It is official, I am registered for the Old Pueblo 50 mile run in Arizona. A friend of mine is running his first ultra and offered me a place to crash; how could I pass that up?! I think this race is right in my wheelhouse: hard, but not insane (see San Juan 50). Registration for the OP50 opened way later than I am used to and it was delayed a few weeks even. However, that may have worked out great for me. For this first time in many weeks, I am optimistic about how my body is feeling.
I have blogged about this before, but my plan is to increase the intensity of my workouts and decrease my miles. This is particularly true for my first race back. There is a chance I will come into the race under trained a bit, but if it means I am healthy, then I will take that. I don't think I have run an ultra at 100% yet. (I guess I did run the 2011 Leadville Trail Marathon at full speed, and that remains one of my best performances.) Anyway, I come up with a plan that blends together marathon training concepts (speed work and other various workout types) with ultra concepts (mostly just the weekend distance and sparing usage of B2Bs). I don't want to just jog around all day while ultra training. We'll see how well it works, but I am excited.
This week was a good one. I stayed on top of x-training and PT all week and the running exceeded my expectations. I feel like I am walking a tight rope, but I am just happy to be running again.
| Day | Miles | Notes |
| Monday | Rest | P90x Legs and Back |
| Tuesday | 6 | Progression Run |
| Wednesday | 5 | Easy with my wife |
| Thursday | 7 | TM Progression with Hills |
| Friday | Rest | Iron Stregnth Workout |
| Saturday | 13 | MLR with buddies |
| Sunday | 4 | TM - Recovery |
| Total | 35 | About 2400 vertical feet |
I couldn't agree more with your training concept. My ultra performances were best back when I was also training hard for marathons. That is one of the reasons why I'm focused on a marathon right now. I think quality marathon training lays a strong foundation for a quality ultra, provided you do the super long runs. The key is avoiding sacrificing quality for quantity, but at the same time getting in that long run so you're strong for the event. For me, the best way to allow for this is to take a day off from running after my super long run--to allow recovery in time for the next quality session (though back to backs have great value at times). I used to not have to do that, when I was younger, but now I have to build in rest or else I won't be ready for my quality session on Tuesday.
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Good stuff Wyatt. Watching your training from a distance was definitely a motivation for me to make this switch. The key for me is going to be using the B2Bs sparingly. I think have 3 of them on my plan. But the rest of the time I will either be off or doing a 4 - 5 mile recovery on my TM the day after a long run. For Leadville I think I did 8 weekends that were at least 40 miles of total training and I did two 50 milers. Hindsight is 20/20, but it was too much.
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