3 Days of Syllamo 50 Mile Training: Week 1 (Nov 26th – Dec 2nd)

Mon, Nov 26th  Plan: Rest

Tue, Nov 27th  Plan: Tuesday Six

Kevin:  I met Scott for the morning run in Conway.  I had to get up at 4am to get there.  Getting up was the hardest part.  We paced well together and pushed mile five pretty hard.

Scott:  I woke up at 4:30am ready to get this training under way.  Kevin drove to Conway to meet me for this run and it took him a while to get used to the early morning run.  We ended up running a good pace pushing it in the middle which made it a pseudo tempo run.

Wed, Nov 28th  Plan: Wednesday Easy Five

Kevin:  Missed my run in the morning because I turned off the alarm, no doubt due to the long day the day before.  I had to run this at lunch.  It was very hard to run as slow a pace as the plan has detailed.  I had to keep checking my watch because my body just doesn’t know this pace yet.

Scott: Took off around 5:00am for a nice 5 mile jog.  I settled in at about an 11:30 min/mi pace.  It was difficult to fight the urge to go a little faster but I was able to get in a nice rhythm.  This weekly slow run is going to be a key recovery run going forward.

Thur, Nov 29th  Plan: Thursday Six

Kevin:  Got up at 4 again to meet Scott.  Today’s run was a bit harder probably because of the 11 miles the past two days.

Scott: I woke up again around 4:30am and Kevin met me for this run. We ran at pretty much the same pace as we did on Tuesday for this 6 mile run, however, it felt a little bit harder.  This was probably just due to putting in a couple of days in a row with the medium mileage.

Fri, Nov 30th  Plan: Rest

Sat, Dec 1st  Plan: Weekend Road (3hrs)

Kevin:  We had to flip flop back and forth our plans a few times because of family obligations.  I ran a 5K with my family in the morning and then hit the trail for 1.5hrs (which is the plan for tomorrow), because I thought I’d end up running long tomorrow (but that didn’t happen either).  Because I was short on time I pushed the pace hard on the trail run and felt great doing it.

Scott:  Last minute change of plans on Saturday with my family forced Kevin and I to swap the trail run we had scheduled with the long run scheduled for Sunday.  My goal was to run this 3 hour around an 11:30 min/mi.  I actually settled in at about an 11:40 min/mi but was ok with it, especially with how my legs responded so quickly for the trail run coming up Sunday.

Sun, Dec 2nd  Plan: Weekend Trail (1.5hrs)

Kevin:  Scott picked me up at 5:45 and we hit the trail at dark.  We ran the first lap (3.25) in the dark.  Scott had a head lamp; I had the knowledge of the trail.  We ran the first lap right at our training pace and the second lap just a little bit faster.  I felt great on both laps.

Scott:  I drove to Greenbrier to get in our first trail run of the training at Woolly Hollow State park.  Picked up Kevin and we hit the trail at 6:00am.  The first lap was in the dark and I was a little conservative because I didn’t know the terrain very well.  I had a head lamp so I followed Kevin and watched where he was stepping to avoid turning an ankle.  The sun came up in time for the second lap and I was able to relax a little more.  We finished the training right at our goal of 1 hour and 26 minutes.

Week Overview Thoughts

Kevin:  I wish I had managed to get in a long run this week, but I still managed 36 miles, my second most ever in a week and I feel great.  A little fatigue deep in the legs on Monday morning, but no injuries and I’m looking forward to week two.

Scott:  Week 1 of the training was a success for me.  I was able to put in 39 miles and I feel good.  I enjoyed hitting the trail again and I am looking forward to the weeks of training ahead.  Another discovery that Kevin and I stumbled upon this week is ultrarunnerpodcast.com.  We have listened to many great interviews from elite ultra runners. Each guest to the podcast talks about the races they have entered, the ups and downs of their training, how they got into ultra running, etc.  My favorites have been the runners who seem to have the same life as Kevin and I do… 40hr/week jobs with a family.  Hearing how they adjust their training schedules to this lifestyle but are still able to accomplish their goals makes this 50 mile goal of ours seem more possible than ever.  I highly recommend checking out these podcasts. 

The Plan

Scott has run three marathons and I have run three marathons and two 50Ks, however neither of us has ever run an ultra of 50 miles so developing a training plan for this seems quite a bit different than anything we have done before.  Scott has traditionally done very well with training plans where I have not.  I run more based on feel and l am far less disciplined that he is, so why I was tasked with the developing our training plan I have no idea.

The basis for this training plan started with an ultra training plan from Runners’ World.  Here are three things that I wanted to make sure our plan had:

1. Back to back long runs on every weekend.  This seems to be a staple of all ultra training plans so I made sure it was part of our training plan.
2. At least three 25+ mile trail runs before the 50 miler.  We are going to run Athens Big Fork in early January and Sylamore 50K in February.  I’ve also added in our own unsupported BRT (Buffalo River Trail) Marathon in late January.  ABF and BRT are training runs and will be treated as such.  The goal of these long runs is to focus on nutrition and running comfortably.  Sylamore 50K will be treated like a race and we will push ourselves to see how we respond.
3. Two rest days each week.  I think it’s possible we may have to add additional rest days when we notice dead legs or burnout, but we will start with two for the plan.

Tomorrow I will be making the drive to Conway to run the kickoff run of the plan together.  We will blog regularly about our experiences with the plan and let you know how we do and what we learn.

Disclaimer: I am not a health care professional nor a physical trainer and this plan should not be used as a guide with the impression that I know what I am doing.  This is merely our plan that I share with you for entertainment purposes only.

50 Mile Sylamo Training Plan