I’m not sure what it was. It’s not like I’m not busy enough already. But I just signed up to run the Lean Horse Ultra Marathon with my friend, Sam – 50 miles through South Dakota hill country – four months from now.

This is by far the longest race I’ve run.

The last ultra I did (which was also the first ultra I did) was 50km or about 31 miles. It wrecked my legs and feet, and this adds almost a full marathon to that.

I trained for that first race, from a base of zero, in eight weeks, and finished second-to-last, just under the cutoff time.

This time, I want to do better, and with four months to prep, I’m confident. Here are the things I’m going to do differently:

1. Training My Feet & Legs

Last time, I cobbled together a simple training program from two different chapters of the 4-Hour Body. It essentially looked like this:

  • 400m sprints 2-3 days a week
  • 1 day of long, slow, distance (10+ miles)

That’s it. There was lots of rest involved, and in the entire run-up to the event, I don’t think I ever ran more than twelve miles.

It worked pretty well. I think I missed like half of my planned training sessions, and I was still able to finish the race. But I was slow, and I really hurt my feet.

This time, I’m taking training more seriously. Part of it is out of respect for the other competitors. And part is because I want to perform better. Sitting here at the outset, the things I think I want to change would be…

  • Add heavy compound lifts 1-2x per week
  • Barefoot slow jogs to strengthen small muscles in feet
  • Maybe do a 50-mile walk 1x per month – just to get used to covering that distance mentally

2. Diet

I was too heavy for that race. Probably 185lbs or more. I should be competing around 165, so over the next few months, I’ll be focused on leaning out.

Big things for me:

  • No drinking calories – That means skipping the alcohol and lattes. I like black coffee, so that’s easy. Ditching diet sodas too though even though they’re zero calory.
  • Don’t cook in butter – Personally, this is where I get most of my hidden calories. As soon as I cut it, I lean out pretty fast.
  • Avoid processed carbs (mostly) – This is my big weakness. Not really interested in cutting it entirely (especially since I’ll be in Connecticut in the summer – home to the best pizza). But would like to take it down to maybe one meal a week.

3. Focus on Recovery

I don’t have an ice bath or anything fancy like that. Just going to focus on getting to bed early, and spending at least 8 hours there.

I’ve been running for fun the last week or so and track it on a Garmin watch. Seems like my performance only improves on days after I get to bed early.

Last Thing

I remember what it was now – the thing that made me do this. A realization I’ve had over and over in my career: I accomplish more when I have more going on.

I yearn for the opposite. For a clear, open schedule with lots of free time so I can finally focus on the work I want to do.

But the reality (for me at least) is that I do that work more reliably when I don’t have all day. And being busy, pushing for new things, keeps me reminded that I’m capable of more.

So here we go…