Built for the Long Run

Arthur Gioulekas, known across the 98 network as Chief, is the head programmer of the Hybrid line, a coach and a 98 athlete. What he did in Melbourne is a case study in what it looks like when preparation meets execution.

The Melbourne Frontyard Ultra is a backyard ultra format event - a style of racing that brings a particular kind of suffering. Based at Studley Park in Kew, athletes run a 6.71km loop along the Yarra River parklands on the hour, every hour, through bushland and city-adjacent trails, for as long as they can keep going. The name is deliberate: backyard ultra, brought into the heart of Melbourne's city. There is no finish line. You run until you can't or until everyone else stops first.

Fuelling the Fridge

Nutrition plan designed in collaboration with Harriet Walker

The three days leading into the Front Yard Ultra had one priority: arrive full. Chief was working to hit 650–900g of carbohydrates per day in the lead up, 7–10g per kilogram of bodyweight, to optimise glycogen stores and hydration. Fat was reduced. Protein was reduced. Fibre was kept deliberately low. His last main meal came three hours before the start line.

Once the race began, the target was 60–90g of carbohydrates per hour, sustained, across 24 hours. That's not just physically demanding. It's a planning problem. Flavour fatigue is real, and when you've been moving for 14 hours, the idea of consuming another gel or sports drink becomes genuinely difficult. The solution was rotation, across textures, formats, and flavours, so that at no point did the option in front of him feel like the same thing he'd already had a dozen times.

Building the Fridge

Arthur's training split for Melbourne's Front Yard Ultra

The problem most endurance athletes run into is time. Volume builds and something has to give. Strength training is almost always the first thing dropped - and Chief's preparation is a direct argument for why that's the wrong call.

Throughout his build, Arthur held four strength sessions per week alongside his running work. These weren't add-ons squeezed in around the real training. They were a non-negotiable part of it.

The research supports what Chief already knew from the floor. Runners who added strength and plyometric work showed a 35% improvement in time to exhaustion at high intensity - compared to an 8% decline in those who ran only. A meta-analysis of highly trained distance runners found strength training produced a large, beneficial effect on running economy - meaning less energy used at the same pace. Over 100 miles, that compounds significantly.

The late-race hours are where most ultra athletes unravel - not from lack of fitness, but from structural breakdown. Strength training improves the ability to hold running efficiency deep into a long effort, when athletes running on volume alone begin to deteriorate. Chief's final hours looked different because his preparation did.

He also arrived healthy. Strength training's role in improving neuromuscular control, biomechanical efficiency and muscular balance kept him on the start line. That alone is half the battle.

The result: 100 miles. 24 hours. No injuries. No excuses.

Built in the gym and on the track. Proven around the yard.

Increasingly, the data and the athletes are pointing in the same direction - endurance performance and strength training are not in competition. Arthur's preparation is a clear example of what happens when you refuse to treat them that way. He didn't just survive the Front Yard Ultra. He was able to test himself, and by his own account, enjoy it.

"…just pick one thing to smile about, you know the tough times will always pass. It was only discomfort, you can push through more than you know."
- Arthur Gioulekas

That's the 98 standard.