Inside the Training Diary of Tom Joly
Introduction
It takes a lot to stand out in British male ultra distance trail running.
Such is the quality of performances that Tom Joly isn’t one of the first names to come to mind. But 2023 has been something of a breakthrough for Tom, culminating in 16th position, and first British athlete, at UTMB.
Switching his focus from long course triathlon to trail running a couple of years ago seems to be paying off. He is unlikely to fly under the radar for long if his progression continues.
One of the things I wanted to do when writing this series was talk to athletes with different approaches. The first article looked at training for a road mile, whereas this article looks at training for a trail 100 miler. About as far apart in distance running as you can get.
You can follow Tom on Strava and Instagram, and his blog is a fascinating insight into his mindset and approach as an athlete.
The training block we’ll dig into here is the 11 weeks prior to UTMB. It was far from plain sailing.
About Tom
Coach: Self Coached
Sponsors: Lignacite, Team Hour7
Running Background: Started out in long distance triathlon before joining the military. Discovered his strengths were more in running long distances. Started training full time for ultra-distance trails in 2022.
Career Highlights:
2023 - World Trail and Mountain Running Championships, Long Trail - 11th
2023 - UTMB - 16th
2023 - TransLantau by UTMB, 140 k - 1st
The Race
Event: UTMB
Location: Chamonix, France
Result: 16th, 22:25:20
Training Principles
To qualify for UTMB, you have to run another race in the UTMB series in the previous year. Tom’s 6th position (with a lingering COVID infection) at the 2022 Doi Ithanon 100 mile race in Thailand was enough that he entered 2023 knowing that he would be on the start line in Chamonix in August.
UTMB was the main target for 2023, but it wasn’t a year focused only on one race.
There was a 9 hour race in February (Transgrancanaria, 85 km, +4300 m, 3rd), a 6 hour race in April (Ultra Sierra Nevada, 60 km, 3700 m, 1st), a 10 hour race in June (World Mountain and Trail Running Championships, 87 km, +6000 m, 11th), and a 17 hour race in November (TransLantau140, 130 km, +6700 m, 1st).
Obviously the training approach which would allow you to race well over 100 miles would be interesting, but I was also fascinated to talk about how Tom approached building and recovering from multiple long races in a season.
The sense of a big picture plan around his training came across immediately.
“It's always a focus on building capacity and then for the A races working on a specific thing. For Worlds, it was working on altitude. For UTMB, it's just getting in as much vert as possible. But the main goal through the year is just to accumulate as much volume as possible.”
“The original goal this year was to do 1100 hours of training, which I won’t hit. I might hit 1000. I’ll split that up into run and bike. The target is 6000 km of running, with 250,000 m of vert, which I should still hit. And then 10,000 km on the bike.”
It is a philosophy which seems to be influenced from his days training for Ironman triathlons. For his first 100 mile race in Thailand last November, he had trained a lot on the bike during the autumn - big hours, but only around 50 km of running in a week.
“A monster bike engine combined with just a few specific weeks of high vert, high volume running was an awesome combination.”
Before the World Trail Running Championships Tom did a six week block which had three weeks with 20 hours, 29 hours and 31 hours (mostly cycling) followed by three weeks at altitude with 17 hours, 23 hours and 24 hours (with a lot more running).
Tom explained about energy as being the limiting factor in the big blocks of training. If you can’t get enough energy in then at some point you will hit a tipping point where you are breaking yourself down more than building yourself up.
That was where this training block was quite interesting: when Tom started training again after the World Championships in June, those tipping points seemed to occur a a level lower than he expected.
The weeks after the World Championships were stop start. I asked Tom how he approaches the recovery after a race - “day by day” - and he noted that he has been able to recovery slightly quicker with more experience racing longer distances. But after the World Championships he wasn’t able to get back into training anywhere near as quickly as he expected.
“[weeks after World Championships] I remember saying to friends that I was burnt out. I need to book myself onto a cruise for 3 weeks. So that I can't do anything.”
For comparison, he recovered much quicker after UTMB; a race of almost double the distance. Four weeks after UTMB he logged a 108 hilly miles in training and felt like the training was productive.
He put some of the slow recovery down to leanness, with his body weight having being particularly low around the time of the World Championships, but even as he gained weight he felt like his body wasn’t reacting as he expected.
“It's not tiredness. It's like a different form of fatigue. And when you can't put your finger on it, it's maddening.”
The advice was to take it easier. He was used to training a lot of hours and had just run a 10 hour race. He was overdoing it. His heart rate variability (which he tracks with his Garmin watch) was tanking and it was clear that everything wasn’t right.
It was almost by luck that he found a way through the fatigue. When he headed out to France for a block of training on the UTMB course, he trained with friends were vegan.
“When I was training with them, I was then cutting out the dairy. And it was only on days where I got an ice cream or something that I suddenly felt sick again. I couldn't quite connect the dots, but it's what allowed me to do good training again.”
Cutting out food groups is a big choice and logging the hours that Tom does means he treads a fine line. But the change to his diet meant he felt better in training and could start to feel more like he expected when logging the big days in the mountains.
Once the recovery had settled he started with the more specific preparation for UTMB - with less time than he hoped.
Generally he’d structure his weeks with Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday being higher intensity sessions, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday being longer aerobic days with gym work, and Monday being a rest day.
For UTMB he also did blocks big days back to back - up to three to four at a time. Those were where he accumulated big volume and vert as specific preparation for race day. It is where he practiced pacing and race management and also where he dialed in his kit and nutrition (up to 100 g of carbohydrate an hour - a 25 g gel every 15 minutes).
When you spend a full day running around the mountains, over-exuberant pacing, an issue with your kit, or inability to get enough calories onboard could cut your race short.
“Recently we did some good lactate testing with Team 7Hour. I thought I was a high salt sweater and it's just that I was just producing way too much lactate early in the race. And all the cramping that was coming was from that rather than salt deficiency.”
“Pacing has definitely evolved. UTMB was the first time I had that information at hand and at no point in the race did I have cramping issues because I was so much more controlled with the pace.“
This training block wasn’t the smoothest, but training for any race (especially a 100 mile race) isn’t about logging the perfect 10 week block. It is about consistently putting in the training and developing yourself as an athlete. Tom has found a set of principles which have served to propel him on a steep upward trajectory over the last few years
Full Training Diary
Notes:
2022 Training: Swim: 26h (72 km), Bike: 368h (9773 km, +150,000 m), Run: 548h (5350 km, +170,000 m), Gym: 75h, Ski: 5h
Around two hours of strength training per week, plus stretching, foam rolling, and other rehab exercises as required.
Recovery after World Trail and Mountain Running Championships:
3 rest days post race.
12/06/2023:
🏃♂️ 1 h 48 m — 23.0 km (14.3 mi) — 82 m
🚴♂️ 3 h 40 m — 101.4 km (63.0 mi) — 337 m
19/06/2023:
🏃♂️ 2 h 7 m — 26.4 km (16.4 mi) — 189 m
🚴♂️ 13 h 1 m — 395.2 km (245.6 mi) — 1259 m
26/06/2023:
🏃♂️ 8 h 54 m — 104.1 km (64.7 mi) — 658 m
🚴♂️ 3 h 7 m — 97.9 km (60.8 mi) — 342 m
03/07/2023:
🏃♂️ 5 h 55 m — 70.0 km (43.5 mi) — 449 m
🚴♂️ 6 h 50 m — 194.1 km (120.6 mi) — 829 m
Week 1
10/07/2023:
🏃♂️ 7 h 50 m — 58.7 km (36.5 mi) — 3772 m
🚴♂️ 1 h 42 m — 52.0 km (32.3 mi) — 298 m
Monday | 1h 40m easy cycle | 55 S&C
Tuesday | 65 easy - 4:55 /km
Wednesday | 40 hike
Thursday | Rest & Travel
Friday | 55 easy hilly trails
Saturday | 1h 30m hilly trails | 75 uphill (+1020 m)
Sunday | 3h 5m easy hilly trails
Travelled to the alps to train with Team Hour7. Poor sleep, poor recovery, high heart rate and low heart rate variability. Feels like overtraining.
Week 2
17/07/2023:
🏃♂️ 6 h 7 m — 38.3 km (23.8 mi) — 2980 m
🚴♂️ No cycling
Monday | 50 S&C
Tuesday | 20 ultra effort, 20 marathon effort, 10 threshold effort. All uphill with lactate testing. 1h 35m total with downhill recoveries
Wednesday | Rest
Thursday | 2h 20m easy hilly trails - Sweat testing
Friday | 2h 5m easy hilly trails
Saturday | Rest
Sunday | Rest
Still feeling run down. Took two rest days to finish the week as a ‘reset’.
Week 3
24/07/2023:
🏃♂️ 15 h 36 m — 116.9 km (72.7 mi) — 6392 m
🚴♂️ 6 h 12 m — 112.9 km (70.2 mi) — 2909 m
Monday | 1h 50m easy hilly trails | 60 S&C
Tuesday | 80 easy hilly trails | 85 easy cycle
Wednesday | 45 easy hilly trails
Thursday | 3h easy cycle | 45 easy - 5:19 /km
Friday | 65 easy - 5:24 /km
Saturday | 4h 35m easy hilly trails
Sunday | 7h 25m easy hilly trails
On Saturday started a four day recce of the UTMB course.
Week 4
31/07/2023:
🏃♂️ 30 h 9 m — 195.9 km (121.8 mi) — 12220 m
🚴♂️ No cycling
Monday | 5h 55m at race effort - 7:48 /km on hilly trails
Tuesday | 6h 55m easy hilly trails
Wednesday | Rest
Thursday | 40 S&C | +1000 m uphill effort (downhill recovery), 2h 20m
Friday | Rest
Saturday | 6h 35 easy hilly trails
Sunday | 8h 25m easy hilly trails
On Saturday started a three day recce of the TDS course (another race during the UTMB week - shorter but higher and steeper than the UTMB course).
Week 5
07/08/2023:
🏃♂️ 14 h 39 m — 82.5 km (51.3 mi) — 5923 m
🚴♂️ 7 h 13 m — 150.8 km (93.7 mi) — 3435 m
Monday | 7h 20m easy hilly trails
Tuesday | Rest
Wednesday | 2h 30m easy cycle | 40 S&C
Thursday | 2 x +600 m uphill efforts (downhill recovery), 2h 10m
Friday | 1h 30m easy cycle | 65 S&C
Saturday | 5h 10m hike
Sunday | 3h 10m easy cycle
Strained quad on the last day of the TDS recce. Managed to train but switched Saturday run for hike to let injury settle.
Week 6
14/08/2023:
🏃♂️ 24 h 17 m — 166.5 km (103.5 mi) — 8587 m
🚴♂️ No cycling
Monday | 70 S&C
Tuesday | 8 x 5 min threshold hills (jog down). 10 Warm up, 15 Cool down. | +1200 m uphill effort (downhill recovery), 2h 5m
Wednesday | 2h 35m at race effort - 6:15 /km on hilly trails | 45 S&C
Thursday | 15 easy - 5:37 /km | 70 easy - 5:15 /km
Friday | 3h 51m easy hilly trails
Saturday | 8 x 900 m alternating 3:15-3:35 and 4:00-4:20 | 75 easy - 5:41 /km
Sunday | 9h 25m technical run/scramble
No issues this week and a more normal routine. Testing kit and pacing on the course.
Week 7
21/08/2023:
🏃♂️ 10 h 52 m — 84.1 km (52.3 mi) — 4978 m
🚴♂️ 4 h 47 m — 109.1 km (67.8 mi) — 2292 m
Monday | Rest
Tuesday | 6 x 5 min threshold hills (jog down). 10 Warm up, 10 Cool down. | 60 easy cycle
Wednesday | 3h 5m easy cycle | 60 S&C
Thursday | 2 x +600 m uphill efforts (downhill recovery), 2h 10m | 40 easy cycle
Friday | 3h 5m easy hilly trails | 65 S&C
Saturday | +600 m uphill effort (downhill recovery), 1h 15m | 50 easy - 5:50 /km
Sunday | 2h 25m at race effort - 6:15 /km on hilly trails
Intention was to 10 repetitions on Tuesday and 2 repetitions on Saturday. Fell on the descents and cut each session short. Doing a lot of ankle rehab. Otherwise fitness felt like it was improving. 5 min threshold hills and longer uphill efforts (e.g., +600 m) are staples of training when going well. More training and pacing on the course.
Week 8
28/08/2023:
🏃♂️ 25 h 32 m — 206.1 km (128.1 mi) — 10476 m
🚴♂️ No cycling
Monday | 65 S&C
Tuesday | 4 x 5 min threshold hills (jog down). 10 Warm up, 10 Cool down. | 70 Easy - 5:37/km
Wednesday | 55 Easy - 5:20 /km
Thursday | Rest
Friday | Race: UTMB, 171 km +9963 m - 16th, 22h 25m 20s
Saturday | Rest
Sunday | Rest
Race week - Lots of positives to take away from the race and happy with the result given the build up. Didn’t have the fitness for a top 10 result but executed the race well. Insane depth in the field this year.
Recovery after UTMB:
5 full rest days post-race.
04/09/2023:
🏃♂️ 1 h 59 m — 15.5 km (9.6 mi) — 526 m
🚴♂️ 2 h 45 m — 60.8 km (37.8 mi) — 988 m
11/09/2023:
🏃♂️ 4 h 41 m — 48.4 km (30.1 mi) — 1597 m
🚴♂️ 7 h 40 m — 183.1 km (113.8 mi) — 3679 m
18/09/2023:
🏃♂️ 5 h 43 m — 57 km (35.4 mi) — 2038 m
🚴♂️ 12 h 18 m — 288.9 km (179.6 mi) — 6076 m
25/09/2023:
🏃♂️ 15 h 14 m — 174.8 km (108.6 mi) — 6749 m
🚴♂️ 4 h 19 m — 93.5 km (58.1 mi) — 2202 m
Included as a comparison to the recovery post Worlds. No harder sessions in the 4 weeks post-Worlds but harder sessions start to be included on week 3 after UTMB. Same process: led by feel.
I hope you found this article interesting. I think there is so much to learn from how people train. You can’t take one persons training and apply it to yourself, but I hope you find little lessons and takeaways which you can apply in your own training.
I’m happy that I’ve been able to write about two people with such differing approaches, to two wildly different events, for the first two of these articles. It’s all running.
If you are a coach or athlete and want to collaborate on an article like this - please reach out. I’m always interested to talk to people with different approaches and different experiences.