Ashish Gupta, 52, is a financial manager in Silver Springs, MD, with two college-age children. He started running at age 39 and fell into a routine of running a marathon every year. But in 2019 he decided he was ready for a bigger challenge and registered for his first ultra—a 50-mile trail race.

Already a TrainingPeaks user at the time, Ashish chose to train with an 80/20 Endurance plan because it had the flexibility to accommodate his preferred cross-training activity of cycling. The process went as smoothly as any first-time ultrarunner could hope for, and Ashish was able to complete the race in 13 hours and 12 minutes, feeling strong the entire way.

He writes of his experience, “The almost-daily runs and training consistently with the established intensity were key. I had no injuries while training because the intense runs were limited. I used the Level 1 plan, and did a bike ride on the rest day or one of the other days, only because I enjoy that a lot. The three-week cycles became second nature by the end of the season.”