One more loop.
Your practical companion for making sense of Backyard Ultra training: the format, the preparation, and the choices that help you answer the bell on the hour, every hour.
Train smarter, go further.
In traditional ultras, past performance is a strong guide to future results. At the 2026 UTMB Mont-Blanc races, UTMB Index and finish time had a strong correlation, over 0.85, with higher indexes generally linked to faster finishes.
In Backyard Ultras, the same kind of score is a much weaker guide to how long someone will last. Our comparisons of the 2026 World Team Championship and the 2023 and 2025 individual championships show that ultra-running race scores explain little of the variation in yards completed. A Backyard asks for more than ultra speed: hourly pacing, fuelling, sleep, mindset, and experience around different race demands.
This website helps bridge that gap.
UTMB Index is closely linked to finish time.
At UTMB Mont-Blanc 2026, UTMB Index and finish time were closely related. The negative r values mean that higher scores generally went with faster finishes.
Ultra scores are weakly linked to yards completed.
Unlike at UTMB, UTMB Index and ITRA scores are weakly linked to yards completed at premier Backyard Ultra events.
Each dot represents a race performance matched to a UTMB or ITRA profile. Winners, Team Spain, and scores under 200 have been removed from the 2026 graph. R is Pearson's correlation; R² is the share of variation in yards completed captured by the linear fit.
Sources: 2023 Individual Championship2025 Individual Championship2026 World Team Championship
Backyard championship results tell a different story.
In traditional ultras, scores built from past performances are a strong guide to future results. At UTMB, the absolute correlation between UTMB Index and finishing time is over 0.85. In Backyard championships, the link between an athlete’s UTMB Index or ITRA Score and yards completed is just over 0.2.
That gap suggests that conventional ultra fitness and past race performance explain much less of a Backyard result. Fitness still matters, but the format also tests hour-by-hour pacing, fuelling, sleep, mindset, and the ability to keep restarting on the hour.
There are caveats. Backyard Ultra is a newer format, so some athletes may still be learning how to race it; others may be taking part for the experience rather than pushing to their limit. We also can’t account for previous injury in the Backyard results. The UTMB comparison includes finishers only, so athletes who DNF—including those whose race ends because of injury—aren’t represented.
These results suggest that Backyard Ultra may require a different approach to training. Endurance remains the base, but athletes also need to focus on mental strategies, sleep, crew and aid plans, multi-day fuelling, and building a body that can answer the bell again and again.
Train for the demands that make this race unique.
Backyard Ultra preparation still needs endurance. It also asks you to practise the choices that decide whether you can keep answering the bell: pacing each yard, fuelling for multiple days, protecting sleep, managing your mindset, working with your crew, building a strong body and knowing what to prioritise before race day.
Backyard Ultra Training exists to help athletes find clarity and confidence as they prepare for their own journey one yard at a time.