Tuesday, May 07, 2013

The Approach

I haven't the foggiest idea how to attack training for a trail marathon and/or an ultra.  First and foremost, I want to train for the half marathon and to try to a PR with somewhere in the 1:30-1:35 range (doable).  I am once again going to follow the Run Less Run Faster plan because (a) I have limited time with two jobs and a baby, (b) I am prone to injury, do not recover very quickly, and cannot do high mileage, and (c) it works.  If, and it's still a big IF, I decide to tack on the trail marathon and/or ultra I think I will only add one more day of running onto the plan which would be a long, slow trail run.  I see it working like this:

Monday - track work
Tuesday - swim
Wednesday - mid-week speed long run
Thursday - swim
Friday - tempo run
Saturday - off (I'll let Dave run with the group - he doesn't get married to training plans like I do)
Sunday - long, slow trail run

Right now with Anderson being a whopping six weeks old this seems doable and completely insane.  I am having trouble getting anything done because I am always holding him.  You put him down for two minutes and he cries.  When he sleeps I sleep.  And he doesn't sleep very long (2-3 hour segments).  But Dave has also promised me that I can continue my training and of course, I'm allowing him to also.  He's already signed up for a half marathon in September.  This will save our marriage and our sanity.

Have you trained for an ultra?  How much mileage did you do?  How many days per week did you run? 

3 comments:

Betsy said...

Neil just did a 50k.

He typically would do a really long hike (3+ hours) on Saturday and then a long trail run on Sunday. The race that he was doing had trails that were not 100% runnable so he needed to also work his walking muscles and develop the ability to walk up hill fast and then he also had to get his legs good and fatigued on Saturday to do a long run on them on Sunday since it would be a lot of wear and tear to run long both days.

They also talked about his miles per over that he's over instead of pace.

A new ballgame for sure but a fun adventure. He's hooked!

Unknown said...

Erin's longest run for her 50 mi was 6 hours. She did a trail marathon too, and that took her around 5 hours? It was at night. Since a marathon long run is about 3 hours, and a 50 mile long run is 6, then maybe a 50k would be 4ish?? Like maybe just a little shy of a marathon, looking at the proportions?

Anne said...

I do trail- i think in terms of time on my feet rather than distance.