TRAIL LANGUAGE, PLAIN ENGLISH
Ultramarathon training glossary.
Clear definitions for ultramarathon workouts, heart-rate zones, training load, elevation, fueling and race preparation. Use this guide when a trail-running term or session name is unclear.
BUILD YOUR ULTRAMARATHON TRAINING PLAN →Sessions
- Easy run
- Low-stress running at conversational effort. Most weekly kilometres should feel this controlled.
- Long run
- The longest session of the week. It builds time-on-feet durability and is normally easier than race effort.
- Trail long run
- A long run on terrain that resembles the race, including climbing, descending, hiking and fueling practice.
- Medium-long run
- Longer than a normal easy run but shorter than the weekly long run. It adds endurance with a lower recovery cost.
- Controlled tempo
- Sustained, measured running around heart-rate Zone 3. It should feel strong without becoming an all-out time trial.
- Hill endurance
- Repeated uphill work that develops climbing strength and running economy, with easy recovery between efforts.
- Power hiking
- Purposeful, efficient hiking on steep terrain. In an ultramarathon it is often a planned race skill, not a fallback.
- Downhill conditioning
- Controlled descending that prepares the quadriceps and coordination for technical terrain and late-race fatigue.
Effort & load
- RPE
- Rate of perceived exertion on a 1–10 scale. RPE 2–3 is easy, while RPE 9–10 is near-maximal.
- Heart-rate zone
- An intensity range based on maximum heart rate. Heat, fatigue, altitude and terrain can all affect heart rate.
- Zone 1
- Very easy aerobic effort used for recovery, warm-ups and much of the time spent on long runs.
- Zone 2
- Steady aerobic running that remains sustainable but feels more purposeful than Zone 1.
- Zones 3–5
- Moderate to maximal intensity used selectively because both training stimulus and recovery cost rise quickly.
- Weekly volume
- The total planned running distance in one week. Higher mileage is not automatically better or safer.
- Elevation gain (m+)
- The total vertical metres climbed on a route. One thousand metres of ascent is written as 1000 m+.
- Equivalent distance
- Race distance plus an allowance for climbing, used to compare the workload of flat and mountainous ultramarathons.
Planning
- Foundation phase
- The opening training phase, focused on establishing a consistent and repeatable week before adding more load.
- Recovery week
- A planned reduction in distance and intensity so the body can absorb training instead of only accumulating fatigue.
- Race-specific phase
- Training that increasingly resembles the goal race’s terrain, duration, hiking, descending and fueling demands.
- Peak training
- The final substantial training block before taper. Fitness is confirmed here rather than chased at any cost.
- Taper
- A reduction in training volume before race day while enough short running remains to maintain normal rhythm.
- Specificity
- How closely the training sessions match the distance, elevation, terrain and expected conditions of the goal race.
- Readiness score
- A planning indicator based on current volume, long-run base, training frequency and check-ins. It is not a medical assessment.
- Adherence
- The share of due sessions marked completed. Missed training informs future adaptation and should not become training debt.
- Technicality
- How difficult terrain is to move across because of rocks, roots, mud, exposure or narrow trail, independent of distance and climbing.
- Fueling target (g/h)
- Grams of carbohydrate consumed per hour. The target should be practised gradually during long-run training before race day.
Turn definitions into a personal plan.
Train 4 Ultra uses your race distance, elevation, terrain, experience and available days to build an adaptive ultramarathon training plan.
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