Journey2Ultra - Your 2025 Racing and Training Roadmap: From Wishes to Winning Goals


Hi Reader,

As we sweat through the summer here in Aus, the New Year is a great time to start planning your 2025 and any races you want to run. I'm great at putting together training plans for runners but I need help from experts in other areas of my work. I am a coach who also has a business coach.

I spent this morning on a call running through my business planning for 2025. Plotting out my goals, roadblocks, what worked this year (and didn't) and crucially where can I be in a year. What does that look like for a runner?

I cover below how you, as a runner can plan out your training, to run further and faster in 2025:

  • Asking why you race
  • Categorising your races
  • The long term-plan
  • Training blocks
  • Reaching out if you need help

Ask the question "Why Do I Race?" A goal without a plan is just a wish.

Before we get into how to plan out your racing year, there are a couple of key questions, you need to ask yourself, “Why do I race, and which races mean the most to me?” These questions will have many different answers, are individual to each of us, and are important to driving our training for the coming year. With a variety of events, from distance, terrain, elevation, and support provided, there is certainly an event out there for you.

With most of your time spent training compared to racing, we want to ensure training is an enjoyable process and can ideally mimic some form of the events you have chosen. It's no good picking a Backyard Ultra event if you enjoy fast short intervals.

A goal without a plan is just a wish.

Categorising Your Races.

With an idea of the events you want to race, the next step is to break your races down into three categories, A, B, and C. Your A Races are typically the most important races of the year and where your training is focused. Whilst there are no hard and fast rules on how many A Races you can run, you should consider how much time you can commit to your training. This will influence the distance, terrain, and elevation you have access to, and the time between races, you need to recover fully! Most people focus on two to three A races a year.

B Races are generally shorter in distance than your A race and can be more frequent. We use B Races for trialling and testing aspects of our A Race. This can include pacing, nutrition, equipment (think new trail shoes), and potentially race logistics, depending on the distance. See the B race as a progress test for the A race. We can use the B race to get a better Start Group for your A race, there are a lot more things we can control with early planning.

We may also incorporate a mini taper into our B Races. The key rule is, that we do not want our B Race to overly affect the ongoing training for our A Race (think recovery).

Lastly, C Races, we complete as part of our training, with no specific preparation or taper, with the result having minimal importance. This could be just a local run that we are interested in completing or supporting a friend. Generally, we don't really care about the result and may not even have trained specifically for it. See it as a zero-pressure run.

Long-Term Planning.

With your A Race now locked in the calendar, and you have told your family and friends your goals, the hard work starts. Let us lay out the process and principles for long-term race planning.

The process - Start your planning at the end, i.e., from the date of your A Race, and work backward. This period is technically called the macrocycle and covers from now till race day. Your plan at this stage is general and focuses on groups of weeks broken down into 3–6-week blocks, with a potentially easier week at the end of these blocks. The technical term for these shorter blocks is mesocycles.

Next, write down, understand, and clarify your running abilities and those needed to complete your A Race. Are you a stronger runner on flatter terrain (roads), yet struggle on the hills and stairs? Is nutrition an area you need to work on, do you need to practice and use poles, and how do these relate to your chosen event (vert, distance and terrain)?

Don't forget to put the date in your calendar, when the race goes on sale. Some events sell out quickly due to their popularity.

Training Blocks

With this information, we can now set a training theme for and schedule each block (those mesocycles) in the calendar. Using the following principles:

Training blocks nearest the A Race should focus on things most specific to that event, and those blocks furthest away should work on the things least specific to your event. Think of a mountainous trail race, with lots of steep elevation. Practising hiking and pole work should be done in the last couple of blocks (several weeks) before the race, with flatter, speed work done in the earlier blocks, further out from the event. The final couple of weeks should always be reserved for your taper.

Incorporate all the different types of runs into your plan. Your training should involve all types of runs throughout the entire training period (macrocycle), regardless of the event. Using the first principle above you will be able to build speed work/interval, hills, tempo runs, and steady-state runs somewhere in the plan. Of course, these will always be supplemented with easy and long runs throughout all your training. Generally, for longer trail events, your speed work is going to be done earlier on.

Focus on your strengths nearer the event and weaknesses furthest away. By understanding our strengths and weaknesses, captured earlier and the specific requirements of the event, we can focus and develop these in a timely fashion. We do this by incorporating our weaknesses into the earlier blocks of training. As an example, you may struggle on technical trails. Using this principle, we would incorporate technical trails, as part of the runs in the earlier blocks of training.

Using the process and principle we now can schedule our training, broken down into blocks, with each block having a specific purpose. All these come together to form our long-term plan.

Don't forget to include your B and C races in the blocks.

Reach out if you need help

Finally, regardless of the race and when it is scheduled, my key piece of advice is “Start your planning and training now, it is never too soon.” Don't wait for an arbitrary date in the future to begin (Who's waiting for the New Year??!!??) The sooner you start, the better and more enjoyable day you will have come race day!

I am already having a number of conversations with runners about their 2025 races and training, give me a shout if you need help with yours.

Cheers,

Ash

Journey2Ultra Running Coach

When I ran my first ultra and struggled with the whole race, I thought I knew how to train. After trawling social media for ideas, in reality, I was out of my depth and got the training completely wrong. Everything from no structured sessions or specificity, nutrition made up on the go, enough kit to survive the apocalypse, and zero ideas on pacing an ultra. Sound familiar? Do you want to run faster and further whatever your distance, but don't know how?

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