up a rock face – but the mental aspect. Climbing is a three-dimensional puzzle. You have to figure out what sequence of moves and holds will unlock the key to the route. And the really fun part? The puzzle is different for every person.

For most of the past ten years, I’ve focused on sport climbing, with some bouldering thrown in. Don’t get me wrong, I love trad, but for me, discovering sport climbing and redpointing* allowed me to push myself harder than I thought possible. Climbing 7a went from an impossibility to a frequent occurrence. 7b fell, then 7b+, and 7c was nearly in my grasp. Perhaps, I thought, with a bit more focused training, I could even climb 8a – a lifetime goal I’ve never been brave enough to admit to having.

Ironically enough, the peak of my climbing ability occurred when I lived in London – about the furthest place in the UK from any decent climbing. But in my final year of living in London, my climbing started to wane. I put it down to maintaining a long-distance relationship, along with a busy job and fitting in climbing around life. My increasing nervousness about leading down to a big (but safe) fall I’d taken.

When I moved up to Yorkshire eighteen months ago, I thought this would be the start of a new era. Time to get strong again, and crags practically on the doorstep. No excuses. But things didn’t quite turn out like that. Despite getting down to the wall more and climbing outside, I was getting weaker, not stronger.

Fine, I thought. I’ve been slack and need to get back on the training bandwagon. And I’ve been trying to do this, really I have. But despite my mental will to pull hard, my body didn’t respond. The power and finger strength that I’d always relied on had gone. I could no longer do even a single pull up, or a proper press up. And it seemed as if the more I tried, the weaker I got.

This week we are back down on Portland, my main weekend haunt from my London climbing years. Back at the Cuttings, I looked idly up at Hall of Mirrors – the 7c that I was so close to getting a few years ago. I was feeling positive, my fingers tingling in anticipation of getting back on the Portland rock I know and love; of warming up on routes I feel comfortable on. Getting my lead head sorted, and perhaps getting a quick 7a tick or two.

I was quickly brought back down to earth. I puffed my way up the 6b warm-up, tried to persuade myself that the move above the bolt would be totally fine (you’ve done it before) and finally slumped down in defeat. My optimism went right out the metaphorical window. And when I finally did get on my ‘project’ for the week, progress was essentially non-existent. I could see what I had to do, even picture the moves in my mind, but I just couldn’t get my body to actually do them. I walked away, frustrated and downcast.

Getting Back On the Horse

I remember one of the first lessons I was taught when I started horse-riding as a kid. If you fall off, get up and get back on that horse. I took my fair share of tumbles during my riding years and quite often the last thing I wanted to do after falling off was to get back on the horse which I knew was prancing round ready to gallop off and dump me again. But even so, I got back in the saddle.

The same is true if you fall out of a sport for a while. This may be because of injury, a busy period at work, or because you fell in love with another sport for a time. It may be for good, happy reasons: having a child, or falling in love with someone who loves you, but not your sport. When you do come back to training again, it can be tough to get going, to keep motivated when you know you should be doing better than this.

Getting back on the horse is not easy. It requires willpower, toughness and a willingness to fail. So why do it? Why not just move on and accept that that part of your life – the part where you were a good, strong climber – is over.

I’ll tell you why. It’s because there is still part of you that wants to believe that it doesn’t have to be over. The part of you that remembers that glorious feeling when every piece of the puzzle falls into place as you climb higher and higher, dancing up the rock face; grasping every challenge that faces you and conquering it. The feeling of finally clipping the chains on your project, having devoted countless hours to figuring out the precise moves and body positions you needed to climb it, and riding the wave of highs and lows that is redpointing. It’s the child in you that believes you can do anything, if you want it enough. Listen to that child. Nurture that child.

Finding Your Motivation

Losing motivation is easy. Finding it again is a journey. And the first thing to realise is that this won’t happen overnight. (Unless you are one of those super naturally fit people who can go from couch to Ironman in four weeks, in which case you probably aren’t reading this article.)

Step 1: Start with baby steps

Remember what you love about your sport and focus on that. If that means going backwards for a while, so be it. For example, I have always struggled with my leading head, and my lack of fitness made this even worse, to the point that I wasn’t even pushing myself on climbs or getting tired because I was too scared of getting pumped. Crazy, huh?

So when we took a few days off to go out to Spain earlier this year, my main goal wasn’t to climb a particular route or a particular grade, it was to enjoy myself. To learn to love climbing again. I gave permission to myself to only lead what I wanted to lead. And if that meant spending the whole trip seconding easy routes, so be it.

And I did spend most of the time seconding routes. But you know what? I loved it. My body slowly remembered how to move on rock. The subtleties of body position and the flow of climbing. I got pumped out of my mind on long 6a+ routes that a few years ago, I’d have been warming up on. But I didn’t mind. Much. Ok there was a part of me that was frustrated at my lack of progress, but a bigger part of me was whooping inside at rediscovering just how FUN climbing is.

Step 2: Set small goals

Goals are important tools for motivation. But remember, these don’t have to be end goals, they can be process goals. To start with, focus your goals on your training. Set yourself a realistic training programme (based on the current ‘you’, not the former ‘you’) and create small, incremental goals. If you’re struggling for motivation, then just keep going and trust the process.

Step 3: Explore new areas

Going back to old haunts and the sites of your top achievements is not a good idea right now. You’ll only end up comparing your current performance to your past performances and wind up feeling disheartened. (As per my example above.)

Instead, use this opportunity to explore new places. Climb the classic routes you used to overlook as being ‘too easy’. Bike or ski down the green and blue trails, rather than scaring yourself on the black runs. Instead of running your usual circuits from your front door, venture further afield to a new park, forest or hill. Enjoy the experience and focus on what you can do, not what you can’t.

A Final Word

It won’t happen overnight, or even in a few weeks or months. But little by little, your strength and confidence will return. Or you may discover that your goals and how you measure success in your sport has changed during your journey. That what you want to achieve is something quite different to what you originally thought.

Motivation is not a finite resource. There is plenty of it – you just need to capture and hold on to it. Plug the hole in your motivation reservoir and figure out how to fill it up again. And if in doubt, listen to your inner child; he, or she, is probably right.

Have you been struggling with motivation recently? Share what tips and tricks you have for pulling through in the comments below or with me on Twitter. Thanks to Stuart Stronach for the awesome photo – there aren’t many good ones of me climbing!

*Redpointing is climbing a route, cleanly in one go after practising some or all of the moves.

How to Keep Fit During the Festive Season

by  on  in Training • 0 Comments
sleeping-city-night

Run at night to see a different side to the city

It’s the middle of December. Christmas is just a few weeks away and the festive parties, catch-ups and mince pies are starting to stack up. It’s dark in the mornings, dark in the evenings and generally a bit cold and wet. All in all, not much motivation to get out and train.

Many people (including me) can get a bit relaxed about keeping fit at this time of year. (For relaxed, read lazy.) This is then followed by guilt-laden New Year’s resolutions to be better boys and girls. This year, why not make a resolution before Christmas instead? Sure, it needs a little willpower to implement, but there is a way to avoid the permanent hangover that often marks the festive period.

Let’s take it as read that we’re all busy people with packed social diaries, busy jobs and Christmas shopping still to do. (If you’re still looking for pressies, you may be interested in my Christmas gift guide. Presents for yourself count too you know.) So how on earth do you fit in any exercise, let alone a decent training session, around this?

Take it easy, but don’t stop

I know, I know. I said we were going to talk about keeping fit. But realistically, December is a time for maintaining your fitness levels, not pushing harder. Your poor body goes through a lot at this time of year: late nights, early mornings, a richer-than-usual diet and possibly more alcohol than it’s used to. Give yourself a break and don’t go pushing for a PB just yet.

Then there’s the flip side. I don’t know about anyone else, but as soon as I stop rushing around and rest my body decides it’s time to get ill. The solution? Gently ease your body into the Christmas hols, rather than slamming on the breaks. A bit of exercise can help you relax as well as allowing yourself some time away from the hot, germ-ridden office or pub.

Get out during your lunch break

It’s dark when you go to work and dark when you leave. At this time of year, we really struggle to get any sunshine on our skin, so make the most of any opportunity to get out. Even if you never take a lunch break at any other time of year, get yourself out for at least half an hour a day over the next few weeks.

If you can fit in a quick run, that’s your exercise sorted. But even if you don’t have time for a run (or changing facilities at work) a half-hour walk will give your body a break from the desk and your mind a break from work. You’ll feel better for it and probably have a more productive afternoon as a result.

Get the family involved

What’s the one day of the year EVERYONE gets out exercising? The day it snows! Kids who were previously glued to their Xbox or iPad are suddenly clamouring to go sledging or build snowmen. Everyone runs around like crazy people and you all return home tired and happy.

In Britain at least, there is no guarantee of snow. But that’s no reason not to start a family tradition of getting out and active. For many years, when I was at my parents for Christmas, we had a family tradition of going for a run on Christmas morning. (Yes, we are slightly strange like that.) But it was kind of nice to get some exercise in before the wine and food and feel like we’d earned it.

Run / walk / cycle to work

When time is short, one way to fit in a training session is to incorporate it into your commute. It may be dark when you leave the house, but if you’re lucky you’ll get a beautiful sunrise on your way in – something you may not have noticed if you’d taken the car or train to work.

This is another one where you get to go to the post-work party guilt-free – just make sure you’ve packed your shower kit and clothes to change into.

Run back from the Christmas party

If you’ve read this far, you’re probably one of the few who hasn’t totally given up on exercise. So you may not think this next idea too crazy to contemplate. But it is a way to fit both socialising and training into your busy schedule and is particularly useful if you live in a city. Go to the pub, or Christmas party, but rather than getting the bus, train or taxi home, why not run back?

Now, I’m not recommending you go all out on the booze front and spend your ‘run’ stumbling into lamp posts and rubbish bins. But if you know you have to run home you’ll be more likely to go easy on the drinks, which your head will thank you for the next day. Just pack up your trainers, running kit and a headtorch; change in the pub toilets and trot out into the streets. I’m sure I’m not the only one who finds cities most beautiful at night.

So there you go. Make a pre-New Year resolution to keep fit during this festive season, then get out there and do it. Merry mince pies everyone.

How To Make Yourself Train (Even When You Don’t Want To)

by  on  in Training • 8 Comments

Woman training in the gym

Training feeling tough? It’s all mind over matter…


Training. Some people love it, some people hate it. Some people love it retrospectively. (I definitely fall into this camp – generally when relaxing with a post-session cup of tea.) But we all have times when we struggle to work up the motivation to go out, or to try as hard as we should during a session.

I was at the climbing wall the other day and noticed a young girl training on the overhanging circuit board. Her Dad was timing her: six minutes on, six minutes off. In the time I was there I saw her do five sets. She was obviously finding it tough. By the last circuit she was crying in pain. But she still stuck on for her six minutes.

This taught me two things. Firstly, many of us (myself included) don’t often put everything we have into our training. Secondly, the reason for this is because it’s hard. You make the biggest gains in training when you really push yourself – push beyond what you think your body you can do – but it IS painful. And psyching up for that sort of training, when you know it’s going to hurt, is pretty mentally demanding.

We may not all be training to the same level as that girl. But we all have times when we don’t feel like training. If you’re anything like me, it’s pretty easy to come up with at least a dozen ‘valid’ reasons why not to head out for a five mile run on a cold, rainy, dark winter night.

But what really separates me (and perhaps you) and the girl at the wall is discipline. It’s all very well beating yourself up about not training but that’s not making up for the fact that you haven’t done it. So if you’re struggling for motivation this winter, try out these tips to encourage you to get out and train.

Remove other alternatives

Commuting is a great one for this. One of the reasons I get up to run in the morning, even when I want to stay curled up in bed, is because I leave my clothes, hairbrush and makeup in work. Which means I can’t get ready at home, even if I wanted to. If you don’t have a suitable commute, an alternative option is to get a partner or friend to drop you off a set distance from home and literally leave you stranded. There’s only one way back.

Another tried and tested technique is to arrange to meet a friend and do your workout together. That way both of you’d feel so hideously guilty about letting the other one down if you cancel, that you’ll put the excuses to bed and turn up to train. Or if it’s sessions in the gym you avoid, then ask someone nicely to take you in their car. If they’ve given up their time to help you out, the least you can do is train hard right?

Bribery

A technique perfected by athletes, bankers and the mafia for years. Why does bribery work? Because it gives you a reward. And who doesn’t like a reward! Just to be clear, this is about self-bribery – no brown paper envelopes here. Just figure out what works for you.

Here are some examples:

  • I can have that piece of chocolate cake if I go for that five mile run.
  • A fifty mile bike ride earns me the right to watch an entire season of The Wire (back to back).
  • If I – gasp – get to the top of this hill – gasp – I can rest – gasp – for five minutes.

This works best if you get someone else to bribe you, otherwise you may just be soft and give in and give yourself the treat even if you skip training. (Not that I’d ever do this of course. Ahem.) But having to watch your partner tucking into their single portion of chocolate pudding is a pretty good reminder of what you should have been doing earlier that day.

Another good one is the charity challenge. Here people really are bribing you REAL money to achieve your goal. And if you don’t train you’re not just letting yourself down, but all those cute little endangered pandas! Bribery AND guilt: a winning combination.

Remind yourself of the goal

The key with this is visualisation. Don’t just tell yourself, “I’m doing this because I’ve booked on a half-marathon in three weeks”. That’s just words. You need to imagine you’re approaching the finishing line. The crowds are roaring you on and you can taste the saltiness of sweat on your lips. You have to experience the elation of knowing you will complete the race. Then try and hold on to that feeling long enough to get out the door and into the first few miles of your run.

Distract yourself

I normally have an attention span as long as Dory the fish, but when it comes to long runs the reverse happens. By the second hour all I can think about is my aching legs, my aching hips, the twinge in my calf, the rubbing on my back… You get the idea. This is where distraction techniques come in. Even the best multi-tasker can only focus on a few things at a time. So if you can persuade your mind to focus on something else, you’ll find you forget about the aches and pains of training.

This is a very personal thing: what works for one person won’t for another. Some people find focusing on the movement and pace of their training helps, for other people listening to an up-beat sound track keeps them going. For longer sessions, why not try listening to audiobooks or podcasts – especially inspirational ones such as the Tough Girl podcast. If you’re struggling for ideas, here are a few more suggestions.

Have a schedule

Schedules are a personal thing. For the majority of people a structured training plan both optimises your training time and can be a helpful anti-avoidance tool. Your schedule says you swim Tuesday, you swim Tuesday. Schedule says hop like a frog Thursday? You get the picture. It removes the decision-making process around what to do. Fewer decisions equals more action. Honest – Tim Ferriss says so.

But there are some people schedules don’t work so well for, me included. Life is pretty hectic at the moment, so rather than sticking to a strict schedule, I have target sessions for the week and fit them in around my other commitments. This is more flexible, but it’s also easier to deviate from, so you need extra willpower.

When is it OK not to train?

Taking into account all of the above, there are times when not training is the best option. But before you breathe a sigh of relief, remember – these times are few and far between. SO LACE YOUR TRAINERS BACK UP AND GET OUT THERE NOW.

Seriously, please don’t train if any of the following apply:

  • You’re injured. This may stop you from doing your chosen activity, but don’t forget about the benefits of cross training!
  • You’re ill. By this I mean properly ill, not just hungover. It’s sometimes a fine line to judge, but generally if you feel that training will make your illness worse and your recovery shorter, it’s probably best to skip it and focus on getting better.
  • Your house is going to burn down if you do. Not literally, obviously. (Or at least, I hope not. You did check the iron was off before leaving this morning, right?) But realistically there are always times when something important and urgent has to take priority. Your kid being sent home sick from school or your boss telling you you’re fired unless you get that paper on his desk tomorrow morning. Just make sure they are genuinely urgent and are the exception and not the rule. The latest episode of the Great British Bake Off does not count (in this context) as either important or urgent.

The key to deciding when not to train is being honest with yourself around your decisions. Really honest. Is that sniffle really the start of a cold, or is it just a GBBO-withdrawal symptom? Only you can decide, but remember this. Your mind will quit a thousand times before your body will. Happy training!

How to Train for Your First Ultramarathon

by  on  in Running • 2 Comments
Men running in a ultramarathon

Are you ready to tackle the trails on your first ultramarathon?

Ever signed up a challenge on a whim only to wake up the next day and regret it? That’s me in a nutshell. I’m a sucker for getting carried away with hatching crazy plans, whilst blithely ignoring the preparation required to see them through.

Take last weekend. I went to a friend’s daughter’s christening and got chatting to a few people. At some point between the dousing of the baby’s head and the cutting of the cake, I found myself nodding in agreement when a friend casually asked if I fancied keeping her company on a training run in November. “Great,” she said, “it’s only 45-miles, though we’ll need to set off early to make the most of the daylight.”

One thing I forgot to mention. This particular friend is one of the increasing band of people who put themselves through hours, if not days, of torturous running. For fun, apparently. I had always considered that some day I may want to try an ultramarathon, in that vague non-commital sense of wanting to have done one without having to go through the actual doing part. It appears she’s called my bluff.

For context, though I have done a fair bit of off-road running, I have never run a marathon and at the time of agreeing to this challenge, the furthest I had run for a good many months was about six miles. So I’m pretty much starting from scratch.

Having signed up for a challenge I am utterly unprepared for and have no idea whether I can actually do, my first step should have been to develop a training plan and get out running. However as a compulsive procrastinator researcher, my actual first step was to spend hours on Google searching for articles titled, ‘How to go From Couch to Ultramarathon in Ten Weeks!’ (Clue – they don’t exist.)

So to help all you new wannabe ultramarathoners avoid falling into the same trap, here’s what I have learnt from my many hours of research.

Leave yourself enough time to train

Ok, so I’ve already failed on this one, but this is a definite example of “do as I say not as I do”. Presuming you’re a bit more sensible than me when it comes to planning your challenges, pick an event that’s far enough out to support a gradual increase in your training volume.

How long this will be depends on your current level of fitness, experience in running longer events and how long the ultramarathon is you’ve signed up for. Runner’s World have a sixteen week training plan to get you prepared for a 50-mile ultramarathon. Sixteen weeks that is, if you’ve already run a few marathons. Perhaps better suited for those of us who don’t pop out a marathon every other weekend is this sixteen week plan, which builds the ‘long’ runs up gradually from ten miles.

Mix up your training

One piece of advice I’m definitely taking on board is to cross-train. This is partly an injury-prevention strategy and partly to keep my motivation up (I have a very low boredom threshold – possibly not the best trait for a long-distance runner).

The most popular forms of cross-training seem to be cycling and swimming. Both sports exercise your muscles and improve cardio without the impact associated with running. I’m also a big fan of walking, plus it’s a bit easier to persuade friends / family to go on a hike with you rather than a run. (You definitely want to take any opportunity to sneak training into your social life, unless you want to become a hermit for a few months.)

I’m also trying to keep my climbing up, as I figure the upper body and core workout will help balance all that lower body exercise. Yoga could be a good alternative for those who aren’t a fan of hauling themselves up vertical walls. The RunUltra website has a great article detailing different cross training sessions which is well worth a read.

Strengthen your body

I am a stereotypical lazy runner. My hip flexors are inflexible, my glutes are withered and over the years I have developed a running style that I strongly suspect fails to engage any of the key muscle groups involved in good running posture.

But I know deep down, that I will not have a chance of getting up to ultramarathon distance without getting injured, unless I tackle these fundamental issues. So I’m working on all those horribly painful strength exercises I have always avoided – mainly those that involve the word ‘squat’.

To help your hips keep working as they should, check out this set of four exercises, requiring nothing more than a theraband. If you have a bit more time (and equipment) then try this comprehensive set of ten strength and conditioning exercises.

Train off road

Most ultramarathons are off-road affairs. I like to think this is because if they ran them on roads, people would collapse from a combination of boredom and repetitive strain injury miles from the finish line.

You may not be breaking any PBs by switching from the road to the trail, but ultramarathons are not about speed (unless you’re a super elite runner). As well as getting to enjoy communing with nature and avoiding inhalation of car fumes, trail running is harder work, so you get more bang for your buck. And as the surfaces are typically uneven, you’ll be concentrating so hard on where to place your feet that you won’t have a chance to get bored.

Listen to your body

Yes, training is hard. And a lot of the time, you have to push through those moments where you feel tired, achy and want to give up, otherwise you won’t make any progress. But not always. Sometimes when your body is screaming at you to stop, it’s for a good reason – a warning sign that if you carry on you’re risking injury or illness.

Ultramarathon training is (quite literally) a marathon, not a sprint. So if your body is telling you to take it easy then relax, take a few days off and catch up on your Game of Thrones box set. Your legs will thank you for it.

Figure out what you can eat

“But surely I can eat whatever I want if I’m doing this much training?” I hear you all cry. But not whilst you’re running. One of the hardest things about transitioning from half marathons or marathons to longer distances is getting your eating strategy right. It’s not so much a case of what you like to eat, but what you can eat and (as far as possible) keep down.

Obviously this is not something you want to test out on the day of your race. And if you’re not used to eating whilst you exercise, then it may take you a while to figure out what your body does and doesn’t like. This isn’t just about stuffing your face; there is a science behind it. Although you typically burn around 400-600 calories an hour whilst running, your body can only actually absorb 240 to 280 calories. So if you scoff too much, your stomach may literally reject it.

Equally whilst gels and bars may get you through a marathon, you’re going to need some ‘real’ food to keep you going for eight hours on the trails. Find out what is going to be on offer at the feed stations on your ultramarathon event and test it out during your training sessions. See what your body likes and what it doesn’t. And as a last resort carry some ginger to chew on if you’re feeling nauseous. I haven’t tested it myself (yet), but ginger is well known for helping to steady a dodgy tum.

Three tips for ultramarathon success

If all else fails, remember these three things and you should have a pretty good chance of getting to the start line of an ultramarathon, and completing it:

  • Get a lot of hours under your feet
  • Don’t get injured
  • Work out what you can eat without puking (too much).

Whoever said this ultramarathon lark was hard?

If you have any tips for training and racing ultramarathons, please share them in the comments below. Honestly, I need all the help I can get!