by GRP Trail Runner Stephen Kerr

For those of us competing in mountain-ultra-trail events, there are few workouts as effective as race emulation workouts. They give us a dress rehearsal for event day, and what’s more: they give us the physical and psychological confidence we need to complete the rest of our training successfully.

Defining a Race-Emulating Workout

The key intention of a race emulation workout is to bring you a taste of race day in advance of the actual day. You’re not looking as much for measurable fitness changes here; instead, you want to help align your expectations with your reality, and get comfortable with the realistic possibilities of race day. Effectively, you should design this as much as possible to be a confidence booster. If it’s too difficult, you set yourself up for a similar experience at the race. It should be like when pilots in training use a flight simulator before actually piloting the plane.

Our first task is to define the parameters we wish to emulate in such a workout. Broadly, we can choose from the following categories: terrain, ascent/descent, distance, goal effort/pace, mindset, nutrition, climate/altitude, and competition. Then, we choose which parameters we wish to apply to our workout.

An example race elevation profile that you might be trying to simulate in a workout

One could create an effective workout with a singular parameter as a target. For instance, I might head out on an otherwise typical mid-long run, but carrying and utilizing the nutrition I plan to use in a race. Or I might take a normal easy run and apply race mindset throughout, by use of visualization.

However, I prefer to combine three to four parameters into a single training run. The more elements we bring into play, the closer our workout will be to the actual race event. This is a double-edged sword, so be careful to allow for adequate recovery after what might be a particularly draining workout.

Dress Rehearsal

Race emulating workouts give us a chance to practice all our race strategies and mindsets. On a recent training run, I tested a few short mantras that I’d like to use while racing. They were: “focus”, “fun”, and “relaxed race”.

Give yourself the opportunity to practice every factor you might be unsure about. Does the race cross talus slopes? Place your workout on talus slopes (or the closest alternative). Will you be self-supported? Self-support your workout.

Confidence Builder

A key value of building confidence is allowing one to stay relaxed. Whether I’m confident on race morning is not as important as confidence during my prior training. If there is a month to go, and I haven’t raced all season, and I don’t know where I’m at fitness wise, that’s when I search for a confidence builder. The beauty of a race-emulating workout is that it doesn’t have to be a ‘reach’ workout.

Progressive training overload is, of course, important, but try building a workout that’s tough but within your ability, without extensive recovery required. Create a workout you know you can complete, so you can feel good about it after. It doesn’t matter that you know why you’re designing it this way; your body will still take confidence from it, and allow you to stay relaxed through the training period.

A True Gauge of Fitness in the Context of an Upcoming Race

Since trail, mountain, and ultra races are very difficult to measure in the way we measure track races and paces, it is normal to feel unsure of whether you’re fit for your goal or not. Give yourself a chance to reflect, both during and after the workout. Let’s say you are running a 20-mile race-pace/effort trail run to prepare for an upcoming 50-miler. Ask yourself if you could hold your effort level 2.5 times as long.

When during your workout did you experience stress? Can you mentally ingrain your effort level such that you won’t be tempted by the paces of others? Is the terrain you’re training on challenging enough? Or too challenging? If you can’t get on-course, sometimes it is helpful to put your workouts on unknown terrain, so you can actually practice ‘racing’ without course knowledge.

Designing Your Race-Emulating Workout

Let’s take a look at how one might design a race-emulating workout for the following events, by defining some of the following parameters important for each event:

1. terrain
2. ascent/descent
3. distance
4. goal effort/pace
5. mindset
6. nutrition
7. climate/altitude
8. competition

Example 1: Mount Marathon

In this 5k race, you climb and descend 3000 feet on loose scree and dirt. It could take anywhere from 40 minutes to 3 hours.

Let’s say I want to break 1 hour on the course. I’ve researched and seen that there will likely be a depth of runners at this pace. I won’t need to practice nutrition (since it’s a relatively short effort), and since the race is near sea level, I don’t necessarily need to optimize altitude acclimation. So, I’d like to focus on the extremes that define this one: terrain and ascent/descent. I’ll take a standard 8 x 1km interval workout and place it on a steep rocky slope near me, climbing and descending on alternating reps.

This is a good moment to get creative to find a good location. And if, like me, you live in a flat area, you might compromise by finding a shorter steep hill that is only long enough for a minute-long effort, and making the workout, say, 16 or 20 x 1:00.

Again, this workout isn’t about gaining fitness stimulus. It is more about mindset, confidence, and familiarity. Practice visualization of race day, and solidify your race mindset.

Example 2: UTMB: CCC

This 100k trail race has 20,000 feet of gain, crossing high alpine landscapes and mountain ridges.

With a 10+ hour finish time, I know I’ll need a longer effort with nutrition for my emulation workout. As for Mt. Marathon, I’ll pick terrain that most closely mirrors the course. In this case, I could plan for a 4-hour effort across the most comparable local terrain, practicing the nutrition and hydration strategies I wish to use, and visualizing the feeling of spending a whole day running. I’d imagine I was already 8 hours in by the start. You can even emulate that fatigue by placing your workout at the end of a long day of yard work (or anything else tiring). Since I will be actively aiming to not push fast at any given moment, particularly on climbs, I will focus on monitoring my effort to be consistent, and I will practice the positive morale needed to weather the psychological low points common in ultra-distance racing.

Example 3: Dipsea Race

Over 7.4 miles, the Dipsea race gains and loses ~2200 feet, and covers stone and wooden stairs, packed dirt paths, and some road sections.

The pattern should be quite clear by now: you want to target the defining and unique features of a race. Track running will get you fit and fast, but logic dictates that stair running will get you faster on stairs. So, I’ll use a simple 3-mile tempo format, and take care to design a course that fits in the key elements. I might find good staircases in city or school areas, so I’ll look for places where those stairs are close to city trail networks. Here in Portland, Maine, there are a few long stairways near the Old Port that I can stitch into a loop on the small local trail network. It will be about 1.5 miles long, so two laps will do it.

The next time you’re preparing for a big competition, try out a race emulation to prepare your mind, body, and spirit.

Favorite Workout: Race Emulation for Trail Runners