100–120 km ultra
100K ultra training plan
Not a first ultra. Months of easy time on feet, late back-to-back long runs and a four-week taper, all written around the date you gave.
Included in €19/month. 14 days free, no card.
- Full build
- 36 weeks
- Easy weeks
- 14 weeks
- Closer to the date
- 18 weeks
- Last weeks
- 4 weeks
What a week actually looks like
A week from the same engine that writes the real plan — including the minutes, not a template.
Easy weeks
- MonStrength · 40 min
- TueUphill walk/jog · 65 min
- WedEasy walk/jog · 65 min
- ThuEasy walk/jog · 65 min
- FriRest
- SatLong easy · 200 min
- SunRecovery walk · 50 min
Closer to the date
- MonRecovery walk · 25 min
- TueQuality intervals · 55 min
- WedUphill walk/jog · 25 min
- ThuEasy walk/jog · 30 min
- FriRest
- SatLong easy · 300 min
- SunLong easy · 165 min
This sample uses a typical setup for this objective. Your days, hours and terrain change the week. Wrecked, missed or travel rewrites it.
A 100 km day goes through a sunset. That single fact changes the training: you are preparing for hours of movement at an effort that feels almost embarrassingly easy, eating on a schedule, and staying functional when it gets dark, cold and slow.
Most of this block is unglamorous aerobic volume. The back-to-back long weekends arrive late, not early, because they are the sessions that leave the deepest hole — stacking them before the base is there is the classic way to arrive at the start line already cooked.
The long runs are where you practise eating the food you will actually use on the day. The plan writes the minutes. You bring the food you already know.
The taper is four weeks, and it is longer than most people are comfortable with. Feeling fresh and twitchy in the last fortnight is the taper doing its job, not a sign you should add a session. The plan will keep saying so.
How the block is shaped
These are the suggested lengths. A shorter window cuts base first and keeps the specific block and the taper, and the plan tells you when the window you chose is thinner than the objective wants.
Easy weeks · 14 weeks
Fourteen weeks of easy volume and a long run that grows slowly. The goal is durability, not sharpness.
Closer to the date · 18 weeks
Eighteen weeks: back-to-back long weekends, night sessions, and full dress rehearsals with race kit and race food.
Last weeks · 4 weeks
Four weeks down. Volume drops hard, short intensity stays, and the last week is sleep, packing and drop-bag logistics.
Strength in this plan
One strength day a week while the plan builds. Use the column you have the kit for — the home version needs a step, a chair and a backpack.
At home
2–3 rounds, a minute's rest between
- Bulgarian split squat6 each leg
- Slow step-down8 each leg
- Single-leg Romanian deadlift8 each leg
- Single-leg calf raise12 each leg
- Bent-knee calf raise15
- Copenhagen plank (short)15 s each side
In a gym
2–3 sets of each, 2 min rest on the heavy lifts
- Trap bar deadlift6
- Dumbbell Bulgarian split squat6 each leg
- Slow step-down8 each leg
- Weighted single-leg calf raise10 each leg
- Seated calf raise12
- Copenhagen plank (short)20 s each side
Built for
- Runners who have finished a 50 km and want the next distance
- Anyone training around a job, who needs the long weekends placed where they actually fit
- People who want night running written in rather than left to chance
Not for
- First-time ultra runners — start at 50 km and come back
- Races of about 80 km or a 7–10 hour day — that is the 50 km plan
- Anyone who cannot protect at least one long weekend session most weeks
Ridgework writes the training weeks. It does not replace medical advice: pain, illness or an injury is a doctor's or a physio's call, and the plan only changes the week around it.
Why a plan that adapts
A printed plan assumes every week goes as written. When one does not, you skip and fall behind, or cram the missed work back in and arrive tired. Ridgework rewrites the next days from what you logged, keeps your date, and says what changed and why.
Kit this assumes
- A vest you have run long in, loaded
- Headlamp plus spare cells, tested in the dark
- Poles for sustained climbing
- A dry layer you can put on with cold hands
Questions
How long should I train for a 100K?
This block runs 36 weeks: 14 base, 18 specific, 4 taper. It is long because the adaptation that matters — aerobic durability and a gut that works at hour ten — accumulates slowly and cannot be rushed in the final month.
What are back-to-back long runs and when do they start?
A long session on Saturday followed by a second long one on Sunday, on tired legs, to rehearse the second half of the race. They arrive in the specific block, not the base, and the plan cuts day two when you report leftovers in the legs.
Do I need to train at night?
If your race goes through darkness, yes — and the plan schedules it rather than leaving it as a surprise. Test the lamp, the layers and the food on an ordinary easy run first.
How much weekly volume does this require?
It follows the weekly hours band you set, not a fixed mileage number. Two people on the same 100 km plan with different available hours get different weeks. The plan will tell you when the window you chose is thinner than the objective wants.
Start this plan
No card needed. You set the date, answer a short setup. Your week appears. The next two are written ahead.
14 days free, no card. On day 15 your plan pauses unless you add a card: €19/month, cancel anytime.
Ridgework writes training weeks for trail and mountain. It is not a medical device, not healthcare, and not a substitute for a clinician, a guide, or rescue. Research citations inform the week structure; they are not prescriptions. You remain responsible for safety in the mountains and in training.