In this extensive Runner’s Tribe series the world’s best ultra and trail runners share their training. Every few days we will be posting a new athletes’ weekly program during a peak training period. Next up we have journeyman/masters runner from the United States, Martin Schneekloth. In 2019, Martin ran the six oldest US 100 milers over one summer as part of “The Last Great Race of Ultrarunning” and became only the 42nd runner in 35+ years to complete this challenge.
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- Home Town: Huntsville, Alabama
- Favourite Trails: Tour du Mont Blanc (France, Italy and Switzerland)
- Favourite Race: Mountain Mist 50K, I’ve run this thing 10 times.
- Best Result to Date: Finishing the “Last Great Race of Ultrarunning” by completing the six oldest 100 milers in the US (Old Dominion 100, Vermont 100, Western States 100, Angeles Crest 100, Leadville 100 and Wasatch Front 100) in one summer or 14 weeks in 2019.
- Sponsors: Addaday Recovery, Silver Star Nutrition, CEP, Altra Red Team, Spring Team, and UltrAspire Immortal
- Occupation (if not only a pro runner): Not a pro runner, Software Translation Manager
- Instagram handle: @UltraKraut
- Facebook handle: martin.schneekloth
- Website: www.ultrakrautrunning.com
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RT: 10 weeks out from a major race during your career. Can you please provide a detailed outline of a typical week of training?
As a non-elite and masters runner, my training intensity and volume are significantly lower than other athletes, but my training is very structured nonetheless. 10 weeks out usually still represents my base-building phase leading into a goal 100 miler with peak mileage (90-95 miles) as close as 3 weeks to race day, but training is about to become more specific and as weekly mileage still continues to increase, so do harder biweekly workouts and vertical gain (as most of my goal races are mountainous 100 milers). I try to resemble the actual goal race more and more as race day nears.
- Monday – 10 miles at MAF pace (+60 minute strength routine, free weights and core).
- Tuesday – 8 mile hilly run with 75-85% of max effort on hills and easy pace on downhills and flats.
- Wednesday – 10-12 mile run at MAF pace (+60 minute strength routine, free weights and core).
- Thursday – 10 mile varied effort by feel (5 miles uphill followed by 5 miles downhill).
- Friday – 6-8 miles at MAF pace or Rest Day.
- Saturday – 50K race with varied efforts or substitute solo LSD.
- Sunday – 13 miles at MAF pace.
RT: What shoes and gear are you rotating through currently and what’s your favourite piece of equipment?
My favorite shoes right now are the Altra Escalante Racers for my weekday road runs. They just feel light and responsive. For long weekend trail runs and races I usually grab the Altra Lone Peaks. The Altra Olympus have become by go to shoe late in a 100 miler. My favorite piece of gear is my UltrAspire Lumen 600 3.0 waist light. It’s been a game changer during the night stages of 100 mile races. I call it 3D lighting, No more tripping on roots and rocks.
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Your training schedule is full-on with consistent miles everyday of the week. How have you gone with injuries over the years?
Regarding staying injury free, I try to greatly limit the number of intense workouts. I rely on hill repeats rather than track workouts and road tempo runs and Fartlek workouts (zero track) and I definitely stick to the 80-20 rule. That has kept me to two minor injuries over the last 7 years, one related to a fall on a trail and one in the aftermath of a Covid infection. A fully plant-based whole foods diet for the past three years has kept me completely free of any post race or post training inflammation issues.
Thank you!
