TRAINING PLANNER
A periodized ultramarathon training plan built on the science behind the world's top ultra coaches. Answer 15 questions for a free plan, or upload your Garmin data for a plan calibrated to your actual fitness, heart rate zones, and training load. Run smarter, go further, show up race ready.
How it works
From setup to a race-ready training plan in three steps.
Upload your Garmin data for a plan calibrated to your actual VO₂ max, training load, and heart rate zones. Or answer 15 questions about your fitness, weekly mileage, and race goal for a free plan. Either way takes under 2 minutes.
A periodized week-by-week calendar built backward from your race date: Base, Build, Peak, and Taper. Hard weeks are followed by recovery weeks. The plan ends on race day.
Daily workouts with zone targets, long run progression, and race-week guidance. Peak week and taper are built in. Download as CSV or PDF.
Free to use. Upgrade for Garmin-powered plans.
Answer 15 questions and get a full periodized training plan at no cost. Upload your Garmin data to unlock a plan calibrated to your real fitness metrics: VO₂ max, heart rate zones, training load, and more.
- ✓ Full periodized training plan (Base, Build, Peak, Taper)
- ✓ Built from 15 questions about your fitness and race goal
- ✓ Week-by-week calendar with daily workouts and zone targets
- ✓ CSV download
- ✓ Everything in Free
- ✓ Plan calibrated to your VO₂ max, HR zones, and training load
- ✓ 18+ parsed Garmin metrics inform mileage, intensity, and pacing targets
- ✓ PDF training plan download
The coaching science behind it
This tool was not adapted from a marathon plan. It was built from the ground up for ultramarathons, drawing on the frameworks of coaches who have guided athletes to Western States, Hardrock, and UTMB podiums.
Author of Training Essentials for Ultrarunning. The planner applies Koop's interval periodization model (building VO₂ max through targeted quality sessions rather than junk miles) and his guidance on managing training load across a full build cycle.
Co-author of The Happy Runner, co-host of the Some Work All Play podcast, and coach to elite mountain runners. The planner incorporates Roche's emphasis on easy aerobic volume, terrain specificity, and the importance of uphill speed work.
Ultrarunner, coach, and sports scientist. The planner reflects Malcolm's approach to integrating strength work, fueling periodization, and managing fatigue accumulation across back-to-back long weeks.
Key research behind the methodology
Zone 2 training (sustained effort at roughly 60–70% max HR) is the primary driver of mitochondrial biogenesis and fat oxidation enzymes. Elite endurance athletes spend 70–80% of training in Zone 2. The planner prioritizes genuine Zone 2 volume and flags when grey-zone training crowds it out.
Periodization structures training into phases, progressively overloading the body, then allowing recovery before the next phase begins. Base builds aerobic capacity, Build develops race-specific fitness, Peak tests readiness, and Taper reduces fatigue so the body arrives on race day primed.
Injury risk spikes when acute training load (the past week) rises too sharply relative to chronic load (the past 4 weeks). Keeping the ratio between 0.8 and 1.3 reduces injury risk significantly. The planner uses this ratio to cap week-over-week mileage increases and flag recovery weeks.
Across 50km and 80km races, VO₂ max and lactate threshold predicted finishing time. At 160km, no single physiological variable did. Pacing discipline, fueling execution, and muscular fatigue management become the true differentiators at 100 miles, which is why the planner trains these behaviors explicitly, not just fitness.
Research on elite endurance athletes across running, cycling, and swimming found that roughly 80% of training falls below the aerobic threshold and 20% at genuinely high intensity. The middle range, comfortably hard but not truly fast, accumulates fatigue without the adaptations of either end. The planner builds your week around this split and flags when grey-zone miles crowd out true easy work.
A survey of 824 ultramarathon finishers found that 66% identified muscle breakdown, not aerobic capacity or fueling failure, as their primary race impediment. The damage is largely eccentric: quads absorbing impact on descents, mile after mile. The planner addresses this with periodized strength work and progressive downhill training built into every phase.
These are six of the primary research frameworks applied in the planner. Additional sources on running economy, sleep, heat acclimatization, and nutrition periodization also inform the methodology.