[nmdeadhead]

I typically "train" every day, meaning I run six days a week and ride my bike on the seventh. I do, however, have rest days; it's just that my rest days are shorter distances at a lower heart rate. My Tuesdays and Thursdays are rest days, so I run 8.9 miles @ 130 beats-per-minute heart rate.

I absolutely, do not recommend my training plan for others; it's taken me more than ten years to get where I am, but as an example of what can be done (at least with my body), you can see how I recently trained for the Bataan Memorial Death March[0] and also see a subset of my official ultra results at UltraSignup[1] as well as my self-reported marathon results at Marathon Maniacs[2].

FWIW, I think my sleep schedule and diet have contributed significantly to the gains I've made over the years, but I'm also well aware of survivor bias. Neither of my parents were athletic though and I absolutely hated running as a kid (although I really enjoyed ultimate frisbee in high school).

[0] https://github.com/ctm/Bataan-Memorial-Death-March [1] https://ultrasignup.com/results_participant.aspx?fname=Cliff... [2] https://www.marathonmaniacsdb.com/Maniacs/MyRaces?ManiacId=4...

[nabla9]

I suspect that ultra endurance is somewhat different from the other sports. It seems reasonable that conditioning requires loading mileage like crazy, even compared to marathon or triathlon. Maybe microcycles (1 week) are unnecessary.

Modern preiodization was scientifically discovered by Russians in the 60s and it seems to work in every sport when correctly applied. Do you have have mesocycles (2-5 weeks) or macrocycles (6-12 month) in your training plans?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_periodization