IN FOCUS ULTRA STRENGTH TRAINING
In an attempt to complete the ‘hardest mountain ultramarathon in the world’ while maintaining his hard-earned muscle mass, James Hudson set out to strike the perfect balance between tailored strength training and aerobic conditioning. Here’s how he did it
I was handed the results from my DEXA (dual x-ray absorptiometry) scan, the gold standard method for measuring body composition. There was just a week to go before I was set to run the 380km (236 miles) Dragon’s Back Race, promisingly dubbed the ‘hardest mountain ultramarathon in the world’. I had signed up to this race because I wanted an adventure, and the idea of running the length of Wales, while climbing a total of 17,400 metres in the process (over twice the height of Everest), for some reason, appealed to me. My personal sporting background is rugby, then weight lifting and a bit of CrossFit, but I wanted something different – exciting.
So, for the previous ten months, I trained specifically for this race. Crucially, though, I set myself the goal of maintaining or even building muscle mass, while getting enough running in my legs to stand a chance of completing the event.
I read the numbers on the DEXA report: body fat 8.75% and lean mass 71.75kg – up from 71.71kg ten months ago. I had done it, just. Although this may seem like a small gain, and it is in the context of bodybuilding, the fact I was able to build muscle while doing four-hour runs on a Saturday followed by five-hour runs on a Sunday – with a sprinkling throughout the week – felt monumental.
The obvious question, of course, is why this was important to me. Well, I would say there were advantages and disadvantages. The obvious downside is that you are carrying more weight, which means you are working harder. This extra weight resulted in frequently getting overtaken on the hills (of which there were many).
The upsides were that I enjoy having more muscle mass – call it vanity or ego, but I prefer to fill out a t-shirt than have a set of spaghetti arms. Also, more muscle means more strength, so navigating some of the ‘grade 1’ scrambles present on Day 1 of the Dragon’s Back felt easier. A Grade 1 means using both your hands and feet to climb, and it was pretty gnarly in places – I was thankful I could lift my bodyweight with ease. I may have been getting passed on the ups, but I absolutely flew on the downhills because my quads, which physiologically are my brakes when running down, were strong. Finally, I think having more muscle and spending more time in the gym than most ultrarunners made me more robust. In fact, I didn’t experience any injuries either in training or the race.
I should say that I’m not a professional athlete, and chose to sign
