Want to be better at ultrarunning? I don’t have a tip for you—I have a MINDSET! That’s right, a way to shift your thinking that covers multiple aspects of performance.
What are my principles of a 24/7 athlete? It’s the small daily actions that supplement the running—not JUST the running—that make you a more durable athlete. The small 1 or 2% improvements in daily actions lead to huge progress OVER TIME. Sorry, this isn’t an overnight success story. It’s one filled with long, slow progress that you slowly start to love, are OK with some backslides, and are OK with being uncomfortable the entire way.
These are, in no particular order:
Strong, Flexible, Fast, Endure, Mouth, Mind, Recover—or “Super Fit Folks Excel Mentally, Move Rapidly” to remember it better.
If you want your ability to endure at its highest level. Let’s start with the first one and how you can incorporate it into day-to-day living:
STRONG
Why are people afraid of strength training? Because they think it has to be a full dedicated day or gym session. This can just be a daily push-up or pull-up challenge. You know what’s cheap to purchase? A pull-up bar. You know what’s great to get you in shape? Bodyweight exercises. Have you ever tried rucking? It’s just walking with weights on your back! This is NOT hard, people. Stop telling yourself you don’t DO strength. LIES! It just needs to be EASY. Do 10 push-ups every hour during your entire workday when nobody’s looking. Do some pull-ups or sit-ups while watching TV, but have a set goal you will do every day. Check in with someone. You don’t need a gym membership or a personal trainer. You just need to be consistent.
FLEXIBLE
Do you know why you get injured? Because you’re tight. Do you know why you’re tight? Because you prioritize the chair or sitting more than movement. You know how you fight that? Standing, or only sitting for set periods. I set a very high priority on sitting cross-legged. Yoga once or twice a week. Is it hard to find classes? Guess what?!?! You can do them in the privacy of your home with sites like https://www.doyogawithme.com/ or stretch while you watch TV. Check out YouTube. You have no excuse, but you will keep getting more inflexible as time goes on and you age.
FAST
If you want to be fast, you gotta run fast. There’s no PR fairy that just magically waves her wand over you. If you want to run faster than ever, you need to run FASTER THAN YOU NORMALLY DO! SPEED BURSTS, strides, hill repeats—it’s not that hard. Stop going out on a run at the same pace you’ve done for 15 years. HIT THE GAS once in a while!
ENDURE
You gotta be able to go long to run ultras. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts. Your endurance block will, odds are, be your most important. Back-to-back long runs are critical. Spending lots of time on your feet helps. Adaptations that happen when you are on your feet for 4-5 hours are unique to the challenges on race day.
MOUTH
Eat real stuff—like things that are alive or as close to living as possible. Take that any way you want, but it shouldn’t “live” on a shelf. You can’t perform at a high level if you fuel with crap. PERIOD. Take your crap foods on your long runs—that’s the only time they WON’T spike blood sugar and cause you to store it as fat. Save your junk foods for your long runs.
One more thing: there’s no amount of alcohol that’s good for you. This year, I plan to take it off the list. As much as I love it and enjoy having it at social events, I’m done with it and looking for a healthy alternative. Tea or maybe kombucha as a tasty substitute? There’s a whole bunch of non-alcoholic beers coming out.
MIND
Read, meditate, and get quiet. Get inside your mind. Don’t consume crappy content. Read, take walks, and SIT IN SILENCE! It’s a superpower, and it’s one you need at mile 87 when you have to quiet your mind. Do you listen to every voice you hear, or can you quiet them? Box breathing is a thing! Try to focus on breathing instead of toxic thoughts. The mind loves to think, but sometimes it has to STFU.
RECOVER
“I only need like 5 hours of sleep.” Sure you DON’T! That’s horrible, and you’re either eating late at night, watching TV late, or having a terrible sleep routine. FIX THAT! You can’t work out hard without a hard recovery. Workouts are traumas to the body. If you never recover properly, it’s a matter of time before you are sidelined by injury.
To recap, you want to be strong, flexible, fast, endure, and watch what you put in your mind and mouth while focusing on recovery. I am not saying any of these are EASY, but they are needed 24/7. A 24/7 athlete is mindful of how often they do vs. don’t do these things. That’s it. That’s my goal for 2025. If I screw up, I will be letting myself down, and I can’t let that happen.
Patrick is an ultrarunner and coach from Philadelphia who loves documenting his running career. His mission is to provide useful tips and tricks to assist others along their ultra journey. You can find his coaching services at https://ultraruncoach.com.