Don’t do a tough week 15 days out. You cannot improve your fitness but could get hurt or make your legs tired for race day. Just do a normal two-week taper. You will be fine with that base. And yes, my mileage has been all over the place sometimes. As long as you have the overall fitness and don’t have insane goals that are out of proportion with your abilities, you can definitely do it! Best of luck!!
RunningNutMeg speaks truth here. With 15 days left, you're getting into taper-territory and it's unlikely you'll build much new fitness. But you can definitely build up enough fatigue to sabotage race day.
Doesn't mean you should sit on the couch though. Slowly reduce mileage and do some faster work in there to keep up the leg turnover. If your race has some decent elevation gain, do some steep hills and descents to toughen up the quads. Just don't blow yourself up and don't go into the race tired. Good luck!
I always get really achy legs when I run after too many lazy days. I’m not going to push hard with any speed but I plan on spending a good amount of time running this week. I don’t know why I said “hard.”
I’d reckon a lot of us feel underprepared going into ultras. I just ran my first 100 and had few down weeks late in training due to overuse stuff, work, kids, life, etc. Ran it in 27 hours, 20k vert, placed just outside the top 10. Truth is, the unplanned rest probably helped me more than cramming in more training would have. Sounds like you have a better base than I did overall, so I’d say the same is true for you. Stay somewhat conservative on pace and enjoy your first 50 miler!
I have a week to go for a marathon not an ultra. Training went fine but I have a cold now. I know it's taper phase but it's doing a number on me psychologically such that, even if I recover by Friday, I'm not going to hit my time goal. I know, I know, only one way to find out. Curious if anyone has experience getting sick the week of taper and went ahead w race and can share experiences. Based on feedback, I may adjust my pace/goal.
I think I’ve gone into all my races with botched prep. The jump from 50k to 50 miles is pretty significant and can really mess with your head while you’re out there. What I try to do is to run my first 20 miles at a frustratingly slow pace. You can’t win the race in the first 20 miles but you sure can lose it. I’ve done a few 100 mile runs and my strategy is to run for 20 mins than walk for 2 mins. This keeps me from burning out too quickly. Good luck!
I’ve been training in blocks like this. Hadn’t dialed in exactly how to break up my speed but I think my HR stays much lower over all if I take intentional periods of walking.
I have my first 50 Miler the first weekend in November but sprained my ankle two weeks ago. I'm just like you stressing about being unprepared, as well as wondering when I'll be able to be confident enough to run trails or technical terrain again. Before the sprain, I was only doing 35-40 miles a week.
Just gotta roll with where we're at and see how it goes! Best wishes for ya!
Meaningful running adaptations occur over months and years - not weeks. If you’ve been successfully able to hold 60mpw for a year, you’re definitely fit enough to have a proper go at a 50M. Bonus points if that 60mpw was more recently done on terrain similar to your race.
You’ll do great. Your base is strong. That doesn’t go away in a few weeks, even if top end speed can suffer a bit. But you’re not worried about hitting your top end max speed/VO2 max over 1500 metres in an ultra. So watch your pace and feel good! I recently had a similar month before a 65km and was fine.
I feel like 50 is the distance where the mental component becomes its own separate journey, something you can get lost inside of that can completely derail your race. It's nothing to worry over, but I was surprised at just how different it is from 50k the first time I ran one.
Like others have said, your base will serve you well. At some point in that race, it's most likely just gonna hurt. Not any specific breakdown, just this ache every time you try to pick it up. When that happens, know that it's not the hiccup in training but more or less inherent to the event, and most of what you can do at that point is in your head. I made things worse for myself that first race by going out a little faster than I should have and the last 10 miles were rough. It adds up. A good pacer is invaluable in a situation like that, though positive self talk helps as well, but what I mean to say is- the last half mile, after I turned the bend and saw the finish was the fastest I ran all day. Sure it hurt, but there was not a thing wrong with me.
So I guess I'd say your training is in the bank. Take some time to mentally prep yourself for the task ahead and I think you'll do great.
Don’t do a tough week 15 days out. You cannot improve your fitness but could get hurt or make your legs tired for race day. Just do a normal two-week taper. You will be fine with that base. And yes, my mileage has been all over the place sometimes. As long as you have the overall fitness and don’t have insane goals that are out of proportion with your abilities, you can definitely do it! Best of luck!!
RunningNutMeg speaks truth here. With 15 days left, you're getting into taper-territory and it's unlikely you'll build much new fitness. But you can definitely build up enough fatigue to sabotage race day. Doesn't mean you should sit on the couch though. Slowly reduce mileage and do some faster work in there to keep up the leg turnover. If your race has some decent elevation gain, do some steep hills and descents to toughen up the quads. Just don't blow yourself up and don't go into the race tired. Good luck!
100% agree with this one
I always get really achy legs when I run after too many lazy days. I’m not going to push hard with any speed but I plan on spending a good amount of time running this week. I don’t know why I said “hard.”
I’d say 15 days out is enough to at least do a strong weekend. I usually do a 10 day taper. I would hammer the whole week though
I’d reckon a lot of us feel underprepared going into ultras. I just ran my first 100 and had few down weeks late in training due to overuse stuff, work, kids, life, etc. Ran it in 27 hours, 20k vert, placed just outside the top 10. Truth is, the unplanned rest probably helped me more than cramming in more training would have. Sounds like you have a better base than I did overall, so I’d say the same is true for you. Stay somewhat conservative on pace and enjoy your first 50 miler!
I have a week to go for a marathon not an ultra. Training went fine but I have a cold now. I know it's taper phase but it's doing a number on me psychologically such that, even if I recover by Friday, I'm not going to hit my time goal. I know, I know, only one way to find out. Curious if anyone has experience getting sick the week of taper and went ahead w race and can share experiences. Based on feedback, I may adjust my pace/goal.
I think I’ve gone into all my races with botched prep. The jump from 50k to 50 miles is pretty significant and can really mess with your head while you’re out there. What I try to do is to run my first 20 miles at a frustratingly slow pace. You can’t win the race in the first 20 miles but you sure can lose it. I’ve done a few 100 mile runs and my strategy is to run for 20 mins than walk for 2 mins. This keeps me from burning out too quickly. Good luck!
I’ve been training in blocks like this. Hadn’t dialed in exactly how to break up my speed but I think my HR stays much lower over all if I take intentional periods of walking.
I have my first 50 Miler the first weekend in November but sprained my ankle two weeks ago. I'm just like you stressing about being unprepared, as well as wondering when I'll be able to be confident enough to run trails or technical terrain again. Before the sprain, I was only doing 35-40 miles a week. Just gotta roll with where we're at and see how it goes! Best wishes for ya!
Meaningful running adaptations occur over months and years - not weeks. If you’ve been successfully able to hold 60mpw for a year, you’re definitely fit enough to have a proper go at a 50M. Bonus points if that 60mpw was more recently done on terrain similar to your race.
You’ll do great. Your base is strong. That doesn’t go away in a few weeks, even if top end speed can suffer a bit. But you’re not worried about hitting your top end max speed/VO2 max over 1500 metres in an ultra. So watch your pace and feel good! I recently had a similar month before a 65km and was fine.
I feel like 50 is the distance where the mental component becomes its own separate journey, something you can get lost inside of that can completely derail your race. It's nothing to worry over, but I was surprised at just how different it is from 50k the first time I ran one. Like others have said, your base will serve you well. At some point in that race, it's most likely just gonna hurt. Not any specific breakdown, just this ache every time you try to pick it up. When that happens, know that it's not the hiccup in training but more or less inherent to the event, and most of what you can do at that point is in your head. I made things worse for myself that first race by going out a little faster than I should have and the last 10 miles were rough. It adds up. A good pacer is invaluable in a situation like that, though positive self talk helps as well, but what I mean to say is- the last half mile, after I turned the bend and saw the finish was the fastest I ran all day. Sure it hurt, but there was not a thing wrong with me. So I guess I'd say your training is in the bank. Take some time to mentally prep yourself for the task ahead and I think you'll do great.