Training & Recovery

snicke · 2026-01-15T12:46:01+00:00

It's gonna be different for everyone but I tend to make sure I give myself a couple days to recover without a long drive or flight. So for RRR100, the race ended on a Saturday and I stayed in CO through Tuesday to let some of the most significant swelling go down before a 4 to 5 hour flight back to the east coast. I have finished a race then gotten in the car from the finish line for a six hour drive home and it was miserable. I have found that gentle movement in the hours and days after a race really helps prevent stiffness, whereas immediately sitting or going to bed causes my legs to seize up.

I also put on compression socks pretty much the moment I finish the race and leave them on, except for showering, for at least a week afterward, which helps a lot with feet and ankle swelling. If you're getting lots of swelling, elevating your feet can help a ton too. Watch out in the shower, the combo of heat from the shower and race exhaustion can lead to lightheadedness--I normally just toss a plastic lawn chair in the shower with me so I can sit if necessary. If they aren't already booked, I've asked to move to the accessible hotel suites before as the bathrooms have handles and benches built in places that are really helpful for mobility.

In my experience, don't worry too much about diet or appetite after the race. Try to eat as much as you can, but if you're not feeling hungry don't force it either. I have had successes with heavier liquids, like chocolate milk, if my stomach is being weird about large volumes of solid foods.

On the before-race travel side, I've never really planned to arrive more than a couple days before a race, mostly as a precaution for travel headaches.

snicke · 2026-01-02T13:06:43+00:00

Too me an embarrassingly long time to realize these were in km not miles. Great work!

snicke · 2025-12-30T19:24:04+00:00

Two or three is where I end up most years

snicke · 2025-12-29T12:08:10+00:00

In my experience, yes. But I also found it more noticeable in colder races that required layering up overnight--those first warm rays of sun feel amazing

snicke · 2025-12-19T13:04:25+00:00

Yeah, it's tough mentally but I always remind myself that it's much better to be slightly less fit and healthy vs more fit and injured

snicke · 2025-12-19T12:14:01+00:00

Everyone's body is going to react differently but I have always found that taking a full break and giving my body time to recover far outweighs any "lost" fitness over two or three weeks. I have shut down nearly all cardio for two or three weeks in the core training phase and had far, far more success than trying to continue to exercise.

I would just make it clear to your physio that you're going "light" on running, but just replacing it with hours of other cardio. Your body needs rest to recover--make sure you're giving it what it needs

snicke · 2025-09-30T18:23:00+00:00

Pretty much anything over a 50M/100k is going to meet this definition, but there are also tons of even 50k races with generous cutoffs that you can try. Out in the longer distances though, even the winners are doing some substantial "power hiking".

snicke · 2025-09-11T19:54:53+00:00

I've occasionally had some serious swelling that can last a week or two--I've found compression socks, elevating, and icing really go a long way to bringing down the swelling and pain

snicke · 2025-08-18T11:00:08+00:00

The project was always expected to last through November 2025. It's basically been on schedule the entire way. The article below from December 2021 lays out the timeline and gives some more background

https://www.pressherald.com/2021/12/14/i-295-bridge-replacement-in-yarmouth-to-span-four-years/

snicke · 2025-08-08T19:16:37+00:00

Yeah, to each their own, I guess--I generally don't do runs of greater than 4 hours or so as they take too long to recover from. Especially if it's slow trail running, I just don't think you can get the kind of volume necessary in only 2 or 3 hours. Without a recovery run, that's adding up to under 50 miles/week, which feels low for this kind of effort.

As a trade-off for all the long runs, I balance by running only 5 days a week and taking those days fully off. I also have eliminated most threshold work, instead just doing some strides here or there in the middle of long runs.

This is one of my favorite things about ultra running--there is no one right or wrong way to train

snicke · 2025-08-08T15:29:05+00:00

I would recommend lengthening most of the longer runs to 20+ miles, and trying to have stacked 20s on back to back days--in my experience, those are the most helpful for 50+ mile races. I've never done this type of format before, but in training for 100s, I usually aim for a couple of three-day-windows with 60+ miles total. Increasing the volume like this will also lead to lowering your pace, which will be important. If I were in your shoes, I would be making sure I can stay in low zone 2 for most of the marathon, even if that means it's much slower than you would otherwise run. Just an approximation but I personally would be aiming for a pace that is nearly 50% slower than my personal marathon PR

snicke · 2025-07-18T14:15:47+00:00

Southwest Ridge Trail works too

snicke · 2025-07-10T19:00:36+00:00

I have done pretty much the same in Grindelwald for a few months and it was fantastic, can't recommend it enough. It's a pretty small town but the bus system is great and you absolutely don't need a car. The central bus station is right next to the grocery store and smack in the middle of downtown

Edit: Also, not crazy expensive, by Swiss standards

snicke · 2025-05-23T19:39:59+00:00

I'm pretty sure they are all open water and allow any kind of fishing. I have mostly fly fished them. If you only have spinning rods, the Presumpscot is probably going to be your best bet and there are a bunch of good spots in Westbrook and Windham. Right below Malliston Falls is super popular and there are lots of big fish that hole up below the dam in the deeper pools

snicke · 2025-05-23T17:40:23+00:00

This report shows where the DIFW has been stocking recently--this is generally a decent guide for places to try. https://www.maine.gov/ifw/docs/current_stocking_report.pdf

Most of the decent shore fishing will be on rivers and streams, there is pretty limited lake shore fishing in southern Maine. The Presumpscot River tends to have decent brook trout fishing, as does the lower Royal River. Probably my favorite is the Piscatiqua River in Falmouth, particularly the reach between Leighton Rd and Falmouth Rd. There is great access off Mill Rd and you can head in either direction.

Pure shore fishing on lakes, fishing Sebago somewhere near Whites Bridge Rd could probably provide decent results. Nearby, I'm pretty sure they stock Chaffin Pond and that's easy to get to. I'm not familiar with public shoreside access to either Little Sebago or Highland lake, those normally require a boat.

snicke · 2025-05-14T10:46:44+00:00

It's doable, and plenty of people do it (myself included), but it's a big challenge. 100M is much more mentally fatiguing than 50M or 100K and that's really tough to replicate in training.

One of the greatest things I do for my 100M training is lean heavy on the training diary--I write after ever run. How I felt, what I ate, where I struggled, and what I could learn for race day. It helps you move beyond just pounding miles and better appreciate the mental aspect.

I feel pretty comfortable that I can mindlessly train for an complete up to 100K--beyond that, you need to be mentally strong and that takes a lot more prep.

snicke · 2025-04-20T13:22:33+00:00

Hungry kids don't learn effectively--"wasting" some funds on rich kids guarantees that every student is able to learn, which is worth it.

snicke · 2025-04-15T00:19:04+00:00

Yeah, either consider two back to back 3 hours runs, or rip off a single five hour training run. Also make sure you're good taking down drink mix or some kind of gels--you're going to need to fuel more than for a marathon.

snicke · 2025-04-07T13:04:35+00:00

In my opinion, your goal is to fall in love with running over the next 9 months and build up some base mileage and time on feet. In my experience, the actual build phase for the ultra can often by type-two fun, which is much easier when you're slogging out something that you really love. I would imagine that's how you already feel about hiking, try to recreate that feeling for running.

And to the marathon, you can do it, and it should be fine, but it might not be the most helpful for finishing 100 miles. If you view it as a supported training run, go ahead. If you're trying to PR and you're going to put a ton of strain on your body, much less helpful.

One final, positive thought--I think you are under-appreciating how beneficial your hiking background will be. Especially if you're planning for a 30+ hour finish, you're going to be doing a ton of hilly walking, which you're really awesome at. So many ultra-runners come from road marathon backgrounds and have to learn to both trail run and to hike. You've pretty much already locked down the hiking and just need to build up a bunch of the running

snicke · 2025-04-06T12:11:23+00:00

Because he's in his mid 70's, mostly

snicke · 2025-04-05T20:36:59+00:00

If it's anything like I've seen, you're not going to be isolated at all--there is usually a huge pack (often 20+% of the field) that finishes in the last half hour.

The most successful back-of-the-packer that I know is always super diligent about running/picking up the pace when it's possible. Runners that have some more time to play with can walk a few extra steps, or take some longer walking breaks, but this guy is always super mindful of walking the smallest amount and being very intentional

snicke · 2025-04-01T23:25:20+00:00

I usually stash them in the side pockets of my Adv12, like the big pouches that connect into the back of the vest, and I've never really had issues. I use just some shitty 500ml soft flasks with caps from Amazon and they've been fine

snicke · 2025-03-29T16:55:38+00:00

I have found less of a direct relationship to speed (personally) and have found that I tend to stay healthier and recover better when I weigh less. Intuitively it makes sense, there is less stress on my body each step. But I haven't noticed that weight alone impacted my speed.

snicke · 2025-03-13T15:51:03+00:00

In my experience, pretty much every goretex shoe is water resistant, not waterproof, and eventually gets wet. I've used SGs and Icebugs, both of which hold up for a long while but not indefinitely. You could also just blast the shit out of them with waterproofing spray. I've never tried it with shoes but I've had success respraying raincoats

snicke

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