How Holly Koksel Won the Hottest Anchor Down Ultra on Record Without Running Long

This is for the runner or triathlete who wants to go long but can't, or shouldn't, pile up huge run mileage. Maybe you race triathlon and an ultra in the same season. Maybe your legs don't love big run weeks. Holly's summer shows how we build durability with the whole engine, not just the run.

A long-time endurance athlete. Holly has trained for more than ten years across triathlon, cycling and ultrarunning. That depth is a gift and a trap. Her body already knows how to go long, so more volume was never the answer. Our job was to give every session a reason.

An ultra runner who also races IRONMAN. Holly knew Anchor Down well. She already holds the women's course record in its longest race. This year she chose the shorter timed race, and her other A race was IRONMAN Maryland.

Part of the ANC family. Holly also coaches with ANC, and she trains on the same method she coaches.

Honest about what she hates. On her taper week: "I hate tapering lol."

So the question was never whether Holly could go long. It was how to get her ready for an ultra and an IRONMAN in one summer, without the run volume that would leave her flat for both.

Every block answers one question: what does she need most right now, given her races and her calendar? Our order is the same for every athlete: anything that overrides, then the timeline, then her test results and limiter, then recent history and readiness.

May, Base and Durability. With months of runway before both races, the timeline says build the engine first. Steady aerobic work across all three sports, and a base the later blocks could stand on.

Late May to mid June, Build. Next we raised her ceiling with sweet spot and threshold work. A higher ceiling means her all day effort costs less.

Mid June to July, Aerobic Expansion. For a long timed race and an IRONMAN, the aerobic engine is the main event. This block widened it with longer steady sessions, including her biggest rides.

Late July to race week, Specificity. Close to an A race, our rule is Specificity. Her long runs became race rehearsals, with the work late in the run when she was already tired. It also mixed in race intensity bike work for Maryland. When she asked about the intensity, "I'm definitely not doing an ultra at that pace haha", Angela explained: "It's more the block type you're in which is a hybrid approach."

The weekly calls. Each week, each sport gets one call: increase by a lot, increase by a little, hold steady, decrease by a little, or decrease by a lot. Race week was a decrease by a lot, the taper she hates. Her race day said it worked.

We start with what is true, not what we assume. Across the summer, her weeks were moderate, and the mix mattered more than the total.

Run: steady and frequent, with no giant mileage weeks.

Bike: the biggest share of the long aerobic time, including her longest sessions of the week.

Swim: just enough to keep the IRONMAN swim alive.

What that tells us. Her aerobic engine was being built by everything she did, and the bike carried much of the long, steady work the race would demand, without the pounding.

The long ride did the heavy lifting. Look at the chart. Her longest ride most weeks was far longer than her longest run, and both stayed well short of race day.

Why it works. A long ride trains the same aerobic machinery as a long run: the heart, the blood volume, the ability to burn fat at steady effort and to take on fuel while moving. What it doesn't do is beat up the legs. That meant every run in the week could have a job instead of just recovering from the last one.

Long runs grew in small steps. We grew her long run gradually through the spring and early summer, and then stopped growing it.

Quality over quantity on the run. Her long runs in July carried race specific work late in the run. That is where she wrote the line at the top of this story.

Pace tells you what you did. Heart rate tells you what it cost. In heat, those two drift apart.

On race day, she held her heart rate in her easy aerobic range the whole way. In record heat and humidity, that is a controlled day. She raced the cost, not the clock.

In training, heat showed up early. In a long run in June she hit her planned load in the heat with a steady cadence, exactly the practice a summer ultra needs.

On the bike, her zones come from her Critical Power, so heart rate is a cross check, never the anchor. More in how we set heart rate zones.

A fuel plan she had practised. Skratch in her bottles, Precision Flow gels and Precision salt tablets. Every piece was something she had already used in training.

Steady laps in record heat. Lap after lap of the same loop, in heavy humidity, at a controlled effort. First woman, second overall.

Rest first. A short reset after the race, then a return to Specificity for IRONMAN, with a fresh run test to update her zones.

IRONMAN Maryland, a few weeks later. Her run threshold was reset from that race, so her zones match what she can hold today.

And now, base again. Since mid October she has been back in Base and Durability, building the engine for next season.

Coach led, every week. Every ANC coach is educated in one shared ANC method covering physiology, zones, block selection and weekly load, and brings their own experience and judgment to you.

StressLogic. We Evaluate who you are and how you respond. We Calibrate the right intensity, volume and recovery. We Harmonize training with work, racing and recovery. We Optimize as you change, including resetting numbers after a race. Your physiology sets the direction. Your life sets the dose.

Your numbers, not a chart. Zones come from your own Critical Speed and Critical Power, and we update them when the training says a number has moved. Heart rate is always read with power, pace and feel.

Never a template. An ultra and an IRONMAN a few weeks apart got blocks built for both. You learn why every number exists, so you can own your decisions.