Kilian Jornet trains mostly easy. In his book, Training for the Uphill Athlete, co-written with Steve House and Scott Johnston, most of your running stays in Zone 1 and Zone 2, and the hard work is a small, very specific dose: hill bounding, Zone 3 and Zone 4 intervals, uphill threshold tempos, and back-to-back long runs in the weeks closest to your race. That book is my training bible, and every one of my free training plans is built on it.
Why I train like Kilian
It took me 11 years to finish my first 100 mile race. I used the 100 mile plan from Kilian's book to train for it, and it's what got me to the finish line. In the book, Kilian has a 100 mile training plan that's 48 weeks long, so basically a year. I started it at week 33, 16 weeks out from my race, and that became my 16 week 100 mile training plan.
Since then I've finished UTMB, 173 km around Mont Blanc, in 34 hours and 40 minutes. You can read the whole story, DNF included, on my about page.
Most of the running is easy
Everything in these plans runs on a one to five heart rate zone scale. Zone 1 is as easy as you can possibly go, and a lot of Kilian's training is in Zone 1. According to the data collected from Kilian himself, he does 58% of his workouts in Zone 1, and you should too.
For base weeks, the book says 85% of your training should be in Zone 1 and only 15% in Zone 2. If you're just starting to build your base, it's best to just stay in Zone 2, because even that can be very difficult at first. An easy way to remember it is the 80/20 rule: 80% of your workouts in Zones 1 and 2, and the other 20% in Zones 3, 4 and 5.
You don't have to follow the heart rate zones exactly. When I did my 100 mile training plan, I didn't, I'll admit that. But I think they really will help you. If you train with an Apple Watch, here's how to set up heart rate zone alerts so it buzzes when you drift out of your zone.
The hard workouts
Hill bounding
This is one of Kilian's favorite exercises. Find a very steep hill, about a 30% incline, or a steep set of stairs. Then:
- 2 x 30 second runs up the hill in Zone 3, walking back down
- 2 x 20 seconds of skipping up the hill, walking back down
- 8 x 10 seconds of maximum power bounding with long strides, walking back down
Kilian says we're allowed to walk, so walk down if you need the extra rest.
Intervals
On intensity weeks, intervals are 2 to 4 x 10 minutes in Zone 3 with a 2 minute recovery jog. On specificity weeks, the same intervals move up to Zone 4.
Kilian's threshold workout
It's a little thing called Kilian's Tempos: two uphill tempos of 500 to 700 meters of climbing each, keeping your heart rate in Zone 3 to Zone 4 the whole way up, with an easy jog back down in between. Then you finish with a 10K tempo. This is one you can do every week. I don't have a climb that big in Nice, so I did three shorter repeats instead. Here's how my threshold workout went.
His VK 10K workout, a vertical kilometer followed by a 10K, is a different story. What Kilian says about the VK 10K is that you should only be doing it maybe once every six months.
Back-to-back long runs
In specificity weeks, you train specifically for your race: similar terrain, more vert, and back-to-back long runs on the weekend. They're definitely the hardest part of these plans, but every time I've done well in a race, I've done back-to-back long runs. In my 50K plan, try to do at least half of your race's elevation across those two runs.
How the plans are built
Every plan follows the same kinds of weeks from the book:
- Base weeks: building aerobic capacity, almost all Zone 1 and Zone 2
- Intensity weeks: Zone 3 intervals and hill bounding come in
- Specificity weeks: race-like terrain, Zone 4 intervals and back-to-back long runs
- Recovery weeks: volume cut way down, days off when you need them
- Taper and race week: winding down so your legs are fresh
If you're not ready for a race plan yet, start with my 12 week aerobic base plan, which is the base building period from the book. In the off-season there's my off-season plan.
Pick your plan
| Race | Plan |
|---|---|
| 50K | 50K training plan, 50K for beginners, advanced 50K |
| 50 miles | 50 mile plan for beginners |
| 100K | 100K training plan, 100K for beginners |
| 100 miles | 100 mile training plan, 100 miles for beginners, advanced 100 mile |
Not sure which one fits? The plan finder picks one from your race and date and tells you when to start.
Every race plan is 16 weeks long.