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 objective of working a complete of 300 kilometers (a little bit over 186 miles) over six consecutive days— round 50 kilometers (31 miles) each day.
She wakened 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 objective, 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 objective and run 303.31 kilometers (188 miles) within the Lululemon Additional ultramarathon as a 31-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. The race was launched in partnership with the Canadian Sport Institute of the Pacific (CSPI).
Every girl set a person objective they’d try to satisfy over the course of the race. By documenting and finding out every girl’s coaching and efficiency, Lululemon and CSPI aimed to additional consciousness, understanding, and analysis in ladies’s endurance athletics.
Different members of the workforce included ultramarathon world document holder Camille Heron, ultramarathoner and activist Mirna Valerio, and different public figures and athletes of many nationalities, backgrounds, and physique sorts. Whereas expertise on the workforce assorted—and it was a difficult endeavor for all concerned—Kwok was the lone distance working newbie. However, on the Additional launch in Could 2023, she introduced her 50K per day objective to get to 300K complete, which quantities to working 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 suppose I may truly 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 all the time return to is ‘In case your dream does not scare you, it isn’t large enough.’ And I undoubtedly like to select my largest dream to crack.”
Over the subsequent 11 months, Kwok educated with Additional teammate Stefanie Flippin, a working coach, physician, and ultramarathoner who holds the 2021 ladies’s title for the quickest 100-mile run, to actually go from zero to 300 (kilometers). Beginning with walk-runs that have been underneath 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 a much bigger story behind the numbers.
“One quote I all the time return to is ‘In case your dream does not scare you, it isn’t large enough.’ And I undoubtedly like to select my largest 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 workforce and skilled long-distance runner. Farrah-Seaton greeted her with a giant hug, and feelings poured out of each ladies as they affirmed how proud they have been of one another.
When Farrah-Seaton requested Kwok how she was feeling together 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 objective, 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 is working may be very a lot a workforce sport.”
After assembly that objective, Kwok took her first actual remainder of the day.
“I truly took an excellent one-and-a-half hour break to simply nap, to eat, to really feel properly 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 needed, staying centered on her objective, and, most of all, being surrounded by individuals who actually cared about and understood her, the top 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 study 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 might help extra ladies 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 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 simply suck it up and cope with your ache and maintain going.”
To coach and in the end 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 harm free if she was going to do the race in any respect.
“I believed coming into working could be a fair tougher type of exercise, which it’s on some stage,” Kwok says. “However in a grander scheme, I truly discovered numerous issues about my physique and the best way to handle it and prioritize my self-care within the journey of working as a result of as a way to carry out I simply need to really feel rather well, I’ve to eat rather well, I’ve to relaxation rather well. And the truth that I handle myself in that sense is the explanation why I may 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 subsequent objective till she was feeling properly and actually prepared.
Moreover, these 30 hours per week of coaching integrated 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 power and endurance.
The wellness first method paid off.
“I went into [Further] with none harm, I got here out of it with none harm, I did not even have one single blister popping out of six days of working,” Kwok says.
2. She power educated
These ultramarathon coaching hours additionally integrated loads of power coaching. Weight coaching for working is an under-appreciated element of coaching. It ensures runners are capable of have interaction their muscular tissues—notably the glutes and hamstrings— which may too typically go un-engaged, so runners can take advantage of each stride.
Constructing muscular tissues round joints additionally reduces the affect round these joints, which is essential for a high-impact train like working to forestall harm. In that approach, power coaching was additionally part of the wellness first ethos.
“More often than not, I used to be utilizing my coaching hours to handle my physique,” Kwok says. “We do plenty 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 harm coming into working. So we very a lot centered on weight coaching for the decrease physique to strengthen all of the muscular tissues 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 objective and didn’t “transfer the pole”
To keep away from burning out throughout coaching, Kwok didn’t change or improve her objective as she discovered herself capable of run longer distances. The 300K objective was actually 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 objective she set on the outset.
“I all the time say to not ‘transfer your pole’ as a result of I keep in mind in my 20s I all the time moved my pole, which is, I wish to do that factor, and after I obtained 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 appropriate gear
The Lululemon gear, together with the beyondfeel footwear 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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You’ll be able to run in the identical footwear 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 ladies’s foot scans to particularly serve feminine runners.
5. She harnessed insights about her physique
All through the Additional workforce’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 ladies’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,” that means she knew simply the best way to push when she wanted some further oomph and the best way to tempo herself when what she wanted was to simply maintain movement. Kwok truly 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 may maintain working 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 achieved to me?’”
6. She discovered her individuals
With out hesitation, Kwok says working as a part of a workforce coaching for and working 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 instances, 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 the whole lot, I believe it was undoubtedly the love and help I share with my teammates and the way we now have that for each other,” Kwok says. “The thought of group, the thought of how you are able to do this as a workforce, that might be hopefully my concept 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.”
