Who This Is For
This plan assumes you already run 40–50 km a week without pain and have finished at least a marathon or 50K. We recommend a 24-hour race, or a 100 km finish, before a first 48-hour race: it shows you can manage pacing, food and feet through one night before you add a second.
If you are new to the format, read the 48-hour race explainer first, or start from the 48-hour race guide. If you are coming back from injury, illness or a long break, rebuild to 40 km a week before starting week one.
How Much Training You Need
No study has measured training for 48-hour races. The 24-hour evidence is the closest: Knechtle and colleagues found that the longest training run and marathon best predicted distance in recreational 24-hour runners, and an earlier study of 15 male finishers of the 2007 Basel 24-hour run, who reported an average of 98.8 km of training a week. Our 48-hour tiers scale the 24-hour tiers up by about 15–20% and add back-to-backs and a 12-hour rehearsal.
| Tier | Race goal | Weekly volume | Longest run | Key sessions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finish | 130–170 km | 60–80 km at peak | 40–50 km, or 5–6 hours | Back-to-back weekends every second week (4–5 hours, then 2 hours) and one 12-hour rehearsal |
| Target | 180–230 km | 80–110 km at peak | 50–60 km, or 6–8 hours | Back-to-backs every second weekend, a 12-hour rehearsal, and a 24-hour race 8–12 weeks out |
| Competitive | 250 km and beyond | 120–160 km at peak | 60–80 km, or a 24-hour race 10–12 weeks out | Weekly back-to-backs, marathon-pace work, and a 12-hour rehearsal at race pace |
Pick the tier for your goal, not the most ambitious one. Undertraining carries its own risk: Burgess and colleagues followed 106 runners tracked across 14 weeks around the 2018 Comrades Marathon, in which lower pre-race training loads were associated with higher injury risk. Build to your tier steadily, about 10% more a week at most, with an easier week every fourth week.
The 16-Week Plan
These numbers are for the Finish tier. For the Target tier, add about a third to each weekly figure. Repeat a week instead of progressing if you are still sore or tired from the previous one.
| Phase | Weeks | Weekly volume | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base | 1–4 | 45–55 km | Long run up to 3 hours; walk 5 minutes in every 30; two strength sessions a week |
| Build | 5–9 | 55–70 km | Long run to 4–5 hours; back-to-back weekends in weeks 6 and 8; an evening run finishing around midnight |
| Peak | 10–12 | 65–80 km | 12-hour rehearsal in week 10 (14:00–02:00), then an easy week; back-to-back in week 12 |
| Consolidate | 13–14 | 60–70 km | Repeat familiar sessions; no new rehearsals |
| Taper | 15–16 | About 60%, then 40% of peak | Keep two short runs at race pace each week; sleep and eat normally |
A Worked Peak Week
This is week 12 for the Finish tier: about 10 hours and 70–75 km, including a back-to-back weekend with a practice restart.
| Day | Session | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Rest | Recover from the previous weekend. |
| Tuesday | 60 minutes easy + 20 minutes strength | Maintain endurance and strength. |
| Wednesday | 60 minutes at 25 minutes running to 5 walking | Practice eating while moving; walk at 5.5–6 km/h. |
| Thursday | 45 minutes easy + 20 minutes strength | Check night kit. |
| Friday | Rest | Pack the base area as you would for the race. |
| Saturday | 4 hours 30 minutes (about 33 km), with a 10-minute stop at 2 hours 15 minutes | Rehearse a sock and layer change and a crew handoff. |
| Sunday | 2 hours (about 15 km), mostly walking at 5.5–6 km/h | Move on tired legs after a normal night's sleep. |
What the restart rehearsal should produce
- Before the stop, tell the helper which bag and action you need.
- At base, record arrival time, change the item, and note anything missing.
- Be moving again within 10 minutes. In the race, every 10 minutes saved at each of 12 stops is 2 hours, worth about 8 km at 48-hour pace.
- Example review: a layer was in the wrong bag; relabel it and repeat the routine next weekend.
Transfer the routine to the crew and drop-bag planner, and use the timed-race calculator to see what different stop totals cost over 48 hours.
The Key Sessions
- Long run: build to 40–50 km or 5–6 hours for the Finish tier, on a loop if your race uses one. Eat about 50 g of carbohydrate an hour from the start.
- Back-to-back weekend: 4–5 hours on Saturday, then 2 hours on Sunday, every second weekend in the build and peak phases.
- 12-hour rehearsal: once, about six weeks out, from 14:00 to 02:00 on a short loop with your race food, kit and crew. Run it at goal effort, not faster.
- Evening runs: one or two runs finishing around midnight to test lights, layers and night food. Sleep normally afterwards.
- Walking practice: walk at 5–6 km/h for 30–60 minutes inside two sessions a week. Day two of a 48-hour race is mostly walking, so the walking speed sets your distance.
Add a second-day session only when the first day no longer leaves you sore for more than a day or changes your gait.
Sleep and Foot Care Practice
Do not try to adapt to sleep deprivation in training. Keep your normal sleep, and rehearse only the routine: a safe place, an alarm set for 25 or 100 minutes, warm layers, a crew wake-up and a calm restart. In the race, our default is 1–3 hours of sleep in total, mostly one 90-minute sleep on the second night. The evidence and budgets are in the sleep strategy guide.
Practice foot care in every long run: find a hot spot, dry the foot, tape it, change socks, and be moving again within 10 minutes. Pair this with the shoe rotation strategy and the blister prevention guide, and test any second pair of race shoes on a long run first.
Taper, Recovery and Stop Rules
Taper for two weeks. The Wang meta-analysis of endurance athletes found the best results with tapers of up to 21 days that cut volume by 41–60% while keeping intensity and session frequency unchanged. In practice: about 60% of peak volume in week 15 and about 40% in race week.
- Repeat the week: if soreness, sleep, mood or easy-run pace have not returned to normal.
- Get assessed: for pain that changes your gait, focal bone pain, illness that keeps coming back, or fatigue that rest does not fix.
- Stop immediately: for chest pain, fainting, confusion, severe breathlessness or loss of coordination.
- Eat for the training: do not add volume while trying to lose weight.
- Do not squeeze in missed work: a missed long run in the last four weeks stays missed.
After the race, expect full training again in about four to five weeks; the recovery guide has the day-by-day schedule.
Sources
- Knechtle, B. et al. (2011). Personal best marathon time and longest training run, not anthropometry, predict performance in recreational 24-hour ultrarunners. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 25(8), 2212–2218.
- Knechtle, B. et al. (2009). Personal best marathon performance is associated with performance in a 24-h run and not anthropometry or training volume. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 43(11), 836–839.
- Burgess, T.L. et al. (2025). Assessing the relationship between training load and injury in ultramarathon runners: a novel approach using Generalised Additive Models. South African Journal of Sports Medicine, 37(1), v37i1a20747.
- Kishi, A. et al. (2024). Sleep and Ultramarathon: Exploring Patterns, Strategies, and Repercussions of 1,154 Mountain Ultramarathons Finishers. Sports Medicine - Open, 10(1), 34.
- Wang, Z. et al. (2023). Tapering in endurance athletes: systematic review and meta-analysis. PLOS ONE.
- Schwellnus, M. et al. (2016). IOC consensus statement on load in sport and risk of illness. British Journal of Sports Medicine.
- Mountjoy, M. et al. (2023). IOC consensus statement on Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport. British Journal of Sports Medicine.
- Tiller, N.B. et al. (2019). ISSN position stand on ultramarathon nutrition. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long should you train for a 48-hour race?
Sixteen weeks if you already run 40–50 km a week and have finished a marathon or 50K; we recommend a 24-hour race or a 100 km finish first. Peak at 60–80 km a week for a 160 km goal, or 80–110 km for 200 km, and taper for two weeks.
Do you need to run through the night in training?
Not all night. Make your 12-hour rehearsal run from 14:00 to 02:00, and do one or two shorter evening runs that finish around midnight. That tests lights, layers and night food without the recovery cost of a full night awake.
What is a realistic first 48-hour goal?
We recommend 160 km (100 miles), with 200 km as the stretch. That needs 3.3 km/h averaged over 48 hours, including sleep. In 2025 the median runner covered 201 km at the 48 heures de Royan and 161 km at Across the Years.