ultra training-Part 2

Ok, here is the training plan all of you have been eagerly awaiting. Well, maybe one or two of you.

I hope you aren't too disappointed because there isn't much to it and I don't have a "schedule" to present to you with the details of any particular plan. I could just continue doing things the way I have over the years and probably do well in my upcoming races but I'm curious to see how a slightly different approach will work for me.

High Mileage. Yep, that is the plan. High mileage is a relative thing I guess. For many , averaging 45-50 a week would be high but I've been at that level for most of the past 7 years or so other than the injury year so my body has reached a plateau and there just isn't much possibility or room for improvement staying at that level. There have been a few weeks with higher totals and I did have that one week experiment last October when I ran 102 but that was just one week.

So over the next few months I will be putting in a lot more slooowwwww miles with some longer than usual runs. Unlike when I'm in marathon mode, these runs will be more like long excursions, with walk breaks and not caring about the time or pace at all. I would like to see my weekly average creep up over the next couple of months to about 70 and see how my body reacts to that. If things go well I will gradually bump that up and hopefully by next Spring I'll try and handle 80 to 90 for awhile. The fact is unless something changes drastically with my work situation I have plenty of time to get in as many miles as I want.

I will still include at least one run a week with some miles at half-marathon to marathon pace and I'll throw in some strides on some runs occasionally to keep the fast twitch fibers alive but the focus now is on building a monster aerobic base. tThere will a day or two a week when I will double up with 2 workouts in a day. I have experimented a little with this in the past and it worked out well.

In addition to adding more slow miles I will still tailor some workouts to the unique demands of the next event on my race schedule. Right now that next one is Tahoe Rim 100. Well, not much I can do about that one now but taper so the high mileage plan will actually have to wait until after I recover from that one.

When I'm healthy I always try and plan my racing about a year in advance and I usually have one or two events that I hope to be in peak condition. Right now the big long range goal as I stated in an earlier post(go here for plans)is to get a 100 mile pr at Umstead next year and about everything I do between now and then is geared toward helping me achieve that goal. My race schedule is always there in the margins of my blog home page so you can see what I'm up to and as always I'll have previews and reports for those that are interested.

I am very excited moving forward and I can't wait to get out there and make these goals a reality !