They say that training builds you up and racing breaks you down. Each training session is a small deposit into a piggy bank of fitness; each race a withdrawal.

This seems especially true with ultra running which usually requires at least a short amount of time off after a race. But many ultra runners are in the habit of racing so frequently that it could almost appear they ‘race to train’ instead of the other way around, treating their ‘B’ races like nothing more than a catered training run. “It’s just a training run” and “I’m just going to take it easy” are pretty commonly heard expressions during a race. Nothing wrong with that!

I’ve always found it hard to stick to my plans to take it easy during a race though. Once in the heat of the moment I always want to put my fitness to the test and leave it all out on the course. Even so, there’s still plenty of room for racing in my training.

After just starting my racing season in March, April was supposed to be about starting to really build volume leading up to this month’s Sun Mountain 50 miler, but not before racing Diez Vista 50k which was to be my first ultra distance race of the year. I’d been feeling faster and stronger than ever and ready for an amazing season as a new member of Salomon Flight Crew.

I managed to finish Diez Vista in 5:04:37 for 9th place overall, but the race was far from a success, having stupidly spent the last half hobbling in pain.

March was all about building volume for this coming weekend’s Diez Vista 50k, along with running my first two races of the year that I mentioned in February: The Cypress Yeti 10k Snowshoe Race, and the Coast Mountain Trail Series Cap Crusher 8k where I placed 2nd overall – my shortest race ever, my first podium finish and a great start to the trail racing season!

In my January training recap, I mentioned having ramped up my training a little quickly after having just returned from a big trip over the holidays – not so much in terms of mileage, but time-on-feet which is how I measure my longer efforts. I had started strength training again along with weekly speed work at the track.

February’s focus continued to be on building a good foundation of speed and strength to get ready for a couple of shorter races coming up in March, including the Yeti Snowshoe Race at Cypress and the Coast Mountain Trail Series Cap Crusher, while starting to build volume and doing some recon runs for April’s Diez Vista 50k.

When I started running about 5 years ago I jumped pretty much straight into the half-marathon and marathon distance. Far from a high school or collegiate running background here. As I began to follow a formal training plan, I found the tempo runs and speed work to be more difficult than the longer distance runs but I quickly realized how important they are even for marathon performance.