[TrainingTalk] Winschoten 50 km (2025): Training, Nutrition and Race Report
A good day out there.
Last Saturday I ran the Winschoten 50 km, closing in 3h 43’ for a personal best over this course and distance (11 minutes better than last year).
In this blog, I cover the training and nutrition of the past three months, including periodization, key sessions, cross-training (cycling, strength), chronic diet, race week changes, heart rate variability (HRV), pacing, and more.
I hope there are some useful pointers in there for you.
In particular, we’ll look at:
Context: ultramarathon progression, recent training, and setbacks
Running: periodization, volume, key sessions, and taper
Cross-training: cycling and strength
Diet: periodized nutrition and race nutrition
Let’s get to it then.
Context
50 km ultramarathon progression
As runners, we have different strengths and weaknesses. Some of us struggle to race fast in short distances - maybe their VO2max is on the low end of the spectrum -, others can’t seem to be able to extend their short-distance performance to long-distance events, making them poor candidates for ultramarathons.
I belong to this second category, where poor running economy and poor muscular durability have made it particularly challenging to be satisfied with my ultramarathon results, despite consistent high training volume (and actually training for these events!). Consider that it took me a 1h 20’ half marathon to be able to barely break 3 hours in the marathon. Since that moment, about 2-3 years ago, I’ve raced the 50 km five times, three times in Winschoten and twice at the 50 km di Romagna (harder course):
Winschoten 50 km 2023: 3h 58’
50 km di Romagna (+650m) 2024: 3h 57’
Winschoten 50km 2024: 3h 54’
50 km di Romagna (+650m) 2025: 3h 47’
Winschoten 50 km 2025: 3h 43’
Despite the apparent progression, the first three races are pretty much the same time, with differences coming down to environmental conditions or the course itself (it was 30 °C in Winschoten in 2023, then I ran a similar time back in Italy on a harder, hilly course, and improved by a few minutes on more running-friendly weather in Winschoten 2024 - no meaningful improvement there). None of these times is what you expect from someone running sub-3 for a marathon, but I was limited by poor metabolic flexibility - burning through most of my glycogen stores even at relatively low intensities - something that only a different diet could improve, as I discussed in long form here (and in this or this podcast, or this one in Italian).
Fast-forward to this year, add a few months of periodized nutrition, and while none of my workouts show much difference with respect to my historical best times, everything changes when we look at the ultramarathon distance. There - where metabolic flexibility plays a key role - I’ve had a major breakthrough, eventually running 10 minutes quicker for both 50 km races (or about 15”/km).
Now, I’ve told you that story already, hence here we focus on what differed from my preparation for the 50 km di Romagna, because each training cycle has its own story, depending on the constraints and opportunities of the moment.
Recent training and setbacks
As some of you might know, this year I also suffered an adductor injury in the buildup to the 100 km del Passatore, and as such, I was unable to run at the beginning of June, which meant I wasn’t sure I could prepare for Winschoten at all.
Mentally, this was no issue; I thought I’d be patient, give my body the time it needs, and take it from there (can you really do anything else?). Coming from a long block with no strength training or cycling (Nov 24 - May 25), it was now time to switch things up entirely and embrace cross-training.
Gradually, things got better. Key workouts went beyond my expectations (more notes on this later), and both volume and intensity reached the levels I aim for before a race like this one, giving me confidence I could give it a shot.
Next, we look at the training in more detail.
Running
The adductor injury I’ve experienced is healing very slowly (it is still a work in progress, even though it keeps getting better each week). At the beginning of June, I couldn’t do any running without pain or discomfort, but I could cycle or hike, hence I mostly cross-trained (volume was high, about 100 hours of training over 4 weeks). Soon enough, I could do some uphill running without discomfort, even hard uphill running, as the adductors are used much more when we, e.g., need them for stabilization on a descent, hence I added some threshold work uphill.
Here is how my running training started, in June:
For context, in 2024, I averaged 120 km/week (~75 miles/week). I’ve talked before about cross-training and how I’ve used it heavily, even for my marathon personal best, and this time was no different.
Below is my cycling time over the same weeks, which I coupled with hiking so that I could maintain some of the more running-related musculoskeletal infrastructure, so to speak:
Below, I discuss in more detail how I periodized my training and how I have used cycling and strength training to complement running.
Periodization and key sessions
Given the limited time available to prepare for the race, I opted for block periodization, focusing on different aspects for a few weeks (e.g., Threshold, Tempo, Race Specificity). This is different from what I did before my previous 50 km personal best.
While I have now reverted back to a periodization in which I cycle through different types of stimuli over a block (I think this approach is best for me personally, in terms of long-term performance), this is not really feasible if certain capacities are not in place (e.g. when coming from an injury I will be lacking muscular endurance and durability, hence it is not possible for me to run a long run at marathon pace, or even Z2, which means I have to keep these workouts for later on, and as such, block periodization, or building each capacity in sequence, was the better choice). As always, context matters, and there is no universally superior system.
My block periodization was structured as follows:
Threshold block to boost fitness
Tempo block to boost durability
Race pace block to boost economy
Threshold block to boost fitness
Given the injury, I had to be careful and therefore I didn’t do any short intervals or VO2max block but went into a longer Threshold block, which was feasible (less adductor discomfort) and is similarly effective fitness-wise.
I kept this up for about 5 weeks, closing it with 45 minutes of total work at a pace near my historical limits, which meant I was ready to move on:
Over these 5 weeks I was gradually able to reintroduce basic work that I consider valuable but that required me to be stronger than I was at the beginning of the block (e.g. strides, hill sprints, a bit of Z2, all sessions that should not carry any fatigue, but that can make me a better runner, more economical, stronger, more durable, etc.).
An example week in which volume is still low but I am able “to train” not just “to run”:
This block went really well, and honestly, I did not expect my performance to be near my historical best coming off a month of almost no running.
Some things transfer really well (i.e., cardiorespiratory fitness maintenance or improvements from cycling), or come back really quickly; others don’t (see next).
Tempo block to boost durability
After the Threshold block, I moved into a Tempo block to boost my durability at intensities harder than race pace. This is marathon pace territory for me, an intensity at which I historically struggle, but that gives great benefits when I can be consistent at it. We can see this as a Support Block for the ultramarathon, according to the terminology I introduced here for my athletes.
Given that I wasn’t preparing for a marathon and that I was still rebuilding, I went for smaller sessions than what I’d normally do. These sessions were somewhat underwhelming, showing me that cross-training is a really great tool for certain aspects (e.g., VO2max) and not much for others (economy and durability), as we of course expect:
I have done three of these sessions (about 20-22 km with most of it at marathon pace) over 4 weeks. After the “great workouts” at threshold and VO2max (a single session), I was curious to see what would come out of my Tempo workouts (I do these by perceived effort and with a heart rate cap, as discussed here and here), but as mentioned above, I wasn’t really able to perform the way I was hoping to.
Understandable given the recent setback, but still, always interesting to note the disconnect between performance at different intensities, and how the performance spectrum can change in dynamic ways (equally interesting is thinking how to address such gaps so that we can get better at the races we care about).
During this phase, given that these workouts are quite demanding for me, I pushed volume, maintained structure (strides, sprints, Z2, etc.), but did not do any other proper hard running workout during the week (later we’ll see how this was complemented with cycling).
Race pace block to boost economy
Finally, I went into a Specific Block, which normally involves race simulations and training at race pace. In particular, I ran a long progression near race pace both for its training effect (improving economy at that intensity) and just to practice the usual things (fueling, shoes, etc.).
This went well, and I definitely felt better than during the marathon pace sessions, showing me that around LT1, I was getting more durable, which was the whole point of these last few weeks of the periodization:
I had originally planned two of these runs, but I noticed my recovery was particularly slow, probably given the recent drop in overall running volume; hence, I eventually did only one and then added bits of race pace here and there during shorter runs.
I will add that during these last 4-5 weeks, the urge to run faster was there, but it wasn’t what I needed to do to race well, and therefore, I stuck with the sessions I had planned.
Finally, during marathon pace and race pace sessions (50 km would be close to LT1 or just a bit above, while marathon pace would be a bit harder), I was quite conservative. Each session, I opted for doing a bit less, as opposed to a bit more, and tried to limit accumulating excessive fatigue. This was maybe unlike me in the past, but what can I say, coaching makes you a better athlete at times.
Below are my heart rate zones over about 8 weeks (4 weeks per plot), first focusing more on Threshold (high end Z3 or Z4 in my system), then on Tempo and Race pace (high end Z2 or very low end Z3, just around the first lactate threshold, or LT1). Lots of easy running (“Z1”) is always part of the equation.
Volume
We’ve seen the overall periodization and key sessions. In terms of running volume, I went from 0 km / week at the beginning of June to a last block of 120 km / week over 4 weeks, closing on the Sunday prior to the race:
Cycling volume went from 15 hours per week, to 40 minutes per week, because specificity (more details on cycling and how I have structured it, in the sections below).
Needless to say, we need both volume and intensity to race ultramarathons. High volume only, and we become very good at running slowly. High intensity only, and we lack durability (some of us more than others). The right mix of volume and intensity, consistently over a few weeks, can take us to new levels.
While this is all pretty straightforward, finding what the right mix looks like is not as easy as it sounds. For this race specifically, cross-training was a key part of the mix, hence I will cover it in more detail below.
Cross-training
Here is something that I’ve done completely differently with respect to the 50 km di Romagna. Obviously, I was forced to do it differently because of the injury, but there are aspects here that made me think a lot about training in general, my limiters, and how to possibly keep improving despite having trained for many years and being over my 40s.
In this context, both cycling and strength training have been a big focus for me in these past 3 months (as an aside, I’ve taken certifications in both, should you need a coach).
Cycling
I used cycling in two ways:
Replacement for running in the acute phase of the injury (easy to do as motivation is high and there’s nothing else you can do).
Support for running when healthy (hard to do as you are now running and motivation to ride becomes low, overall fatigue is higher, time commitments change, etc.).
In the first phase of the injury, discussed above, I used cycling to maintain aerobic fitness, and of course, just for staying sane. In this phase, I treated cycling the way I treat running, with plenty of structure: hard intervals once per week, one or two long rides per week, some Z2 or tempo work, etc.
As I started running more, between July and August, I made an effort to keep cycling to support my running. If there’s one thing that transfers well between the two sports, is the aspect I needed the least for a 50 km race (i.e., VO2max). Yet, given that I didn’t really spend much time (or any time) running at those intensities, and that my training got more and more specific in the last 4-5 weeks before the race, therefore becoming also slower and relatively less hard (it feels harder to run long at moderate intensities, for me, but still, that’s a muscular endurance limitation, not a cardio respiratory system limitation, which remains somewhat undertrained or understimulated in this phase), I opted for keeping one hard VO2max session on the bike each week until race week. This is a strong stimulus for the cardiorespiratory system in a phase in which I am mostly conditioning muscular endurance in terms of running, and as such, I think it can be a great complement. Eventually, I’ve done 8 hard indoor cycling sessions over about 2 months.
If you want the specifics: normally, I don’t need to be entertained by training, hence the session was always the same (3-4 x 5’), which is what I find physiologically in line with the stimulus I want, and mentally not too draining (30”/30”s are not for me). You can, of course, use an unlimited variants of this, should you prefer to add some variability in your training.
Overall, I think this worked really well, and while if we want to use cycling to boost the aerobic system, we need to invest in lots of hours, the time commitment of hard cycling as support for running can be minimal, and therefore more long-term sustainable for me.
I have quite a few ideas for the next training block, in terms of combining these sessions with hard running uphill to be able to accumulate more time at high intensity despite my difficulties from a muscular point of view, but that’s a story for another blog.
Strength
In the past, I’ve mostly used strength as a healthy routine more than a running routine (often meaning dropping strength in the months leading to a big race). This race was different.
Sometimes injuries are blessings in disguise, if we do use them as an opportunity to experiment and / or learn. This happened with cycling in the past and also with strength this time around.
Apart from the injury, if my limiters are muscular (not cardiorespiratory, in very broad strokes), it makes sense to try to use additional tools - such as strength training - to improve my running. As such, this time I implemented a more running-focused protocol and maintained good structure and frequency, with 2 sessions per week on most weeks.
My routine is typically made of the following:
Mobility.
Plyometrics (to start with, while the nervous system is not too fatigued).
Strength (typically squat, hinge, lunge, and calf exercises).
Core (planks, side planks, glute bridges, crunches, etc).
On top of this, I’ve normally tried to add Copenhagen planks as adductor rehab, even though my progression there is extremely slow. The Core routine is something I can fit in the plan twice per week, while the rest depends a lot on overall volume and intensity, but at the moment, once per week is my limit. This routine started about a month and a half later, in mid or end of July, as earlier I wasn’t structurally healthy enough.
The impact of some of this work is very easy to perceive, e.g., when running hard or long, I feel (and see) that I am “standing tall” as the core is really strong, not collapsing. Other changes are harder to perceive or even measure, but that’s the case for most things training-related. We’ve got to do them for a while before we can see meaningful changes.
Physiological response
During these past 2 months, there were quite a few moving pieces: rebuilding from an injury, increasing running volume, doubling my weekly intensity using the bike, etc. - plus of course, life happening and the usual psychological stressors.
As such, keeping an eye on my resting physiology can always be helpful to identify moments in which I might need to make adjustments, either in the context of trying to reduce training intensity (or increase it, as I discussed recently), or prioritizing recovery.
My data shows quite a marked change in the normal range in the past 6 months, to the point that values that have always been “my normal” (e.g., an rMSSD in the low 60s) are now acute suppressions below my normal range. Overall, I felt good, and the data potentially highlighted room for increased capacity to assimilate training stress, which motivated me to keep doing double weekly hard sessions (one running and one cycling). An easy way to adjust training here if the response is not ideal (i.e. we experienced a sustained suppression) could be to simply drop the bike.
Finally, we can also see that as I get into the Support (tempo/marathon pace) phase, which I struggle more with in terms of execution and recovery, I start seeing plenty of suppressions below my normal range, even though typically followed by a renormalization. We can see this in the August data above. This increase in the coefficient of variation is also a sign of difficulties in coping with stress demands, and something to watch, regardless of where the baseline HRV sits (learn more here).
This data, combined with how I felt after hard and long runs, prompted me to reduce the density of these sessions towards the end of my preparation, e.g., skipping some race pace intensity in favor of easier runs.
All data was collected first thing in the morning, while seated, using HRV4Training, as covered here and here in terms of protocol.
Taper
I discussed my approach to tapering elsewhere, but in short, I perform much better right after big training blocks or training weeks, typically pushing what I can do to its limit, and then taking a few days of very minimal training to get fresh from a muscular point of view. Obviously, there is no point pushing a huge week of training if I’m not feeling at my best. The two things go together: I feel very good, I train hard and high volume, then I rest for the time needed for muscular freshness to return, and I’m ready to race. A race is not so different from a regular hard workout after all.
Here are my last 3 weeks before the race, which was on Saturday, September 13th:
Nutrition
I will keep the nutrition section shorter as I’ve discussed it in detail elsewhere (in this blog here and in this or this podcast, or this one in Italian). Plus, I have a Cosmed metabolic cart coming to The Brisighella Lab at the end of the month, hence there will be plenty of opportunities to talk all things metabolic flexibility in upcoming blogs.
Below, we look at:
Chronic diet
Race week nutrition
Race day nutrition
Chronic diet
My chronic diet during these past 3 months was heavily periodized depending on training demands. In very simple terms, I normally have fewer carbohydrates in a day if training is short or not hard. For the main workout of the week, I have more carbohydrates on the previous evening and for breakfast, as well as during the run, if it is also long.
Poor fat oxidation and the resulting quick depletion of glycogen stores was a huge limiter for me, and periodizing my diet has shown incredible improvements, as shown below. Interestingly enough, as our preferences change, at the moment, this is also my favorite way to eat, and it is perfectly sustainable for me in the long run.
Note that lower carbohydrate intake does not mean lower caloric intake (eat some almonds, folks). In fact, I have gained about three kg over the past 3 months and was 70 kg on race day (as opposed to < 67 during spring).
Race week and glycogen stores
Needless to say, if we want to spare glycogen with better fat oxidation, we need to have some glycogen in our muscles. Race week, therefore, means eating more carbohydrates, training less, and getting to race day at full capacity.
Our chronic dietary choices will allow us to maintain high rates of fat oxidation even when loading heavily on carbohydrates, which is the whole point of this approach to nutrition.
For this race, I had slightly more carbohydrates between Monday and Wednesday, and then plenty more than my normal on Thursday and especially on Friday (race day was Saturday). On Friday, I probably had nearly 10 grams / kg (something I might have in an entire week at times!).
Race day nutrition
On race day, for breakfast, I had about ~125-150 grams of oats.
For the race itself, I initially planned to eat one gel every 8 km. While this strategy is clearly out of fashion, it is one that works well for me, as I get no nausea or GI issues (I am very prone to both), and I can maintain stable energy levels for a race that is not that long at this point (you need only 10 g of carbohydrates per hour to avoid blood glucose dips, after all).
Eventually, I had only 5 of the 6 gels, as I didn’t feel like the last one was necessary (I could hold the pace, and as such, definitely happy to spare myself the taste of yet another gel when the race was almost over).
Total intake:
22 g of carbohydrates x 5 gels = 110 grams in 3 hours and 43 minutes, or about 30 grams of carbohydrates per hour. This is something that allows me to perform optimally at the moment for a road 50 km, but I will try to work on it more in the future, as it can be a limiter for me in longer events where overall caloric intake needs to be higher. Just keep in mind that more isn’t always better, and that the nuance of nutrition is easily lost in today’s messaging (i.e., how performance can improve with lower intake, how what you eat is not what you can use, how the limited evidence available points in a different direction, how intake doesn’t replenish muscle glycogen, the importance of work rate or elite vs non-elite demands, individual oxidation rates, etc.).
The Race
A wise scientist once told me: a good race comes down to doing the training and then pacing. I couldn’t agree more.
Most of us can do the training, but the pacing, it seems that something gets in the way of it, and most people start an ultramarathon the way they’d start a 5 km, as proven once again by the average pace profile of the Winschoten 50 km this year:
I’ve recently written about perceived effort and using heart rate as a cap or limiter, which I think can be a very effective strategy for pacing in both certain training sessions and races, if we do want to tune in and listen to our body.
Since you’ve got to walk the talk sometimes, here are my times for the five 10 km laps:
44’ 30”
44’ 37”
44’ 32”
44’ 32”
44’ 34”
Now, was I happy with my pace the first few kilometers or even the first lap? Not really. I honestly thought I could run a few seconds per km quicker based on the long run at race pace that I did, but my feel (a bit sluggish during the first lap) and heart rate (already reaching the limit I had set for myself for the first ~15 km, around my first lactate threshold or top end of Z2), said another story, and therefore I paid attention and made sure not to overcook myself, eventually racing at the limit of what I could do on that day (which might or might not be the pace we had in mind).
Eventually, at 155 bpm on average, this was the highest heart rate I was able to sustain for a 50 km, just a few beats above what I’d consider my LT1.
There isn’t really much else to say about a flat 50 km: pacing should be even, and as such, the race is not as dynamic as a trail race can be, making things pretty straightforward to manage.
Remember to eat, remember to hydrate, take some caffeine if that’s something you are used to doing, and then plenty of grit when perceived effort takes off due to accumulated fatigue in the last ~third of the race.
Wrap up
Overall, I am happy with the process and the learnings of the past few months, and the race remains a nice cherry on the cake, with an 11-minute personal best for this course (and a 4-minute personal best for the 50 km distance). Given the recent setbacks, not something I took for granted.
Until last year, I was never able to race an ultramarathon. It was always an exercise in holding back and finishing with underwhelming results. Thanks to the improvements in metabolic flexibility and some clever ways of putting together my training leading to a race, I can now race closer to my limits or potential - which is, of course, pretty average! - but makes for a different feeling at the end of the day.
What I love the most is how we can play with different aspects of training; it could be volume, intensity, running uphill, using trails, passive heat, and linear periodization (all things I did for the previous race), or it could be cross-training, cycling hard, strength, and block periodization (as I did in this race).
The right mix depends on a number of factors, including our current constraints, opportunities, environment, capacities, goals, and more.
Excited to keep building and experimenting.
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Thank you for reading, and see you out there!
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Marco holds a PhD cum laude in applied machine learning, a M.Sc. cum laude in computer science engineering, and a M.Sc. cum laude in human movement sciences and high-performance coaching. He is a certified ultrarunning coach.
Marco has published more than 50 papers and patents at the intersection between physiology, health, technology, and human performance.
He is co-founder of HRV4Training, advisor at Oura, guest lecturer at VU Amsterdam, and editor for IEEE Pervasive Computing Magazine. He loves running.
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It goes both ways, training is both Easy & Complex. If we are into starting phase meaning we have started any activity we need not focus on zones as our first priority should be- We should have the drive to do it for at least couple of years to see some significant gains in physiology. And yeah at the start every kind of training works as a stimuli, it comes after a couple of months or one can say a couple of years as well when they need to focus on 1% improvement markers. Fundamental is the key meaning putting in the work, nutrition during the workout & for the whole day for months on and recovery in terms of sleep. Sticking to basics does wonders but in this era of information overload & easy access to it, we are focusing firstly to 1% improvement markers rather than 99%.
Joy has to be in the drive seat of training as well. Ben Dhiman after coming 2nd in UTMB simply put one gotta love doing this, then only one can succeed. Tom Evans also said his relationship with running went to that he had to perform & win but before this year's UTMB, he reclaimed his relationship with running which got reflected in his win. Ruth Croft has been having a similar approach for more than a decade. Does Courtney not have fun, when almost 99.99% would have quit, she kept chipping away and continued to cherish the community she was surrounded with.
But even I myself have learned this the hard way, I have read tons of books, listened to almost fifteen thousand podcasts. When I read Scott Fauble & Ben Rosario's book Inside a Marathon, then I got a glimpse of how much of just running people like myself are doing, meaning just running and not training. People want to just run fast in just a couple of weeks or months, but this not how our physiological & muscular adaptations take place. As Kilian Jornet said it takes months and years for your bodies to adapt to the stimuli and our cells and mitochondria to adapt and get the stimulus to get fast and build a huge aerobic base. People don't want to run easy, they just see it on multiple social media platforms and then come to a conclusion I am no where near what people run, I need to run this fast but they need to study multiple coaches from Arthur Lydiard, Renato Canova, Jack Daniels, Joe Vigil, Ed Eyestone, Mike Scannell and others as well.
And isn't mileage just a by product of showing up with consistency to put in the work? Racking up miles is just one form of consistency. Eating enough food through out the whole day to fuel the body while training for any endurance activity needs consistency, sleep also needs consistency, strength & mobility work needs consistency and mental fitness also needs consistency. All these things need consistency and needs to be done in balanced manner, if one thing gets under done- then either the body crumbles or we will not be able to perform at our best level. If we take care of our bodies and listen to it, it will provide us with great performances but if we just keep banging the door w/o listening to it, somewhere down the road it will crumble and then we will think we were more focused on racking up miles which was just a small part of training.
There is one thing told that work harder than everybody else in the room but one doesn't tell it all boils down to mental component a lot as well, what kind of internal monologue goes b/w our ears is a great predictor of either limits or propels our progression, the amount of improvement we can do in any domain/walk of life.
Franz Stampfl, coach of Roger Bannister said-The great barrier is the mental hurdle.
If Roger Bannister's coach knew it 70 years ago, then there is for sure people need to know that yeah mental component is a huge chunk of whether one succeeds or not.
There is one thing told that work harder than everybody else in the room but one doesn't tell it all boils down to mental component a lot, what kind of internal monologue goes b/w our ears which either limits or propels our progression, the amount of improvement we can do in any domain/walk of life.
There is a lot of unraveling that can be done in terms of one's psychology. No one lays much emphasis on this thing b/w our ears. Iga Swiatek might me the first lawn Tennis player to have full time sports psychologist travelling with her. When Madison Keys won Australian Open this year, she was asked what lead her to win her first grand slam, her straight away answer was Lots of Therapy. Francesco Puppi has talked about therapy & Jennifer Lichter also.
And the way you have tweaked training according to your personal needs shows there is no one way of doing it and you consuming 30 gram carbs/per hour shows high carbs does not always lead to better performances, it is what suits to one's physiological needs and incorporate it that way. You lowered your time by 11 minutes on this fuelling. Not everything has to be done in copy paste manner.
Fantastic race and write up.
Really impressed with your discipline in pacing, this demonstrates how important the knowledge of the limits of your zones are and how you ran towards the limit of LT1 for the duration of the race.
The work you've done on nutrition and ability to change your ability to oxidise fat during races and the employment of a relatively low carb intake during the race is fascinating and is an interesting counter-view to the high carb revolution.