Ultra Runners!

I did the Leona Divide 50-miler in April. I trained about 80 mpw for that, most of the mileage on trails. I am doing the Mohican 100-miler in about 2 weeks. Since Leona, I've ramped up to 100-120 mpw.

I've been doing ultras for about 2 years now and am still learning...they are very different than road races.

Ultras are about solitude, not racing. This is not a criticism - I enjoy doing both short and long. Enjoy.

Sorry, forgot to actually answer your question. At 40 years old, I run 5 - 6 miles a day at 5:30 a.m. during the week. On the weekends, I most often run 7/13 for Sat/Sun (50 mpw), sometimes 13/13; when training for a marathon or longer will work up to as much as 13/30. But the weekdays are always just 5 or 6 due to family and work. Most is slow as molasses with the odd fartlek.

Enjoy.

Did a couple 50 miler's when I was younger. Main thing seemed to be a solid long run, 22-26 miles once every nine days or so. Put together a negative split 5:44. on 45 mpw. Doing this plus a construction job seemed to give the necessary base.

Kind of leaning towards these long slow events again, now in my 50's, it's getting harder to do anything fast.

The hiking is good for the body and soul. Pay attention to foot wear and explore trail races as well as roads.

Many ultra runner's do fine on the lower mileage. Some of the best augment with a comprehensive platform of strength and plyo exercises.

I'm a Lake states dweller and would consider the Edmund Fitzgerald for sentimental reasons.

kumbuya wrote:

Ultras are about solitude, not racing.

That's a completely ridiculous statement.

i've been doing trail marathons and 50Ks for a 3.5 years and did my first 50 miler a year ago; i've since completed (barely) a 70 miler and two other 50 milers. i don't aspire to run a 100 miler, since running in the dark puts a real strain on my eyes and head. i have had the greatest success, and achieved the most even pacing, when approaching them as a long (long) easy run and then pick up the effort with about 10 miles to go.

as an older (48) female, i typically run 70-85 mpw including an up-tempo day (shorter road or trail race, long-hill reps (5x15-min hill), or tempo run), and should do track work but mostly don't get around to it. my long runs vary from a low of 2.5 hrs to 50K trail race, and sometimes use back-to-back 15+ milers as my long stuff. i run only singles, both due to time constraints and because i enjoy being able to cover more terrain in a given outing. while doing this kind of training, i've also seen my times drop in shorter distances, not only on trails but also lowering my 10K road PR.

last year i ran a marathon-distance-or-longer race every three weeks (with one interval being only two weeks), and found myself spending too much time recovering and/or tapering. this year i'm spacing out my long efforts more, and being sure to put at least four weeks, and usually longer, between them in order to train more consistently.

i have one or two more 50 milers on tap this year (white river and maybe IT 50 (see below), having completed two already (bull run run and sulphur springs)), plus the pikes peak marathon.

i'll put in a plug for a new 50-mile/100-mile trail race to be run in the finger lakes region of new york this september: the iroquois trails 100. it's run primarily on the beautiful, wooded (and sometimes rooty) singletrack of the finger lakes trail, with a detour up and over (and over and back) a ski hill. this area of the FLT has very few rocks, several long grades, and no significant creek crossings. the race has a total of ~18K' of climb for the 100 and will be amply supported.

Ultras are about- people who are too slow to compete anywhere else.

I respectfully disagree and suspect you are not mentally strong enough to run over 200m