Heading on the trail with one of the best, Tom Evans
Our partners over at Adidas TERREX, have kindly given us some inside info from one of their athletes, Tom Evans. Have a read of the below for some Tom Evans ultra marathons top tips.
Who is Tom Evans?
Tom Evans, a former British Army Captain, first made his mark on the ultrarunning world in 2017. He came third in the 251km desert ultra Marathon des Sables (MdS). This was the best result achieved by any European in the history of the race, despite entering on the back of a bet with a friend
Tom astounded once again in 2018, when he won the 101km CCC race at the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB). Arguably, the pinnacle of an incredibly successful racing year. This also saw him take the top spot – and break course records – at the Coastal Challenge Costa Rica and the South Downs Way 50.
In August 2022, Tom claimed an excellent third place at Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc. His time of 20:34:36 was impressive. Not just for its speed, but because exactly one year beforehand, Tom was lying on a hospital bed wondering if he would ever run professionally again.
Tom Evans is no stranger to Threshold ultras marathons having won Race to the Tower in 2017.
Training for ultra marathons
First, up for Tom Evans ultra marathons tip for the trails is to focus all around the training. He believes that the best way to train is in hours and minutes, rather than by mileage. His reasons behind this are based on the different types of terrains you may train in. If you live in a mountainous area, running 100 miles or kilometres a week is going to be a very different time than if you were in a less mountainous area.
KEY TAKEAWAY: Don’t set a distance goal for your training sessions. Set a time goal for all sessions, whether interval, hard, or recovery.
AVOID: Chasing endless mileage, to ensure you are focusing on key training.
Mental Strength for ultra marathons
The mental strength side of running is just as important as the physical side, and Tom worries that sometimes people maybe don’t think about it enough. To help with this, Tom has broken down his top tips for mental strength and mindset in three key components:
- When you are standing on the start line and may be starting to feel slightly anxious, narrow your thoughts to focus on the training that you have done, rather than the training that you haven’t done.
- Visualise the course before the race. Tom likes to run the course before race day so that he has a good understanding of the areas he can push a bit harder, and the areas he may need to take it slightly easier. In terms of our trails, it would be great to have a good understanding of the route in a similar way, whether that means studying the route map or getting out to walk/ run parts of the course in sections.
- Break the course down to more manageable chunks so that you don’t see it as a 100km race, but instead 5, 20 kms or similar. This helps you to focus your mind on the present and avoid worrying about further on in the race.
Fueling
Tom always struggles to give an exact answer when asked how much he eats and drinks during a race, as it changes every time. He bases his fuelling on the time you are running, the terrain you are running on and how fast and hard you are going to be working.
Typically, Tom likes to fuel between 1 – 1.5 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of bodyweight. So, if you were 70 kilograms, Tom would recommend consuming somewhere between 70 – 100 grams of carbohydrates every hour.
KEY TAKEAWAY: All fuelling techniques should be properly tried and tested during your training. This ensures that you’ll feel 100% comfortable that it works for you.
DON’T FORGET: As it gets colder, you will need to fuel a little bit more because your body is having to work harder to try and stay warm. This is also very important if you are running through the night as your body will be again, working harder to keep you going.
Recovery
Ever wondered what you can do when you are not out training but want to ensure you are well-recovered for the next session? Tom has all the answers to your questions with the super helpful steps below:
- Make your easy runs easy and your hard runs hard. If you follow this step your body will have plenty of time to recover in between those hard sessions, so you can keep performing at your best.
- Before you run, make sure everything is properly activated and ready to go. You can do this by completing some dynamic stretching, mobility and activation exercises.
- Make sure you are stretching, foam rolling and self-helping. In an ideal world this would be as soon as you finish a run, but if you don’t have the time, aim for a 15-minute stretching session at least once a day.
