How Vriko Kwok Trained for Lululemon’s Further Ultramarathon

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 attain her purpose of operating a complete of 300 kilometers (a bit over 186 miles) over six consecutive days— round 50 kilometers (31 miles) on daily basis.

She awoke at 4 a.m. able to work, and did she ever. She ran continuous, apart from gear modifications, for 9 and a half hours straight. However simply two loops away from her day’s purpose, she sat totally gassed in a relaxation tent, feeling she had nothing left to offer—not even tears.

What occurred subsequent encapsulated how she managed to satisfy—and even surpass—her 300-kilometer purpose and run 303.31 kilometers (188 miles) within the Lululemon Further 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.

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 will comprise a analysis element carried out in partnership with the Canadian Sport Institute Pacific (CSIP).

Every lady set a person purpose they’d try to satisfy over the course of the race. By documenting and finding out every lady’s coaching and efficiency, Lululemon and CSPI aimed to additional consciousness, understanding, and analysis in girls’s endurance athletics.

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Different members of the staff included ultramarathon world file 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 staff diverse—and it was a difficult endeavor for all concerned—Kwok was the lone distance operating newbie. However, on the Additional launch in Could 2023, she introduced her 50K per day purpose to get to 300K complete, which quantities to operating an ultramarathon each single day.

“I keep in mind beginning Additional. The night time earlier than, I used to be speaking to my associate, and I used to be like, ‘Do you assume I may truly do that?’” Kwok says. “Even the day we had 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 large enough.’ And I undoubtedly like to select my greatest dream to crack.”

Over the following 11 months, Kwok skilled with Additional teammate Stefanie Flippin, a operating 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 had been below an hour lengthy and laddering as much as marathons, she ended up operating 2,700 kilometers (1,677 miles) over the course of her coaching, logging 30 hours every week of operating and different types of coaching.

These are the nuts and bolts of how Kwok did it. However there’s a much 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 large enough.’ And I undoubtedly like to select 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 staff 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 had 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 provided 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 objectives. Kwok and her teammates completed operating 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] operating may be very a lot a staff sport.”

After assembly that purpose, Kwok took her first actual remainder of the day.

“I truly took a great 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.”

By way of listening to and nourishing her physique, resting when essential, staying centered on her purpose, and, most of all, being surrounded by individuals who really 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 operating the race itself. It’s an achievement she hopes others will study from to search out their very own end line.

“Our journey could also be about operating, however it’s so a lot greater than operating,” Kwok says. “I actually hope that our mixed story may help extra girls and extra people in the neighborhood look into themselves and ask, ‘What’s their very own model of Additional?’”

How Kwok went from being a newbie to operating 303K over six consecutive days

1. She took a “wellness first” method

As a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competitor, Kwok was used to pushing by 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 assumed coming into operating can be an excellent tougher type of exercise, which it’s on some degree,” Kwok says. “However in a grander scheme, I truly discovered plenty of issues about my physique and the best way to care for it and prioritize my self-care within the journey of operating as a result of with a purpose 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 care for myself in that sense is the explanation why I may do Additional.”

Placing “wellness first” into observe meant staying in shut communication with coach Flippin. If Kwok was feeling depleted, Flippin would advise her to again off on her mileage objectives for the week and never transfer onto the following purpose till she was feeling effectively and really prepared.

Moreover, these 30 hours every week of coaching integrated yoga, stretching, and bodily remedy. In different phrases, coaching hours had been devoted to restoration, mobility, and suppleness simply as a lot as they had 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 operating,” Kwok says.

2. She energy skilled

These ultramarathon coaching hours additionally integrated loads of energy coaching. Weight training for running is an under-appreciated element of coaching. It ensures runners are capable of have interaction their muscle mass—notably the glutes and hamstrings— which may too typically go un-engaged, so runners can take advantage of each stride.

Constructing muscle mass round joints additionally reduces the affect round these joints, which is essential for a high-impact train like operating to forestall damage. In that manner, strength training was additionally part of the wellness first ethos.

“More often than not, I used to be utilizing my coaching hours to care for my physique,” Kwok says. “We do a lot of weight coaching to strengthen the decrease physique. I am a much bigger woman, and as I used to be coming in from Jiu-Jitsu, I had my very own damage coming into operating. So we very a lot centered on weight coaching for the decrease physique to strengthen all of the muscle mass for operating.”

“I imagine that no matter you’re doing, discover your folks 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 during training, Kwok didn’t change or enhance her purpose as she discovered herself capable of run longer distances. The 300K purpose was definitely a large one. However in distinction to the massive objectives 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 keep in mind in my 20s I at all times moved my pole, which is, I need to do that factor, and after I bought there, I might attempt to simply transfer the pole to make it much more difficult,” Kwok says. “Choose challenges that push the envelope with out overdoing it.”

4. She used the fitting gear

The Lululemon gear, together with the beyondfeel shoes and forthcoming Assist Code Bra, helped Kwok keep away from blisters and chafing. Whereas Additional athletes had custom 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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You’ll be able to run in the identical sneakers Vriko Kwok and the opposite barrier-breaking Additional athletes wore as they collectively ran 2,880+ miles over six consecutive days. The design of the impartial shoe is predicated on over 1 million girls’s foot scans to particularly serve feminine runners.

5. She harnessed insights about her physique

All through the Additional staff’s ultramarathon coaching, CSPI examined biometrics like VO2 max (the utmost quantity of oxygen your physique makes use of whereas exercising) to achieve perception into girls’s endurance efficiency. That enabled Kwok to study in regards to the limits of her physique and the way she processed power.

These exams helped her determine totally different paces, from her max effort to her “endlessly tempo,” which means she knew simply the best way to push when she wanted some additional oomph and the best way to tempo herself when what she wanted was to only maintain movement. Kwok truly tapped into that endlessly tempo on the finish of day 4, when she ran that additional half marathon after her hour and a half relaxation.

“It enabled me and empowered me to know at what tempo I may hold operating endlessly with out feeling drained,” Kwok says. “I used to be truly 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 finished to me?’”

6. She discovered her folks

With out hesitation, Kwok says working as a part of a staff coaching for and operating the ultramarathon was what enabled her to get by 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 had been additionally on the market clocking mile after mile helped her go on.

“This expertise has taught me a lot, and out of every little thing, I feel it was undoubtedly 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 concept of how you are able to do this as a staff, that will be hopefully my thought or my message to share with the viewers as a result of I imagine that no matter you’re doing, discover your folks after which you can push additional.”