July: Ultra

   Great-grandmothers and three-legged dogs run marathons these days. If you really want a challenge, think ultra - any race that exceeds 26.2 miles, but which typically covers 50 to 120 miles. Once a freak-show event, ultramarathons have exploded in popularity in recent years. So extraordinary are the demands they put on the body that many running coaches won't risk their reputations on them, which is why practical training advice is scant. It is naive and perilous to believe that training for this type of race is no different than training for a marathon. So what advice works? Think like a beginner. In fact, any runner starting over can learn a lot from an ultramarathoner - and vice versa.

   For starters, dispense with speed goals of any kind. The staggering challenge of an ultramarathon is simply to stay on your feet for sever hours or longer, making forward progress at all times through some combination of running and walking. Beginners should likewise lose any sense of heroics in favor of walking partway. Even if you can fly through five miles in 45 minutes on your first day out, you will become a whimpering lactic-acid knot bag for the rest of the week. Until you can complete two long runs on consecutive days, leave speed work off the table entirely.

   While you're at it, forget hills. Grades will overload weak quadriceps and calves, plus they can aggravate Achilles tendonitis. To be sure, hills benefit any running program, but as ultramarathoners will tell you, they work best in very small doses long after you've built your base. In the early going, it's far better to focus on long, languorous miles. Find as flat a course as you can.

   Experienced distance runners will sniff at what ultramarathoners call interval training: long segments - often five minutes or more - at a slightly accelerated pace, followed by a conventional recovery period of slow running, the process then repeated. Duration, rather than speed, makes the magic in this type of interval, but the effect is the same. It increases aerobic capacity, muscle strength, and stamina. Likewise, beginners and returning runners will see fast results from very easy intervals without risking injury or idle days of groaning recovery.

   In fact, the temptation to work above your level will come early, and then it will come often. Resist this treacherous siren with all the virtue you can muster. Fight the monotony of plodding, unvaried runs in other ways. As you begin to build both muscle and stamina, you'll want to let your new abilities fly. Stick to the 10 percent rule: don't increase mileage, speed, or the number of intervals by more than 10 percent each week. Otherwise, beginners risk injury and disillusionment. Ultramarathoners are simply squandering training time.

   There is something primitive and venerable about both types of runners. After all, most of us fall between these two extremes. Our goals constantly nudge us into highly specialized workouts. The beginner and the ultramarathoner let their bodies' elemental abilities set the rate of progress. There's a lesson in that for the rest of us.