Running Plan Review Run Like a Pro Ultramarathon Level 1
By Run Like a Pro — Matt Fitzgerald and Ben Rosario Requires purchase Visit plan website
Plan at a Glance
Most ultramarathon plans want you running 6 or 7 days a week. This one gives you Monday off, every week, and asks for 4 runs plus 2 cross-training sessions. The idea is that you can chase a 50K or 50-mile finish without rebuilding your life around running.
An ultra is not a longer marathon. It is a long day on your feet, often on trails. Fatigue stacks across hours rather than across miles. First-time ultra runners tend to undertrain time on feet and overtrain pace. The back-to-back long weekend pairs a long run on Saturday with another on Sunday. It teaches your legs what late-race fatigue feels like before race day.
Coach Ben Rosario (who built NAZ Elite, a professional running team in Flagstaff) and author Matt Fitzgerald wrote this as Level 1 of a three-tier ultra series. It sits alongside their book Run Like a Pro (Even If You're Slow). The plan runs 19 weeks and peaks at a 5-hour long run in week 16. Best for a runner already comfortable around 30 miles a week who wants a first ultra without seven-day training.
Below is Buena Vida's full review of the plan. We score every plan against our detailed, 31-point benchmark. Each measure is drawn from peer-reviewed sports-science research and proven coaching best practices.
Workouts
Workout names and distances only. Coaching prose belongs to the plan’s author.
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Our Review
You can hold 30 miles a week. You're not willing to train seven days. An ultramarathon is 19 weeks out, and this is the only entry-point build in Run Like a Pro that gives you the distance without the daily rhythm.
The peak long run in week 16 is five hours. That's not the defining moment. The week 17 back-to-back is. You'll run three hours Saturday, then lace up Sunday morning and ask your legs for two and a half more on a body that hasn't recovered. That's the closest a 4-day schedule can put you to ultra fatigue, and it lands the week after the five-hour peak. Most plans treat the longest single run as the test. You'll find the test in the second morning. The trap is coasting through Sunday because the calendar lets you. Treat that day as optional and you arrive at the start line without the one rehearsal that matters.
Best for a runner who has built to about 30 miles a week and doesn't want to add a seventh training day. You'll keep Run Like a Pro on the desk for pace conversion and the strength catalog. The codes resolve through the book. CV is critical velocity and MAS maximal aerobic speed. LTP is lactate threshold and SSP steady-state. If you can already hold six or seven running days, Level 2 will respect you more. If an ultramarathon would be your first race over a half marathon, build through a marathon first.
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Structure
Does the plan build you up smartly?
Mostly, and the shape is clean and easy to follow. The nineteen weeks run on three-week step cycles, where the load climbs for two weeks and then eases for one so the body can absorb it. The biggest test, a five-hour long run, lands in week 16. The back-to-back long weekend follows in week 17, and a two-week wind-down closes the plan. You always know where the hard part sits and how recovery folds into the climb. The one rough edge is that the long run can jump up sharply from one step cycle to the next, so a couple of weeks ask a lot at once.
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Prevention
Does the plan protect you from injury?
Not fully, and the missing pieces are worth knowing. The recovery side is handled honestly. Monday is a rest day every week, and every third week steps the load down. Hard days and easy days stay spaced apart, and every faster session starts with drills and strides so you warm up before the work. Two real gaps stay open. There is no strength training anywhere on the calendar, and there is no guidance on the page for catching a small ache before it turns into an injury. You will be adding both of those yourself.
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Flexibility
What happens when you miss a day?
It bends very little on its own. The calendar marks no workout as the one to protect, and it prints no rule for what to drop when you miss a week. So when work runs long or your legs feel cooked, the choice is left to you. The one built-in bit of give is the two cross-training days each week, which you can use to ease the load. The rule for handling a missed session does exist, but it sits in chapter 1 of Fitzgerald and Rosario's book, not on the page you read each day.
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Readiness
Will the plan deliver race-day fitness?
This is the plan at its strongest. By race day you will have lived the five-hour Saturday in week 16, and then the back-to-back weekend in week 17, where a three-hour run is followed the next day by two and a half hours on already-tired legs. That pairing is the heart of ultra training. It teaches your legs what late-race fatigue feels like before you ever reach it. You will also have rotated through several kinds of harder running in race-relevant efforts. A two-week taper closes things out, and a fast-finish run in week 18 keeps a little speed warm into race week.
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Variety
Are the workouts varied enough?
The workout menu is genuinely deep. Eleven different session shapes rotate across the build. You meet fartlek (bursts of faster running inside an easy run), hill repeats, steady runs, tempo work, and several kinds of interval session that move through different hard efforts. The hard-day rotation never repeats the same two cycles back to back. And every faster run opens with drills and strides, so the work that sharpens your form is built right into the warm-up instead of fighting for its own day on the schedule.
Plan Strengths
- Monday is a rest day every week, even in peak blocks. Each new week starts on legs that haven't accumulated a back-to-back.
- Two cross-training slots sit in every week, ready to absorb extra recovery when your legs talk back.
- Week 17's back-to-back (3:00 Saturday, 2:30 Sunday) puts running-on-tired-legs into your body before race day asks.
- Hard-day formats rotate through hills, fartlek, critical-velocity intervals, over-unders, steady-state, tempo, and accelerations. You never face the same shape twice in a row.
- Every faster session opens with drills and strides, building running economy without demanding a separate session in your week.
- 3-week step cycles cut every third week, so your legs reset before the next two-week climb.
Weaknesses & gaps
- Not one strength session appears anywhere in the plan. You'll program two sessions a week yourself, even though the book recommends it.
- Pace codes (CV, MAS, LTP, SSP, HMP, 10KP) appear without numbers. You'll convert each through chapter 4's tables before every hard session.
- Long runs come in minutes, not miles, so a three-hour run on hilly trail loads your legs very differently than three on flat road.
- No workout note explains the purpose of the day. You'll bring your own read of why a session exists into every hard week.
- If a sick week forces a skip, the calendar offers no cut-order. Every session looks equally weighted, so the call is yours.
- The peak five-hour Saturday in week 16 is a hard test if you've never run beyond a marathon. Build through that distance first.
What this plan does not give you
Strength work is in the book's chapter 7 but never on the calendar. Schedule 2 sessions a week yourself, ideally on a non-running day. Treat them as non-negotiable. Pace codes like CV, MAS, and HMP appear on hard days without numbers attached. You'll convert each one using the zone tables in chapter 4, then write the paces on your watch face for the week ahead. Workout notes are absent, so the day's purpose lives in chapter 9 of the book rather than on the page. If life forces you to skip a week, the schedule does not say which workout to keep. The safest move is to keep the long run and the upcoming back-to-back weekend. Drop a midweek faster session instead.
What the science supports
Long runs are essential for marathon
The long run climbs slowly across 19 weeks, from 1 hour 20 minutes in week 1 up to a 5-hour Saturday in week 16. Week 17 follows with a back-to-back weekend (3 hours Saturday, 2 hours 30 minutes Sunday) so your legs feel late-race fatigue before race day asks. That kind of progressive time on feet is what builds the durability an ultra finish needs.
Toresdahl et al. 2021; Jones & Kirby 2025; Casado et al. 2019
Periodization beats constant-load training
The 19-week arc moves through clear phases. The build runs from week 1 to week 15 in 3-week step cycles (two harder weeks followed by a recovery week that cuts volume). Weeks 16 and 17 hold the peak (the 5-hour long run, then the back-to-back weekend). Weeks 18 and 19 taper down before race day. The structure gives each adaptation its own window.
Bradbury et al. 2020; Tønnessen et al. 2014; Casado et al. 2022
Varied intensity beats steady moderate pace
Two hard sessions land in every non-recovery week. The format keeps rotating. Fartlek (short bursts of faster running inside an easy run), hill repeats, and tempo runs cycle through the calendar alongside critical-velocity intervals and over-under workouts. The order shifts each week. Easy days stay easy in between. That mix delivers more aerobic stimulus than steady moderate running could.
Stöggl & Sperlich 2014; Rosenblat et al. 2019; Casado et al. 2022
Keep easy days easy, hard days hard
Hard sessions land on Tuesday and Friday. Wednesday sits between them as an easy run (or optional cross-training). Monday is rest every week. The long run on Sunday is bracketed by an easy or cross-training Saturday on one side and Monday rest on the other. The roughly 80/20 split between easy and hard running gives the body room to absorb each hard session.
Stöggl & Sperlich 2014; Casado et al. 2022; Kenneally et al. 2017
Tapering improves race performance by 2-6%
The last two weeks ease the body down. In week 18, the long run drops from peak to 1 hour 30 minutes, and the harder work shrinks to a fast-finish run and short accelerations. Race week falls to roughly 3 hours of total running, with a light fartlek session early in the week and a brief shake-out closer to the start. Volume comes off. Sharpness stays.
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Frequently asked questions
- Is Run Like a Pro Ultramarathon Level 1 good for beginners?
- Yes. Run Like a Pro Ultramarathon Level 1 is designed for runners new to the distance.
- How many days per week does Run Like a Pro Ultramarathon Level 1 require?
- The plan runs on a schedule of multiple weekly runs. See the at-a-glance strip for the exact count.
- Does Run Like a Pro Ultramarathon Level 1 include a taper?
- Yes, the plan includes a taper into race week.
- What is the rubric grade for Run Like a Pro Ultramarathon Level 1?
- Run Like a Pro Ultramarathon Level 1 grades C on the Buena Vida rubric.