I’m doing the 3 peaks fell race in April next year and starting to think about my training plan.

I would have probably followed a marathon scedule fairly closely. Most of these schedules build up from a base of 40 miles a week to about 55/60, not leaving a great deal of time for biking (road in this instance). I’m currently riding 125-150 miles a week and was hoping to maintain this as much as possible as I want to be racing at some point next year too.

Question is, has anyone successfully added a significant amount of cycling to marathon or very long fell race training and reduced running to about 3 days a week and still done well, I’m aiming for a good time, not just getting round before the cut offs!

I was hoping to run 1 hill session, 1 8 miler and one 15 miler, and build up the longer run to 20 or more miles a month before the race.

Any advice out there…

I was hoping to run 1 hill session, 1 8 miler and one 15 miler, and build up the longer run to 20 or more miles a month before the race.

This sounds plenty to me. I’ve run the 3 peaks on considerably less training, but I guess it depends on what you call a ‘good time’.

I did 4.04 round 3 peaks last year prob struggled to do 3 runs a week whilst in training. I commute by bike so that takes must of my weekly training time up with around 80 – 100 miles/week. I did a few long tough fell runs in the build up and road miles as well. The hardest part of the 3 peaks for me wasnt the hills but the flatish trail running inbetween. I dont think i have ever done more than 40mile weeks consistently! What time you going for?

Good to know its achievable on less guys!. Aim is to do it in under 3:45. I did the Kinder trog which is about 2/3 the distance and climbing in 2:20 this year with about 30 miles a week training, but was regularly running near the distance of the race at the weekends.

It might be worth trying a few long runs, up to the full distance, before the event. Can be at a easy pace of course, but the last 5-10 miles can be hell if you aren’t used to the extra distance.

Good time, i think i could get 3.50ish next year. Your keen though thinking about it already!!
I did some ldwa events last year in the lead up to it and I am currently doing the esk valley fell series which gets up to about 14 mile just before the peaks race.
Great race, see you there!

Question is, has anyone successfully added a significant amount of cycling to marathon or very long fell race training and reduced running to about 3 days a week and still done well, I’m aiming for a good time, not just getting round before the cut offs!

No. At least i haven’t. My marathon time dropped ~15 minutes (2h55m to 3h10m) with more cycling and less running. That’s going from five runs a week and maybe 40 miles road cycling to 3 runs a week and 100 or more miles road cycling.

Last 5 miles last year in to a headwind… yeah that was a tough point! Its not good when walkers are moving faster than you lol

I’m managing training for ultras on 3 runs a week (usually slap bang in the middle of the field).

Tuesday hill reps (off road) – muddier and claggier the better.
Thursday speed work (road) – This might be a Tabata in the morning after dropping my daughter to school and then a tempo in the evening, or a single good long Fartlek session.
Weekend- 20+ miler (off road).

I do about 180km on the road bike a week (cycling to and from work on Mon, Wed & Fri) which is good for active recovery or zone 2 work; I rarely put in any drills on the bike when concentrating on running.

Throw in at least one night ride a week and that’s me pretty done. I’d like to do more on teh MTB but it’s so bloody time intensive.

The bike is good for base training as you’re less likely to injur yourself but I’d be wary about relying on it as muscles fatigue much differently on a bike than running mountains.

Your keen though thinking about it already!!

Wanted to make a decision weather to ditch the bike a bit and ramp up the running until I was doing 40 miles a week by Xmas.

Might leave it at 25 miles a week until xmas and then build up from that based on what I’m hearing here…