Originally Posted by
Steamer
A
source I trust says it's true that training longer than 6 hours is a bad idea from a purely physiological point of view, but that experiential learning is also very important. Once one has a lot of experience on ultras, the downsides of training long distance may outweigh the upsides.
I think this quote from Jim is key. I had a pretty crappy (literally and figuratively) PBP in 2019 but I knew whatever I ate would eventually pass. I stopped a lot and slept a lot. The return from Brest was great. My training wasn't ideal due to some health issues but with enough experience, you know how hard you can push and how to recover. That only comes with doing enough distance events. But from a training perspective, I am not sure 6 hours or 10-12 hours is a better cutoff. It really depends if you can recover in about 2 days because at 3 days plasma and therefore stroke volume begin to decline. At two weeks off, there are all kinds of declines in mitochondrial enzymes. But once the training load cumulatively is high enough, long rides for training purposes mean little and of course, Jim is correct. He was one of three coaches that I had in mind who do not advocate massive miles in training.
Perhaps the most important experiential attribute you will gain from practicing ultra events is the confidence you will gain once you develop the skill and knowledge to get the most out your body. That confidence will be in both your physical and mental capabilities. Do not underestimate this. Once you have this confidence, you can go into an event not only well trained physically, but knowing that you have done this before, and knowing how you did it. You can go into an event focused on how hard and how steady you can go, not worrying whether or not you can complete it.