Zegama-Aizkorri Mountain Marathon
training plan
An adaptive trail ultra plan for a mountain course on trail, run in unpredictable May conditions, built around the three things Zegama-Aizkorri Mountain actually asks of you: a ballot you might not win, one long sustained climb and technical descending. Fourteen weeks written two at a time, from what you actually did in the two weeks before, and rewritten the moment you travel, get ill or something starts hurting.
This page describes the race and what its course, climate and date ask of a build. On Pro, the plan itself is written for you, from your experience, your weekly hours and your date, so two athletes entered in this race get different plans.
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Three demands, three answers
A generic 14-week trail ultra plan gets you to the start line. It has no idea about a ballot you might not win, one long sustained climb or technical descending.
On the ground, Zegama-Aizkorri Mountain is a mountain course on trail. It is usually held in May, when the weather is genuinely unpredictable, and two editions running rarely feel the same. So over a trail ultra, the vertical is the event and the distance is how long you are out in it, and the weather is the variable you prepare for, because nobody can plan around it. There will be one to ten thousand starters out there with you.
- Profile
- Mountainous · trail
- Usual conditions
- May · unpredictable
- Race season
- Spring, northern hemisphere
- Field
- Mid-sized · one to ten thousand
You did not know you were running until you did
A ballot result lands when it lands. Some people get fourteen clear weeks, plenty get far fewer, and the standard advice to start a full build is useless to anyone holding a late acceptance.
The plan builds from the weeks you actually have between today and race day. If that is fewer than the textbook wants, it compresses, protects the sessions that matter most, and tells you plainly what it had to cut.
One climb long enough to change the race
A sustained climb is a different engine from anything you meet on rolling ground: twenty minutes or more at an effort you cannot back off from, with the rest of the course still to come.
Sustained climbing intervals at threshold rather than short punchy reps, built to the length Zegama-Aizkorri Mountain actually asks for, and rehearsed with the fatigue you will be carrying when you reach it.
Descending here is a skill you have to practice
Loose, steep or rocky descents ask for balance, braking control and nerve. Treated as recovery they cost you time and shred your legs for whatever comes after.
Repeated descent practice on terrain like the course, and eccentric strength so the legs holding you back at the end of Zegama-Aizkorri Mountain Marathon are still the ones you started with.
Getting in, and getting to the line
Adaptlete has no involvement in entry, allocation or ballots for any race. This is what the format asks of your planning.
Ballot
Places usually go by ballot, which makes the honest sequence place first, plan second. If the draw goes against you, the same block moves to another race without being rewritten. Fourteen weeks back from May puts the first week in early February.
Mid-sized field
A mid-sized field clears inside the first mile, so the pace you settle into is genuinely yours, and on a mountain course the queue forms at the first singletrack and never fully clears. Over a trail ultra, that is a long time to be running somebody else's race.
Trail
Trail, so the long sessions have to happen on ground like it. Footing, poles, descending and eating while you move are skills, and none of them are learnable on a treadmill in the last two weeks. The peak week puts climbing intervals on it, months before May.
You will be training through the northern spring
Work backwards and a fourteen-week block for a May race opens around early February, running February through to May. That is the northern spring, and it is the half of the job most plans never mention. The light comes back a little faster than the weather does, so the first block is still winter and the last one is not. It is the easiest season to train in and the easiest one to overreach in, because everything suddenly feels good at once. And the last block lands in May, with mountainous ground, unpredictable conditions and a mid-sized field waiting at the end of it.
So the plan holds the ramp down while the evenings open up, and puts the biggest weeks where the daylight actually supports them rather than where enthusiasm wants them. Whatever the season takes out of two weeks, the work for a ballot you might not win, one long sustained climb and technical descending is what the rebuild puts back first.
- Weeks 1-6 February-March the weather turns mid-block; the ramp holds steady anyway
- Weeks 7-8 March-April
- Weeks 9-14 · peak and taper April-May
Months assume Zegama-Aizkorri Mountain keeps its usual May slot and that you take the full 14 weeks. Adaptlete builds from the date you enter.
A real week from a Zegama-Aizkorri Mountain build
This is the shape of the biggest week in 14: 5-6 sessions a week, 8H 46M of training, and one session that matters more than the rest. Two of them are here because of this course and not the distance: climbing intervals for the mountainous profile, and a weather rehearsal for conditions that are usually unpredictable. The key session itself is written for one long sustained climb. For a May race, week 9 lands in April. Your version is written from your hours, your history and how far out you are.
- Every session says what it is for, in plain language
- Intensity you can scan down the week without reading
- Move any session to any day without breaking the block
| Day | Intensity | Session | Distance and duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| MON | Rest | Rest | |
| TUE | Zone 4, threshold | Climbing intervals: 4 × 10 min, hiking the steep sections | 11 km1H00 |
| WED | Zone 2, easy | Easy trail run | 10 km55' |
| THU | Zone 3, steady | Strength: step-downs & eccentric calf | 45' |
| FRI | Zone 1, recovery | Weather rehearsal: it goes ahead in whatever the day hands you | 6 km36' |
| SAT | Zone 3, steady | Long trail run: a sustained climb at threshold | 32 km3H30 |
| SUN | Zone 2, easy | Time on feet: hike with vert | 13 km2H00 |
Something will go wrong.
That is the part we built for.
Nobody finishes a fourteen-week build without missing a week, and February through to May is a long time to stay lucky. The plans that fail are the ones that carry on as if nothing happened.
A work trip in week 8
Hotel treadmill, nothing else? Those days get rewritten around it.
Flu in March
The block rebuilds and ramps you back. Nothing is deleted.
A niggle at week 10
Loading comes off it, the rest of your week stays. And go see someone.
Questions people actually search
How many weeks do I need to train for Zegama-Aizkorri Mountain Marathon?
Fourteen weeks is the usual build for a trail ultra like Zegama-Aizkorri Mountain, at 5-6 sessions a week. Counted back from a May race that opens the block around early February and runs it February through to May. Coming from a lower base, give yourself longer. With fewer weeks than that the plan compresses. It builds what it can from where you are, protects the work for a ballot you might not win, one long sustained climb and technical descending first, and tells you plainly what it had to leave out.
When should I start training for Zegama-Aizkorri Mountain Marathon?
Zegama-Aizkorri Mountain is usually held in May, and the next edition an athlete could realistically build for is Spring 2027. Count back fourteen weeks from whatever date you enter and the block opens around early February, running February through to May. Adaptlete builds backwards from your date, so the whole trail ultra plan lines itself up the moment the date is confirmed. Entry runs on a separate clock (places here are allocated by ballot), and the training deadline is the one you control.
How much climbing is there at Zegama-Aizkorri Mountain Marathon?
A mountain course on trail, and in May the weather is genuinely unpredictable, and two editions running rarely feel the same. So the vertical is the event and the distance is how long you are out in it, and the weather is the variable you prepare for, because nobody can plan around it. That combination is what the fourteen weeks are built around: a ballot you might not win, one long sustained climb and technical descending. The trail ultra on its own would give you a completely different plan.
What kit do I need for Zegama-Aizkorri Mountain Marathon?
Trail, so the long sessions have to happen on ground like it. Footing, poles, descending and eating while you move are skills, and none of them are learnable on a treadmill in the last two weeks. We publish no climb total for this course, because we hold none we would stand behind. What we can say is that it is mountainous ground. Over fourteen weeks the plan puts the long sessions on ground like it and asks you to use the same pack, poles, shoes and food you intend to use in May. Check the organizers' own mandatory kit list. It is theirs, it changes, and we do not publish it.
I got into Zegama-Aizkorri Mountain Marathon late. Is there still time to train?
Almost always, just not the same plan. Adaptlete builds from the number of weeks between today and race day: it keeps the long session and the race-specific work, drops the rest in priority order, and tells you exactly what it left out instead of pretending the build is complete. Here that sits inside fourteen weeks on mountainous trail for a May race, alongside one long sustained climb and technical descending.
What if I do not get a place at Zegama-Aizkorri Mountain Marathon?
Places usually go by ballot, which makes the honest sequence place first, plan second. If the draw goes against you, the same block moves to another race without being rewritten. The fourteen-week trail ultra block is written for mountainous trail and one to ten thousand starters, whatever the paperwork says, so if the draw goes against you it moves to another May-ish target and rebuilds around the new date. Enter your date in the app once you hold a place; Spring 2027 is the edition this page is written against.
Is this an official Zegama-Aizkorri Mountain Marathon training plan?
No. Adaptlete is an independent training-plan service with no affiliation to the organizers of Zegama-Aizkorri Mountain Marathon, and none is implied. We name the race because the plan is built around what its course, its format and its date ask of you.