Winter within the Northern Hemisphere is in full impact, with snow falling and our runs turning into slushy shuffles. Our winter seasons are sometimes filled with lofty targets for the months forward, however the quick days and chilly climate don’t assist with our motivation to get outdoors and run.
On this article, we’ll discover the info to see what the winter months appear like within the ultrarunning world. We’ll then dive into some data-based coaching approaches for tackling the winter season successfully.
iRunFar’s Craig Randall braving the weather to check winter mountain operating gear. Picture: Christin Randall
Ultramarathon Racing within the Winter Season
To know what the operating panorama seems to be like throughout the winter months, let’s flip to the numbers. For this primary evaluation, we use information from the DUV Extremely Marathon Statistics database for U.S. races. The dataset we deal with is ultramarathon races in the US from 2022 to 2024, with no less than 10 contributors. This primary view exhibits the variety of races by season.
Variety of ultramarathons within the U.S. from 2022 to 2024 by season.This graph exhibits the decrease frequency of races within the winter months, outlined as December, January, and February for this text, than within the different seasons.
Breaking this down month-to-month, we are able to see a extra detailed view.
Variety of ultramarathons within the U.S. from 2022 to 2024 by month.
The winter season within the U.S. begins in December and continues into January and February. The variety of races will increase within the spring months, with a slight dip headed into the recent summer time months, after which choosing again up within the fall season.
Winter and summer time, in fact, aren’t equal in all states. Winter in Louisiana is a superb time to get outdoors and be lively, however chances are you’ll wish to wait just a few months for those who stay in Minnesota. I needed to interrupt down these races by geography, to see what the distribution of winter occasions was like by location. The next graph exhibits the proportion of ultramarathons by state that happen within the winter.
Map exhibiting the proportion of ultramarathons that happen in winter by state.
Most northern states have lower than 10% of races occurring throughout winter. States with extra average or heat climates see a bigger proportion of races occurring throughout this timeframe. Louisiana was the one state with the vast majority of its races happening in winter.
In most places, winter is the season with the fewest ultrarunning occasions. This quieter time of yr gives a possibility to reset and deal with bettering weak areas for the season forward. In the event you stay in a area that experiences winter, getting outdoors on darkish, chilly evenings is probably going much less interesting. That is one thing I battle with, having lived within the northern half of the US my total life. With a number of bold plans for the spring and summer time months, I dove into easy methods to benefit from this winter.
What We Can Be taught from Kilian Jornet’s Winter Coaching Knowledge
In search of inspiration for our winter coaching journeys, we turned to the GOAT, Kilian Jornet. Evaluating your self to him is usually a self-defeating spiral, however there are some useful classes to be discovered from his strategy to the winter months — and a lot information!
After a historic 2022 season, with wins on the Zegama Marathon, Hardrock 100, and UTMB, Jornet revealed a detailed coaching log. The log recounts his 2022 season intimately, and gives the context of all of the years of continuous coaching main as much as that time.
Chart exhibiting an summary of Kilian Jornet’s coaching from 2009 to 2022.
The above chart exhibits a fast overview of Jornet’s coaching information going again to 2009. The purple circle is the 2022 season. The principle takeaway from this chart is that Jornet has been constantly placing in quite a lot of coaching quantity yr after yr, main as much as his superb performances in 2022. He notes that wanting on the purple circle in isolation is ineffective with out the context of earlier years of coaching and variations.
Kilian Jornet, 2022 UTMB champion. Picture: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
The a part of this graph that caught out to me is the repetition of blue bars each winter the place his coaching turns primarily to ski mountaineering. Let’s deal with these ski mountaineering periods that Jornet does throughout his winter block. Jornet lives in a chilly winter local weather in Norway, and the coaching throughout these months is customized to the circumstances. His winter block in 2022 went from December to the tip of March, with most of his coaching being ski mountaineering in coronary heart charge zone 2. These outings normally lasted two to 4 hours, usually adopted by treadmill operating within the night. See a zoomed-in model of what this seems to be like.
A zoomed in model of the above chart exhibits the breakdown of Kilian Jornet’s 2022 coaching, together with a winter block which was primarily ski mountaineering.
With the primary coaching being shifted to lengthy ski mountaineering periods, the operating quantity is considerably reduce down. It’s also fascinating to notice that Jornet doesn’t do “any depth besides a few [ski mountaineering] races” throughout this era. That is proven within the graph under, with no marks on the pace, tempo, or threshold periods that he breaks down in his submit, till later within the yr when he enters a extra centered coaching block.
Visible which breaks down Kilian Jornet’s run coaching for his 2022 racing season. Click on on the picture to view a bigger model.
Jornet stored his depth low all through winter, and his coaching centered on constructing a powerful cardio base. This cardio base got here primarily within the type of ski mountaineering, with operating quantity fairly low for an athlete at his degree. Through the 2022 winter block, Jornet averaged a modest 53 kilometers (33 miles) of operating per week, which is boosted by the outlier of a 100-mile race executed throughout this time, to check fueling. Beneath I’ve damaged out a graph to indicate this operating quantity throughout this winter block.
A breakdown of Kilian Jornet’s operating quantity throughout his winter coaching block.
Throughout the remainder of the yr, Jornet’s weekly mileage was stored round 150 to 190k (93 to 118 miles). This discount in operating mileage throughout the winter months permits him to construct an awesome cardio base by means of lower-impact ski mountaineering periods. A robust cardio base results in varied variations, which improve the effectivity of muscle fibers and enhance one’s time to fatigue.
It’s unattainable to be Kilian Jornet, and I’m certain many readers don’t stay close to giant mountains in Norway, and can’t dedicate 4 hours per day to coaching. Whereas your winter coaching will seemingly not appear like this, this detailed breakdown of coaching information gives a superb mannequin for framing the yr forward.
Winter is a superb time to set the foundational health for the remainder of the season. Structuring a winter block to cross practice or enhance weak areas can set you up for fulfillment in later seasons. The kind of winter coaching may range, relying on the place you reside and what actions you take pleasure in. It could possibly be backcountry snowboarding, competing within the Tour Du Zwift, or Netflix and the treadmill.
A younger Sophia Laukli on skis, proving you might be by no means too younger to begin winter cross coaching. Picture courtesy of Sophia Laukli.
A number of fascinating research help a cross-training strategy between aggressive seasons. This examine examines the consequences of substituting 50% of feminine distance athletes’ run coaching quantity with biking. The outcomes present that cross coaching maintained cardio efficiency in comparison with operating. One other examine evaluating 4 weeks of out of doors elliptical bike coaching to operating coaching yielded related outcomes by way of efficiency upkeep.
Cross coaching could be a good way to remain motivated and proceed coaching throughout the winter. In search of some concepts to get you began? Try this information to cross coaching.
On the finish of the day, the messages within the information are these: With fewer races within the winter months, we could wish to flip to different coaching modalities to move the season. Doing what you take pleasure in and is long-term sustainable will can help you proceed stacking bricks yr over yr. And whereas we could not stack as many bricks of ski mountaineering or operating as Kilian Jornet, staying lively within the winter months and constructing a powerful cardio base will set us up for race-specific coaching and races themselves later within the yr.
Name for Feedback
- What time of the yr do you like to race?
- How does your operating quantity shift throughout the winter months?
- What’s your favourite type of cross coaching?