An ultra training plan built on time on feet
Twenty weeks for a first 50 km. The long run is the plan: it climbs by time on feet at a rate your legs can absorb, the paces stay honest about the distance, and the taper is long enough to matter.
Ultra · 20 weeks
4 runs a week
Long run climbs to 32 km · the plan's own projection for this runner is 5:22:26
Who it is for
A runner who has finished a marathon, or runs comfortably past 25 km, and wants the next step. The sample is a 27-minute parkrunner running 40 km a week.
How the block is shaped
Base weeks establish an easy pace that is genuinely easy, because almost everything in an ultra is run there. The build climbs the long run by time rather than distance, with cutback weeks, and adds a threshold session for the strength to hold form late. The peak carries the longest efforts. The taper unloads over three weeks.
This is the plan the app builds for a 27:00 parkrunner running four days and about 40 km a week, with a longest comfortable run of 25 km. Your own block keeps the same shape; every distance and pace in it is priced from your times, not this runner's.
| Weeks | Phase | Weekly km | Long run |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1–3 | Base | 44.8–49.9 | 20–22.2 km |
| Week 4 | Cutback | 39.9 | 15.5 km |
| Weeks 5–7 | Build | 51.6–56.5 | 23.3–25.5 km |
| Week 8 | Cutback | 45.2 | 17.8 km |
| Weeks 9–11 | Build | 54.1–60.6 | 26.5–28.7 km |
| Week 12 | Cutback | 45.8 | 20.1 km |
| Weeks 13–16 | Peak | 63.8–71.4 | 28.2–32 km |
| Weeks 17–19 | Taper | 35.2–54.5 | 11.2–22.3 km |
| Week 20 | Race week | Race | — |
A real week from the plan
Not an illustration: this is week 10 of 20, a build week of 60.6 km, exactly as the plan engine wrote it for the runner above, with the paces it set. The coach reads each session's purpose to you before you start it and calls the pace as you run.
| Day | Session | Distance | Pace | What it is for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tuesday | TEMPO | 8.8 km · 63 min | 5:44/km | 2 × 2.7km tempo blocks, a 0.4km easy jog between each. Sustainable threshold run. Focus on steady rhythm. |
| Thursday | AEROBIC | 10.2 km · 75 min | 7:18/km | Easy miles. Relaxed and rhythmic — finish feeling you could go again. |
| Saturday | LONG RUN | 27.6 km · 201 min | 7:18/km (19.3km) → 6:12/km — Your race pace (8.3km) | Long run with a race pace finish. Run the first 19.3km fully easy — genuine Zone 2, conversational. Then hold your current race pace for the final 8.3km. Training fast under fatigue is the single biggest predictor of race-day performance. |
| Sunday | AEROBIC | 14 km · 102 min | 7:18/km | Back-to-back: a medium-long run on tired legs, the day after your long run. Strictly easy — the fatigue IS the training. Practise fuelling and pacing exactly as you will on race day. |
Where the paces come from
From the race time you give the app, through the Daniels & Gilbert VDOT model: easy, threshold and interval paces for your fitness, not a chart's. The same model runs on this site — the parkrun time calculator shows the three paces a plan would be built from, and the goal time calculator scores a target against the weeks you have.
What changes as you run
The fortnightly consistency check scales the plan to what you actually ran. A new race time re-prices the paces. Long runs rated too hard bring the next one down before the block tips into injury.
Common questions
How long is the longest run?
The sample runner's peak is on this page, set by time on feet. An ultra plan never reaches the race distance in training; the last stretch is what the taper and the day are for.
Does the plan cover trails and hills?
Sessions are set by time and effort, so hills and trail slow the pace without breaking the plan. If the race is hilly, run the long runs where it is hilly; the app corrects terrain and elevation after each run.
What about walking?
Walking the climbs is part of racing an ultra, not a failure. The app's continuous-run reading knows the difference between a planned walk break and stopping, and a walk in the long run does not count against you.
Is twenty weeks enough from a marathon base?
For a first 50 km from a comfortable 25 km long run, yes. From less, the goal time calculator will say how many weeks the long-run climb needs; honour it.
parkrun® is a registered trade mark of parkrun Limited. Outrunr is not affiliated with or endorsed by parkrun. VDOT is a trade mark of its owner. Outrunr implements the published Daniels & Gilbert formula and is not affiliated with them.