Vriko Kwok knew the fourth day of her six day ultramarathon was going to be the toughest one. She had some floor to make up if she was going to realize her purpose of working a complete of 300 kilometers (a bit of over 186 miles) over six consecutive days— round 50 kilometers (31 miles) day by day.
She awoke at 4 a.m. able to work, and did she ever. She ran continuous, apart from gear adjustments, for 9 and a half hours straight. However simply two loops away from her day’s purpose, she sat completely gassed in a relaxation tent, feeling she had nothing left to offer—not even tears.
What occurred subsequent encapsulated how she managed to fulfill—and even surpass—her 300-kilometer purpose and run 303.31 kilometers (188 miles) within the Lululemon Additional ultramarathon as a 32-year-old novice runner who had by no means logged even a mile earlier than committing to ultramarathon coaching simply 11 months earlier.
Consultants In This Article
- Vriko Kwok, ultramarathoner, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competitor, and entrepreneur
Kwok is a Hong Kong-based former Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competitor and entrepreneur. In early 2023, Lululemon introduced her as a member of the 10-woman Additional ultramarathon, an initiative held March 6-12, 2024 in La Quinta, California, that might include a analysis part carried out in partnership with the Canadian Sport Institute Pacific (CSIP).
Every lady set a person purpose they’d try to fulfill over the course of the race. By documenting and learning every lady’s coaching and efficiency, Lululemon and CSPI aimed to additional consciousness, understanding, and analysis in girls’s endurance athletics.
Different members of the crew included ultramarathon world document holder Camille Herron, ultramarathoner and activist Mirna Valerio, and different public figures and athletes of many nationalities, backgrounds, and physique varieties. Whereas expertise on the crew various—and it was a difficult enterprise for all concerned—Kwok was the lone distance working newbie. However, on the Additional launch in Might 2023, she introduced her 50K per day purpose to get to 300K whole, which quantities to working an ultramarathon each single day.
“I bear in mind beginning Additional. The night time earlier than, I used to be speaking to my companion, and I used to be like, ‘Do you suppose I might really do that?’” Kwok says. “Even the day we have been beginning, I used to be nonetheless having doubts as a result of it was simply too massive of a problem. However one quote I at all times return to is ‘In case your dream would not scare you, it isn’t sufficiently big.’ And I positively like to choose my greatest dream to crack.”
Over the following 11 months, Kwok skilled with Additional teammate Stefanie Flippin, a working coach, physician, and ultramarathoner who holds the 2021 girls’s title for the quickest 100-mile run, to actually go from zero to 300 (kilometers). Beginning with walk-runs that have been below an hour lengthy and laddering as much as marathons, she ended up working 2,700 kilometers (1,677 miles) over the course of her coaching, logging 30 hours per week of working and different types of coaching.
These are the nuts and bolts of how Kwok did it. However there’s an even bigger story behind the numbers.
“One quote I at all times return to is ‘In case your dream would not scare you, it isn’t sufficiently big.’ And I positively like to choose my greatest dream to crack.” —Vriko Kwok
Whereas Kwok sat depleted in the remainder tent on the finish of day 4, she was noticed by Additional teammate Montana Farrah-Seaton, a member of Australia’s nationwide basketball crew and skilled long-distance runner. Farrah-Seaton greeted her with an enormous hug, and feelings poured out of each girls as they affirmed how proud they have been of one another.
When Farrah-Seaton requested Kwok how she was feeling along with her arms cupped round Kwok’s head, Kwok replied “F*cking terrible.” Farrah-Seaton didn’t deny or reduce these feelings. As an alternative, she supplied to return out on the course collectively.
The ladies began with a stroll, however as they approached the ultimate miles earlier than Kwok’s 100-mile purpose, extra Additional teammates joined the march towards the end line, placing apart their very own tempo and mileage targets. Kwok and her teammates completed working Kwok’s a centesimal mile collectively.
“It was the very best excessive of my expertise,” Kwok says. “Opposite to many individuals’s pondering, Additional is definitely not nearly one particular person. If there’s one factor Additional has proven the world, [it’s that] working could be very a lot a crew sport.”
After assembly that purpose, Kwok took her first actual remainder of the day.
“I really took a superb one-and-a-half hour break to only nap, to eat, to really feel effectively rested once more,” Kwok says. “Then I went again out and did one other half marathon earlier than calling it at night time.”
Via listening to and nourishing her physique, resting when mandatory, staying centered on her purpose, and, most of all, being surrounded by individuals who actually cared about and understood her, the tip of day 4 encapsulated each what Additional was all about for Vriko Kwok, and the way she felt whereas ultramarathon coaching and working the race itself. It’s an achievement she hopes others will be taught from to seek out their very own end line.
“Our journey could also be about working, however it’s so a lot greater than working,” Kwok says. “I actually hope that our mixed story will help extra girls and extra people locally look into themselves and ask, ‘What’s their very own model of Additional?’”
How Kwok went from being a newbie to working 303K over six consecutive days
1. She took a “wellness first” method
As a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competitor, Kwok was used to pushing by means of ache it doesn’t matter what.
“I might drill 10 hours a day sparring with totally different companions and I dislocated my shoulder and broke a few my fingers,” Kwok says. “My coaching companions would inform me to only suck it up and take care of your ache and hold going.”
To coach and finally race in Additional, that method wasn’t going to chop it as a result of Kwok knew she needed to get to the beginning line damage free if she was going to do the race in any respect.
“I believed coming into working could be an excellent more durable type of exercise, which it’s on some stage,” Kwok says. “However in a grander scheme, I really realized lots of issues about my physique and find out how to deal with it and prioritize my self-care within the journey of working as a result of in an effort to carry out I simply need to really feel very well, I’ve to eat very well, I’ve to relaxation very well. And the truth that I deal with myself in that sense is the explanation why I might do Additional.”
Placing “wellness first” into apply meant staying in shut communication with coach Flippin. If Kwok was feeling depleted, Flippin would advise her to again off on her mileage targets for the week and never transfer onto the following purpose till she was feeling effectively and actually prepared.
Moreover, these 30 hours per week of coaching included yoga, stretching, and bodily remedy. In different phrases, coaching hours have been devoted to restoration, mobility, and adaptability simply as a lot as they have been to constructing energy and endurance.
The wellness first method paid off.
“I went into [Further] with none damage, I got here out of it with none damage, I did not even have one single blister popping out of six days of working,” Kwok says.
2. She energy skilled
These ultramarathon coaching hours additionally included loads of energy coaching. Weight coaching for working is an under-appreciated part of coaching. It ensures runners are capable of interact their muscle tissue—notably the glutes and hamstrings— which might too usually go un-engaged, so runners can take advantage of each stride.
Constructing muscle tissue round joints additionally reduces the impression round these joints, which is essential for a high-impact train like working to stop damage. In that manner, energy coaching was additionally part of the wellness first ethos.
“More often than not, I used to be utilizing my coaching hours to deal with my physique,” Kwok says. “We do plenty of weight coaching to strengthen the decrease physique. I am an even bigger woman, and as I used to be coming in from Jiu-Jitsu, I had my very own damage coming into working. So we very a lot centered on weight coaching for the decrease physique to strengthen all of the muscle tissue for working.”
“I consider that no matter you might be doing, discover your individuals after which you can push additional.” —Vriko Kwok
3. She discovered a balanced purpose and didn’t “transfer the pole”
To keep away from burning out throughout coaching, Kwok didn’t change or enhance her purpose as she discovered herself capable of run longer distances. The 300K purpose was definitely an enormous one. However in distinction to the massive targets she set herself in prior years, she went into the Additional problem with the identical purpose she set on the outset.
“I at all times say to not ‘transfer your pole’ as a result of I bear in mind in my 20s I at all times moved my pole, which is, I wish to do that factor, and after I acquired there, I might attempt to simply transfer the pole to make it much more difficult,” Kwok says. “Decide challenges that push the envelope with out overdoing it.”
4. She used the best gear
The Lululemon gear, together with the beyondfeel sneakers and forthcoming Help Code Bra, helped Kwok keep away from blisters and chafing. Whereas Additional athletes had customized race kits made for them—and that’s not one thing each athlete can do—not settling for one thing that doesn’t match or really feel proper was a precedence Kwok urges others to take to coronary heart.
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5. She harnessed insights about her physique
All through the Additional crew’s ultramarathon coaching, CSPI examined biometrics like VO2 max (the utmost quantity of oxygen your physique makes use of whereas exercising) to realize perception into girls’s endurance efficiency. That enabled Kwok to be taught in regards to the limits of her physique and the way she processed vitality.
These checks helped her establish totally different paces, from her max effort to her “endlessly tempo,” that means she knew simply find out how to push when she wanted some further oomph and find out how to tempo herself when what she wanted was to only maintain movement. Kwok really tapped into that endlessly tempo on the finish of day 4, when she ran that further half marathon after her hour and a half relaxation.
“It enabled me and empowered me to know at what tempo I might hold working endlessly with out feeling drained,” Kwok says. “I used to be really utilizing that tempo to run these 4 laps again to again. It is humorous, the thought I had after these 4 laps was, ‘Oh rattling, I am a runner now. I actually am a runner now. What’ve they achieved to me?’”
6. She discovered her individuals
With out hesitation, Kwok says working as a part of a crew coaching for and working the ultramarathon was what enabled her to get by means of it, and what she is most pleased with. Whereas Kwok was coaching in Hong Kong, she would really feel lonely at occasions, however the thought that her principally U.S.-based teammates have been additionally on the market clocking mile after mile helped her go on.
“This expertise has taught me a lot, and out of all the pieces, I feel it was positively the love and help I share with my teammates and the way we have now that for each other,” Kwok says. “The concept of group, the thought of how you are able to do this as a crew, that might be hopefully my thought or my message to share with the viewers as a result of I consider that no matter you might be doing, discover your individuals after which you can push additional.”
